Camping food: July 2008 Archives

So during my camping trip at Yosemite, our campsite got a visit from Yogi Bear - smarter than the average bear - in the middle of the night.

The campgrounds have bear boxes where you put all your food or anything that has a scent that would draw a bear to your site. So after dinner and after the long-awaited melty gooey goodness of s'mores, we put everything away in the boxes and went around our site twice to make sure we didn't miss anything.

Well, we did. It was some time past midnight when I heard rustling near our tent and heard commotion. My wild-sleeper of a sister, was asleep on my right shoulder and as soon as I knew it was a bear, I pushed her off of me and sat up in one swift motion.

Another tent-mate of ours woke up too, and began searching for the zipper to open the tent door to blow the whistle she had wrapped around her neck the entire weekend. She got the window open instead and blew three quick whistles, but we could still hear the bear.

There were a few guys outside making noises and flashing their lights trying to scare fuzzy wuzzy away but he wouldn't until he got what he came for - marshmallows.

Yup, Yogi is a fans of s'mores too.

Apparently there was an ice chest, (believed to be empty), left outside under a table that had a bag of marshmallows in it.

Well the bear definitely smelled it from miles away and knew exactly where to go. It slid, yes slid, open the ice chest without damaging it, tore through a paper towel roll to get to the marshmallows, and would not scare off easily with whistles, lights or hollering until it headed back to it's cave with the full bag.

I didn't get to see it, but from the look of the tear on the paper towel roll, it was still a youngin'.

Of course, the next day, the kids that slept through the bear commotion, wanted to leave a little bait for the bear to come back again so they could take a picture of it.

I told them they already knew what it looks like. He wears a green ranger hat and tie with a white collar and says "Ey, Boo Boo!"

Yes, I was one of the many crazies who went out of town this holiday weekend. High gas prices, traffic and all.

Me and about 40+ friends and family headed up north to Yosemite for some good old-fashioned camping.

I love camping and I was so excited to go back to Yosemite, which I've only visited once, when I was about 13. I was also excited to take my 13-year-old sister for her first sleeping bag and tent camping trip.

She's stayed at a cabin in Big Bear with my brother before, but it was a full-furnished cabin and I don't think they saw any bears.

That was great and all, because it was still family, and my nephews were too young to be outdoors in a tent.

But she's old enough to handle the great outdoors now. (Maybe I should have made her watch some John Candy movies in preparation.)

And she's never roasted marshmallows out on a real fire!

What kind of kid would you be, if you've never had the chance to roast marshmallows to black melty-death on a piece of stick or twig you picked up off the floor?!

Yup. I'm talking about good old gooey-marshmallow-chocolatey-graham-cracker goodness. S'mores.

When I think back on the many camping trips I've taken, I think - Man, all we do is eat!

Hot dogs, hamburgers, pork and beans, sandwiches, scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage, granola bars, cheez-its, chips, s'mores of course, and if we had the money, some good carne asada and tortillas. 

But it's a great challenge to try to cook and eat in the outdoors, especially with bugs flying all around. I always feel vindicated when I'm able to finish my meal before the bugs can even touch it. Take that bug!

So while some of you are enjoying your weekend in the bug-free, AC, comfy-couch/chair/bed, home indoors, I'll be roughing it on a rock, with some bears, swatting the flies off my s'mores.

And loving every minute of it.