Not yet

Is it camping season yet?  Is it camping season yet?

No, not yet.

The snow has melted.  There's a promise of warmer days, but it's not as warm as I'd like.  I see buds on trees, but no flowers yet.  Crocuses are one of my favorites, they're a sign that spring is really coming.  Like pretty much everyone in Michigan, I'm just tired of winter.  I'm ready for walking barefoot on green grass, kids playing outside for hours, the garden growing.  I am also ready for camping.

It's been a long winter.  We've taken a number of day trips, some sledding but not enough because it was waaaaaaay too cold.  I've worked a lot.  On days I don't work, I try to get caught up around the house.  Today, I spent a thrilling few hours scrubbing the grout on my kitchen floor (really, is there anything vinegar can't do?).  The kids have gotten another year older since I started this blog.

I'm in full-on planning mode at this point.  Planning for camping, planning for family stuff.  I think there are a lot of great things happening for our family this year and I'm really looking forward to it.  Since this is a camping blog, I'll just stick to the camping stuff (yeah, yeah, cleaning my kitchen grout isn't exactly camping).  We've got some great trips planned.  We'll be visiting new places - Mohican State Park, Cottonwood in Quincy, and Wolf Run State Park.  We'll be visiting yearly favorites like Sleepy Hollow State Park and Hoffmaster State Park.  We will also hit up preferred campgrounds that we haven't visited in a while, Tawas Point State Park and Maumee Bay State Park.  I know we've got opportunity to travel more weekends, and those will get planned at some point.

I'm looking forward to each of these trips for different reasons.  Time with friends, time with my in-laws, time with just our family.  New sites to see, favorite sites to see, exploring favorites in new ways.

I'd love to know what you're most looking forward to in Camping Season 2015!

Ice Art & S'mores

As I spent some time on Facebook this morning, I saw a posting for Ice Art & S'mores at Sleepy Hollow State Park for Saturday, January 10 from 11-1 pm.  First of all, this is one of our favorite places to camp, partly because it's so close.  Second, what a great way to do camping like things in the winter.

I will admit, I don't peruse the Michigan events calendar.  Seeing this, I now know I need to search it to see what else is available that might be camping related.  Having just looked briefly, there are a lot of neat sounding events.  Ice sculpture events, museum events, music events.  I need to remember to check out these events more frequently.

Now, we need to figure out if we can make Ice Art & S'mores work with the kids' social calendar.  Maybe I'll see you there.

Sleepy Hollow State Park

Site 173

Sleepy Hollow State Park, it's one of the closest state parks to the Lansing area.  We usually have at least 1 trip there a year, this year we had two.

For our first trip to Sleepy Hollow this year, there was a college-aged employee who came around and invited all the families to join him on a walk for Big Foot.  The kids were all about this, it was the first time we'd seen programming like this at Sleepy Hollow.  We joined Ranger Tim (ok, probably not a real ranger, but a fun nickname nonetheless).  He made it fun for the kids as we slogged our way through the mosquito infested woods to a swamp area filled with even more mosquitoes.  Smoky the Bear was spotted on our trek to find Big Foot.  Ranger Tim also had more programming for the kids on Saturday, Youngest Kid really enjoyed the Weasel Games with Dad while I stayed back at the campsite with Oldest Kid, who wanted to craft.  I appreciate that Sleepy Hollow has added programming for the kids and a bit disappointed that he'd gone back to college for our return trip.

If the weather works, we like to spend some time at the Lake Ovid beach.  On one of our first trips to Sleepy Hollow, I'd guess that oldest kid was a toddler, we saw the signs pointing toward the beach at a footpath in the campground.  We had no idea how far away the beach actually was and Husband went back to get the truck for our return trip.  While my kids are older now and could handle the trek, we usually drive the beach now instead.

There is a nice fishing pier along a walking path not far from the campground.  The kids are always excited to catch Blue Gill and Sunfish.  We saw a very large Great Northern Pike swim by as we were packing up the fishing gear on this last trip.

All of the footpaths and nature trails made a great opportunity to go on our Nature Scavenger Hunt, and the kids enjoyed finding the different items.  Well, they enjoyed it until they got too annoyed at the mosquitoes.

Have I mentioned that there are mosquitoes?  Always included on my packing list for Sleepy Hollow is the most powerful bug spray I can find, calamine and what I call the Itch Stick, Sting Eze Insect Bite Relief.

If you decide to make a trip, pay very close attention to the website's information on how much power cord you need.  Our first trip there, probably the same one where we walked to the beach, Husband had to make a run to Walmart in St. Johns to get us more power cord.  The people next to us on our most recent trip had to do the same thing.

You're probably not going to head to Sleepy Hollow and see the sights in the area, since Ovid is just a small town, but it makes for great weekend camping.

Mosquito challenge

As I went for my run this morning, I was struck by the gorgeous, warm weather.  It was about 60 degrees

Running through the woods

while I was out and not quite sunny.  Basically, it was the perfect running weather.  You're probably wondering why I'm writing about the perfect running weather when this is a camping blog.  Well, because perfect running weather also makes for great camping weather.

Yesterday, a friend shared a BuzzFeed post with me about camping.  A lot of times these types of posts are more geared toward a less experienced camper, or the type of camper that backpacks for weeks at a time.  This post left me pleasantly surprised.  There were some good ideas that I want to try (adds duck tape to shopping list).

This list gave a couple of ideas for beating mosquitoes.  Mosquitoes love, LOVE me.  When we go to Sleepy Hollow State Park, I come home just covered in bites.  This list suggests sage in the campfire or Johnson's Baby Creamy Oil.  I've tried numerous products over the years, Deep Woods Off being my go-to.  What do you think is the best way to beat mosquitoes?

I challenge you to tell me your best mosquito repellent.  Tell me something new and I'll try it and blog about my experience.