Hey, Camp Fans!
Throughout the month I’ve been announcing the winners to our annual ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest. And, today, the time has come to reveal our grand prize winner for this year’s edition. Find out right here and right now—the winner of our $300 gift certificate is….
Marie H.!
Awesome!!! Congratulations, Marie. You’re our grand prize winner!!! Marie wrote in to tell us about an interesting camping experience she had joining a youth troop. Read her account of a dark and hungry outing right here on today’s Blog post:
Ruffled
“‘Just bring yourself,’ she said. ‘We've already got all the food we need for the trip.’ She'd invited me to join her son's youth troop on an overnight in the mountains, one I've never been to, and I jumped at the chance. After all, it wasn't more than a 90-minute drive from my apartment and I've been working too many hours, so time with family in the outdoors with a chance to see the natural world through the eyes of a troop of 8-year-olds sounded incredibly appealing. Bonus: They had the food bases covered.
‘Okay, I'll bring chips,’ I said, finalized the campground details and hung up.
Three hours later, I was on the highway headed to camp.
Four hours later, driving.
Five hours later, tent pitched, I decided to walk around and await the troops.
Six hours later, slight concern but traffic happens. Enjoying the scrub jays.
Seven hours later, anxiety level rising, no troop yet. Rush hour must be worse than expected.
Eight, nine hours later, same, amplified. It's dark, no troop, just me, my Coleman tent, one bottle of water. Just that and a bag of chips.
I stopped counting hours. I'm on a mountain, cell phones didn't really exist yet and there's not much else to do but wait. I'm not driving back down A pitch-black mountain road. Besides, if they show up and I'm not here, they'd worry about me. Wouldn't they?
Sometime that night, stomach growling, I tear open the Ruffles bag. The salt makes me thirsty, the grease makes me just a bit queasy, as does the slight anxiety over where my party might be. I listen to crickets, remove the tent fly so I can see the stars. Eventually my thirsty queasy self falls asleep.
I hear the voices before I'm fully awake calling to one another, young voices, excited, an older voice giving directions. I can smell the campfire, hear them talking about potatoes, bacon. I'm salivating and it's no dream. In a nearby campground, a troop of Boy Scouts is going to town on breakfast burritos and fruit. Yes, I'm tucked in my tiny tent listening intently to every word. So hungry. My mouth still feels slick from the potato chip grease, I'm dehydrated to a ridiculous degree and haven't eaten real food for too many hours.
What would they think if a disheveled young woman walked up to a boy she didn't know and offered money to buy a burrito? Would it send him screaming for help? Would I get arrested? Would they pity me, feed me, raise their eyebrows, and then have to ration their own portions?
Hour 22: I pack my gear, start the drive down the mountain. Stop at the first place I find on the way home that sells food.
Hour 48: All is well. The troop—not the burrito-makers—ran into road closures, traffic delays, decided to camp closer to home. In the frenzy of rearrangements, they forgot I was tagging along. Even if they hadn't, how would they have reached me? All resolved.
But to this day, I can only eat Ruffles in small amounts, and I always pack my food and water first, no matter what!”
Wow, what an unforgettable adventure! This spontaneous trip really took a turn for the worse when you’re just waiting the whole time along with nothing but your Ruffles! It’s amazing how you turned a situation like that into a funny, memorable story—I could practically feel your hunger and hear those crickets in the dark. The part about hearing Boy Scouts enjoying their breakfast while you were starving is pretty funny, but too bad you couldn’t go get one of their burritos!
Thank you so much for sharing this unique camping experience with us—it’s a great reminder to always be prepared for any situation! That concludes our big prize winners, but stay tuned each week when we publish our participants’ submissions so you can catch all the great entries we received this year. As always, thanks for reading.
- John