Camping Memories [from Hyrum]

We’re here camping about an hour south of Amberg—I don’t really know where we are exactly.  While we’re camping, I’m going to take advantage to record some memories of camping.  I think the first time I went camping was with the Young Men.  When I was growing up we didn’t go as a family, but more with the youth groups.  Because I was the youngest of my siblings, I remember them going camping with the youth but I was too little to go.  I saw them packing, and my dad even bought them two sleeping bags because they were camping so often.  (They were really thick Coleman sleeping bags!)  They’d usually go over the weekend, but there was also a big youth convention once a year with the whole stake, like Youth Conference. Most activities were 14 and older.  Sometimes they’d go where there were pools and cabins, but other times they went places where they had to camp in tents. 

When we moved to Estaca Granada, Magdala Ward, there were between 12 and 15 young men so it was a lot of fun to go camping together.  There’s a nice camping site that was about an hour outside Bogota called Neusa.  It’s beautiful!  There’s a huge represa (dam) where people fish and swim, and it’s surrounded by forest.  The ground is covered in fallen pine needles.  You set up your tents in-between all the trees. I remember going there a lot with the youth because we had a bishop who put a lot of his own resources into the trips.  We’d camp like kings—a lot of food and other things.  

When I was 16 or 17 I had a good friend named Felipe Gonzalez.  We went everywhere together. He wasn’t a member of the church, but he even went with me to seminary at 5 in the morning.  We played tennis together… everything.  His dad lived in the United States, and sent him a really nice tent and he was so excited.  We wanted to go use it.  We decided to go right after Christmas.  (In Colombia we celebrate on the 24^th).  So on the morning of the 25^th, when everyone else was still drunk, we got up and left.  (Or just never slept the night before.) 

We lived 10 or 15 blocks from the highway, where we could catch a bus to Neusa.  So we walked with all our heavy gear, including pots, the 30 minutes to the highway.  Then we waited for the little bus to come.  It only made the trip twice a day, so we had to make sure not to miss it.  From where the bus dropped us off it was a long walk to get to the camp area—two or three hours.  Most people that go to Neusa go in cars, but we were only 16 and without cars.  To get in, we had to pay our entrance (a certain amount per person) and also a fee for the tent.   

Before leaving we made a list of what we needed, and went to the grocery store to buy all our food.  While we camped, we ate sandwiches, rice, and other things; I made some great rice that we cooked over the fire. 

The 25^th was always very empty at the campground because people were still at home.  It was nice to be by ourselves.  Then in the following days more people would come. 

We were always hesitant to leave our tent and go out hiking; we were afraid people would steal it.  We’d put a lock on the zipper of the tent door, but we were still nervous because we thought people would just take out the stakes and roll up the whole tent and take it, or even cut the lock off.  It was always nice to get back and see the tent still there. At night we would talk and talk and talk and get scared because it’s really dark, and the people who took care of the camp area would go around on horses, so it was creepy to listen to them walking around.  We went a few different times, and typically stayed 3 or 4 days.