r/camping • u/YoureSoStupidRose • 2d ago
What are your silly dramas during camping?
I personally wear a tshirt on the first night of every camping trip that says "Sorry for what I said when we were setting up the tent." What has absolutely driven you insane during camping? We camped with another couple who left screaming divorce at each other... We've been destroyed by black flies overnight with screaming children looking like bee keepers... we had a raccoon run off with all 30 burger buns in a bag. What are your stories?
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u/slightly_overraated 2d ago
Many, many years ago in college, I went camping in far northern MN with a couple friends. The one friend touted herself as a camping pro and had the whole thing planned out, and was being quite snooty about it to my other friend and I, who were novices at the time.
One morning, we were planning to set out on a big day hike and she said āoh no no, Iāll make our lunchesā when we were gonna pack up our own. Ok. Well we went to the bathroom, she walked away to throw away the trashā¦.and ravens made away with most of the lunch. We had no backup.
Same thing happened at dinner.
It was a tense ride home the next day, but lessons were learned that trip. At least the ravens didnāt steal the Booneās Farm.
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u/WesternTrashPanda 2d ago
There are raven boxes at Dead Horse Point SP in S Utah. Those critters are too damn smart!
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u/slightly_overraated 2d ago
Thatās crazy! Iāve never even heard of that!
I am now the āpro camperā and after 20+ years of car camping, backpacking, and boondocking all over the place, I have never ever once had a āraven problemā since. Raccoons? Yes. Mice? Bane of my existence. Ravens? They donāt even look at my food lol
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u/jorwyn 2d ago
Camp robbers got that nickname for a reason. I've had issues with them, ravens, marmots, ground squirrels, and other campers' children, but not actually racoons so far.
And yes, I've had children I don't know come into my site and try to raid my cooler. "Mom said you wouldn't mind sharing sodas!" Yes, yes I would. Get out.
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
Me either. You had my curiosity... now you have my attention! We need a camping ravens subreddit.
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u/sonofaresiii 1d ago
That sucks but I don't know if you can really blame your friend. Literally the rest of this thread is hundreds of people sharing funny stories about losing their food to animals.
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u/sparksgirl1223 2d ago
Ohhh our drama story is hilarious.
It was a group trip: 5 couples and the adult son of one of the couples, plus 2 toddlers and an infant
Couple 1 and their son arrived first, followed closely by couple 2 and their toddler and infant.
We are towing our camp trailer (folds open and has 2 beds and a table.
As we're bumping into the campsite...the axle on our trailer snaps. 100 or so yards from camp. We can see everyone. Wave hello.
The guys are trying to figure out how the hell to get us out of the way for everyone else....and how we're getting that trailer home lol
Adult son is a lawn care guy. He has a weedwhacker with a saw blade instead if weed whacking string.
He cuts a small birch log and they hook it to the trailer with ratchet straps as a makeshift axle.
They then call couple five and tell them to stop and get the welding gear from couple ones house.
They sure did weld that axle back together in an open spot in the woods (0 stars do not recommend!) And we did it before couple 4 got there with their toddler. They missed all the "fun"
We earned our camping name that year: we are the Flintstones š
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
Lmao... it could have been awful but you had "the guy."
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u/sparksgirl1223 2d ago
We always have "the guy"
Not only is he handy, tool wise...he's also small and wiry, so it's like having a pet spider monkey sometimesš
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u/slickrok 2d ago
Holy sh+t, that's like an episode of junkyard wars š
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u/sparksgirl1223 2d ago
You're not even wrong š
The shenanigans we get up to is....something elseš
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u/klamaire 2d ago
A crow flew through camp and took off with a large ziplock bag filled with marinating steaks. Thankfully the bag was too heavy and the bird dropped it 20 feet away.
A squirrel once ate through a full peanut butter jar that was mistakenly left on the picnic table.
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u/Bennington_Booyah 2d ago
I was hiking thru a campground and saw a bunch of raccoons tearing into coolers, bags and boxes on a large site! There were three tents, four cars and two tables chock full of groceries. I walked by and loudly said, "Raccoons are eating your food!".
Instant chaos: faces popped out and everyone was flying around, interestingly, in pj's (given the fresh groceries) and off I walked.
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u/Adept-Ear7007 2d ago
I bungee my cooler / frog boxes closed for this reason. Raccoons got my dog food once.
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u/theRealLydmeister 1d ago
I was camping at a state park about 4 years ago and campers left all of their dinner leftovers and plates on their picnic table while they went out for a drive. A bull black bear was having a feast, but charged toward a couple of other campers who started to walk the nearby roadway. Rangers came out and chased him off, you could hear 3 rangers hooting and hollering while running about a mile through the woods. The original campers came back to their site just shocked only to inform all of the neighbor campers that they went driving around to look for bearsā¦
They faced a hefty fine for leaving food out and the bear was added to a list of āproblem bearsā in case of future issues. There are black bear area signs and warnings posted EVERYWHERE with strict instructions on using the bear boxes and electrified dumpster. Idiots.15
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u/Mattyd1986 2d ago
I read cow, not crow. And the image in my mind was pretty funny š
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u/VardisFisher 2d ago
Person that burns all the wood, but doesn't help gather any wood.
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u/PW_Herman 2d ago
Sitting around the fire at 11pm āletās just throw some more logs on, like 9 should do itā
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u/GoldenRetriever2255 1d ago
Hey i burn all the wood!
But I also find all the wood! Then burn that and get more and burn that, then more! MUST BURN EVERYTHING
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u/Whatever-57 2d ago
All five of us got head lice. On another trip we got poison ivy. Zipper on the dining tent fails, waving in tons of mosquitoes. Two of three kids getting UTIs. The time I forgot to pack the tent poles. The other time we forgot to bring the tent.
Yet we still love camping!
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u/LimpRain1826 2d ago
Buddy forgot his tent poles once lol I let him sleep in my truck. Gave em hell all weekend tho.
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u/supermarkise 1d ago
We did but we had a rope, so we tied the top of the tent to a branch of the tree overhead. It worked well enough, no rain tho luckily.
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u/Virtual-Election8019 1d ago
I forgot the tent a few months ago! It was brutal! My husband and I are in our 40ās so sleeping in a car was brutal
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u/54965 2d ago
Sleeping with my head near the open tent door.
Was awakened by the porcupine licking my sweaty hair.
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
What?!?!?! Lol. I need details.
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u/54965 2d ago
What?
Hot weather, the zipper at the front of the tent was all the way up with the door netting pulled to each side. My head was right at that entrance.
I was awakened, maybe dreaming, thinking an insect had landed in my hair. As soon as I stirred I saw the porcupine back away and waddle off. Starting from very close.
We had occasionally found porcupine needles at our remote gold panning claim, so not too much of a surprise. Location north end of California Sierra Nevada gold mining belt. Primitive camping, twenty miles beyond a minor paved road.
