acollegestudent

            It all started because we had a craving for the camping experience. During April Allie had a birthday party at Bodega Bay campgrounds; it was Brendan, Olivia, Nick, Sarah, Allie’s sister Katie, Bridget, our friend Amanda, and Me. We had all had a great time and some of us wanted to go camping again. So we were planning to go to the KOA in Petaluma for quite some time. However several projects and prior arrangements prevented us from going the weekend after the party. However about two weeks afterwards we decided to go camping again, except this time for the entire weekend. We had planned to go up on Friday and stay till Sunday. However right before we went I thought that we might want to go someplace farther away. Allie quickly did a search and talked to her mom and we decided to go to Dillon Beach campgrounds instead. I wanted to go to Bodaga like we did for Allies birthday however Allie wanted to go someplace new. So instead of going to the KOA in Petaluma we opted to go out to Killon Beach. The day we planned to leave I was really excited since I really like camping a lot. After school I went to track practice and for once couldn’t wait for it to be over. I wanted to get out and pitch the tent. After practice Brendan dropped me off at my house and then went back to get ready at his house. Olivia was horseback riding and after it was over around 5:30 she was going to go to Brendan’s house and he and her were going to drive up.

            Allie came by to pick me up at around 5:00. I wasn’t quite ready to go since I had just gotten out of the shower 5 minutes before her arrival. She came up and I shoved some cloths into a duffle bag. I then searched for some necessities. I packed several lighters, a hatchet, and we grabbed 4 chairs. I also took with me a grill that can be set up over a fire for easy cooking. We loaded all of the stuff into Allies car and then departed from my house. I told my dad I would be back Sunday and that we would be staying at Dillon Beach and he bid me farewell telling me to have a good time. I didn’t need him to tell me that. We drove to Brendan’s house to see how he was doing and found that Olivia had not yet arrived. So Allie and I left to pick Danielle up from Allies house. We discovered that Olivia was at Allies and called Brendan telling him that. Olivia had just gotten back from horseback riding and wanted to take a shower. So Brendan agreed to stay behind and drive up with her. With that Danielle, Allie and I all left Allie’s house and set off for the beach. On the way up we talked and listened to in interesting assortment of music. We talked about our plans for the beach and before long we were there. The drive was only about a half an hour.

            When we got to Dillon beach we had to stop outside and Allie got out and registered us. They charged by car so we decided to drop everything off at the site we wanted and then go pick Brendan and Olivia up outside the gates and drive them and their stuff in so we didn’t have to pay for two cars. As soon as we got through the gates I was slightly amazed at what I saw. When we had camped at Bodega we had been in an area that looked like an actual campground. There were trees for privacy and a general road around the campground. Here however there was one long road and basically fields where you would just pitch tent. This place was running rampant with red necks and hillbillies that must come out with their families and spend weeks out here at a time. There seemed to be no end to the hundreds of campers and trucks as well as tents and essentially lean-tos. We then set about the very difficult task of finding a suitable campsite. As we drove around looking the one thing that came to my mind and that I found myself constantly verbalizing was “This place is really sketch”. In truth it was. As we got farther down there seemed to be more permanent residences. Mobile homes instead of campers were set up and some even had fenced off front lawns made of scraps of Astroturf. However given the amount of vehicles and living quarters that we saw did not seem to be relative to the people that we saw since as we approached the more permanent settlements the population seemed to thin.

            As we reached the end of the road and started to turn around we noticed a campsite, if you would call it that, which was comprised of several tarps stretched between cars and a girl sleeping on the ground. People were milling around and we just passed by. Then Allie though she saw a spot she might want to camp and she stopped the car. I opened the door and immediately knew why not that many people were out. There was quite a considerable amount of wind and the chill factor was very low. The wind pierced through my sweatshirt and I immediately put on my jacket over it. We concluded that the campsite was not a subtitle location. Allie seemed to want to camp ON the sand since there were the dunes of the beach then about two hundred yards of grass and then more sand dunes. I explained that we weren’t going to camp on the sand because when you do you quickly find that sand get’s everywhere… and I mean everywhere. It just clings to everything you have and gets transported from one place to the next and it also has a way about it that just seems do destroy everything that it comes in contact with.

            As we were scouting out possible camp sites I noticed something on the ground. There seemed to be cow droppings everywhere. I didn’t know why at first but I then looked over and saw cows off in the distance. However that didn’t seem to explain it because certainly the cows didn’t go through all the camp sites. I put the though in the back of my mind and sprinted back to the car to get warm. After driving around for a good ten minutes we finally came across a camp site that seemed suitable. It was located close to the second set of dunes so it was far back thusly giving us ample privacy. The whole open field thing kind of threw me off balance since it didn’t really feel like camping. We got out the tent and I had forgotten how windy it was. I started to open the tent bag and started to set it up. “Where are the stakes?” I asked Allie. “Stakes?” she replied. I then realized that we didn’t have any stakes and that the wind was going to blow the tent away. I knew we had to find something to hold the tent down and as I looked around I found a discarded marshmallow roasting stick made out of metal. I picked it up and thought to myself that it might work.

