And then... the raccoons invaded our camp site

I have never had quite the adventures camping as I did on our most recent trip to Shades State Park in Indiana. We camped all the time when I was younger, though we stopped tent camping when I was in… upper elementary, maybe? When we got married, Jeromy and I registered for a bunch of camping gear, but we haven’t taken our tent out since Aaden was probably Easton’s age. First, life tends to get in the way, and second, my sister in law bought a nice camper a while back, and the kids like going with them in the air conditioning.

Anyway, since my sister and I had camped while we were in Indy for training camp several years ago, and we could do it for $17/night instead of $70 (or more) in a hotel, so we decided to go for it. The first night was uneventful, aside from putting up the tent while it was pitch black. Shades does not have much as far as lamp posts – it’s definitely back to nature kind of stuff. The DNR ranger who helped get me registered the next morning said this was one of the best parks for tent camping. We actually found a nice little spot right across from the bathroom, so we had a little light, and the older two could easily walk across the street without me worrying. Other than setting up in the dark, the hardest thing about night number one, was the ground. Since we hadn’t camped in years, we had no idea where our air mattress was. We remedied this for the second night by buying clearance pool floaties at Wal-Mart on the way to Anderson. At $4.50 a piece, we each had our own bed that will double as a flotation device in case our tent falls in a lake!

We spent all of that next day at training camp, so we didn’t spend a lot of time in the campground, but it was quite large, and the map showed tons of trails around the grounds. Then… we came home from training camp. And as we pulled in, I saw a raccoon. And as we pulled in farther, I saw the door to our tent open, and a pile of food in front of the raccoon. Obviously, I did what any good wife would do, and made J get out and go check the tent after honking at the coon to get it to move. Sure enough, the little guy (at the time I did not have such kind words) had broken into our tent, gotten into my duffle bag, and stolen several bags of trail mix.

As we attempted to make a fire, and after we had gotten rid of the food remnants outside the door of our tent, the friendly raccoon kept coming back. He’d jump on our picnic table or creep around the back of the tent. Persistent little guy. As J worked on the fire and I blew up our “mattresses” with some help from A, we went to get the s’more stuff out. Guess what. It wasn’t just the trail mix that had been stolen. Gone were an entire bag of jumbo marshmallows and a container of fudge stripe cookies.* Shortly after, J asked about the chips. Yep, they’d also taken the jumbo bag of snack size chips (you know, the variety packs with like 20 little bags?). I will note they left the veggie straws and granola bars. Probably way too healthy for them.

So. There we are, s’more-less, fireless, and sitting in the dark. Did I mention I forgot to bring a lantern? Then the fighting began. Not myself and J, or even the kids. The raccoons. The animals were growling and fighting over the remaining food that they had stashed in the wooded area behind our camp site. That was the last straw. Ry jumped up on the table, terrified, and then all three kids took off for the van, proclaiming it the safe spot for the evening. As the fighting continued, J and I debated the merits of just grabbing our stuff and going home, knowing that there was no way we were going to get the kids to sleep in a tent next to angry critters.

Next, we did what any good parents would do. We grabbed all our stuff, left the tent set up, and dragged everything we owned, in the dark, across the road to an empty site in a much more open setting, away from the remnants of our would-be snacks and thieving camping companions. The kids remained in the van until we had everything squared away, and then didn’t leave the tent for the rest of the night.

We later thought better of keeping the cooler in the tent as
part of our "wall" and moved it to the van!

This all, of course, has nothing to do with a bad experience at Shades, and really just speaks to our amateur status as campers. Or our Beed’s Lake status, which is generally so packed full of people that I don’t think raccoons would ever set foot in the area. However, a note for those camping here in the future, especially as I lay writing and listening to raccoon chatter outside my tent – there is plenty of wildlife in the area. Keep your food and coolers in your vehicle! We had to barricade our tent door with bags and suitcases to make the kids (and maybe mommy) feel safe for night two. R proclaimed our “visitors” the worst part of the trip, even worse than the drive.

*If you ever don’t have graham crackers and chocolate, fudge stripe cookies are a great substitute. In fact, sometimes if there aren’t any good seasonal deals on “camping supplies” this is actually a significantly cheaper and easier way to do a s’more.