Travel Rogue

July 08, 2005

Camping in Door County

Remember how excited you'd get as a kid the night before a trip? So much so that you couldn't sleep, that you packed and re-packed your backpack hundreds of times to make sure you had the right books, the right toys, etc.? As I get older, that level of excitement seems so much harder to attain. But boy oh boy, did I get it last night!

All this morning, I was jiggling up and down on my Aeron chair at work counting the minutes until 5p. At that magical moment, my weekend began.

Dave and I headed up to Door County on a Northwest Passage kayaking trip. A five hour drive north from Chicago...all the whey through Wisconsin to the very, very tip of the peninsula jutting out into Lake Michigan. So far north, in fact, that if instead of crossing Lake Michigan, you crossed the bay, you'd be in Canada.

The Potbelly's sammiches lasted a mere hour on the road. They were demolished even before we hit Milwaukee. When we finally pulled into Peninsula State Park, it was 10:30p. Pitch black. Sky full of stars. We rolled into our group campsite (only took one wrong turn) and as soon as we were out of the car a blinding bright spotlight about head-high starts moving toward us. As the light gets closer, a body materializes underneath. It's Brenda, our head guide and kayak instructor. They were expecting our late arrival. Brenda's first words, "The toilets don't flush." Yes indeedy, every summer I somehow end up camping with pit toilets. Apparently it's a trend. Brenda shows us to our tent, and Dave and I settle in for the night.

It's amazing, the feeling I get the first night out in the woods. There are so many noises that you forget about living in the city. So many smells. It's almost like submerging yourself in a pool, the water just touches every single part of you leaving absolutely no doubt that you are in a different environment. It's that feeling I get in the night that I just can't live without.

Posted by carolyn at July 8, 2005 12:15 PM

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