And Now, the News

[lwood]

dpaxson, gnowun, and I went to the Ostara campout organized with but a fortnight's notice by Troth Redesman Steve Abell, with food cooked by the most excellent maiasaur and technosomething of Ulfgaldr. The weather, especially Friday night, was about the fourth-coldest I've ever slept through out-of-doors, but I'd known to plan for it, and moreover brought a stack of more warm things in case not everyone had seen the weather forecast and/or had warm stuff for the kids. They were needed, every one, save the cotton tapestry throw (it's more for show than warmth).

BUT! Despite the cold, there was good companionship, good mead, goodly fires, and a chance to reconnect with a site I dearly missed, and did not know I'd dearly missed until the prospect of being able to go back had asserted itself.

Oh, you heathens of Northern California, hear me:

Remember how we were told that the sites would all be improved right out of our price range? That there would be tacky tent cabins on both sides of the river? That various doomful portents and omens had been seen?

Let me tell you a thing, then:

They never put any tent cabins on "our" side of the river. There are cabin-cabins that look like either real log cabins, or manufactured homes with log facing, but they are not rentable due to lack of permits.

All the sites on "our" side have had their jury-rigged electrical outlets removed. While they've been replaced with RV-style tall pillars, because they don't have permits to use them, they're unable to be used.

However, all the crappy old concrete fire pits? Gone, replaced with cast iron, sand-filled ones. That was nice.

My read of the situation, based on things Stefn had said around the time of the Fernwood Farewell and continuing on things I'd heard from Fernwood staff while we were there, is that this permit failure is due to the environmental impact report they didn't file two years ago, so it's all still pending and may be for quite some time.

Anyway, returning to Fernwood was a balm to my soul and a comfort to my spirit. I know how many other engagements I broke off with little warning to do this...and I would do it all again, because I didn't know how much I missed that place, and camping with heathens, until I saw how strongly and emotionally I reacted to the chance to go back.

Thank you all...

-- Lorrie

PS: That list of Coldest Campouts:

1. Without a doubt, between temperature and lack of preparedness, CMA Beltane, 1999, in the Hill Country of West Texas. auntiematter and I, as members of Gaia's Voice, were invited to perform, and their hospitality was outstanding (what can you say when a 7' man named Tiny offers you deep-fried turkey the moment you pile out of the van, except "Yes, please!"?) The first night, we shivered on through in whatever we'd brought with us. The water bottles (the site didn't have potable water) were half-frozen by morning, and so were we. The second night, I did the mammalian thing and platonically shared a tent with one of the other sopranos.


2. Southwest Moot, Walpurgisnacht 2005, in the Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the intervening years, I'd bought a semi-mummy sleeping bag that was good and warm (rated to below 0°?), wool socks and silk sock liners, and had learned just enough knitting that I now had my very own Harry Potter scarf. An HP scarf is 7' long, which is good because I didn't have a warm hat...but with that much scarf you don't need one, just wrap the scarf (75% acrylic, yes, but 25% LIFE-SAVING WOOL) around head and neck and sleep like a baby. There were about eighteen people on-site the first night--on the second, less than one-third remained, the rest having repaired to a hotel. BAH! Another thing that helped was to have cots and sleeping mats, to keep your happy mammalian body away and insulated from the heat-sucking ground.


3. Feast of Ægir, September, 2005(?), Shaver Lake, CA. Add to the foregoing a Lands' End Down-Filled Commuter Coat. Cold? Nope.

Comments

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

Welcome home! *snoggage*

My coldest camping experience was the An Tir May Drown in the mountains of Oregon where we had snow and freezing rain in Pendleton. It was my first SCA camping event and I was ensconced in a yurt with the rest of the household. I learned the joys of yurts with braziers and toe warmers between two pairs of socks and that if my feet are warm, I can endure sleeping in almost any kind of weather. Yayz!

[hljod-huskona.livejournal.com]

Nice fire pits are always pleasant and useful.
I'm really looking forward to our first camping trip of the year...a little too cold here in the small mountains of PA yet.

The coldest camping trip I ever went to was the Spoutwood Fairie Festival in Glen Rock, PA (we spend the weekend because we were vending with my herbal and sewn goods). It was in May...but the temperatures dropped into 30s-40s the nights we were there, and we were ill-prepared for that weather. Lesson learned.
Many thanks to husbands, and their body heat.
Good companionship (and mead!!) will always out-do cold weather. =)

[desika.livejournal.com]

zomg, I was at CMA Beltane '99, too, and you are so right. I was lucky to be sleeping with a partner, in sleeping bags, with various blankets and throws piled on and a wool-and-fur cloak thrown on top. Brrr.

[murstein.livejournal.com]

Coldest weather I've camped in? The coldest several times I've gone camping were with Army ROTC at Northern Michigan University. More than half were snowy, and the weather gets a teeny bit cold. On the other hand, I had not-too-old Arctic-issue weather gear on, so I was prepared for colder than it got.

Hmm. Now that I think on it, the coldest single night was probably the night my squad occupied a rocky knoll, about three feet above the surrounding treetops. I'm not certain, but I think that was the night protesters had built a "Reaganville" of newspaper shacks on the administration building's lawn, borrowing the notion from Hoovervilles of the Depression era. The wind, which was much lighter in town, blew their paper shacks away. Poor babies.

Oh, I should also confess that I ripped off one of your LJ icons -- the one I'm using for this reply. It was a post where I desperately needed to illustrate the notion of letting a nithing run with rope, then jerk it at the right moment to assist him in hanging himself. If you disapprove, I shall, of course, replace it with another picture of a noose, but not one that you created.

[thorolf.livejournal.com]

If you thought #2 was bad (and yes, I was one of those who hightailed it to a motel the second night, at the request of the other 3/4 of the Colorado Contingent), you shoulda been at the Southwest Moot in Colorado back in '96. We actually got snowed on during that one... Which is why I wasn't initially going to bother heading for a motel, having suffered much worse than the Sandia Mountains coldness. I had likewise prepared for cold weather, though I normally wouldn't consider gaining 10 pounds to be an effective strategy long-term... :D