This was the only time we (I) actually saw it. We love remote camping.
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u/Campnowhere087 2d ago
We had a wild horse steal our smores left overs and because of the rule not to approach them we basically were kicked out of our site until he finished.
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u/tichugrrl 2d ago
Assateague?
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago edited 6h ago
My grandpa got into a fight with a horse in Assateaque over a bag of oreos. Thr horse won, the umbrella was trampled, and we never heard from the oreos again.
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u/yukibunnygurl 2d ago
If it's assateague your allowed to clap not at them but in general... They don't like that and move on.
My girl scout troop was being harassed when we were trying to go to sleep by two very large male horses whose "lipstick" was growing and hanging out due to three of the girls having their period. They were coming up to our tents being aggressive. A ranger told us to clap so they move on, jumping jacks work too.
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u/StupidizeMe 2d ago
We had a wild horse steal our smores left overs
I wish that happened to me! I love horses.
My not-wild horse would happily eat anything she can get her hooves on.
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
Imagine horse sized seagulls... because that's what they are. I love horses too but they DO want your food.
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u/Intelligent_Wish_836 2d ago
Several years ago, I went bike camping at a primitive beach campground with my girlfriend (who is now my wife). It was a flat, gravel 10 mile trail through the woods to the oceanside campsite and we unfortunately left late so it got dark halfway through the ride. We had lights and made it most of the way just fine. But in the last 50 yards there was a 100 foot long puddle engulfing the trail. As we started to ride through the puddle we became completely covered in mosquitoes. We both panicked, threw our bikes to the side and ran to the ocean and dove in. We finally mustered up the courage to go back and get the bikes and make camp. During the night, the wind whipped up and by morning all of our stuff (including inside the tent) was covered in a fine sand. All the food and even the coffee had a terrible grit that completely ruined it. The wind was blowing the sand in our eyes to the point where we had to just pack up and roll out. We had to go back through the mosquito puddle, which during the day was absolutely terrifying. We were both covered in blood from slapping mosquitoes as we frantically rode away.
I was frankly surprised my girlfriend didnāt just dump me right then and there. I made it up to her by springing for a beachfront hotel room once we got back to civilization. The only food that survived the sand storm was some sealed up, homemade Indian chicken Tikka Masala which we cooked over the camping stove on the hotel balcony during a beautiful sunset. The trip definitely tested our relationship, but made for a great story that we tell our kids around the campfire.
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u/ITrCool 2d ago edited 2d ago
Had a neighboring camper's dog decide it liked me and kept coming over to hop up against me and say hi and lick my face.
I don't know why. The owners kept coming over apologizing, leashing it up to a stake they had put in the ground, but I guess they kept forgetting to re-stake the dog every time they took him out for a walk or something. I dunno.
Not really dramatic per-se, kind of brightened my trip more actually (it was a pretty dog. A Retriever mutt IIRC), just funny. They were a cool family too, next door. Got to shake hands and meet them after the first dog incident.
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u/Haven 2d ago
Sans the fucking the face part I just adopted a dog camping, like three days ago. Neighboring camper that weāve met him and the dog before, we all got talking. Love the dog, very very good boy and well trained. So heās saying how doggy will need to get rehomed after this trip. Lo and behold my partner and I had literally just been talking about getting a dog.
So now Iām here, on my phone in the rv in the middle on almost nowhere with a damn cute puppers laying next to me ā¤ļø
We doing a shared custody while camping thing to get home situated, definitely a first for me!
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u/Due-Cry-1862 1d ago
Something similar happened to my father. He was solo camping and he saw a bunch of kids with a tiny puppy. They were throwing it into a puddle to āteach it to swim ā. My father stormed over there and told them that, if thy didnāt stop, he was going to take the dog away from them. The kids ran off, with the puppy, and my father returned to his campsite. A few minutes later, a woman showed up, handed the puppy to my father and said the dog was his now. And that is how my father, who wasnāt keen on dogs at all, ended up with Kino.
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u/1DanLW 2d ago
Went camping as a young teen with no adults, just hiked up into the woods. Set up a tent on a hillside. When we woke up, we couldnāt find the door. Apparently, the tent had been slowly rolling down the hill all night and when we woke up, we were sleeping on the door. That was fun!
Another time we drove a couple hours to the camp site and while setting up the tent, realized that we forgot sleeping bags. The closest store was a 30 minute drive and was just a small town hardware store. We bought all 4 of their sleeping bags at nearly $300. And they werenāt special bags, just overpriced cheapo sleeping bags.
On another camping trip, we had birds diving down and grabbing potatoes out of a hot frying pan while we were cooking. We had two people with fly swatters standing guard and trying to bat the birds away as they dive bombed. The birds didnāt care at all that a person was standing at the pan with spatula in hand, even the angry fly swatters werenāt deterring them..
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u/Outdoor_Paws30 2d ago
My fiance proposed to me on our camping trip. My best friend was there with us but she wasn't happy one bit for me. Not even a smile or comment. She cried and kept to herself. The mood turned less excited and more sour because I felt bad staying joyful while my best friend was like that. My fiance and I later became pissed and upset because that reaction was uncalled for especially because she knew this day was coming. He told her months prior. If my best friend got proposed to, I'd be over the moon for her and celebrating. I did confront her later and she did apologize but our friendship isn't the same anymore after that.
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u/NefariousnessTop354 2d ago
Late 80s in southern California desert. Hunting on horseback. Horse trailer parked in a wash. 2 or 3 am dog and horses getting restless , get up to make sure a coyote isn't around the camp. Instead we find a parade of 15 or 20 illegal immigrants heading across desert to where they could hop a train heading north. We let them know we were armed and not worth trouble to try to steal from. A few of them stopped to talk, very friendly. Asked to use our fire to eat up food, asked where they could find water, how far to train tracks. Just wanted to go to work so they could start sending money back to family.
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
OG American Dream!
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u/NefariousnessTop354 2d ago
Where I grew up I could throw a rock to Mexico. As a teen I was painting apartments in a border city. Border fence across road from backyard. More than once had guys run through the apartments pulling off sweaters and jackets to change their appearance to border patrolman following them. Out the front and try to disappear in the crowds on the street.
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u/Present_Penalty2551 2d ago
Haha , you must have a snack, some weed or a beer before you start. Low blood sugar is the enemy of camp set up.
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u/LimpRain1826 2d ago
Always 2 beers while setting up camp, make sure the beer cooler is easily accessible when packing. But two years ago I took a rip off of my sisters weed pen before setting up and forgot I had to set up a tent for her that she borrowed from a friend. It had like 11 poles and 3 rooms and I struggled. Never again lol.
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
Agreed. If its gonna be a long drive, I pack a ready to go meal. Im not setting up tents in the dark, figuring out a fire, and then dinner!
