Summer camping
Summer camping
Good times were had camping and geocaching at Buffalo River State Park and the nearby towns. It was a fun and tiring three days, and I can’t wait to do it again.
Last summer I took my wife and family on a camping trip to South Dakota. We stayed in a small cabin and I didn’t think I would ever go back to a tent again – well I was wrong. On Tuesday I learned of a geocaching event in Detroit Lakes on Saturday. So I proposed several ideas to my wife on things to do for the weekend – including staying home and going to DL.
Thankfully, she chose camping and going to DL – what a weekend. We packed our van Thursday night late with all the old and new camping gear and took off. I almost felt like backing out and making it a day trip instead, feeling like this was too rushed. I don’t normally do spontaneous trips like this. This was our first solo camping trip, as normally we camp with others.
Friday morning I had the alarm set for 5 a.m. (so much for sleeping in) and we were on the road – four kids, two parents and one dog – by 6 a.m. Our destination was Buffalo River State Park in Glyndon. We arrived at 8:30 a.m., a full 30 minutes before they would take reservations, and the only reservations available were first come first serve. The minutes ticked by slowly.
Finally, we had our campsite by 9:30 a.m. We started to get the tents ready and took a few things out of the van to lighten the load and help reduce the crowding a little. Then on to Fargo to the air museum. The kids enjoyed the small museum and they all were able to “fly” a Huey helicopter. After that the weekend was all geocaching.
We attempted to do some geocaching in Fargo and managed to get a few, but I prefer my country roads and wasn’t really enjoying the “big city” caching. So we headed back towards our campsite, finding a few geocaches along the way. After supper, we headed to the University of Moorhead Science Center near the campground for a program about the stars. We got there too early, looked around at everything at least twice and it still wasn’t time for the program to start. My wife and I, both exhausted from the late night and early morning, decided to call it a day and we all headed to bed. The kids were a little disappointed but not really, since they crashed fast.
Saturday
We woke up early, shivering as the night’s temperature dipped into the 40s. That morning we got ready to hit the road, then headed out for a full day of geocaching – with the promise that I would take a break to allow them time for swimming. We ventured out that morning towards Hawley and started “cleaning up” several of the caches in the area, including one that was disguised as a water main access in a yard. We nearly gave up on that one before figuring it all out – great fun. We started making our way a little closer to Detroit Lakes as we had to be at an event by noon. The event, which was billed as a “flash mob,” only lasted 15 minutes. We hit a few caches with some of the other event attendees and then moved on to complete our first geo-art in the shape of a question mark. It was a trail with 10 questions that had to be answered in order to get the correct locations where the caches were located. After that was completed, we hit a couple more caches en-route to the campsite and swimming, with the promise to dad that after swimming and supper, we could go out again and we did. With swimming and supper over we headed back out on the road to get some geocaches. First we stopped for gas. We didn’t need gas, but it was below a half-tank. Besides, there was a geocache besides the pump that I couldn’t find the day before, and armed with a hint from a local cacher, my wife made the find while I pumped the gas, a great team effort. We then toured the town by way of geocaching along with about 25 miles worth of back roads, adding more geocaches to our total. We were going to call it quits when my wife looked up the total finds for the day – 49. Well we couldn’t stop at that, so she looked on the map and found one more for us to get our new record of 50 finds in one day. We crawled back into the campground and into the tents after 10:30 p.m.
Sunday
It was leaving day. Like everything else, all good things must come to an end, just not too fast. My wife and Marcus packed up camp while the rest of us went on a hiking excursion to find answers to three earth geocaches (ones needing to answer earth related questions). When we were done, I called my wife to pick us up. She said: “Wait, Marcus and I are finding a geocache first.”
Not a problem, so we waited for about 15 minutes. After that we headed out on a tour of the country, again picking up a few geocaches before getting to DL. We started the morning needing about 15 caches to reach 800, and we ended the day finding our last cache #802 in Park Rapids. It was a very fun but tiring weekend.
Prior to the next paper, I will celebrate two milestones in my life. The first – my wife and I will have been married for 15 years, crazy how time flies, and I will turn another year older. As for my age, ask my kids, I’m sure they will tell you. The weekend plans, aside from the Chippewa Triathlon, have yet to be decided. Some more geocaching would be fine with me.
