My first camping in the Jemez Mountains

The first time I went camping with the whole family was back when camping was still exciting to young boys and girls as well as myself. I reminisce how they kept hounding me to go camping and take some time off from work to enjoy some family moments and just relax and take a deep breath of Mother Nature’s wonderful medicinal effects giving us a natural high.

I remember the day we packed our gear. We had bought a brand new Coleman tent that was big enough to stand up in and was claimed to be water resistant but not waterproof. The tent was the most essential part of the trip and we packed our gear according what would fit inside that tent once we got to our destination.

The kid’s picked out the spot. They wanted to go back to where we had gone one day on a day out picnic and stay there for the weekend so we could just enjoy the scenery and sounds of the mountains, the streams nearby and the sounds of the animals. I always like the idea of camping as it brought us closer together and created a bond that would never ever be forgotten.

The truck was packed up with the gear and the last one to get on-board was the dog. We had packed our food in the coolers and made sure we had plenty just in case something went wrong and we had to spend an extra day up there. The trip was highway road for the first forty miles and then another thirty miles of dirt roads and trails.

The four wheel drive truck was strong and dependable for such tasks and it hardly struggled the inclines, the crossing of the streams and the mud and dirt encountered up the winding trails to the Jemez Mountains.

There were no cell phones, there were no I pads, no portable televisions and there was no GPS to guide us. It was all natural and done on the spur of the moment. We lived near the city but our house location was country living at its best. Now we were going to do some rough time in the mountains and make it the best weekend possible.

No showers for a couple days and getting dirt under our fingernails was the game plan. No water no electricity and heat was provided by the fire we would built. We brought plenty of batteries and board games as well as cards in case we got stuck inside the tent.

We found a wilderness spot that served as a picnic site not too long ago as we found it by accident. It was deep into the forest and a tough trail to get to as it was steep, muddy and rock filled making the climb slow and cumbersome. Hard to get to places are best as they don’t attract strangers.

I won’t lie it wasn’t easy to adjust to the no shower and no water or electricity but we managed. We were tested of our outdoor skills and we made the best of it. In fact the kids did great. I think it was the adults that were whining most of the time meaning me myself and I.

We had packed a lot of canned food just in case and we locked everything up inside the truck so no bears would come visit us during the night. The menu consisted of eggs, beans, ham, bacon, corn, chili beans and more beans.

We either overcooked the food or undercooked it.

The best part about camping is the smell of the bacon on the steel skillet used to fry the eggs in the bacon grease and the smell of the fresh coffee perking in the old fashion percolator. I could feel a shift in the family culture as we were doing things together we hadn’t done for a long time.

Then the rains came. We had a chance to dig a channel around the tent to create a water runoff before it began pouring but the fire went out and we had not saved any firewood inside the tent to keep it dry. One thing led to another and crisis took over. The girls had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. We had flashlights and lanterns but we had to share them.

The night of the rain the nearby streams filled up with rushing water and we could hear what sounded like waterfalls as the runoff became louder and louder making us worry if we were in the way of a flood or wash out. We were on high ground but not level ground and somehow it was comforting to know that sleeping on rocky terrain was better than sleeping in the muddy waters.

The boys being more adventures found things to do in the daylight as well as the dark nights. The howling of coyotes in the background was an eerie sound for a city slicker but we were used to in by living in the country. on their own choosing they decided to sleep outside the tent in their sleeping bags and that was fine with me. Sleeping under the stars should be every boy's dream.

We did some target shooting and we played some volleyball but most of all, we hiked our hearts content and found many interesting things along the way such as caves, skeletons of what must have been a cow or maybe a deer and speaking of deer, we saw a few as well as hawks and birds flying overhead thinking we were going to die and leave the flesh for the buzzards.

After a short spell of being in the woods alone with no other people around we became addicted to the beauty of it all. Some of the time was spent reading while the other times we wandered off a bit to explore the area a little bit more than before. The only thing we forgot was the mosquito repellent. Perhaps we will remember that the next time we go camping.

The rain made things damp and cold but the spirit of rebuilding the fire kindling it with dry leaves and twigs found in some of the dry areas not affected by the rain got us on the right track. We embraced nature and had a time of our lives before all of us grew a little