Camping at Green Ridge State Forest EARLY DAYS We've probably camped here thirty times. Main players usually include Sarge, Ski, Scraps, Keith, Miller, Roach etc. I don't know where to begin. The first time we ever went there was because we got kicked out of our illegal campsite in Thurmont, Md (Click here to read about it) TYPICAL TRIP So how does the typical camping trip go? Well, we all plan to get there at 9pm, but roll up one by one around midnight. Usually one of us will get there early. When you're early you pitch your tent in the prime spot, pay the forest fees, leave a note for your homies, then get your drink on. It's pretty cool watching your homies roll up one by one. Next step is to collect wood, start a fire, crack a brew, then put on some Sepultura, Doors or Beasties and then drink a lot, go for a night hike, check out the stars, and maybe play a little 3 man by lantern. Morning, Advil and Beer start the day. Cook a bit of breakfast, then go for a day hike. Below is a list of trips, stories, anecdotes of every trip we've ever been on. |
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| TRIP # -- Sarge & Tina Molter I don't remember too many details of this trip, but these are my recollections. We were at school together, we had been going out for a few months and it was before she was leaving for California. We started hanging out a lot, hiking etc. and I asked her if she wanted to go camping. We packed up our stuff and I think I drove my old Ford Escort GT, I loved that car. On the mountain roads you could feel every pothole and rock, it used to make your spine rattle but it was a cool little car, reminiscent of a rally car. We must've gone in the Spring 'cause it was hot and green. We went to Green Ridge and camped at 2D. That was our favorite site in those days. She didn't eat or drink much, but I still drank like I was with my homies. Listened to a lot of Pink Floyd, Hendrix and Doors which she was digging. She looked really good on that trip, wearing sun dresses and the like. Made a nice fire and hung out together under the stars. Very relaxing time made better by the fact we were getting along well again. She stole my Wish You Were Here CD which I recovered a year later. She moved West, I went out to see her, then she moved back to Heidelberg, Deutschland. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Ski, Bauer, Brett I suppose this was our first trip to Green Ridge. We had been run out of Thurmont Friday night so we decided to camp elsewhere. Bauer knew about Green Ridge, I think he hunted out there. So Saturday morning we drove out and snuck on the site. We didn't pay too often back then because we spent all we had on beer etc. The styrofoam cooler was brimming with beer and about four cubes of ice, finally the crack inside got bigger until it completely gave way. Luckily it was chilly willy so our beer stayed cool. We made a fire, had some hot dogs, drank some beer. Brett probably ate the dogs raw. That's about all I remember. Actually I think I had 14 beers and ended up throwing up all night and dry heaving. It's about the worst I've ever felt. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Pam, Ski, Suz, Keith & Sarah - A largely uneventful trip. Everyone kept getting yelled at by their women. It wasn't a very good time because I can hardly remember what happened. We threw the football around in the sun that was cool, played some guitar but the group drinking dynamics really suffer when the girls are there. A better trip with the girls was Teddy, Mary, Jesse & Jenny. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Miller, Billy, Brett This trip started badly and got progressively worse. We were all underage back then and I think I was driving up to Green Ridge with Brett and a car full of beer. I had my little white Escort packed so full the car was really struggling to make it up the mountains. The first bad thing happened while we were driving. We were doing about 80mph which meant we were cruising far ahead of Miller and Billy in Miller's Ford Festiva. That car was a f*ckin' joke. It was like a little room of windows on wheels. Anyway, I was going too fast when I saw something in the road. I didn't have time to change lanes because I was next to a truck so I just had to hit it. I had no idea of what it was but it was dragging under my car and wsparks were flying out from behind my car. We pulled over and found it was some poor travelers suitcase. Must've fallen off the top of his minivan. We finally unwedged the suitcase from under the car and looked at the contents. A few papers, magazines, clothes, stetson cologne, nothing worth nicking. We kept on going and got past Hancock when we got into it with another driver. Me and Brett had had a few MGD's by this point so we were feeling a little crazy. We pulled next to the other car and threw a bottle at them. Bad move. There was a state trooper directly behind us. Lights, sirens, busted. The cop wanted to know what was going on with the other car, we bs'ed him. Then he saw all our beer. We were cool to him and he let us go. Amazing when you think about it. Thanks Trooper. The other guys stashed their beer on the median so we had to backtrack to pick it up. We got drunk at the site and took a lot of pics of Brett swinging burning logs above his head for our entertainment. We were pretty ripped. It was freezing and we woke up hungover as hell Sunday morning to an ancient park ranger getting us out of the tent at gunpoint. The guy wanted to take me to jail after he asked for ID and I handed him a library card. Miller pretty much got in his face and saved my ass. We just cleaned up the site in the freezing cold then took off. |
