Camping Critters

As summer was approaching, we decided it was finally time to upgrade our small 3-person tent with a much larger 8-person tent.  We then planned a couple of camping trip to nearby state parks, one at Maplewood State Park over the Fourth of July weekend, the other at Itasca State Park over our wedding anniversary.

The first trip to Maplewood State Park started out fine, but it didn't end that way.  On the second day we found ourselves lost on a hiking trail and ended up literally being miles from nowhere... in the 94 degree heat.  The heat and humidity then gave way to torrential rains that flooded our campsite and tent as we had to quickly pack up and head home.  

Once we got back home in the middle of the night, we dried ourselves off and saw the severe weather alerts announcing a flash flood warning with up to nine inches of rain in the area we were in.  It was definitely a good idea for us to leave.

Our trip to Itasca State Park was much cooler with temperatures in the 70s and little humidity.  We tried to stay away from the hiking trails this time around and opted to venture out on a boat on the headwaters of the Mississippi and also visited other attractions in the park.  

Once again the rain made an appearance on the second day while our tent doors were wide open.  The problem with that was that we were currently in the middle of a 10 mile drive through the wilderness.  Thankfully our tent faired much better this time and we were able to easily clean up the little bit of water that made it inside.  

Aside from our issues with the rain, there was another common aspect between both camping trips and that was dealing with the furry friends of the forest, commonly known as raccoons.

Our first raccoon sighting took place on the first night we were camping at Maplewood.  The raccoon, which seemed to be fairly tame considering it is a wild animal, came right up to our campsite.  He must have been there to check things out as while we didn't see him ever again, his presence was felt later on at our campsite.  

The next day, while we were getting things ready for our (6 mile) hike, we mistakenly left out our hiking food as we went to take showers.  We came back to see an empty bag of beef jerky lying on the ground that had been ripped open.  Mind you, this was an unopened bag of jerky and he ate every last scrap of it.

With that in mind, we thought that we would be better prepared for it during our second trip.  We weren't.

As we were letting the fire die on our first night at the campsite in Itasca, Crystal took the lantern and headed to the bathrooms.  While she was gone I started to hear some rustling near our picnic table.  The fire was almost out and didn't provide much light but I was able to see a shadowy figure on the table.  I startled the animal and heard it scurry off into the woods.

Once Crystal returned to the campsite I was able to find our flashlight and searched around the surrounding area.  I then spotted a raccoon sitting about 15 feet away from our campsite with our bag of bread.  Yes, it was also an unopened bag as well.  Needless to say the bag was empty by morning and we got to eat breadless sandwiches during our trip.

Since our first trip didn't go quite as planned, we are heading out for a third time this weekend.  We will be staying at Maplewood once again, in the same campsite nonetheless, and hopefully we won't have any more raccoon stories to report on this time.

Third time is a charm, right?

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