            I bent the stick into a straight line and used my hatched to chop it into bits. I then fashioned some crude stakes out of the bits. This will have to do I though. I put the stakes where they were most needed and spread out the tarp. I then got all the poles out and started to link them together. Allie and Danielle came over with a few sticks that could be used as makeshift stakes. I used one stick by breaking it into two and hammering them into the ground. With the help of Allie and Danielle I started to erect the tent. Once we got it half way up I went inside and opened all the flaps so that the air would pass through it and not blow it away. We then got the rest of the poles in and started to put all of the stuff from the car into the tent to hold it down. Allie then announced that she was going to go pick up Brendan and Olivia outside of the gate so we didn’t have to pay for another car. I said OK and Danielle and I stayed behind to finish setting up the tent. Danielle started to unpack stuff in the tent such as sleeping bags and I went to look for some brush to start the fire. I found some really dry shrubs and pulled them up.

            When I got back Brendan and Olivia, along with Allie were driving up. They had crammed all of the stuff Brendan brought in his truck into Allies car with the three of them and it was packed tight. I opened the back and started to unpack all of the stuff. He had brought quite a bit of firewood so I put that next to the fire pit. We threw their stuff in the tent and I went to the fire pit to make a fire. Around this time we noticed a large caravan like group that was about 200 yards from us. There were about 5 campers and several awnings being set up. I thought it was a little weird how people came here in such large groups and just stay in these fields by the beach for days on end. However I occupied myself with the fire. I gathered up some shrub and took out a lighter. I used my body to try to block all of the wind but it was quite difficult to get it started. Once the shrub caught however the wind only fueled the fire. The shrub burned quickly and I placed it so that the wind blew across it and onto the logs in the fire pit. I kept adding shrub which Allie brought till the logs caught. Brendan got out his iPod speaker and I put in my iPod and we started playing some music. Things were looking good.

            Now around this time we wanted to make some food and we realized that we didn’t really have too much to cook. I found a can of chili in the back of the car and brought it out. Also we had tons of stuff to make s’mores so I got out the chocolate and gram crackers. Also we had quite a few bagels. So I got out the grill and put it over the fire and Allie started to get out a bagel. We realized we didn’t have a knife so we had to pull the bagels apart. We started to roast the bagels that we tore apart and we put some water on the grill to make hot chocolate. The fire was a good size but the wind was blowing all of the heat off to the side. So the bagels were taking quite a bit of time to cook. Also the water wasn’t heating very quickly. I suggested that we open the can of chili and cook it. So we got out a small pot and I took the can and used the hatchet to chop off the top. It sounds extreme but I feel that I did quite a good job opening it. I then put it in the pot and put that on the fire.

We sat around listening to music for a while and talked while the food cooked which took quite a long time. It was getting quite dark and we couldn’t see much around us except for the caravan which now had several fires going. I don’t remember how it started or who started it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was me, but we started to call them the Nazi’s… When the bagels were finally done we got the butter out and once again we didn’t have a knife so we just smeared it on the bagel like a glue stick. This worked quite well as a matter of a fact except the butter stick got black from the charred bagels. All anything really tasted like was smoke though so we had to put a ton of butter on. However I didn’t really mind the taste since it was part of the camping experience. The chili wasn’t that bad either. After about forty five minutes the water in the kettle was finally starting to get hot. We made hot chocolate and then started to make s’mores. After a bit somebody suggested that we make fondue. We had enough chocolate to do so, about six bars, so we washed out the pot we cooked chili in and put in some butter and then added chocolate. It started to melt nicely and we started to dip marshmallows in it. It was quite good and didn’t taste like smoke.

            Soon after consuming all the chocolate we decided to go down to the water spigot to brush our teeth. I got my toothbrush and ran off after Allie, Brendan, and Olivia since they had gone without me. I caught up to them and we brushed our teeth and as we were walking back we noticed some new people setting up camp in the dark. I thought about how hard it must be for them and then continued on to our camp site. I didn’t want to offer my assistance since you never know what kind of people come to places like this and why there setting up camp in the dark. We all got into our sleeping bags and for a while we talked and soon I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning to find Danielle already awake and outside swing the hatchet against a log desperately trying to create some kindling but to no avail. I told her that I would start a fire and not to worry about it. I went and gather some more brush and started a fire. We then started to boil more water and I commented that some “Joe” would really hit the spot.

