Anyone ever go camping, setup their campsite, vacate it for a few hours, and then come back to someone doing a full on Goldie Locks in it? I'm not talking about crowding out and shoe horning themselves in the 'nearby' site. I'm talking full on pulling out your camping gear and food and using it?
I went camping up by Beaver Mountain (top of Logan Canyon) this weekend, and found a good spot about a mile from the highway. I setup the tent over in the corner near the creek, put out the folding 8' camping table in between the open space 'parking' area and fire rock ring, and then pulled out my camping equipment and food bins and set them underneeth the table along with my cooler and water jugs, and set my camp stove on top of the bins.
After setting up camp, I left to run back to Logan. As I pulled out of my camp spot and headed down the canyon on the dirt road toward the highway, I came upon someone driving up canyon that I had to pull over to the side of the road to let them pass. As I did the driver of the other vehicle stopped and asked for some directions. He seemed to be looking for another party, asked about a '100 mile race' that was supposedly taking place up in that area this weekend, and was trying to find someone. Supposedly he was to be volunteering to run an aid station for this race.
To say this guy was quite odd and different would be quite the understatement :crazycobasa:. He had weird clothes on, including an old warn out fedora hat, with a bunch of dried up weeds and flowers stuffed in the head band around it. The truck was a white Toyata Tundra that couldn't have been more than a couple of years old from the model, however it had dings, dents, scratches all over it, along with black marker drawings and words randomly placed all over the truck. In the truck bed was an old rusted cattle hauling frame that had all kinds of rusted out knick knacks wired to the sides of the frame, along with a bunch of junk yard type items in the bed. Reminded me of a modern day version of the gypsy caravan vehicles in the old Andy Griffith show.
I told him I don't know of any races taking place up there, nor did I know of any of the locations he mentioned.
So, I pass him on by, and then headed down to Logan to get a tire fixed that had gone flat earlier in the day, and buy some biking clothes that I had forgotten to bring to to MTBing in. Then I went up and biked Stump Hollow (really fun trail, BTW).
As I come back to my camp, whom do I find sitting in my camp ground, but non-other than gypsy man himself, along with a teenage young man, pulling a full on Goldie Locks of my entire camp. When I reference Goldie Locks, I mean they had sampled everything. My food had been pulled out of the bin, chip bag (was supposed to be with my burgers for dinner) and graham cracker box and marshmellow bag (no smores tonight :angryfire:) were all opened and sitting on the table, along with many of my camping utensils, wash rags, etc. that were originally stored in the bins. They had started a fire and had set my tee kettle, which I've had for 10 years that I only use on top of the camp stove, directly in the fire charing and burning the paint on the outside of. They had taken my foldup backcountry wood saw and put it together, losing half of the hardware in the process.
When I pulled up along side the campground, with my truck still on the dirt road, I get out to confront these 2 clowns. Shirtless gypsy come up to me and gives me a nice salutation, and then ask me if they can help me with something .:roll: I said no, but can I help them with anything?
Gypsy: 'Oh, is this your campground?' (YES)
'Are you with the race up here this weekend? (NO, I already told you that).
'Oh, we're sorry. We thought this was one of the aid stations for the race which we're supposed to help maintain. Do you know where this and that place is? (No) Ok. Well, we'll be out of here in a minute, then.
Me: Do you guys make it a habbit of just setting down in other peoples campsite and making yourselves at home? Why did you pull all of my stuff out of my camping bins? (Oh, we thought it was this guy that we are trying to find. Nothing has been taken. Don't worry. Everything is still there.)
'Please get out, now.
I go over and get in my truck and wait a few minutes as they gather the few things of theirs (hatchet, hand torch to start their fire) and leave.
Does anyone know of any 'races' that took place up there in the norther Logan canyon area this weekend? Was this guy honestly looking for a race that he was supposed to volunteer for, and had he honestly thought that my campground was the aid station he was supposed to be at? Or was this all just a stupid ruse story that he had to cover his tracks, with the intention of squatting at temperary vacant campgrounds in case he got caught?
After they left, I didn't know whether to trust any of my food, especially the chips, marshmellows and crackers that they had opened up. When I had left, I had zipped up my tent, which also had our clothes duffel bags in them. I don't know if they ever went into our tent.
In previous camp trips, when leaving my campsite for a short time, i've left some things there before that were of some value, and my wife has questioned whether or not we should leave it. I've always had the theory that most items in your campsite should be safe from most other people out camping, and haven't worried much about items being stolen while i'm gone. Not anymore. !!!!!
