Camping Trip--Aborted

I'm still alive. I just haven't been doing too much that's interesting and worth blogging (not that that has stopped me before). I started a new part time job that keeps me entertained some evenings during the week.

Last weekend we had big plans for our end of the year camping trip up to Jay Cook State Park. In a couple weeks RR and V will be leaving for WY to go mule deer hunting and will come back to 5 solid weeks of MN hunting. Me, being a freeze baby, have already started curling up inside my house, avoiding the winter.

Back to Jay Cook: we drove past it on the way up north purposely choosing to head to Two Harbors to set up deer stands first. We knew that it was possible that the campground might be full when we returned, but we weren't worried; we'd just camp at Banning or Moose Lake State Parks.

Sure enough, arriving at 8:30p we found the campground jam packed. We got to Moose Lake about half an hour later to find the campground empty except an odd 50-something year old man. He asked us a random question as we stood outside the deserted ranger station, filling out the campground self-registration. He pulled up next to us again when we reached our campsite, asking another random question/statement.

We set up camp (tents, sleeping bags, the whole works) and attempted to get a fire going. We'd had to drive in to town to buy wood that was ended up being green, making it tough to get the fire going on a night that really needed a fire to warm it up.

Meanwhile... the odd 50-something started acting... freaky and odd.

The campground was empty except for him and us. There are 2-3 different loops containing a total of about 30 sites, none that were in use.

Between 9p and 11:30p this man performed the following loop: Drive slowly around the loop we were in, pass our site, stop, back up slowly, sit for 30 seconds, start driving, and disappear. 15 minutes later he'd repeat it. 15 minutes later AGAIN, he repeated it. But he started stopping longer and longer near us. Finally, at 11:30p he stopped, backed up, turned his lights off, on, off, on, and then pulled into the site right next to us where he apparently decided to set up camp.

The Fab 4 had a meeting and decided this guy was WAY too strange for us to camp next to in an empty campground. We had not seen a ranger all night, and decided it wasn't worth it. We packed up and left by midnight, arriving home just after 2am. It was a 14hour trip: our shortest, most expedited trip ever.