We just got back from a quick overnight car camping trip to St. Croix State Park. The beauty of car camping is that you do really bring everything and the kitchen sink with you. We had our large tent which I affectionately refer to as “the condo” and blow-up mattress. The weather was fine even after a very rainy Friday.

We went for a long hike on Saturday covering a total of 9.6 miles. The first three miles of the trail, just like our actual campsite, was swarming with mosquitos. They were really terrible, and turned the first bit of our hike into an unplanned speed hike as we tried to stay a step in front of them. They were in fact so bad that it actually drove Tammy to use DEET for the first time. She hates the stuff – in fact is downright scared of it. This was no simple first time either since she used my Jungle Juice which is 95% DEET unlike your typical 10-15% found in most bug sprays. Enough with the skeeter talk.

Our hike was great. We had a wonderful campfire and good food. We broke camp right after completing breakfast on the new Coleman camp stove that I just “had to have”. Made pancakes, eggs and sausage (hey, this is car camping!). After leaving the jungle behind we went to Hinckley and did a couple of hours on our road bikes on the Willard-Munger State Trail out of Hinckley.

Aside from the mosquitos, it was a good trip. With the mosquitos, it was less than fun!