Saturday was terrific. Saturnight was another story.

We got up in the cold morning. Everyone had survived. Kathy and I both had sore hips, not used to sleeping on a hard surface.

Breakfast around the campfire included hot chocolate cooked on Ted’s stove. As the sun came up, the world got warmer. We packed up picnic goods and headed for Black Rock Mountain north of Clayton.

Everyone enjoyed the playground and lunch in the park. We stayed for several hours. Long enough for everyone to take a turn on the see-saw, tube slide, and tire swings, among others.

The weather was perfect. Cool in the shade. Warm in the sun. The view of the mountains, overlooking Clayton, was fantastic. In fact, we watched a couple get married at one of the lookouts.

On the way back to the camp site, we bought a bunch of wood for $4. We didn’t want to have to be so cold with such a small fire as the night before.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in and around the stream. Danny and I went fishing. I had my portable rod, and he had his fully functional Micky Mouse rod. He is a terrific caster. At one point he cast across to the other bank. He had a weight but, no hook. Didn’t really bother either one of us that there were no fish to be caught.

The water was bone-chilling. No one went deeper than their knees, and that was only because Danny and Shawn were so short. I couldn’t convince anyone to dive in with me. Even Frank wimped out. Good thing.

Ted and the kids and I went for a climb in the mountain-side woods above the stream. Saw some interesting plants and trees and discovered an old dam now broken through and covered with moss.

I turned back to collect some wood as the rest went out to the road. As I was collecting, I spotted something way up one tree. The setting sun was cutting through the trees behind it. My first thought was that an animal was tied up in the tree. I took a few steps closer and thought it might be a person. I was nervous, but took a few more steps closer and realized I was staring eye-to-eye at a man up in the tree. My alarmed brain finally caught on. They guy was in camouflage sitting in a deer stand with bow-and-arrows. He was looking straight at me some 50 feet away. I grunted the first thing that came to me. “Hey.”

He just turned away. He had probably been sitting there all day seeing nothing to shoot at. And here I was making all kinds of racket. I went on about my business, steering clear of his tree, lest I become a target.

When I found Ted down near the road, he thought I was making this up. Nicole had gone in the woods a bit to see if she could find me and came running out frightened about “a man sitting in a chair up in a tree.” She had been in a lower part of the woods, so there were at least two of them. Some fun.

We had a terrific fire as it got dark and colder. We decided it was not as cold as the night before. Grilled steaks over the log fire. Cooked corn and potatoes on the stove. Everything was delicious. The kids roasted marshmallows on Frank’s carefully carved sticks and got to light sparklers before we sent them off to bed.

The adults enjoyed sitting around the fire, drinking beers, stirring the coals, and chatting. That would best be called the end to a perfect day.

The midnight madness that followed is best left for another page.

[Shawn’s screaming?]

I left work early today to go camping. Kathy and Nancy worked hard to get everything ready, including picking up and packing Frank’s truck, while Teddy and I sat around waiting for 3 o’clock to come.

We met over at Nancy and Ted’s house. Got underway after gassing up at 4:30. Just in time to join the rest of Atlanta heading North on 85. Ted, Nicole, and Danny and I road in the truck. Kathy, Nancy, Shawn, and Brittany road in the Toyota. Frank, Stephanie and Lauren would meet us at Tate Branch later, driving Ted and Nancy’s car.

We arrived before sunset after winding up into the mountains to Clayton, then east, looking for Tate Branch. The Tate camp sight was closed because of a broken water pump.

Fortunately there was room at another site a mile or so down stream. We got busy setting up the pop-up trailer and the two other tents. We also gathered some wood, before it got dark, to start a fire. Our site was big and right on the stream. Ted kept calling it a river.

The bigger tent had been packed damp and the top cloth had rotted. It ripped as Ted and I tried putting it up. Ted tore it down in frustration. As it got dark and started getting cold.

About 9:30 Nicole, Danny, and I drove a few miles back to the main road to find a pay phone. I found one and left a message for Frank to bring a tent in the event they had not left or had come back. I was sure they were lost in the darkness. In fact, the kids and I pulled over, shut off the car lights, and laid down next to the car to look at the millions of stars. The Milky Way was bright across the sky. We don’t get to see the sky like that in Atlanta. I’m not sure Danny ever has.

Frank and crew left about 7:30 with directions that failed to explain a critical turn. The two-hour trip took them four hours. They drove up very tired and frustrated at 11:30. I was impressed they found us at all in the pitch black.

The kids were asleep, and the rest of us soon turned in to end the end of a frustrating beginning. It was awfully cold. Kathy and I slept in a small dome tent. Frank, Stephanie, and Lauren slept in the back of Frank’s truck.

Camping Lessons:

1) Set up your tent before you leave to make sure a) It’s ok and b) you know how to set it up.

2) Bring Bic lighters for every adult.

3) Bring some rope for carrying a bundle of sticks from the woods.

4) Bring a swiss-army knife.

5) Bring a small wood saw.

6) Children under 4 are a triple-problem. a) You worry about them, b) every minute, c) and you feel guilty sticking them with anyone else.

7) Bring less changes of clothes for yourself and more for the kids.

8) Shoes for walking on the rocky river bottom are a must.

9) A Coleman lantern is worth it’s weight in street lights.

10) A mountain morning dew will wet down everything exposed as well as any rain.

11) You don’t have to drink beer. Water makes it easier to wake up.

12) Give everyone directions and everyone go together. That way you all get lost together, which is more fun.

13) Plan to use someone’s voicemail (or mother… no… father) in case you get split up. Don’t put the voicemail directions on the camp site directions. You’ll need the first in case you lose the second.

14) It will feel 20 degrees colder than you think it will be.

15) A good sleeping bag is worth 5 times its weight in blankets.

16) Wool socks are worth the itch.

17) Bring four flashlights. Maybe one will work, and maybe you will be able to find it in the dark.

18) Obey all rules. Rangers may not bother you, but it’s not worth worrying about.

19) Buy your firewood. It’s easier on the back.

20) There are going to be bugs.