| TRIP # -- Scraps and Chris' Bachelor Party - Teddy, Ski, Scraps, Keith, Hammy, Bru & assorted SMC people. Burton's Tavern. We secured a large site on the south side prior to 52b aka 86. I drove up with Hammond, Ski and Abdul. Chris picked us up at work. It was good to see Abdul, I don't get to see him much since I left DC. We talked some african politics and drove out on 70 to the BK just after Frederick. We picked up a lot of beer and a few bottles of liquor and cigarettes. We bought something like eight 30 packs. It was pretty tough fitting four guys and all the camping equipment plus the ice and beer. Finally we got to the site and set up the camp and started cracking open some beers. Everyone started rolling in later in the evening and they had been drinking on the way up so we were all pretty ripped by the time everyone was together. Friday night turned into madness. There were about 15 of us running and stumbling around the fire, acting crazy. One of the St. Mary's guys started shooting fireworks at the guys sitting around the fire. At first there were about six of us sitting by the fire, but the number quickly dwindled as red hot fireworks were being fired directly into our LZ. Finally there were three of us left; Me, Ski and Keith. It was fun 'cause we were drunk but it did seem a little risky. A few of us had to take evasive action to avoid these sidewinders. It really did feel like being in Bosnia or Somalia, like in Black Hawk Down. They laid a lot of ordnance on us. We retaliated by throwing rocks at them. Very fun. I remember trying to talk to Keith when a firework (somewhat resembling an RPG) came shooting towards my chest....I had to roll backwards in my deck chair to hit the ground and avoid it. It whistled past and blew up in a tree. Lucky no one was killed or blinded. It was about the closest I've ever been to 'Nam. Man that was a cool night. When the shooting stopped (they ran out of them) we went over and chatted and laughed about it all. It was a fun skirmish. The next morning we woke up to a rainstorm. It didn't let up much throughout the day and a lot of the St. Marys guys left. We spent the morning hitting trees with the wrist rockets. There was a large brick chimney to aim at, I guess an old home was there. Some of the guys went mountain biking and sadly Chris fell off and busted open his head. It was unfortunate, more so because he was getting married in two weeks. The wound on his forehead was sizable, about the size of a silver dollar. Later, pus started oozing out. Great! His fun for the trip ended then and there, I think he was upset with himself because his head was never gonna heal by the wedding day. Poor fella. So Saturday night everyone was drunk and Me, Scraps, Ski, Bru, Keith & Chris all piled in Chris' jeep and Bru drove us to Cumberland in search of a strip place. We got to Cumberland but no dice, so we went in one of those "Video" places and asked around. The grimy little guy behind the counter said there was a strip place in Paw Paw, WV and told us how to get there. It took an hour or so, but we finally arrived in town. We stopped at a 7-11 and the local kids were hanging around in the lot. They were pretty poor. They were amazed to see an SUV! I thought they were kidding. Apparently jobs are hard to come by out there. So we rolled up to Burton's Tavern and went thru the bar into the backroom. It was pretty exciting. I had a ton of ones and got more for the bachelors, Hammy and Scrappy. We rolled in deep, the beers were cheap and we got a prime location. It was cool. The girls were pretty good. Keith befriended a stripper we nicknamed the "Robot". She was a real skinny girl, no more than 19 years old. She was new to the biz and it showed, she had just quit her job at Hardees, I guess in search of bigger and better things. The only problem was she couldn't dance. They'd play a song and she'd get up there and move like a mechanical robot experiencing a power surge. She would twitch to the music more than dance. It was terrible. I felt sorry for her. The funny thing is she would dance in front of us for about ten seconds then put her leg up in front of you expecting a dollar. I'd give them out, but the others weren't as accepting