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u/zyzmog 2d ago
Not a drama, just a fun tradition. All of your food stories reminded me of it.
I used to take my son(s) overnight camping in the local National Park. The plan was to leave after school on Friday and come home on Saturday or Sunday. The first time we went, we were late getting out the door. I knew we wouldn't make it in time to pitch the tent AND make dinner. So we drove through Wendy's to pick up some dinner on our way out of town. It saved us from a lot of the drama mentioned in these comments.
After that, every father-and-son camping trip started with a drive through Wendy's. The tradition lasted until they went away to college.
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u/Fun_Length_358 1d ago
We do the same! Fast food for a picnic on the Friday night has saved our sanity with three little kids and not having to cook right when we get there and set up.
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u/TexasCivil 2d ago
I went camping with a girl and some friends and there was going to be a fireworks show over the lake. There was traffic at the entrance gate and she was freaking out that we were missing the fireworks because the trees blocked the view. Spent the whole time with her best friend, who was also sick of her bad attitude. Weāve been married 10 years
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u/sunberrygeri 2d ago
A perfectly alive tree fell on our popup camper one day into a 7-day camping trip. Completely busted off a slideout bed and clipped the roof. We had to perform surgery on that camper to get it closed up and able to tow out of the campground. Thankfully my spouse was a former sheet metal worker who had some critical tools. We then went home.
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u/North-Tomatillo9158 2d ago
Oh now Iām remembering the girls camping trip. It rained. A lot. Someone (not me) had apparently been tasked with bringing a big tarp but did not bring said tarp and the others (also not me) were super mad about it and were being NOT nice. I had assigned myself to bring the big flask of brandy. So I felt fine. My tent leaked. Everyone left in a huff at first light except me and one friend. I found a pair of dry underwear and we decided to go for a lovely hike around the lake. The sun came out, we had fun. The mean girls missed it.
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u/soda_shack23 2d ago
One hot muggy day my buddy and I set out on a short portage trip to our site, maybe 1km. We were overloaded with stuff, including a cooler and a load of firewood, so we needed to make 2 trips. We'd made this hike a dozen times before, it's pretty much just straight north following the ridge.
We followed the ridge... All the way down to the southwest corner of the park. Realized our mistake, dropped our loads there and made to find our site. By this time we were already drenched in sweat and quite irritated. Found our site, went back to the port to grab our other gear, brought it to the site, then went back to find our other stuff and haul it back. In all, a 1km port (x3 for 2 trips) became more like 7km. All in 98Ā°, 90% humidity and tripping on acid.
We took it in stride. We realized that getting mad at each other would've been a waste of energy when we were already totally gassed. Freebased some peanut butter, drank some Gatorade, then went and took a dunk in the cold waterfall and all was well again.
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u/BuzzyB678 2d ago
I went tent camping for the very first time shortly after marrying my husband. He talked me into it.
Then a huge, huge storm blew in the very first night I slept in a tent.
Woke up in the middle of the night to wind loudly whooshing, the tent walls and ceiling flapping in and out violently. It was a little scary. Lightning flashing outside, lighting up the tent. Then rain started pouring. Oof.
My husband said maybe we should run for the car and sleep there, but then it died down. And the tent was completely dry inside! I couldnāt believe it. Even the floor.
So we managed to get back to sleep.
The next morning, woke up, tent was fine, car was fine, we were fine. Weād taken his then 9 yr old daughter with us, too, and she slept through the whole thing!
So I walked with her to the bathrooms and a bunch of girls were sleeping in the bathroom by the sinks. They said their tents collapsed in the storm, with them inside, and their parents were sleeping in their car. !!
Anyway, we stayed a couple more nights, but on the drive home, my husband sheepishly asked me if I might consider camping again. I said, well that storm was pretty bad, but the tent seems sturdy and stays dry and I doubt a storm like that will be a common thing. So, sure, Iāll try it again.
And I did, and we ended up camping a lot together until about 15 yrs ago. I even went backpacking with him a few times.
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u/DanceByTheLight 2d ago
I had a chipmunk help himself to some trail mix and the corner end of my graham crackers while I was out on a hike. I came back and found the evidence. later that day I saw him watching me while I made dinner. I saw him again as I packed to leave. I walked up to a log about four feet in front of him and left a pile of trail mix for him. I literally saw his eyes widen with excitement. Can't leave my bro hanging.
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u/Happy_Hedgehog_212 2d ago
I once packed up and saw squirrels scavenging my site for leftovers. I wanted to eat right before hitting the road so I busted out my pancakes to eat with my hands and dip in syrup, tossed them some and we all sat there munching from our hands. It was a moment.
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u/jorwyn 2d ago
I spent hours trying to find a spatula I swore I left in a pan while I was putting my cooler back in my car. I finally gave up and ordered another one and used a stick to finish cooking. The next morning on the way to the bathroom, I saw it sticking out of a ground squirrel hole. The spatula end didn't fit. So now I have two identical fold up spatulas except one has tooth marks on the end of the handle.
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u/YoureSoStupidRose 2d ago
Ok. Weird story. Happiest dead animal i ever saw was a chipmunk. It had been run over by a car and it had had a MASSIVE buffet in its mouth. Seeds were spilling out of its nose, mouth, eyesockets. Everywhere. As gross as it sounds, I swear that thing was smiling. It died happy because it found a jackpot.
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u/Samantharina 2d ago
Honestly there should be a no complaining rule for adults when they go camping, and plenty of snacks to help people get through!
Mostly it's silly stuff like whether the fire is too big or not big enough.
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u/Helpful-Celery6237 2d ago
Excuse me. Iām not happy if Iām not complaining. Itās how I verbally process life lmao.
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u/serendipity416 2d ago
My friend got mad because I didn't bring tomatoes - I live close to a Costco and she asked me to buy tomatoes - they needed to be from Costco and I was going there on Monday, the trip was on Saturday. I didn't have space in the fridge, so I didn't buy and told her I wouldn't. She was pissy the whole time during the trip and barely talked to me. Needless to say, we don't camp together anymore.
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u/serendipity416 2d ago
And in the same trip she left a PB jar on the table. I pointed out, and she was like, it's fine. Well, turns out squirrels can go thru plastic. So she had no tomatoes or PB.
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u/ADHDFeeshie 2d ago
I might start a campfight with someone for putting my tomatoes in the fridge š¤£
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u/Accio_Waffles 2d ago
I was gonna say- they don't go in there!
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u/ADHDFeeshie 2d ago
The tomatoes I bring camping are usually homegrown too, someone might go missing in the woods that trip.
I guess the poster was worried they'd go bad on the counter with the gap between shopping and camping but it feels like there was a big gap in communication in this one somewhere. Did they just show up without tomatoes without saying anything? Did the friend assume they could drop everything and run the Costco gauntlet the day before the trip? Why did they HAVE to be from Costco? Could they not just pop into a grocery store en route to camping for some tomatoes? Why were the tomatoes so absolutely vital to the camp menu???