Now Brendan had to leave since he had to go to a funeral down south of San Francisco but he planned to return later in the day when it was over. So Brendan left and Allie and Danielle went to the store nearby to get some supplies. Olivia spent the hour or so that they were gone making one huge playlist on my iPod and I gathered more shrub to fuel the fire. Meanwhile at the “Nazi Caravan” they were flying kites except as soon as they were in the air they would tie them to stakes in the ground and let them just sit there in the air. They had about 10 kites in the air by the time Allie and Danielle got back. They brought chips, salt water taffy, and even a cup of “Joe” for me. I thanked them and Danielle recanted a story of how Allie created a huge mess getting the coffee. We sat around talking and eating salt water taffy and chips until we decided to hike up a mountain that Allie said was fun to hike up. So we got in Allies car and started to drive up the road towards the top till we got to the end of the road. There was a sign that said no trespassing however we just ignored it and crossed the fence. We walked up the side of the mountain which wasn’t that high since we drove so high up. When we got to the top there was a rocky outcrop and a metal pole which I threw and we took a bunch of pictures. When we were descending the mountain there were cows where we had originally walked up. So we had to find a different route. We found one that ran along the fence and for some reason the girls had a strange fascination with cows and insisted on feeding it. So they fed it some grass and we proceeded on our way.

            After the mountain Allie claimed that there was a private beach nearby that one of her dad’s friends had access to and that we could go there. So we decided to find it now because we had plans to make a bonfire that night. However our search did not reveal a beach and Allie even called her dad and apparently the beach was very difficult to get to. So we went back to the camp and talked about our plans for that night. Now Nick and Sarah were supposed to come down for the fire and the last night of sleeping however Sarah ended up not coming down at all and Nick was going to get a ride with Brendan on his way back up. So we decide to scout the beach for a good place to have a bonfire. We walk over the dunes onto the beach and the first thing I notice is the extreme lack of firewood. I point this out but the girls say that we should walk down the entire beach first. So we proceed and come across a crab on the way and then we get to the other end of the beach not finding any firewood. However we did explore some rocks and found a small cove filled with starfish and sea urchins. We tried to pry the star fish off the rocks but couldn’t which I think is for the best.

            On the way back we decided that we would go to Bodega Bay for the bonfire and come back to spend the night here at Dillon Beach. However when we got back to the site we talked to Brendan on the phone and decided to meet him and Nick at Bodega Bay to have the bonfire and after that we would go back to Brendan’s house to spend the night. So we packed up our stuff and proceeded to Bodega Bay. On the way we stopped in Valley Ford to get some food. We tried the pizza place but it was closed and it was only like five. We were surprised but we then went to the market in town. This market kind of creped me out because it was one of those markets that looked like it was way too old and out of place. Like the place in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. At the time though I couldn’t place it but I had the feeling in the back of my head that I couldn’t shake. There were two old ladies at the place running it and every time a person came in they knew who they were. We ate our sandwiches there since there were tables inside to eat at and when we were done we left and started on our way to Bodega. We turned off the highway at one of the entrances to the beach and parked. We then called Brendan and realized it was going to be about an hour before he got there. So we got the two shovels that we packed out and headed down the beach.

            Now at Bodega there is a large body of water about two hundred meters away from the ocean and it connects to the ocean through a stream that is about twenty feet wide. However at the mouth of this the sand comes up so you can walk right across. But the tide was coming in so each time waves crashed they got closer to blocking off the mouth and our retreat back. I really didn’t think anything of this at the time. However as we were sitting at one of the many lean-tos on the beach Olivia and Danielle decided to go back to the car to wait for Brendan and Nick. When Nick and Brendan came Nick ran down the path to the beach and across the neck of the stream as the waves went out. As we watched from our side Brendan started to walk across and I yelled at him to run. He started to but not in time. Somehow he managed to trip on something and face-plant into the sand and water. He quickly got up but he was soaked and so was his jacket. The wind was already chilling him and he exclaimed his discomfort. Nick and I wanted to dig a hole and we didn’t really know why. It’s one of those instincts that you’re born with as a child and ours had never faded away. However the girls wanted to have the fire on the other side of the stream so that we wouldn’t be trapped on one side later that night. So we ran and got some dune grass to start the fire with and then ran back across the stream, careful this time after witnessing what happened to Brendan.

            When we got to the other side the girls had scoped out several places to have a fire and so we brought over the shovels and the dune grass. I set up a simple teepee and lit the dune grass on fire which started to burn quickly. This caught the very dry drift wood on fire. I started to add more wood and people started to get concerned about the size of the fire. I tend to overdo things when it comes to fire and most other stuff in life and this was no exception. The fire soon grew to enormous proportions and Brendan who was wet started to steam. The fire was extremely hot and could be felt at least 10 feet away. People started to yell at me because the fire was getting to big. Danielle was kicking sand on the fire trying to make it die down. Off to the side I was shoveling bits of wood onto the fire which was making it grow greatly in size and heat. A log that was about six feet from the fire started to catch on fire which was a sign the fire was getting quite hot. I shoveled sand onto the log and made a sand wall around the fire in order to prevent a recurrence. After a while we decided to take off and the rest is history.

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