Campground Games

I remember as a kid going camping with my parents to an area called Tacoma Creek. We spent the better part of our childhood playing in the Colville National forest, either by riding our motorcycles or hiking around. Like most kids you eventually get A.D.D. and start inventing campground games. Who hasn't been part of the ever popular "Snipe Hunt".

We have all probably played hide and seek, some version of baseball, cards or whatever game was unique to your family. It was a different time back then I guess when the games actually made sense to me. Recently I have discovered a brand new collection of campground games that I just don't completely comprehend. Hopefully my friends and fellow bloggers can provide me with alittle clarification to the below listed newly discovered "campground games".

*** Doggy Poop Bag Pitching

Trying to decide if this is an environmental version of lawn darts. Here is the basic game play that I have deduced so far.

1) Patiently wait until your dog takes a poop

2) Using a non bio-degradable bag, bag up the newly deposited poop

3) Look for the nearest dumpster

4) Walk in the other direction and find the most stickery bush

5) With at least (3) complete rotations of your arm in a circle, hurl the poop into the sticker bush

6) Make sure that it is securely hooked onto the sticker bush at least 5 feet into the stickers so that some poor campground host gets to tear up their arms retrieving it

7) Give yourself 5 points and walk away

***Piling Rocks on Picnic Tables

This I have decided is the Canadian version of Stonehenge, just on a personal level. For this you will need the following items: Minimum of 5 rocks of varying sizes, 1 public picnic table, and no feelings of responsibility for leaving the table unusable until it is cleared by someone else.

Object of game: Annoy campground hosts that have to clear every single table of the above mentioned rocks.

No degree in art is required, just the willingness to stack rocks in any random order on the table tops primarily. Fortunately we get the over achiever rock stackers who even cover the benches.

**Bread Bag Tab War

Kind of like 52 pick up with cards, only with the bread tabs off of every bag that might have one. (side note: Does anyone know if you can tell what might have been in the fore mentioned bag by the color of the tab, green- is hamburger buns, red-hot dog buns, etc)

Flicking these little jewels (that are almost impossible to pick up with the little grabbers provided by the lovely state of Washington) all over the campsite. Still wondering if there is suppose to be a pattern made or if it is a distance sport. Please advise if you know.

Anyway, I just figured that now that we are retired we just have not been in the loop regarding the new popular campground games. All of our kids are too old for us to have to invent such games for and they have yet to produce spawn that might someday invent games all on their own. If any of you have become aware of a new book or Internet site that might clarify these new games, please provide me with a link.

I would hate to think that this is just people littering. Not in our Washington State Park.

Humanity at their best

Okay, so bitching while blogging is okay right? This can always be a forum for expressing one's utter dismay at follow mankind.

Here's the problem. John and I are campground hosts at Deception Pass State Park for the month of September. What that means is that for a month we clean campsites, fire pits, litter patrol, etc. That's all fine and good. We have no problem with litter pick up. But there has to be a point when you just shake your head and go "What the". We are in charge of 158 site and what is called the West Beach area. You could expect the normal careless garbage, candy wrappers, pop cans, beer bottles etc. I attribute that to the fact that most people actually believe that an empty contained weighs more then when it was full and just can't manage to carried that extra weight back with them. The whole theory, "Pack it in, Pack it out" is lost on them. It is these next items that I have felt myself needed to blog about, so that I don't keep venting on John.

1) Baby Diapers- Used; Yes that's right folks. There are actually people out there who manage to give birth to a child, but do not possess the maternal skills to throw "their" baby's diaper away. Being a family type person though, they obviously wouldn't leave it out in the open, since that would be rude. No, No, they hide these little treasures in old tree trunk, thrown in blackberry bushes, or hid in some other joyous spot that is a treat for litter patrol to reach. Bless those souls who chose to give birth and thus were further absolved of any common consideration for those of us who didn't breed. I'm sure that they fill they are doing us non-child bearing individuals a service by allowing us to pick up dirty diapers for them.

2) Bagged and Tagged Beer Bottles- This one gets special mention since the individuals actually bagged up every can or bottle and then hid the bag. Apparently I am missing the whole hide and seek mentality that goes with this game.

3) Toilet Bombs- Those lovely white piles of miscellaneous matter located in "hidden" spots, so that people wouldn't see them doing their business in a national park. What I found most mind numbing was that the worse sites were actually the closest to the bathrooms.

4) Bagged Dog Shit- Yes, those proud owners that would bag their dogs poop, and then leave it for someone else to take it to the garbage can. Please be aware that the farthest anyone would have to walk in this park to get to a dumpster is 300 yards. At least they bagged it. Side note: we actually had someone let their dog crap right by our campground host sign, with John staring out the window, and pretending not to see the dog doing it. They realized that they were being watched and only then decided to clean up after their dog.

5) Feminine Hygiene Products- I have yet to understand this one. Tampons and pads (used by the way), left out like some Easter treats. John especially loved these ones. Not even going to try and rationalize this one, just shaking my head still.

6) Last but not least- Dead Rat- Yep John found a dead rat in a campfire pit. Not even going there.

Needless to say, I have very little faith in my fellow mankind sometimes. But just when I thought I was going to have to get a frontal lobotomy, a young couple in their 20's, came up and thanked us for cleaning up the campsite. Apparently there is hope for our future generations and most of the disaster left in the campsite is unfortunately from my generation.

Thanks for allowing the vent. Feeling better now.

That is until tomorrow, when the whole pick-up after humanity starts again.

p.s. John did find a condom in the parking lot right by the main gate. He was actually quite happy to pick that chunk of treasure up, as it prevented some other campground host, years from now, from having to pick up a hidden baby diaper in the bushes.