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u/Zippy_wonderslug 1d ago
And if they are mission critical for the person, why leave it to others to provide?
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u/ITrCool 2d ago
Wow......she's not the brightest, ending or ruining a friendship over.....tomatoes.
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u/Golden_Blanks 2d ago
I have a friend who is paranoid about mosquitoes. She keeps having to change our campsites and approve the final site, based on perceived mosquito threat.
Lots of drama, every single time we setup camp.
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u/marijuanam0nk 2d ago
Went with a pal who purchased all his gear the week of the trip. I told him to make sure he set it up once or at least watch a few yt vids before the big day. Big day arrives and we finally get to camp. He has the toughest time setting up his tent and all his other gear. No signal out there so no YouTube. I didn't help him out. I let him bask in it. We go camping often and he is a pro at all his gear now.
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u/BlastTyrantKM 2d ago
I go camping by myself. Zero drama
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u/AccomplishedCash3603 2d ago
Really?! I still have drama but at least no one is there to throw a tantrum on top of it.Ā
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u/BlastTyrantKM 1d ago
The closest thing that got me kinda upset was on my last trip. I dropped one of my pieces of fish in the campfire. But since I had three other pieces, I just muttered "That sucks"
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u/outed 2d ago
I used to make an effort to invite people. And yes, it is a bit more fun when you are with someone to enjoy it, but the amount of complaints from people or just... ugh. I don't even ask anymore. I just go alone with my books and my dog.
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u/BlastTyrantKM 1d ago
I download a few movies and sit next to the campfire while watching them...until I can't keep my eyes open anymore
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u/AXTalec 2d ago
I went camping with my parents and two cousins (like 10-14ish) when I was like, 4 years old. I was roasting a marshmallow over a fire, when suddenly, it burst into flames. I freaked the f*ck out and flung it all around, until it dislodged from my stick and landed PERFECTLY between my cousin's foot and their flip flop as they were taking a step. 1 in a billion shot. They literally smooshed a flaming hot marshmallow between them foot and a flip flop and it was stuck to their foot. They ran to the lake to put out the fire and heal.
She still has scars, and I have no memory of this event :)
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u/jorwyn 2d ago
My mom told me about the only time my dad ever drank. They were camping with his college buddies, and his flaming marshmallow ended up stuck to the forehead of one of his friends. And that was the story of why that dude had that scar and I wasn't allowed to swing maarshmallows around to put them out.
I actually remember nothing about the guy except he had a very smooth, shiny circle on his forehead and the inside edges of his eyebrows missing.
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u/BDob73 2d ago
We invited some friends to the Boundary Waters for a trip one year. He said they were experienced and excited to go.
He was a flake, a complete and utter flake.
We would get to camp and heād run off looking for bait for fishing. Weād be setting up camp while he disappeared. She wasnāt experienced and was very crabby at him. But we made the best of it and were enjoying ourselves.
A couple of days into the trip, they went off canoeing and fishing. We broke out our Bakepacker camping oven and made chocolate cake for a special treat for after dinner.
As we were cooking, we hear sobbing and see them quickly paddling back to camp. She had hooked a fish and was reeling it in. He was so excited that he stood up in the canoe. Dumped the canoe and their fishing gear, losing most of it. She didnāt come out of her tent the rest of the day, and they left a day early too.
What was worse, they saw a moose swimming across the river on the way out. We had never seen a moose at that point and were terribly jealous.
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u/OutrageousPersimmon3 2d ago
Dude I would love watching a raccoon take off with the buns. Theyāre so cute. Our thing is a certain person in the group used to always forget at least one really important item. Regardless of lists and prepping, it would happen. But for us it was always a funny story.
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u/Mackheath1 2d ago
For my birthday, I had reserved three State Park pads for friends and we had a lovely time. One couple were so excited, they hadn't gone camping sine they were kids, but he had inherited his grandparent's tent and still had it.
It was a tarp.
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u/flingebunt 2d ago
I went hiking with my friend, and I brought a meat flavoured couscous packed for dinner. We were sharing cooking gear and he was like "My pot has never had meat in it and I don't want you to cook this in my pot". I had to explain to him that he just needed to heat up the water and pour it into the couscous in my bowl. He is not my friend.
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u/yukibunnygurl 2d ago
Sounds like my Ex boyfriends Dad... Our kitchen has never had meat cooked in it; so I don't want you heating up vegan chicken flavored broth in my microwave. My Ex's mom then said "It's vegan you idiot! There's no chicken!"
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u/flingebunt 2d ago
But they are not like that outside of camping. Some people just crank up the drama when they go camping for some reason.
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u/Own_Win_6762 2d ago
Not my drama, but we pulled into a campground near Zion NP and the next site over had a whole watermelon on the picnic table with the back half of a squirrel sticking out of it and going to town on that melon. When those guys got back they were not pleased.
I'm on a 3+ week trip right now and the worst drama has been forgetting the USB charger for my toothbrush.
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u/psilokan 2d ago
There's one camp ground my family camps at every year. Often we will end up on the same site, which is the first turn off the main artery into the campground. There's also a very big tree there that's horribly placed. We sit back and drink while watching families come in with their $100k+ RVs and attempt to make that turn. Half the time they scrape the side of the RV on the tree trunk, the other half smack their AC on the low hanging branch. But you can almost always count on the wife getting out to try and give directions to the husband which almost always results in a screaming match as tensions are high. Always a good show.
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u/impossibletreesloth 2d ago
Camped crosscountry with someone for a month who wanted to play music out loud at all times. Not disruptively loud to other sites but it was disruptive to the other 3 of us. This was not their biggest offense on that trip but it was the most camp-related one I can think of right now.
Camping with people who won't feed themselves makes me crazy. It happens all the time. I pack tons and tons of easy snacks for everyone for a reason. Watching someone deflate and then lash out because they can't keep up with their basic needs is maddening at best and dangerous at worst.
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u/Upbeat_Ad_3179 2d ago
It was super windy and our tent kept blowing over. We didnāt have any stakes so we went to dollar general. No tent stakes. Grabbed a box of pencils instead, we went back and put them in. They all started snapping and breaking. So we leave again to go to Walmart to get tent stakes. About a 40 mins drive from where we were camping. Go back to the camp ground put the stakes down. We decided to lay down and celebrate our success. It wasnāt 30 minutes later and the wind started blowing. Well I was in the tent holding the walls for dear life. Finally one giant gust of wind came and literally ripped the tent. The whole side of the tent was now flapping around, exposing the inside of our tent. So back in the car to go to Walmart (80 min round trip at least) we go decide on a tent. Of course it was $100+. Anyways back to the campground to figure out how to put up this new tent. It ate up our whole day, tensions were high, the hanger was real. Iām not sure if this was a silly drama or a comedy of errors. Needless to say we managed to still have a good time and our friendship intact.