of her robotic ass. There were four girls that night in a two song rotation. People were getting tired of the Robot hitting us up for dollars. There was nothing subtle about her dancing (if you can call it that). Then she walks off stage, eases over to our table and asks Keith if he wants to buy her a drink. Keith, the eternal pud, says "yeah" and then asks me if he can borrow ten bucks to buy the Robot a Sprite because she wasn't old enough to drink. Funny isn't it- a girl can do this stuff at 18, but can't sip on a beer. Strange world. Anyway, Bru stopped giving dollars, me, Ski and Scraps were having a great time, and Chris was feeling a little self-concious because he had this huge cut on his head and the girls wouldn't look at him. Funny memories these... |
| Keith's Bachelor Party Players: Sarge, Ski, Keith, Tai, Greg, Randy, Mike, Jason Location: Nr. the Youghighanny River in PA. We all drove up to PA to going white water rafting for Keith's Bachelor Party. It was a most triumphant time. We each had kayak-like boats to shoot the rapids in. Dimple Rock almost killed a few of us. I remember almost f*ckin' drowning in a whirlpool, that sucked. When I finally surfaced I tried to stand but got swept down river where I met Dave who was in a similar boat. (pun) Me and Dave had to get out of the worst part of the rapids, I had one oar, he had none, but we made it. Mike lost his car keys and wallet in the rapids. It was funny watching him try to find them fighting the current. He eventually gave up. Meanwhile, Randy lost his boat and they made him swim down the rapids to get it. It was funny. Thank God we had helmets on. We all made it to the end, I flipped twice but made it through harder rapids easier. That dimple rock was hell basically; when I was under the water and couldn't hold my breath much longer i tried to surface but there was a four man rubber boat blocking my way to the surface. Man did panic set in. I really thought I was gonna drown. I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I knew I was gonna have to breath in water and presumably drown in this f*ckin' whirlpool and then, as if a huge hand appeared, the boat moved and an invisible perhaps divine hand reached underneath the whole of me and forced me to the top. At that point being unable to stand and getting swept downriver meant nothing to me. It was cake, I felt like I had already survived a much more scarier ordeal. Bottom line is we all made it to the end. We got to the end and had to deflate our Duckies and carry them up a steep hill. We all piled in my truck, seven or eight of us in a Ford Ranger and headed to town. We got back to the campsite, bought a ton of wood, made a huge fire and did the leap of death over it a few times. We spent the rest of the night talking about the fun we had and the close calls and drank beer by the fire until the small hours of the night... |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Miller, Keith, Maureen, Tracey, Brett - Book of Lists All these trips start to confuse me. This might've been the one where Bauer brought Becky and that dog showed up at the site and Keith poured a beer on it. Then I put a fruit cup in the fire and it exploded, covering Becky in hot fruit and metal fragments. She was pissed, but I couldn't stop laughing at the chunks of pineapple in her hair. I spent most of the trip drinking and reading the "Book of Lists". We even had a tarp so we could sit in the shade. |
| Sarge & Keith -- Separated shoulder. Have you ever done this? It hurt so bad I was laughing. Me and Keith (I'm not writing Keith and I) left Sat. morning, went to Green Ridge and set up camp at a site below 86 maybe 84. It was in a ravine covered by trees. It sucked because you couldn't see the sky and the satrs, no not satyrs, stars, I'm just retarded. Made a fire, listened to a lot of floyd and some mixes. It was pretty warm but we didn't really go for much of a hike. Instead I decided to make like Tarzan and swing from a low hanging vine. I took hold of it, walked up the steep side of the hill, stood next to a large tree to balance myself and swung out. As I was reaching the apex of my swing, I realized two things: how high above the rock strewn ground I was and how my arms seemed to be having trouble supporting the weight of my body. Then some real fear hit me, as I started swinging backwards I realized there was a good chance I was gonna hit the tree. It was a big fat oak. I thought about letting go but thought I'd snap my ankles so I held on for dear life, hoping to to be able to turn my body to face the oncoming tree and hit it with my legs to protect my head and body. I failed miserably in this. I accelerated towards the tree with my back turned to it and crashed into it head first and my back second. The initial jolt on my head knocked the sh*t outta me. It went beyond pain to the split second where I thought my brain stem had become detached. There was absolutely no 'give' in