Thursday, October 28, 2010

Camping #4: Elk Neck State Park

Continuing on my quest ... Exploring as many camping areas as possible before the end of the season!

Elk Neck SP is fairly close to me. I had something to do on Saturday morning, but I thought I'd get in a quick trip to explore the park and campground so that I'd be familiar with it & could plan a longer excursion.

Oh, I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived!  It was a beautiful warm and sunny fall day. The foliage was so pretty. Some had fallen, so the campground was covered in color. And the views of the Elk River!: fabulous. A very pretty park. I ended up staying on Sunday much longer than I had expected; it was so relaxing!

Campground Description
There are a lot of sites, but arranged in loops. So it didn't feel like a huge place. But the sites are relatively close together, and not a lot of greenery buffer between sites. It didn't bother me too much because it was such a pretty park. Saturday afternoon was relaxing and quiet.

Each loop has a bath house: Maryland DNR-rustic. There are playgrounds scattered around the park, near the camp loops.

The tent sites are crushed gravel pads, level, with timber trimming to make sure you stay within the designated area. That keeps the sites neat & tidy, and minimizes the damage to the vegetation.

Night
Still no creature noises. But lots of people noise. Kids/teens hanging out. Motorcycle dudes in the site next to me up til the wee hours of the morning. I got to a solid sleep about 1:30am. I think there's a mandatory party-group at every campground...

Again, pre-dawn choir of birds ... But the sunrise through all the fall foliage was beautiful. Sun rises are becoming my favorite part of camping.

Sunday
On Sunday morning, instead of packing up early as originally planned, I stayed and wrote & read. The park was soooo relaxing. Most people packed up and left pretty early. So by noon, the park was very quiet. Just a few of us around. Quiet. Peaceful. At peace in nature.








My Campsite:




Takeaway
Looking forward to coming back here; often. It's a quick & easy trip.








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My Gear List
Since this was a last-minute, quick-trip, I basically threw ALL of my normal stuff into the car.
  • Shelter: tent, fly, tarp
  • Bed: sleeping bag, pillows. New item: air mattress pad.
  • Other Essentials: headlamp; a flashlight from home; mini-compass/whistle; map of the park
  • Bathroom: garden spade for cat-hole, toilet paper, wipes. New item: nalgene bottle. Uhhh, I use that instead of crawling out of my tent in the middle of the night and peeing outdoors.
  • Personal Care: my overloaded tote bag of ...
  • First Aid: band-aids. One day I will assemble a proper first aid kit.
  • Camp Fire Supplies: fire starter material, matches, and lots of newspaper (still)
  • Kitchen Gear: All the gear: pot, pan, eating/cooking utensils; aluminum foil, ziploc bags for storage & trash; scrubber pad to wash dishes. There may have been more things I brought along ...
  • Food: I didn't keep good notes, but I think I experimented with ham, beef, apples. And I had my usual sandwich-stuff, yogurt, fruit & nuts
  • Clothing: the basic hiking/outdoor stuff and outerwear
  • Hiking Gear: hiking shoes; camelbak
  • Downtime Amusement: my Kindle & hiking/biking/camping books
  • Other / New Item: At the camp store, I bought an "entrance mat" for my tent - lol!
Comments:
  • I love the new "entrance pad". It does help with keeping dirt out of the tent. Plus, it's comfy for my knees when I'm setting up/dismantling.
  • Through this trip, basically I was packing and taking everything that I "might"need, in order to figure out what I really do use.
  • Better Organization: I have all my "stuff" organized in separate tote bags, such as: cooking, personal care, fire, clothing, essentials.

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