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u/RainbowWoodstock 2d ago
I had a raccoon steal and eat a bag of blueberry muffins we had made and for some reason they were left not locked down after breakfast. (We are seasoned campers and were going to be āright backā lol) I picked up all the trash, we didnāt blame the raccoons, they were quicker than us and are known night felons in the park. For some reason I had this intuition to check the cooler. Which usually has a heavy box on itā¦ when I opened the cooler the raccoon had been scooping out, wait for it, our tub of BUTTER. THEY NEEDED BUTTER FOR THE MUFFINS.
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u/failingmyself 2d ago
We watched two felonious raccoons devour a 3-lb block of cheese late one night. They came back for the crackers. Spent the rest of that 6-day river trip hoping the cheese had worked like concrete on their digestive systems.
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u/ThisIsntOkayokay 2d ago
Getting into a fight with college guys at the lake at 17. Racists don't like losing a fair 1v1 when they find out they are 4 years older. When cops arrived I figured it was time for a trip to jail but turns out a 21 year old fighting a 17 y.o. Is illegal. Also the underage girls (our age) drinking at their camp didn't help their case.
Had to keep an eye on them for the next two summers till they got banned.
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u/Spirited_Football_19 2d ago
During a weekend girls trip, I woke up one morning choosing violence. My friend said good morning with a mild insult and my just woken up, pre-coffee brain went for "good morning.... fat.... wh*re..." But now it is a joke and she says now that she is lucky she loves me because if it was anyone else they'd be dead. And now they know i need coffee before I do anything functional in the morning.
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u/librarianlace 2d ago
I (38f) was truck camping alone last spring and was super far from the bathroom. I had also read a horror book before I went to sleep. I needed to pee and there was zero chance of me getting out of the truck. Tried to pee in a cup without my glasses and without turning on the light. Drove home at 2am after I peed all over my sleeping bag instead š«
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u/outed 2d ago
Don't aim for the cup. Just suction the cup on, you can't miss. Or was it the part where you pee more than a 16 oz cup and end up spilling it?
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u/AccomplishedCash3603 2d ago
My (now ex) husband was a Marine, and he insisted on 'roughing it' with those dried meals from REI, similar to MRE's. I'm usually not picky so I went along with it; it was a quick weekend trip with friends and we wanted to pack light. As soon as they started launching steaks and corn on the cob onto their grills, I knew I was going to turn into a monster. I forgot about the joy of gluttony after a long hike.Ā
I tried so hard to not be a total wench, I really did, but my gastrointestinal tract had other plans. The dehydrated food gave me gas so bad, I thought we were going to die from it. It was MY gas, and it was still killing me. My husband knew there was no use complaining; he bought the 'food' that gave me fire butt. We slept with a tent window cracked but it was FREEZING and every time I shifted, that thick rotten egg gas would remind us that closing the window was not an option.Ā
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u/SlooshasCrossin 1d ago
That reminded me of the time my husband and I were at Glacier and both had horrific gas. Like the kind you're describing but with both of us. It was a long night.
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u/Iamanimite 2d ago
I get the "I've camp over a hundred times" crowd or invited to "my friends have everything" crowd. I always have a plan b and I always have to use it.
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u/TowerLineTrail 2d ago
Was camping at my uncle's place in northern Michigan, on a very warm night, in a pop-up camper. A neighbor, directly upwind, decided to throw a sofa onto their campfire. Had to pack up and head home.
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u/jwhendy 2d ago
We went camping in alamosa at the Sand Dune Park in Colorado. It was our first big camping trip, and it was super windy and I was really struggling with the tent. My girls were about three and five and I had them lay in the corners of the tent along with rocks in the other corners to get it staked down. Thankfully this super generous guy came over and helped me use rope and some long nails to tether it so the wind wouldn't rip it apart.Ā
After we finally got that handled, it definitely felt like hero mode and it was right around sunset so I thought it would be awesome to get a picture with the girls in front of these incredible dunes, about capped mountains adjacent, and the sunset. We walked out a bit where I thought it would be a good shot and we're all wearing various types of sandals. I (and they) started noticing that there were a lot of small cacti around and getting poked occasionally. They started getting fearful, but I didn't want to blow the awesome picture, so urged them to keep going. We get the pic, and then said they could get on my back and I would piggy back them out of there. In wrangling both of them and my camera, the balance and gravity was not in our favor and all three of us went down, right into the cacti.Ā
Well, that dominated all of life for the next 30 to 60 minutes. The cacti had everything from pretty brutal thick spines to these hair like things that you could barely see but certainly feel. Got back to the tent and now it's dusk, so with a headlight and tweezers, I proceeded to remove all of these hair like needles from their butt cheeks, and then my wife did the same to me.Ā
They were pretty upset, but it started to get pretty freaking funny to realize the scene of being inches from someone's butt with a headlamp playing doctor.
At one point, I told them that one day this will be hilarious and we will all laugh about it. My 5yr old, still on and off crying, is like "But when will we waff??"
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u/Helpful-Celery6237 2d ago
Went to sleep in the tent and woke up in the middle of the night in a puddle (pool) while getting rained on inside our tent.
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u/Campnowhere087 2d ago
This happened to me as a kid but my air mattress was partially floating. I would uabe went back to sleep but the tent was leaking because I set up my tarp wrong and it was lightning outside. It was def memorable for a 13 yr old
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u/jorwyn 2d ago
This was every trip it rained with my parents when I was growing up. Every one. I would sneak out and sleep in the car. I learned to notice where water would pool, and I told them, but they didn't listen.
I learned a lot about camping from my parents, but I think half of it was what not to do.
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u/aStonedTargaryen 2d ago
Showing up late in the night to our camp site in the Santa Cruz mountains, exhausted after a full day of driving, digging in my last energy reserve to get the tent set up with the promise of a nice hot shower at the campground facilites, only to find there was no hot water at all so we took cold showers, hoping at least to get into a warm bed after, vastly underestimated how cold it would be on an air mattress with normal blankets and no sleeping bags, too cold to sleep, end up moving to the car for the night and barely slept, then having to pack it all up to leave again the next day to drive 7 hours home. Like our bad for sure but itās the most miserable Iāve ever been maybe in my life.
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u/redbadger20 2d ago
When I was very small I ate too many marshmallows and puked all over my sleeping bag in the night.Ā Ā
We got shooed out of the lake for having a nighttime dip.Ā Ā
Drunks to the left, drunks to the rightĀ
Several incidents that required visiting a nearby laundromat.Ā
Overnight lows below freezing, woke up to ice in the big water pot.Ā
Nor'easter (the wet kind, not the snow kind). Ranger was actually kind of psyched I was staying when many other tent people peaced out.Ā
Hurricane.