the tree. My head hit it and bounces off like a ball hitting a pinball bumper. Within a split second my upper back (spine and both shoulders) hit the oaken goliath. Within an instant I had an abrasion on my back and two separated shoulders. The right shoulder was in worse shape by far. I finally let go of the vine, hit the ground, my head hurt but I seemed okay, then the pain in my shoulder hit me. I wonder if I was in shock, because the pain took a while to hit me. I think because I was suffering from a mild concussion. I jumped up and ran around the campsite screaming in pain, laughing 'cause it hurt so bad and I was in shock. I caught a glimpse of Keith who had a look of complete bewilderment on his face. Finally I sat down, and had Keith crack me a beer while I slumped in a chair to lick my wounds. I couldn't sleep much that night because my shoulder hurt so bad. I felt like I had a machete lodged in my shoulder blade. It's been four months and it is finally feeling better. It's not quite right and my range of motion is limited but I'll live. So I got a little sidetracked there, but we did have fun. It wasn't fun packing up the next day with one arm swingin' in the breeze but we had some good chats and drank a lot of beer. Happy Camping. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Miller, Ski Keith's friend w/ beard, scraps - chopped down tree. I have vague memories of this trip. I think we chopped down a large tree on this trip but it could've been another time. If it was this time, we chopped and chopped away with an axe, taking turns, until the trunk gave way. We took some pictures of this. That's all I remember. I think it may have been a different trip where it got real cold and Keith's friend dropped a tree on his foot. It was funny because he was limping around. I couldn't stop laughing. I think it was in the Spring. That's all...cheers. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Miller, Bauer, Ski, Keith, Jason -- Truck flipped I forgot Dave Bauer was on this trip but then Ski reminded me that he drove Jason and Keith to the hospital in Hancock, Md. The trip started in the typical manner; everyone arriving late, getting drunk and making a big fire and I think it was Jason's first trip, he drove up with Keith in a pickup as did Miller. Don't remember anything really until we went out in the trucks "offroading". This seemed like fun and it still is but it was pretty tragic. It was night, we were racing around the forest, Me, Ski, and Miller driving leading Keith with Jason driving. We took a sharp right hander, fishtailed a bit, but Mill had it under control, we kept racing onwards but I checked the rear view mirror to see how Keith and Jason were faring when I noticed, and I'll never forget this, I actually saw Jason's headlight go upside down in the rear view mirror and his truck stopped gaining on us. I knew something F8cked up had happened so I told Mill to turn around 'cause I thought they'd flipped. We drove back but couldn't initially see them, that's when we all sorta noticed at the same time, they weren't on the road anymore...they were in the woods upside down. That's where the panic set in. We ran over to the truck and Keith was riding shotgun but seemed dazed. He had trouble getting out so we helped him. He was okay, no blood. That's when we discovered that Jason was no longer in the truck. His window was down but his door was wedged shut so he couldn't have got out. Sadly Jason shot out the window. I wonder if he was concious when it happened? Imagine that. We were pretty worried by now, we just couldn't find him. We shouted his name but he didn't shout back. Sh*t. Finally we searched the woods afraid of what we'd find when Dave said in a grim tone "I've found him". We rushed over to find Jason's crumpled body next to a three foot wide tree stump. Honestly, I thought he was dead. But then he started moaning which is good 'cause it meant he was at least still alive. He was in bad shape, his back was f*cked up but we had to get him in the truck and to a hospital. I am now realizing that Bauer must've been back at the campsite; possibly he knew something like this would happen so that's why he opted out, lucky fella. It was a bad scene, Mill driving, Keith and Jason riding up front, Jason with cracked bones in his back, and me and Ski in the flatbed still drinking and laughing- singing the theme tunes to bad 80's TV shows. To make matters worse we got lost. Mill would stop sometimes at small cabins that had a light on and knock at the door. Dogs would bark and no one would come to the door. Finally we got back to the campsite and we piled out. Bauer was the least drunk so he sucked it up (he's a good guy) and drove Keith and Jason to the hospital in Hancock. Jason had to stay, the police f*cked with Dave and Keith but let them go. The accident had actually occured a few hundred feet into Pennsylvania. This is highly relevant because the Maryland State