Please be safe while enjoying some outdoor recreation and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com
Good times were had camping and geocaching at Buffalo River State Park and the nearby towns. It was a fun and tiring three days, and I can’t wait to do it again.
Last summer I took my wife and family on a camping trip to South Dakota. We stayed in a small cabin and I didn’t think I would ever go back to a tent again – well I was wrong. On Tuesday I learned of a geocaching event in Detroit Lakes on Saturday. So I proposed several ideas to my wife on things to do for the weekend – including staying home and going to DL.
Thankfully, she chose camping and going to DL – what a weekend. We packed our van Thursday night late with all the old and new camping gear and took off. I almost felt like backing out and making it a day trip instead, feeling like this was too rushed. I don’t normally do spontaneous trips like this. This was our first solo camping trip, as normally we camp with others.
Friday morning I had the alarm set for 5 a.m. (so much for sleeping in) and we were on the road – four kids, two parents and one dog – by 6 a.m. Our destination was Buffalo River State Park in Glyndon. We arrived at 8:30 a.m., a full 30 minutes before they would take reservations, and the only reservations available were first come first serve. The minutes ticked by slowly.
Finally, we had our campsite by 9:30 a.m. We started to get the tents ready and took a few things out of the van to lighten the load and help reduce the crowding a little. Then on to Fargo to the air museum. The kids enjoyed the small museum and they all were able to “fly” a Huey helicopter. After that the weekend was all geocaching.
We attempted to do some geocaching in Fargo and managed to get a few, but I prefer my country roads and wasn’t really enjoying the “big city” caching. So we headed back towards our campsite, finding a few geocaches along the way. After supper, we headed to the University of Moorhead Science Center near the campground for a program about the stars. We got there too early, looked around at everything at least twice and it still wasn’t time for the program to start. My wife and I, both exhausted from the late night and early morning, decided to call it a day and we all headed to bed. The kids were a little disappointed but not really, since they crashed fast.
Saturday
We woke up early, shivering as the night’s temperature dipped into the 40s. That morning we got ready to hit the road, then headed out for a full day of geocaching – with the promise that I would take a break to allow them time for swimming. We ventured out that morning towards Hawley and started “cleaning up” several of the caches in the area, including one that was disguised as a water main access in a yard. We nearly gave up on that one before figuring it all out – great fun. We started making our way a little closer to Detroit Lakes as we had to be at an event by noon. The event, which was billed as a “flash mob,” only lasted 15 minutes. We hit a few caches with some of the other event attendees and then moved on to complete our first geo-art in the shape of a question mark. It was a trail with 10 questions that had to be answered in order to get the correct locations where the caches were located. After that was completed, we hit a couple more caches en-route to the campsite and swimming, with the promise to dad that after swimming and supper, we could go out again and we did. With swimming and supper over we headed back out on the road to get some geocaches. First we stopped for gas. We didn’t need gas, but it was below a half-tank. Besides, there was a geocache besides the pump that I couldn’t find the day before, and armed with a hint from a local cacher, my wife made the find while I pumped the gas, a great team effort. We then toured the town by way of geocaching along with about 25 miles worth of back roads, adding more geocaches to our total. We were going to call it quits when my wife looked up the total finds for the day – 49. Well we couldn’t stop at that, so she looked on the map and found one more for us to get our new record of 50 finds in one day. We crawled back into the campground and into the tents after 10:30 p.m.
Sunday
It was leaving day. Like everything else, all good things must come to an end, just not too fast. My wife and Marcus packed up camp while the rest of us went on a hiking excursion to find answers to three earth geocaches (ones needing to answer earth related questions). When we were done, I called my wife to pick us up. She said: “Wait, Marcus and I are finding a geocache first.”
Not a problem, so we waited for about 15 minutes. After that we headed out on a tour of the country, again picking up a few geocaches before getting to DL. We started the morning needing about 15 caches to reach 800, and we ended the day finding our last cache #802 in Park Rapids. It was a very fun but tiring weekend.
Prior to the next paper, I will celebrate two milestones in my life. The first – my wife and I will have been married for 15 years, crazy how time flies, and I will turn another year older. As for my age, ask my kids, I’m sure they will tell you. The weekend plans, aside from the Chippewa Triathlon, have yet to be decided. Some more geocaching would be fine with me.
Please be safe while enjoying some outdoor recreation and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com
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