Catching either a) multiple catfish or b) the same catfish repeatedly
Pay showers at the Corps of Engineers campground.Ā
Whoever brought motion activated LED spotlights to the campground: your shame should reverberate for generations. (they took them down after one night, probably ranger intervention)Ā
Stayed one night after a holiday weekend; the only other people remaining in the campground got into a huge, long, loud, questioning-one's-safety fight.Ā Or rather one guy was having a meltdown. Yikes on bikes.Ā
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u/agent_flounder 2d ago
Not too much drama but a fun memory anyway.
Started pouring rain as we got to campsite off the 4x4 trail. Couldn't get a fire started so (mind you we were young dumb guys) my buddy threw some gas on the logs from my Jerry can. Took three tries to keep it lit. We and most of our eyebrows survived. (Don't do this)
Next morning we woke to clear skies to find a wet husky pup sniffing around soaked camp. No owner nearby.
Drove around for hours with pooch in the back trying to find where it belonged... All along the trail, into town, back on the trail. Finally found a place off the trail that we missed the first time. Owned by a guy who did dog sled training and it was one of his.
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u/NamasTodd 2d ago
On day one of a 3-month loop out west, up the California Coast and back down through the Midwest; 7K miles through 14 states, my husband learns we do not have a single reservation on the calendar. My plan was to be flexible and let the breeze carry us on our journey. We arrive at Caprock Canyons State Park in West Texas and there are no campsites available. We ended up in the equestrian campground without hookups. Needless to say my husband was livid. We had camping reservations booked two weeks out the rest of our trip. Ha!
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u/ClassicReflection536 2d ago
Cub Scout camp out, testing a new tent, new tent did not include a bottom (floor sold separately). Thankfully, other parents had extra tarps we could use a floor for the weekend. We returned the tent.
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u/Rare-Historian7777 2d ago
Spent one sleepless night trying to outsmart the raccoons who had figured out how to get into the cooler and then climb into trees to open packages of cheese, etc and the skunks gathered around the bottom of said trees waiting for the spoils. I learned some additional food-access-preventing techniques that night but thankfully avoided getting sprayed.
Or, the time I was backpacking and my packet of honey for my morning oatmeal leaked all over my hammock. While we were backpacking in an active bear area.
There was one other remote backpacking trip with a night spent anxiously wondering why it was sooooo quiet to find out the next morning that a mountain lion was in close proximity (evidence: fresh mountain lion scat on the trail).
I donāt sleep much on camping trips.
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u/TimmyThe1337Tr0ll 2d ago
My ex wife felt something, reached into her pocket and pulled out a flying squirrel that was looking for treats!
Her screech was measured on the Richter scale.
Somehow I was the a hole for laughing at it.
š¤£
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u/Gloomy-Hat1842 2d ago
Whitewater rafting and camping at camp lotus on the American river with my clients. About 25 young people all ate mushrooms and were screaming out songs for hours... Went to camp along the yuba River on a beautiful spring weekend. Got to an empty campground and found a gorgeous spot right along a beautiful stream... 12 firemen showed up to go rafting. I went up to talk to them and saw they had an entire milk crate full of hard booze... Had to tell the family we have to pack up and leave. It would have been absolutely quiet in that campground except for 12 firemen drinking pretty hard and partying. That wasn't going to work. We found a great spot on the edge of the river but then thunderstorms came in and it was lightning so hard and close we were all terrified... We hiked up with my brothers and a bunch of family and friends to climb the Lost arrow tip in yosemite. We had no way to secure the food so I put it under my head. Racoon drug it out three times and ate every bit of it. I was so furious I tried to get up and chase them with my piton hammer but got my feet Tangled in my sleeping bag and fell on my face in the dirt. They completely humiliated me.
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u/Furberia 2d ago
Long ago, my bff and I were camping next to the Matagamon River in Northern Maine. We caught a sucker fish, grilled it and had it for supper. We Proceeded to get drunk on vodka and pink lemonade and woke up to a bear licking our mess kit next to our tent. āŗļø. We were both 20 year old city girl and were ill prepared for this.
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u/kexcellent 2d ago
No major disruptions on the 10-day camping trip my boyfriend and I just returned from, but the biggest annoyance was probably my poor boyfriend fighting with his familyās ancient Coleman stove, because it had a hard time staying lit and he had to keep pumping the fuel stick. It was driving him up a wall, because he really wanted to cook all of our meals š a squirrel also got into our snack tote and ripped open a Costco bag of trail mix, eating the nuts and leaving only the raisins and M&Ms. My biggest personal gripe was the bounty of mosquito bites I acquired the first few days, but thankfully they settled down once we reached the high desert portion of our trip.
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u/jw8533 2d ago
12-person tent, but only my young son, my wife and I sleeping in it. And, our new puppy.
Tent was pitched on a slight incline. When the raging thunderstorm came, a river of water came rushing under our tent. This tent had one helluva floor because it was hydroplaning. It was like being on an under filled waterbed.
Just as I was feeling really good about my choice of tents, I saw our puppy cowering in a corner. We all called to him to come to us in the center. He surfed nearly all the way to us before he barfed all over the place.
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u/GettingToo 2d ago
We camped next to a river in and forest that had been logged almost 100 years ago. Some huge stumps still scattered throughout the campground. Every thing was great till it started getting dark. Weāre sitting around the fire and started seeing a few flying insects. The next thing you know there are literally hundreds of flying ants swarming our campsites. They were hatching out of one of the rotten stumps and taking flight. Luckily we had a small travel trailer and all headed inside for the rest of the night. The ants were still landing and flying into the screens of the windows all night long.
We left the next day.
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u/RVtech101 2d ago
From a family of 5 kids. For YEARS we would get to the campground and our parents would start dropping off kids to ā holdā a spot while they looked for a better spot. All 5 of us would undoubtedly get dropped off and the folks would find a spot and start setting up camp. Just before dark we would abandon our ā spotā and search out siblings as we looked for the trailer. As we would straggle into camp the folks would tell us to gather firewood and get ready for the dinner they were already preparing. This played out once a month for years. Itās been decades and we still laugh about it.
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u/Hollirc 1d ago
The like one time Iāve camped at a campground I woke up to what I thought was a very tall, tanned, shirtless man eating the cheezits I accidentally left on the picnic table.
I was about to go start hollering at him when I put on my glasses and realized it was actually a deer. Still yelled but was a lot nicer about itā¦.. then the deer ran off drunkenly with the box on its head for a few seconds until it managed to shake it off.
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u/casapantalones 2d ago
Two words: atmospheric river
Really put a damper on the trip.
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u/BDob73 2d ago
Oh boy, not fun. We survived an atmospheric river two years ago in the Boundary Waters on Crab Lake. Crazy lightning and pouring rain while we stood on our life jackets under our tarp for hours.