troopers wanted to jail them for underage drinking etc. Luckily the Pennsylvannian State Police rolled up and fely sorry for our buddies and told the Maryland State Police to fuck off 'cause the accident happened in PA. so it was there jurisdiction. Lucky indeed. Still, God seems to protect us all a fair bit when we're out there. Finally Bauer and Keith rolled up to the campsite and we drank more beer but it was certainly a somber evening. I don't think we felt like playing Three Man, so that's a sign of the mood. Anyway, Jason got better but he hasn't come on a trip with us since, I wonder why?;-) |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Miller, Roach, Lynn, Lynn's friend Wow. So many people on this trip we had to camp two sites down from 2D. I think it was 4D. There's a pattern you see. So we all ride up in a convoy and Lynn and her freckled friend are riding in the back of a pickup. My memories of this trip are very scant but I remember we had two BB guns on the trip and the fun started as people started getting shot. I was hiding behind the truck and took a well-aimed shot at Lynn's friend's foot hiting it to her dismay. Miller took a pot shot at Roach and hit him in the wrist. Roach is not the kind of guy who forgets easily, so he repayed the debt to Miller by shooting him in the groin from about fifteen feet. We went off roading in shifts and played some three man. Roach brought along his box so we could listen to some tunes but then we started using it as a target. We shot it full of holes as Pink Floyd Animals was playing on it. I think Roach took the shot that killed it. He shot into the tape deck and into the tape itself. You could see the BB rolling around between the spools. As dusk descended, Roach put the stereo on the fire. We killed the music so the rest of the trip was eerily quiet. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Ski, Scraps, Keith, Stan We got a good sight this time out. It was on a recessed ridge but was fairly open like a glade. We (Sarge, Ski and Stan) left Rocketville after work and drove up in the Explorer. Stopped off at BK then signed up for the site. The night was full of drinking and talking but largely uneventful. The next day we went for a long hike and ended up on a highway near a SDA church. We kept hiking a came to a hazy glade. It was very cool. The sun was shining but there were lots of crab apple trees so you could recline in the shade. A very nice spot, but you couldn't reach it by vehicle so I marked the coordinates on the Magellan GPS. After the tiring hike, we got back to base camp. Keith broke out the soccer ball and the both of us started heading it back and forth, not for any sustained amount of time, but with the help of our feet we kept it up for a while. Next thing you know Ski joined in, then Stan and Jesse. It was pretty fun keeping the ball airborne twenty times in a row. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Ski, Scraps, Keith, Randy We had a lame site on the south side of the forest. The downside was the intense tree cover, so you couldn't see the clouds and stars from the site. Everyone starting calling Randy "Atkins" because he wasn't drinking any beer. He was swilling down vodka and tequila, I suppose it has less calories. I don't think any alcohol is permissible if you're doing the Atkins but at least he was drinking. We went for a hike but I don't remember any of it. Maybe it was the trip where we hiked for a long time, kinda got lost, ended up in a huge field covered in bulldozed trees. It resembled the pictures of 1909 or 1912 Siberia when the meteorite hit the Tgunguska (sp.) forest and levelled everything. We kept hiking along a ridge and checking the GPS, that was maybe the trip where we got to the bottom of the moutain and there was no way to go, so we HAD to swim across the cold ass river. I threw my GPS across, and my socks and shoes and swam. On the way back Keith bumped into a site full of guys he knew from home. We drank their beer and rolled back to our site. Two guys from their site came back to ours, but we didn't know them so we didn't really talk much. Jesse went to sleep. How unusual. We listened to Pink Floyd Animals and then something memorable happened. Randy brought along a game, some fishing hand-held rod that had an electronic screen so you could catch some fish. It was interesting. I decided to give it a try and started trying to catch some fish, but Randy was over my shoulder telling me how to do it and kinda micro-managing the game. The big issue I had with him was that I seemed to be doing fina and caught a fish but he said I was spinning the reel the wrong way. He said do it the other way, so I did. A few minutes later he comes up to me and tells me to spin the other way. I went off on him. It wasn't warranted and I said some mean stuff. I didn't mean it Randy, I was just drunk and in a pissy mood. I don't play that game anymore. |
