First Snow Camping Experience

I'd Rather Be Camping

So. Much. Snow!! Fort Worth has been getting dumped on for the past week. There was snow and ice everywhere. Not to mention school was canceled Tuesday through Friday due to the frigid weather and unsafe roads that everyone drove on anyways. You may think that I had a weekend of movies, sweatpants, and hot chocolate...but no. Why stay inside when you can go camping?

We had been talking for a while about camping and had a legit weekend of camping, kayaking, and rock climbing planned out at Mineral Wells State Park. But when the weather started to get iffy on us we had to reevaluate our plans. Turns out Mineral Wells closed (we think) due to the insane weather. So Kenny (aka-Dagger) did some research to come to find that Cedar Hills State Park was, in fact, still open. We met up to discuss whether or not we should go in the 5 inches of snow we got the night before and finally came to the conclusion that snow camping would be too legit to quit...and it was indeed just that.

Kenny, Eric (Pokey), and I (also referred to as "girl" or "b-Rob") rolled into Cedar Hills State Park to find that we were the only ones insane enough to camp in tents. The only other people we saw in the mostly empty park were chillin in RV's. We found our campground and decided to hit the water and do some paddling before the sun went down. Let me tell you folks, kayaking with snow and ice on either side of you is just surreal. My hands may have been freezing, but it was so worth it. We paddled back to camp and set up our heated cabins....uh, tents...uh, ice domes. Dinner got a cookin, songs were a sung, laughter was ringing, stories were told, snow angels were made, more laughter was ringing, some drinks were drunk, high fives were fivin, and we managed to stay warm enough in the teen degrees weather. Although I'm pretty sure I was close to losing some toes.

Day two consisted of an incredible back country hike along a neato stream. I think we were all tempted to go grab a tent and set it up by the trickling water away from anything cement and man made. But we headed back to camp and went for another relaxing kayak on the lake. The three of us paddled out in the lake, the beaming sun hit us in the face, and the soft current just pushed us along. Rough life right? The rest of the night was pretty chill. The boyeez got the fire goin, Kenny worked his cooking magic on the stove, and I...actually I don't really know what I did. haha. I supervised! Had to make sure they were doing it right. Duh. ;-)

Overall, my first snow camping experience was off the heezy fo sheezy. As much as the first night was frickin freezing, I am so glad we endured it! The only bad thing about going on a weekend camping trip is that I never want to return to civilization. There's something about being outdoors that absolutely captivates me. Plus going with people who know more than I do about camping just makes me want to learn more and more. I feel like I just sit there and try and soak everything in so that I'll be able to take a new skill and apply it later. I am so not ready for school to start again tomorrow. Not ready for the repetition. Not ready for the tedious work. Not ready to read endless pages in books that I'll forget in a week. Just not ready. I'm about to crawl in bed only to wait for my alarm to go off at 7:15 so that the schedule can begin. Oh the schedule, schedule, schedule.

I'd rather be camping.