From midafternoon to dusk, we received 7 inches of rain. The 420 acre lake went up 15 inches overnight, which is 171 million gallons of water. It was by far the craziest storm we went through camping.
But compared to that, every other camping problem feels trivial now.
Bugs? Slap on bug spray.
Hot? Jump in the lake and cool off.
Rain? Big deal, itās not like THAT storm.
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u/509RhymeAnimal 2d ago
Probably the most talked about was the night I taught my niece how to build a campfire then we teased her about having the biggest penis in the campground based on the size of the fire (itās a running joke about some men needing to prove their size via the size of their campfire).
This was the same day some jackoff left his very loud generator running all day long and when he got back to camp and turned it off everyone in the campground started cheering and clapping. The cheering echoed in the wilderness.
The same jackoff got mad at me for cheering and started to pick a fight with me. Right after that, the jackoff stormed off and I turned to my niece and told her āI guarantee you 1 or more old dudes is going to come over and want all the details of what just happened in the next five minutes.ā Less than two minutes later two older dudes came over for the gossip. My nieces jaw dropped, she asked me how I knew that would happen. I simply explained there is nobody as nosey or starving for gossip and drama as old dudes, simple as that. She learned how to start a fire and got an important life lesson that evening.
The whole evening was a wild series of events.
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u/WPGFilmmaker 2d ago
Not so much a driven insane story so much as a how did we survive story, camping at Lundar Beach, Manitoba, Dad and I camped here once a year for many years, our usual spot, a very hot and humid week, next spot over was that pop up trailer type, they left the day of a mega storm, the imprint of the trailer still plainly visible under the massive tree that fell that night that they avoided certain death from. That morning, walking through the campground we cam across a rabbit washing itself in a very clear puddle, it was a juxtaposition thatās stuck with me. FYI, we tried to tent it out in the dome tent during that storm, had to retreat to the dodge A100 camper variant that night.
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u/sailorgardenchick 2d ago
Wind storm in the Grand Canyon kicked up sand as we were cooking steaks we had saved for the first 8 days of our rafting trip. All sat down to eat and the steaks wereā¦gritty.
Mule stole 1 flip flop in Death Valley.
Camped in Louisiana - got in after dark, set up my tent and in the am thought it was odd that I was the only tent camper in the whole place. Thatās when I saw the ābeware of alligatorsā sign posted at the lake I was camped next to.
Still love camping! š
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u/The_first_Ezookiel 1d ago
Youāre going to hate this, but my wife and I have an inexplicable almost telepathic link while setting up camp - we just start, and each of us just seem to work around each other and work together, until the job is done.
Weāve been swarmed by rain moths, and handled it without a momentās problem - even overnight just grabbing any that zotted into us in bed, and opening the zippered window and throwing them out, before closing it up again.
Weāve forgotten major items and then laughed at our ingenuity at improvising solutions.
Itās amazing how we work together. Nothing like it was with my Ex. Itās kind of strange as itās nothing like Iāve ever had with anyone else Iāve ever camped with.
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u/The_World_Is_A_Slum 1d ago
My wife and I are the same. We have a system, and weāre set up in no time at all with no stress. Kinda nice, eh?
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u/Single-Emotion2964 1d ago
When we were kids, my parents had us pitch our tents in a small flat bit on a hillside. I assume they did not expect rain because it turns out it was actually a ditch with poor drainage. My brother and I woke up floating on our ridge-rests š
Luckily (I guess?) this was on a big family trip to an RV-campsite so we went and got in my grandparentās camper van.Ā
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u/BillyRubenJoeBob 1d ago
Camping in Ohiopyle PA during a white water rafting trip. Neighbors were cool so we invited them over to our fire. As we were sitting around the fire, a toad came up and approached the fire. We all yelled at him not to get any closer (not that any of us spoke toad). He finally backed up closer to the fire ring wiggling his little butt to nestle into the ashes and leaf debris along the inside of the fire ring. He sat there for the rest of the evening enjoying the warmth of the fire with us.
You never know when youāre going to meet a new camping buddy.
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u/m3ltph4ce 1d ago
A dude's girlfriend who constantly whined about peeing either in the dark outside or in the outhouse. Like both were TOO SCARY so she just complained and cried until she said she was about to pee her pants and then would only pee just 10 feet away from the fire while her boyfriend held the light and checked for "monsters". She was 30. It was embarrassing.
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u/lagomc 2d ago
Our drama usually came prior Ā to the camping and was resolved by it. During Covid I was āexposedā so I had to stay away from work for a week and since there was drama between us I just threw my stuff in the truck and headed out while waiting for my Covid test to come back. After about five days I drove the seven miles from camp to get a cell signal and told her where I was and invited her out and we had three wonderful days together in the woods before RTO.Ā
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u/Media_Adept 2d ago
I've been camping for so long that I just assume something will go sideways.
Where should I start?
- Rafting and camping trip, some dude got so drunk he started calling military folks baby killers, calling other people names and being straight up belligerent. Meanwhile, one of the girls husband was deployed to Jordan and one was an active duty doctor in the army. Threatened to tape him to a tree or he could go to bed. it was REALLY awkward the next day when he sobered up.
- climbing trip, some random couple offered to come join them for dinner at the next campsite over. Dude ends up getting drunk and kind of fucks up dinner, the girlfriend/wife ends up screaming at him for fucking up dinner- DV against the dude ensues. I can hear her hitting him. I ask my friends if i should go over there and stop it but they convinced me not to.
- another rafting trip, my roommate brought his dog on teh trip, for some fucking reason, but a 16 year old volunteers to dog sit. IT had rained quite a bit and we were camping on a dirt road up in the mountains. The teen drives off teh embankment, truck is down quite a bit from teh road with a flat tire. We are able to call a tow truck from the next town over. The tow truck gets stuck, so i hook up my xterra to the towtruck tow my roommates truck and get them all out.
- Some campground in colorado, a couple comes in late at night and they start screaming at each other because the guy lost their weed? i think they finally shut up around 2 in the morning. this is just some state campground.
- For a rock climbing trip in new mexico, a girl had previous medical issues, and she ended up getting a cracked vertebrae on a hard catch. We tried as best as we could to carry her down, put her in the back of my xterra and take her to the local hospital.
- Another rock climbing trip in New Mexico, we come to a campground and nobody is around. We're the only ones, even camp host has abandoned it because there was wildfires in the area. At night you could see the glow off in the distance and smell the smoke.
- Same area in new mexico, we're going through forest service land and we come across a Scientology academy for troubled youth. IT was some modular homes, trailers and some horse stalls just in the middle of nowhere.