| Teddy, Ski, Scraps, Keith, Dondi - no campfire SITE 86 - Coordinates Overlooking the Potomac. Where to begin? Okay, I took a vacation day and left Friday morning. I packed all my stuff up and took our Explorer up to Green Ridge Ranger Station. I checked in and that's when they told me there was absolutely no campfires. This was a matter of grave concern b/c I didn't bother bringing a jacket or a lantern and all of my food was stuff that needed to be cooked (steaks, sausages, eggs etc). I called Keith and Ski Dog and gave them the heads up. The best part was getting the campsite. Old 86 overlooking the Potomac. Wonderful open sight perched atop one of the highest ridges in the range. It really is the signature campsite. I started drinking by my lonesome and read a while while the sun tucked itself under a distant mountain. That's when it got cold. That's when I missed the fire. The fire is really the integral part of the trip, without it it feels like a major component is missing. It is the central of the trip, it provides the light, warmth, exercise to get wood, entertainment by jumping over it, etc. The best part of being up their on your own is you get some quiet, relaxing settings while having a beer and putting your feet up. The other cool thing is watching your buddies roll up one-by-one and listening to their dramatic stories of how long it took to leave, what happened on the way up and stuff. There's a fire there to greet them, well not actually in this case, but when you arrive it's always nice to have someone already there, a fire roaring, then you get your tent up and have a beer with your buddies. So one-by-one they arrived and we started drinking in the cold, dark night. Not having a fire sucked, because it was cold but we were able to get on okay. We played some long rounds of Three Man by lantern then eventually everyone piled in the tents to go to sleep. In the morning we got up but I couldn't cook a breakfast because we had no flame; just Jesse's butane stove and that was messed up or empty. We had some snacks and I had a few brews then we piled into the truck, drive out of the forest to the "Field of Dreams" football field in Flintstone, Md. This place marks some of our most fun camping experiences. We haven't played there to often but we play two-on-two football with an all-time qb. This game had Keith at quarterback and Me & Jesse versus Dondi and Ski. We won. When we got back to the site we still had some football energy so we played a game where you throw the ball at a chair 20 yards away, if you hit it you get a point, if you make it collapse you get two. Me, Ski and Scraps won. Yeaaaaaah. Keith was mad, but he won't admit it. Yeaaaah Keith;-). That night was pretty darn cold, Dondi and Keith left, so me, Ski and Scrap Dog sat at the overlook drinking beers and playing the questions game. That night it really cooled off so we went to the local bar in the forest. It was full of yokel deerhunters getting hammered drinking Jaegermeister or is it Jagermeister and drinking 'Shine or moonshine as we call it. White Lightning is the big brand there. Jaeger is popular too I guess 'cause it has deer's blood or deer blood in it. Anyway, we watched Tennessee beat Florida and then went to Cumberland, which was dead. The only places to drink were the Republican Club or the Democrat Club and we're not too political and didn't feel like hanging out there. So we decided to go all the way to Frostburg 'cause our pal Scraps used to be in a fraternity up there. When we got there most of the bars he remembered were gone, but we found one place, small but warm and started to drink there. We were looking pretty ragged and feeling worse but Jesse talked us into going to his fraternity house to see if he could get us in. He went in and at first they thought he was under cover, then when he said his name he got us in. We drank for free and shot some pool then made our way back to the site. It was cold and dark, no fire to sit around so we all went to bed. Still Frostburg was better than sitting in the dark. Camping (May 6-9, 2004) Site #65 Green Ridge State Forest I left Manhattan later than I hoped. I was about to pull out in front of a speeding cab but decided to wait for him to pass. The cab rocketed passed me, began skidding uncontrollably and slammed into the back of a stopped cab at a red light. There was lots of smoke and Arabic cab drivers swearing at each other. Glad they didn’t rear end me…a broken neck would’ve ended my camping trip real quick. The drive to Green Ridge was okay, except when a stray tennis shoe hit my windshield at 80 mph. I briefly wondered if the truck in front of me hit a jogger. If he had I figured there would been some additional blood splatter so I wrote it off as an anomaly. I went shopping in Hancock and had to bag my own groceries (what the hell is this Russia?). Eventually, I made it to the ranger station and signed up for the campsite. The best site (#86) was taken so I took #65, as it was the