brendan
06-06-2004, 11:02 PM
Last weekend, I did an overnight backpacking trip into Shennandoah National Park with my brother and his best friend. Had a good time. Since I had the car with the most room (vs. a Jetta and a Jeep Wrangler), I drove (yay!).
E-related things or E-related-related things:
-I put the rear driver-side seat up and we placed our loaded hauling packs upright there, three in a row. That left plent of room for the rear passenger on the other side, and for stuff in the rear storage area such as a cooler and other stuff.
-They loved the roominess.
-My brother loved the case logic storage panel I put on the back of the front passenger seat..."it's got a built in can-holder!". Well, that is, until his friend decided he needed to get more comfortable and leaned the seat back. Oops. Splash, Fresca everywhere!
-They did the parking lot attempt-at-getting-the-rear-passenger-out dance and looked a bit confused when we stopped at Subway. I said "yeah, you have to plan that better" :)
- I thought I had a problem with the right side channel of my stereo, but it turns out I'd neglected to push my empeg all the way into the dash. Click, problem solved.
Non-E-related things:
-We hiked in for about 3-4 miles, away from the main trails, set up camp, had a beer, and then took off for a hike to see one or two of the "sights" in the area.
-We sat on a rock over a 50 ft. waterfall and watched the sun set over a valley and behind what appeared to be 2-3 ranges of mountains. And I left my darn digi-cam batteries in the charger! It was *soooo beautiful*. Wow.
-Apparently another couple thought so too, and had set up their tent on a ledge above the one from which we watched the sun set. That is, they set up their tent three feet from the trail. A big no-no in SNP. Alas, I thought it would be rude to say anything. On the other hand, we hung out there for about 30 minutes, about 20 feet away from them, at sunset. So much for their private paradise...
-On the mercifully unladen hike back up the mountain to camp, my brother was on point and pulled up short and said "whoa!" Two feet in front of him, a deer was blocking the strail. It bobbed its head and walked a foot off the trail to let us by.
-Later, at camp*, we all got a bit spooked when, sitting around a candle (no campfires in SNP) after dinner, we heard a noise. We all turned our lights onto a...deer. About 15 feet away, checking us out...
At which point things got really amusing (this is really the reason I'm making this post):
My brother and his friend slowly went from amusement at being spooked by the deer to annoyance at it. They found that yelling at it didn't make it go away. Finally after about 20 minutes, it wandered off behind some trees.
About a half-hour later, they heard a noise again. Headlamps on! Nothing. Noise again. Everyone rotates 180 degrees. The deer outflanked us! It's just checking us out, but from the other side. Over the next 30 minutes, at a distance of 15-25 feet, it wanders around staring at us.
They remained preoccupied about the damn deer, and started to get spooked in a different way by it. I'm just tired. I mean, other than give us ticks, what is a deer going to do to us?
We clean up, carefully, hang the food bag (which included the marginally-clean utensils/pots/pans) from a tree away from the campsite.
I wander off to sleep, a few minutes later they do as well...and then the real fun starts.
More noise. The two of them keep freaking out at the noise, cursing the deer, unzipping the tents and checking things out. First, the deer is hanging out where we were sitting, about 5-10 feet from the tents. Deer lies down. Another deer joins it. Deer get up and start scratching on the trees (note: the first deer had no atlers, no idea if any of the latter ones did, since they only noises that were waking/annoying me came from the two other guys who kept talking). Later, at least 3 deer are hanging out. Maybe more.
[continued]
E-related things or E-related-related things:
-I put the rear driver-side seat up and we placed our loaded hauling packs upright there, three in a row. That left plent of room for the rear passenger on the other side, and for stuff in the rear storage area such as a cooler and other stuff.
-They loved the roominess.
-My brother loved the case logic storage panel I put on the back of the front passenger seat..."it's got a built in can-holder!". Well, that is, until his friend decided he needed to get more comfortable and leaned the seat back. Oops. Splash, Fresca everywhere!
-They did the parking lot attempt-at-getting-the-rear-passenger-out dance and looked a bit confused when we stopped at Subway. I said "yeah, you have to plan that better" :)
- I thought I had a problem with the right side channel of my stereo, but it turns out I'd neglected to push my empeg all the way into the dash. Click, problem solved.
Non-E-related things:
-We hiked in for about 3-4 miles, away from the main trails, set up camp, had a beer, and then took off for a hike to see one or two of the "sights" in the area.
-We sat on a rock over a 50 ft. waterfall and watched the sun set over a valley and behind what appeared to be 2-3 ranges of mountains. And I left my darn digi-cam batteries in the charger! It was *soooo beautiful*. Wow.
-Apparently another couple thought so too, and had set up their tent on a ledge above the one from which we watched the sun set. That is, they set up their tent three feet from the trail. A big no-no in SNP. Alas, I thought it would be rude to say anything. On the other hand, we hung out there for about 30 minutes, about 20 feet away from them, at sunset. So much for their private paradise...
-On the mercifully unladen hike back up the mountain to camp, my brother was on point and pulled up short and said "whoa!" Two feet in front of him, a deer was blocking the strail. It bobbed its head and walked a foot off the trail to let us by.
-Later, at camp*, we all got a bit spooked when, sitting around a candle (no campfires in SNP) after dinner, we heard a noise. We all turned our lights onto a...deer. About 15 feet away, checking us out...
At which point things got really amusing (this is really the reason I'm making this post):
My brother and his friend slowly went from amusement at being spooked by the deer to annoyance at it. They found that yelling at it didn't make it go away. Finally after about 20 minutes, it wandered off behind some trees.
About a half-hour later, they heard a noise again. Headlamps on! Nothing. Noise again. Everyone rotates 180 degrees. The deer outflanked us! It's just checking us out, but from the other side. Over the next 30 minutes, at a distance of 15-25 feet, it wanders around staring at us.
They remained preoccupied about the damn deer, and started to get spooked in a different way by it. I'm just tired. I mean, other than give us ticks, what is a deer going to do to us?
We clean up, carefully, hang the food bag (which included the marginally-clean utensils/pots/pans) from a tree away from the campsite.
I wander off to sleep, a few minutes later they do as well...and then the real fun starts.
More noise. The two of them keep freaking out at the noise, cursing the deer, unzipping the tents and checking things out. First, the deer is hanging out where we were sitting, about 5-10 feet from the tents. Deer lies down. Another deer joins it. Deer get up and start scratching on the trees (note: the first deer had no atlers, no idea if any of the latter ones did, since they only noises that were waking/annoying me came from the two other guys who kept talking). Later, at least 3 deer are hanging out. Maybe more.
[continued]