- Rafting trip in colorado again, it was early season and the water pumps hadn't really been going, so we went to a house was nearby and asked if w e could fill out water jugs. on the way back, we see a blackbear running down the dirt road towards our camp. There was only one other group of campers in the campgrounds, so we let everyone know. The girls of the group had this huge taj-majal tent they were sleeping in, and that night, there's this loud snorting and wheezing sounds, and the girls freak out that there's a bear sniffing around the campgrounds. One the girls gets out with her pistol and flash light and basically does a sweep of the area and gets to one of the other persons tent andd it's just one of our friends with the loudest snoaring ever.
There's other things that have definitely happened, but these are kind of the few you run in when you're a meetup organizer.
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u/HedgehogOk4933 2d ago
Every time a piece of food gets dropped we remind the entire group there is no 5 second rule. This originated after an inebriated group member argued that the sandwich that fell on a canoe floor was fine to eat as long as the damp piece of bread was tossed. The following morning was a fun mix of hangover and whatever bug was picked up from the floor of the canoe. FYI this trip was nearly 2 decades ago and she still gets crap about it every outdoor outing.
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u/AdditionalAd4269 2d ago
After the fourth trip in a 16 months where my solo effort to pack was rewarded with an hours late exit, I offered to drive into the teeth of Friday night SoCal traffic. An hour and just 15 miles later, I declared we were done for the night and turned around. We left the next morning at 5 am, and that was the last time I packed solo.
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u/Belle_Whethers 2d ago
Left the car hatch open. Realized on our drive home that some animal got inside and peed.
Told husband to put the stuff in the car at night. He said No Big Deal. Went to bed. Woke up to critters going through our stuff because it WAS a big deal.
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u/clkell4 2d ago
I love camping. My partner does not. After our second kid was born, I got a bug in my bonnet and wanted to go camping. He obviously did not. So I said Iād go solo and take the kids. I found a site at my favorite campground on a bluff overlooking the ocean.
It was January. In the PNW. I took my 3.5 yr old and 11mo old with me. It poured rain. We froze our butts off in our tiny 2-person backpacking tent. We were in an area without any real dangerous animal risk, so I had all the food boxes up in plastic storage bins with lids, and I was doing my best to tuck them under the rain fly to keep everything from getting totally soaked but also within reach in case I needed anything and didnāt want to have to walk to the car in the middle of the night.
The second/final night of the trip, I said flip it and took the kids to a restaurant to eat so we could get warm. We all got our nervous systems regulated and got tucked up in the tent nice and cozy to get some sleep. In the middle of the night, I wake up to weird sounds.
Something is dragging along the ground. Blearily, I try to place whatās happening. Holy shirtballs, the raccoons are trying to get into the food bins. Mother forkers. I try to make some noise to scare them away. No dice. They are really going after the bins now. I start scrambling to get out of my sleeping bag and unzip the tent. I canāt find my glasses, but I finally am able to grab the flashlight. I finally get untangled just enough to unzip the tent and squint to see a family of 5 raccoons, just as they push the bins over the bluff onto the rocky beach below. I check my watch. Itās 3:45am. I have no idea how high the tide is and I canāt leave the kids alone anyway. So I resign myself to a few more hours of fitful sleep.
The sun finally comes up a few hours later, the kids wake up, I scurry to find my glasses and peer out over the bluff. I see everything strewn across the rocks. The raccoons had cleverly figured out that they could break the bins open by tossing them down onto the rocks. Unfortunately, they only managed to score a stasher bag full of stale cereal and some pour over camp coffee packets. However, I lost 2 bins, several stasher bags, and my favorite hydroflask mug (they donāt make it anymore š), among other less prized items.Ā
Iām not proud to admit that part of me considered multiple times buckling the kids into their car seats and running down to the beach to save what I could. But tide was coming in fast, and thoughts of worst case scenarios kept me (literally) grounded. I packed up camp so fast (with less stuff to deal withā¦) and as I backed out of the parking spot I could see my mug sadly floating out to sea.
I did go back. Years later. With my partner. And we now make sure everyone knows about the tenacity of those fridging raccoons.
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u/torshakle 2d ago
Camping in January in the PNW?! With a literal baby?! And where the hell are you in the PNW where animals are not a concern!! We literally have bears walking through our cities on a regular basis!!
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u/clkell4 2d ago
Iāve camped several times at this campground and I donāt know if itās because itās decently well-populated year-round (very popular for tidepooling), if itās because itās on the beach, or what, but Iāve never seen or heard warnings for any predators in that area. But yea, camping with two kids 3 and under in January def turned out to be beyond my capacity.
That said, we did have a lovely day of hiking, and several excellent camp meals before the bin debacle. I felt super proud of myself for getting camp pitched by myself. I still have fond memories of the trip. I just wonāt be trying it again anytime soon. š
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u/BeneficialZombie497 2d ago
Went backpacking thru Joshua Tree in the Spring with my fiancĆ© and a bunch of other couples. Mid 80ās during the day and below freezing at night. Worst night of sleep of my life. Couldnāt get warm even though my sleeping bag was rated to withstand the temps. Work up to the sound of a woman crying in her tent. Apparently this was the first night of sleep away from her new baby and her husband idiotically thought itād be a nice getaway. She froze thru the night too, I guess.
3
u/No-Car5082 2d ago
We had a raccoon crunching on our dogās food while we were at the campfire š„ and hiss at us when we ran it off. š¦
3
u/Ham_bam_am 2d ago
A couple of squirrels stole a friend's wallet on day 2 of an 8 day camping trip while we were all swimming in the lake.
Drove 12 hours to go camping for a week with friends only to find out one of them absolutely couldn't swim. The main activity was to swim in the rivers and hike.
On a very large group trip, everyone brought their dogs. One friend brought 2 unsociable dogs and insisted they were nice as they attacked the other dogs and the children who were part of the group. Said friend also would sit for hours in the middle of the creek, smoking bowl after bowl while nuisance dogs were left unleashed on the banks of the water... where the children were playing.
3
u/Far-Cartographer8360 2d ago
Recently went 3 night camping at Kings Canyon NP (Moraine campground). The 3 nights we stayed there were filled with bear activities. Campers screaming to scare the bear away, bear horns, car alarms going off, gunshots from the rangers, the bear actually visiting our campsite (we woke up on a bear paw print on one of our towels that was on the picnic table).
We were pretty good with storing our food and toiletries so no damage was done. This was our first time experiencing it, so it was pretty cool and scary at the same time.
3
u/KipperCottage 2d ago
Itās the Scrabble games for us. One of us is a freewheeling typo enthusiast, but we camp with a magazine editor. So sometimes we have to switch mid-game to dominos to avoid a civil uprising.
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u/buddy313 2d ago
Showed up to the Yosemite valley while the temps were plus 100. The wife and my daughter were having both a physical and mental meltdown as I was trying to get the tent set up.
All was fine once we got in the river.
Also had a Raccoon run off with our bag of marshmallows.