Happy First-Time Campers

Growing up, my family wasn’t big on camping as far as I remember. I’ve always liked the idea of it, but taking a step back, I can see how it seems kind of silly to want to spend time in the wilderness, sleeping uncomfortably, and eating basic meals, when you’ve worked so hard to be able to enjoy all the luxuries and comforts of home. I don’t blame my parents for wanting to spend their vacation time visiting family, traveling to new places, or actually just taking that time to relax. So to me camping has always just been a cool concept from movies and books, and even to this day, I’m not sure that I’ve ever had the full experience. I do remember spending a few days in Garner State Park, tent camping, with my family and some cousins. I’ve also spent some days in Garner with a friend in her family’s RV. I spent nights in tents in backyards at friends’ sleepovers. I’ve gone on overnight camping trips with a large group of people. Still, I want to be the camping type. It’s dumb to force things that don’t come naturally, but I honestly believe that camping is a skill. Or at least, that you can be skillful at preparing and learning about camping to make the experience as relaxing and fun as possible. 

As someone with anxiety and as a chronic over-planner, I have put a lot of effort into building up our household’s camping gear to the point where at a moment’s notice, we could grab our things and survive in nature for at least a few weeks, I’d like to believe. Despite the preparation and the amount of money spent on gear, our family camping trip plans had yet to come to fruition. A year ago, I made reservations to camp at Lost Maples and I was so excited to go in November and see the beautiful leaves mid-transition in their glorious fall colors. Everything was ready to go, but as the reservation date drew closer, the temperatures began to drop. Fast. Suddenly, it was 2 days before we were supposed to take off, and Uriel chickened out. To be fair, it was going to dip below freezing the night of our trip, and knowing what I know now, I would have not been a happy camper. Anyways, one of the lessons that I’ve learned during my recent journey into camping, is that Texas state park reservations fill up FAST. Especially given that the days when the weather is nice enough to enjoy and not have a heat stroke or freeze to death are limited, to say the least. There are many limiting factors when it comes to me enjoying nature - one of those being my killer allergies. Spring is a torturous season for me and my sinuses, so I really wanted fall to be the designated time frame for our first annual Ruiz-Garcia camping trip. This meant that we had to wait another whole year before attempting our first overnight wilderness adventure. 

I’m happy to report that our first family camping trip did finally happen a few weekends ago, mid-October at Inks Lake State Park.  I made the reservation months in advance and was looking forward to it for basically 365 days. Unfortunately, the trip lasted less than 24 hours in total. Fortunately, it was a lot of fun and I’m already preparing for the next. 

So here’s a run-down of our quick camping trip and some lessons learned for the future - 

1. Camping List: A quick Pinterest scroll helped me start a list of the things we needed to pack. I gathered the things on my initial list and then we made a stop at Home Depot before finally taking off. The things originally missing from my list were a tarp for underneath the tent, a switchblade, and some batteries for our lantern. After the trip I added a few things that would’ve been nice to have, including a first aid kid and sunscreen, which I just forgot about initially. 

2. Upon arriving to the park, we checked in and got some maps of the campsites and surrounding trails. We chose to do drive-in camping, which I highly recommend for a first-time camper. I think with some more practice and knowledge, we can eventually do primitive camping, but I definitely don’t feel ready to tackle that yet. 

3. We set up our tent at the campsite, which only took around 15-20 minutes. Mind you, this was the first time we were taking out the tent from its original packaging. We were anxious to go hiking, so we decided not to unpack anything else from our car just yet. The park was pretty full that weekend and all of the campsites around us were taken, with families fully set up before we arrived. 

4. We filled up our hydration packs, switched to our hiking shoes, and took off. We hiked the Devil’s Waterhole Nature Trail, which connected to the Valley Spring Creek Trail and eventually the Devil’s Backbone Nature Trail. The weather was absolutely perfect for hiking. The trail was a good mix of empty for many portions of our hike, but we also encountered plenty of people along the way. I’m happy to report that Pepper only barked at like, one person. The trail itself was nothing special. Lots of brush and crickets flying everywhere. The payoff was amazing, though. The Devil’s Backbone trail ends at a scenic overlook of the lake and IT IS B E A U T I F U L. We headed back to the campsite and arrived at around 4 pm. 

 5. We finished unpacking and were feeling hungry from all the hiking and setting up. We quickly learned how to work our camp stove and cooked ourselves up some hot dogs. The biggest disappointment of our whole camping experience was the fact that the park had a burn ban in effect. I was so looking forward to roasting some marshmallows, but unfortunately, the hot dogs were our last meal that day.

5. To end our day, we walked to the pier closest to our campsite and watched the beautiful sunset. Since it was now dark and cold at our campsite, we decided to retreat to our tent and watch a movie. My phone lost service as soon as we left the City, but luckily, Uriel has AT&T and had perfect service the entire time. We watched Always Be My Maybe and called it an early night. I got up later that night to walk to the restroom and I looked up and let me tell you...the stars at night are truly big and bright deep in the heart of Texas.

6. My sleeping bag kept me pretty nice and toasty for the most part, and it also helped that Pepper crawled up in there with me. I only wish I had brought a scarf or something to cover my face, because my nose was very cold. Uriel on the other hand, doesn’t have a sleeping bag and only brought one blanket with him. The temperature got down to the 30s that night, and he had a hard time sleeping. Around 6:30 am, the sun was starting to rise. We cuddled a bit in our tent and then got up to make some breakfast and coffee. This combined with the sun peeking out the horizon definitely helped to warm us up.

7. We packed up our campsite in about 30 minutes and headed to the park store for our final activity. We rented a canoe and paddled across the beautiful lake before saying goodbye.

Overall, it was a great first camping experience. There weren’t any major fires to put out, metaphorically and literally...thanks burn ban. I was definitely a little nervous going in that Pepper wouldn’t have a good time, but she did great and was all tuckered out by the time we got home. Next time, I would like to make our drive worth it with a 2-night stay, and we definitely won’t underestimate the chill of the wilderness in the middle of the night.

Til the next adventure!