best site available. I backtracked east down Interstate 68 and took Orleans Road, to Oldtown Orleans, to Mertens, to Outdoor Club. There are two downsides to this campsite. First, there’s a giant hill. Some of the cars couldn’t get to the top so they parked below. Second, there’s no shade so some of us got sunburned. Day 1 I made a fire to keep the bugs away and had a few beers. My cell phone was out of service so I couldn’t call the others. After a few hours Keith and Miller arrived and there was much rejoicing. We sat around, drank and smoked cigars. As night fell, Keith increased his bawdy comments. Tai got completely lost in the forest and arrived around midnight. Roach dropped his transmission in the forest and had to walk nine miles to the campsite. He didn’t feel like walking much after that. Day 2 We all woke up to find Roach missing. Miller thought he’d gone off the cliff. I figured he walked back to his truck. We had no idea where he was. He returned after walking a few miles to find something he had accidentally dropped several miles away. He was sick of walking by this point. The sun and humidity were intense. We spent the entire day drinking and getting sunburned. We went out to get wood and loaded Tai’s truck to the brim. We returned to the campsite and lazed in the sun. Jesse, Dave, Dondi, Hammond and Jason all arrived in the evening. The forest ranger showed up but quickly left. People set up their tents and began drinking. We briefly played cards, and then moved onto our favorite dice game, Three Man. We were all pretty drunk by this point. Hammond couldn’t keep his dice on the table; someone else kept referring to himself as ‘Ashy Larry’. Somehow Hammond got very drunk in a short space of time. Then ‘the fight’ started. In a clash of super welterweights, Chris “Drunk Ass” Hammond slapped Jesse “The Skinny Fury” Scharff across the face. The Skinny Fury kept remarkably calm until Drunk Ass slapped him a second time. Bad rookie mistake. Scraps went berserk and clocked Hamster in the head, and then tried to push him in the fire. Hamster, momentarily stunned, looked enraged but regained his composure. The fight sort of ended there. The next time I saw Ham he was doing the dance of death near the edge of the cliff. Then he started throwing up…first on Keith’s truck (funny), then on my truck (not funny). Ham’s evening concluded with a pathetic imitation of Maciorowski’s “worm move”. Moments later he passed out. Keith, Dave and Jesse carried him to his sleeping bag. Day 3 Woke up and a few people made breakfast. We headed to Paw Paw, WV and stopped at the gas station. There’s a big dropoff from Western Maryland to West Virginia. All the people in West Virginia seemed broke, both financially and mentally. I got a vibe that we could buy this town…and put it all…in my shoes. Might even give a piece to you. What I’m gonna do. We stacked up on supplies then headed to the Paw Paw High school football field aka “The West Virginia Field of Dreams”. Teams were picked. The first team consisted of Sarge, Keith, Dondi and Hammond. The second team consisted of Roach, Miller, Ski Dog and Scraps. For whatever reasons Jason and Tai didn’t want to play. The 4th Annual Camping Gridiron Classic was a close fought game of football. Both teams were up for the challenge. There were several classic moments. My highlight reel was short, but I did bullrush Roach and sack the QB. Later I caught a touchdown pass. Keith and Jesse were relishing their battle. The two speed guys covered each other really well. Jesse broke up two great passes that would’ve gone for touchdowns. SkiDog, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth ala Michael Jordan, picked off a Hammond pass and had a nice return. It was a backyard pigskin classic that suitably ended 6-6. We went back to the site and started power drinking. It was a quiet night overall. A few of the fellas turned in early…the rest just stayed up talking. A good camping trip. Nice to get everyone together again. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Ski, Scraps, Keith, Chris - pic in fall leaves at work. I don't remember anything about this trip. I was wearing a red fleece, that's about it. It was in the fall 'cause all the leaves were crunching underfoot. Actually, I think this was the trip where we went on an elongated hike. If memory serves me correctly, we had a funky campsite that had a hiking trail at the bottom of it. We had the GPS and hiked thru the woods until we reached a road. We walked down the road, I think we were throwing the football and then we noticed a shoddy cabin off to the right. At first it looked abandoned, so we walked up to the front door to investigate. I think me, Ski, Scraps noticed that the front door was unlocked to this long since abandoned cabin. We opened the door and peered in...that's when we discovered to our shock that someone was living there. There was a couch, table, chairs, but overall the place was