irwinje
11-21-2007, 11:58 AM
The weekend before last I took my first “real” camping trip since I purchased my CR-V at the beginning of March this year. I have taken it on easy trips, where I didn’t really have to drive anywhere that is unreachable by car. This was different. We had to drive on gravel roads for a while before we even got to the “trail.” Which, wasn’t much of a trail at all, it was not easily traversed. Sorry I don’t have pictures of our arrival because we got there around 8:30 pm. This trip got me thinking more about adding the following accessories: front bull/nudge bar, fog lights, extra lights (mounted to front bar), and real all terrain tires.
About 20 of us ended up at the site, by Friday night. We traveled from St. Louis, Mo. South East into Shawnee National Park in southern Illinois. Once in the park, we went to an area known as “One Horse Gap,” which is an area full of horse trails that, as the name would infer, are only wide enough for one horse. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. Especially at this time of year, it is beautiful.
The reason for the trip: This was the third trip of this kind to this location. Some of us had been there before, myself included, because this area is wonderful for rock climbing and bouldering. But we weren’t there to climb, not this time anyway. We were there to set up a temporary Disc Golf course and host a tournament. If you are unfamiliar with Disc Golf, click here for more info.
Mac: http://www.pdga.com/information.php#Disc
Windows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_golf
We had people show up to this tournament from Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky for a total of 25 players (and a couple on-lookers)
We all had a great time, even though the nights were pretty cold. Friday night we got a pretty good poker game together (9 handed) which was funny because people would place their bets, then get up and go stand by the fire until it was their turn to act again.
Saturday we started the tournament around 10am and played two rounds of 18 holes. Saturday night we decided to play a “glow round”
For those who aren’t familiar with “glow” golf… We get as many glow sticks together as we can, mark the tee boxes, tie them to the inner most trees along the fairway, and lace the baskets with even more glow sticks (we throw discs that glow in the dark so we can find them).
In the country you can’t see much of anything at night, so the glow sticks really stand out against the pitch-black night sky/forest. This was a lot of fun. I’ve got a couple pictures from the glow part of the tourney, but they aren’t very clear.
Sunday we got up, made breakfast and played a round of 18 and another short round of 9 before we got drenched with rain. Usually we wouldn’t call the tourney early due to rain, but it occurred to us that the more it rains, the harder it will be to get out of the camping area. As I mentioned the “trail” leading down to the opening where we set up camp was not the easiest to traverse and it would be even tougher to get out when it is wet. This was kind of unfortunate for me because I was in 3rd or 4th place when we called it, Had we finished, I may have “cashed.” I didn’t really care though, I was just glad to get back to nature, play some challenging disc golf, and see the natural beauty that surrounded me. Here are some pictures of my trip, I hope you enjoy them.
Regards,
Jeff
Here’s the kicker, I got back to St. Louis on Sunday night, dropped my friend off and headed home to start unloading. Got all the gear unloaded and immediately turned around to start packing for the conference in New York I was slated to leave for first thing Tuesday morning. Talk about hectic. But it was a great time. Here are some pictures…
Picture 1: Loaded Up
Picture 2: Road Down
Picture 3: One Horse Gap Sign
Picture 4: Cold Poker Game
About 20 of us ended up at the site, by Friday night. We traveled from St. Louis, Mo. South East into Shawnee National Park in southern Illinois. Once in the park, we went to an area known as “One Horse Gap,” which is an area full of horse trails that, as the name would infer, are only wide enough for one horse. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. Especially at this time of year, it is beautiful.
The reason for the trip: This was the third trip of this kind to this location. Some of us had been there before, myself included, because this area is wonderful for rock climbing and bouldering. But we weren’t there to climb, not this time anyway. We were there to set up a temporary Disc Golf course and host a tournament. If you are unfamiliar with Disc Golf, click here for more info.
Mac: http://www.pdga.com/information.php#Disc
Windows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_golf
We had people show up to this tournament from Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky for a total of 25 players (and a couple on-lookers)
We all had a great time, even though the nights were pretty cold. Friday night we got a pretty good poker game together (9 handed) which was funny because people would place their bets, then get up and go stand by the fire until it was their turn to act again.
Saturday we started the tournament around 10am and played two rounds of 18 holes. Saturday night we decided to play a “glow round”
For those who aren’t familiar with “glow” golf… We get as many glow sticks together as we can, mark the tee boxes, tie them to the inner most trees along the fairway, and lace the baskets with even more glow sticks (we throw discs that glow in the dark so we can find them).
In the country you can’t see much of anything at night, so the glow sticks really stand out against the pitch-black night sky/forest. This was a lot of fun. I’ve got a couple pictures from the glow part of the tourney, but they aren’t very clear.
Sunday we got up, made breakfast and played a round of 18 and another short round of 9 before we got drenched with rain. Usually we wouldn’t call the tourney early due to rain, but it occurred to us that the more it rains, the harder it will be to get out of the camping area. As I mentioned the “trail” leading down to the opening where we set up camp was not the easiest to traverse and it would be even tougher to get out when it is wet. This was kind of unfortunate for me because I was in 3rd or 4th place when we called it, Had we finished, I may have “cashed.” I didn’t really care though, I was just glad to get back to nature, play some challenging disc golf, and see the natural beauty that surrounded me. Here are some pictures of my trip, I hope you enjoy them.
Regards,
Jeff
Here’s the kicker, I got back to St. Louis on Sunday night, dropped my friend off and headed home to start unloading. Got all the gear unloaded and immediately turned around to start packing for the conference in New York I was slated to leave for first thing Tuesday morning. Talk about hectic. But it was a great time. Here are some pictures…
Picture 1: Loaded Up
Picture 2: Road Down
Picture 3: One Horse Gap Sign
Picture 4: Cold Poker Game