How Camp Insanity Got Its Name

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1987 New York State Campground, Four women – 8 kids under the age of 10 and bears that were hungry because New York State closed the dumps and started landfill that spring.  (But we didn’t know that yet.) That first night we mothers were in our tents reading bedtime stories to our children when the insanity began. I tucked my kids into their sleeping bags, and went out to make a fire and relax. The first day is always the hardest – it’s a lot of work to set up a camp, the kids were excited and after spending the day in the river they were ready for bed at dusk. We moms who were exhausted were looking forward to opening a bottle of wine and sitting in front of the fire and talking for hours. That didn’t happen. I started the fire, set up the lawn chairs and then I heard snapping – the sound of twigs breaking in the wilderness beside us. After a while it began to really creep me out. I had my sister stick her head out and asked her opinion and she suggested late campers looking for firewood… my response was…LOOKING FOR FIREWOOD WITH NO FLASHLIGHTS? At the next snap I hit the On button on my flashlight and there standing in the edge of the woods was a black bear looking startled in the light from my flashlight. All hell broke loose, Elaine went running up the hill with her flashlight to signal the rangers we needed help and I went running into the nearest neighbors campsite to let them know we had company. An older couple with their older son, the son came running, shirtless, shoe-less with his flashlight and ran into the forest making all the noise he possibly could to scare the bear away. The rangers arrived and told us that the bears were being a problem that year because of the lack of free food at the dumps and a few bears had dinner ON OUR SITE THE NIGHT BEFORE because the campers were stupid and left their coolers out. Those campers left in a hurry. We were Furious! At THE RANGERS for allowing us to take theses two sites – the farthest sites into the campground and the easiest access for the bears, We knew the bears would come back every night. If we had we been told about what happened on the site the night before we would have chosen another site closer to civilization. We gave it our best but after three night of very little sleep and visits from many bears, the rangers helped us move our sleeping tents to a safer site next to the ranger station. We kept the wilderness site for the days because 8 kids make a lot of noise. It was a beautiful site with great access to the river. Lovely when it wasn't dark... My car had a dead battery. My sister’s car lost its transmission and needed to be towed. Our Dad, came and took the dog home. He came back to fix my battery and help us after the two weeks to go home. We found bear nose prints on my cars (that had all the food in its trunk) every morning. We covered my car with talcum powder nightly as we left the site for the safer one... (so we could see the prints) The rangers and our neighbors shopped for us when we needed supplies. Insanity struck anyway anywhere it could.: Two of our three Coleman stoves blew up. Our beef stew turned into charcoal while cooking under coals. Our bread got moldy and the bananas stayed green for two weeks. One camper taking his trash to a dumpster lifted the lid and a bear popped up. He left his trash in the bathroom that night. Another camper had bacon one morning, wiped his pan with paper towels and left the trash zipped into his screen tent A bear went through one side of the screen tent and out the other, dragging the trash. (That was in daylight). The rangers did what they called a “Bear Run” on the hour all night every hour to make sure everyone camped was not having trouble. They took all of us on some of those runs in the back of their truck – the kids loved it. CAMP INSANITY. We women learned we could survive anything. We learned we were in love with camping.  We vowed to return and we did, and we still do. Every year there is a bit of insanity but nothing like that first year. That was the 1980’s. Today it’s safety first. If a bear is spotted anywhere near the camp the rangers visit every camper telling them how to protect themselves. Also today there are no dumpsters around the campground. In the center of the campground is a building that holds all the garbage and recycle materials and its closed every night – but not locked so anyone can drop off their stuff when they need to. Since the year NY closed the dumps and started landfill we have only been warned about a bear in the area twice and once we spotted a baby on the other side of the river.  We still keep our food locked in the car and at night if there is garbage it goes in the cars too.  So if you camp, laugh a lot and have fun, keep a journal and keep a clean camp.  NO FEEDING THE WILDLIFE!