Well, last summer once camping was allowed again I was injured, so Agis never got to go backpacking.

This summer - I've been sleepwalking a few times this year, GP said I could solo camp with precautions, my psychiatrist (it's likely caused by one of my antipsychotics) said absolutely not. This has NOT helped my mood.

Toby said, look, this is a quality of life thing.

So - I'd started booking some trips.

Everyone and their mother has taken up camping, so I haven't been able to get a lot of stuff, but I just got some cancellations for this weekend (Labour Day) - hike around 11k Saturday to our campsite, then ~8k to Sunday's site, and then out Monday. Then Thurs-Mon the next weekend Toby and I are car camping. Oct. 2-3 I'm taking Neb on a gentle trip that even in his aged state he should be able to handle. October 30-31 I'm taking Agis again. Then a November trip, and 3-day weekends to winter camp December and January (one each month). I am so excited. Hiking and camping is such a big part of what makes me happy.

So - this weekend Agis will have his first backpacking trip!

Well, Agis did very well. He was put off by the pack for the first 150m but then settled in. He carried our water.

The first day I arrived parched so kept getting even more thirstier. It was a relief to get to the campsite, I won't lie.

The trip also made me realize just how out of shape I've become. Something that once would've been easy and almost borrowing was tremendously hard. But, it's motivated me!

Glad Agis did well. What are you going to be doing now to get back in shape for the next trip?

Upping strength and core! Though, like an idiot, I got a cancellation this weekend on a far more difficult trail that's 16k in. 10.55k was hard on the easy trail. Going to try to carry less.

I did get really bad blisters on my arches, so I've been resting up in terms of walks/hikes/runs - which will also help. But, this will be a big challenge and really helped my mood so why the heck not.

We just got back from car camping Th-Mon (I stuck around camp, babying those blisters).

Friday night some upcountry degens take the sites next to us. Start drinking pretty sharpish and playing the most obnoxious music. As Nebbers was puking the night before (darned dog is always rooting around in dirt) we wanted to go to bed early and asked them to turn the music down. Sure, no problem. By 1am (my psych meds led me to sleep through most of this, though I woke up when my husband called the cops the first time) they are fighting, physically and verbally. Pissed drunk. Someone's yelling 'I have a knife' and 'I'm going to kill myself'. I could hear punches connecting. Between when the cops came (our campground was not close to towns) the loudest, drunkest guy has taken himself, his partner, and his child (that we could tell) off in their car. We called back and reported it - of course, we're not anxious to get involved in a knife brawl, so we were still in our tent - cowardice I am sure - but there were a lot of them to be in theory breaking stuff up. Drunk guy shows up again around 4am while the cops were still there. Cops said they had to sleep it off. They got kicked out the next day.

I tell my MIL this - oh, well, the dogs would've reacted. Nope. Not so much as a quiet 'woof'. My husband said they slept through most of it. It's funny because she was convinced Agis would be a violent menace with his breed mix. She's seen him with our nieces and nephew and how good he is with them, and really thinks he's great - so I thought it was funny she was upset he didn't go off on drunk people.

So it was a trip for the memory books eh? Glad there were two of you there although they may not have been threatening, it would have seemed the potential was there. I'm sure you would have liked peace and quiet or different excitement than what you got.

Strikes me as out of character because back in the 1980s my one weekend night at a Canadian campground amazed me by how peaceful it was.

Middle, I've never experienced anything like this either. Maybe if we'd gone out they'd have calmed down, but they were extremely angry and very drunk, and like I said - I could hear the punches connecting. Yelling someone had a knife - no thanks.

The first two nights were exhausting. Poor Nebbers - in the past two years, he's thrown up three times while camping, which we put down to eating dirt and wood that does not agree with him. We try to monitor him, but when we were setting up camp he was able to sneak in some. The other two do as well, but they're fine. Nebbers used to be, but I guess at his age he's developed a more sensitive stomach!

Bottom line, I'm glad you were safe. The way you played it was just right because being safe is primary. ... It just seems so out of character for Canadians. In my great adventure of 1980 coming back across Canada 1 from Sask. west --- no rowdies, all quiet, I felt like a rube for not getting my "please" and "thank you" right at every stop. My rolled volkes wagon got me grilled at boarder crossings (y'all probably didn't want it left up there) and I did better when I had something to declare (that 6 pack was a passport I didn't know I needed.) But things have changed both here and it sounds like there so far as cultural norms go. But hey, you have a crazy story to tell. That's how I console myself when things "go south" - smooth trips make boring stories. (but they are more enjoyable at the time...) This makes me wonder how my old trip would go today...

I'm so glad you were safe and, yes, a sleepless night is hard but you are safe. Bottom line on that is you called it right.

Thanks middle, it's good to hear people think we were reasonable. I appreciate that.

Toby didn't want to stay, because he was worried about retribution, but I pointed out that packing up in the middle of the night meant we'd be slow and done around the time those people were sure to be kicked out. To do them justice, they never said boo to us. We stayed up, restarted the fire.

As it turned out, they didn't leave until around 1:30pm, because they needed a LOT of sleeping off...so there was more fighting, but just verbal, and there were park rangers supervising.

I like to think it's out of character for Canadians, but sadly some stuff changes. And a lot of people who didn't know what a tent is pre-COVID camp now, so maybe that's part of it? Instead of getting blind drunk at their house, they do it at a park?

You're right about the crazy trips though.

Are they homeless-like nomads? Y'know... the kind of people that likes to move around sleeping in tents and stuff. Those kind of people tend to be more rowdy, especially when alcohol is involved. Of all the camping I've done, I never encountered these kind of people neither. They usually like to keep to themselves, for obvious reasons. Jenn, you did the right thing not getting involved, and doing everything you can from a safe distance. As for Agis... I'll bet if any of them came near you Agis will probably live up to your MIL's expectation

I don't think so DE. The main guy was trying to convince his partner to just leave the tent "because someone else might find it useful" (har). She was yelling how she'd bought it special.

I think Agis would react too, I hope. All the boys were calm which actually was nice.

Thanks for saying we did the right thing. I am relieved people thinks so.