fairly barren and unkempt. I did notice that there was a calender on the wall that was about ten years old featuring larger shaped women in peculiar poses. It smelled like mildew. I didn't go in. I thought it might be a trap. We kept walking down the path, then started the hike thru the woods. After an arduous hike we followed the direction the GPS steered us in. It usually highlights the quickest route home. In this case it meant gradually descending a mountain thru dense forest until we got to the bottom and there was no where to go. All we could do is ford the river. We took our kit off and swam across the river. Pretty damn cold. We hiked back to the site and spent the rest of the night drinking and listening to Keith's stories abouts the bizmark (sic bismarck), rotten roger, donkey punch, crusty pirate, my little pony, shocker, dirty sanchez, cleveland steamer, purple mushroom, teabag ad nauseum. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Mary, Scraps & Jenny This was about the most fun trip I've ever been on that included girls. We're good friends with Jesse and Jenny so Mary, me and the dogs all camped in another secluded lot. Lots of green treecover which was cool because you could watch the sun rays beam through the trees and watch the campfire smoke snake its way through the foliage. The high point of the trip was our hike with the dogs down from the ridge to the Potomac. We walked alongside the swampy remains of the C&O canal as it ran parallel to the mighty Potomac. It was very warm and very green that time of year. The dogs were having a wonderful time barking at the cyclists but they kept clear of the swamp thank God. When we reached the riverbank we sat on huge fallen tree limbs and paddled our feet in the cool water. Ol' Scrappy is an adventurous-type and I think he was the first to start swimming in the river, followed by Jenny and myself. Mary and the dogs paddled but didn't feel like risky the current. I was swimming around and noticed that the current was quite strong. You almost couldn't stand, if you were on your tiptoes you would've gotten swept away! I remember Rover, who tends to be a little skittish, decided to go for a swim and jumped in. The second he realized he couldn't touch the bottom of the water he freaked out. He was thrashing about and managed to hold on to a treelimbs for dear life. Mary and I pulled him out to safety and he was pretty skittish when walking near the rivers edge again. He's a good boy. So the next thing I knew Jesse wanted to swim across the river to an island billabong. Finally he swam across, followed by Jenny, then me. The swim wasn't too bad but that current really kept tugging at you drifting you further downriver than one would've liked. Anyway, we all made it and opened a few cans of beer I think Scrappy brought across with him. Then we walked across the stones, swam a little and got back to the riverbank. We washed ourselves off under a spigot parallel to the C&O canal then hiked back to the site. When we got back, we dried out by the fire, read a bit, Mare took a nap and Jenny cooked up tons of food. It rained later that night but not enough to really dampen the time. |
| Players: Sarge & Pam S. Location: Secluded site off 15 Mile Creek Rd. I met this girl at Sonomas she was pretty cool. We went out a few times and she mentioned she liked to camp. The relationship sort of ended there in the woods. The first day was fun but she kept on talking non stop, driving me a little nuts. She actually stopped at one point and asked if she was talking too much. I thought, if you had to ask you probably are. Drove her back home and never talked to her again. She wasn't to happy and I apologize to her now for that. |
| TRIP # -- Sarge, Ski, Scraps, Keith & Bru I hardly remember this trip. The reason I do recall it was because I took a photo of all of us mugging the camera. If memory serves me correctly, Bru pulled out his thing and started walking around with it hanging out which was a strange thing to do, but he thought it was funny. We went for a hike early on Saturday, we must've camped at 2D off Double Pine because I remember hiking in the dried out creek bed. We were gonna jump over a fallen tree in the riverbed but Bru spotted a "Recluse" spider. Don't know how that's spelled, but it was a big, hairy looking arachnid and I didn't feel the need to mess with it any further. There's been some debate in recent years over a few things from that trip. Firstly, was it really a recluse? And secondly, can you get a tan from the fire "firetan". Bru seemed convinced by the first and doubted the second, I was only sure about the second. Anyway, there is some green leaves in the photograph so I assume it was in the Spring. I think we went for another dusk hike and left Bru behind so he could carve his name in the picnic table. We all drank a lot, I think Bru threw up. That's all I remember. |
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