"NO BEARS!"

CampyCon I Report!

I spent all week stressing (to the extent I’m able) about what to pack for camping, not having been for ohhhhhhhhh 12 years or so? Everything turned out pretty damn good though – I didn’t freeze during the night, I didn’t have to lug my gear pretty much at all. We had figured to go to Alice Lake for 2 nights, but Mr Geisel couldn’t come if we went that far and long, so we changed our plans to a campsite on Mt Seymour that was perfect for gaming, and not exactly what I’d call ‘roughing it.’ Observe:

This is the site. You see that little building? It had SIX picnic tables inside. We could have run seven games at once including the table outside! Just down the path in the middle of the photo is the trail that leads to where we pitched our tents.

You can see the wood stove in the back of the building. This is where we heated delicious pies.

All the amenities of home. Almost all.

Off to a Jerky Start.

We left late on Friday, around 7pm. It took us some time to get to the site. We made two stops, one for food and one for firewood, before we were stopped on the mountain road by the crew that was filming “Masters of Horror.” So we waited and waited and were worried that we were going to be turned back. Finally they let us through. Then we waited at another checkpoint. We finally got past the filming and we realized the parking lot where were were supposed to go was the exact place where we were stopped the first time. We spent 20 minutes sitting right next to our campsite complaining about how we weren’t at the campsite yet.

Cooking Food and Rolling Dice.

We had lots of great food. Jason brought up salmon steaks!

After filling our bellies with those and yummy squash salad we prepared for some gaming. I, of course, was the Dungeon Master! Here are a few of our stalwart heroes:

Geisel
Level 5 Husband
Hit Points: 27

Geoff
Charisma: 18
12 ranks in Survival

Jamie
Will Save: +7
Feats: Brew Potion; Magical Aptitude

Knowing that this was going to be a simple, one-shot, first level game Geisel suggested everyone come with two characters in case one died. Indeed, I took out Jason and Geisel’s characters quite handily. Here we are, six white nerds:

Dig those headlamps – good for gaming in the dark.

We played until about 2am. Before we hit our respective sacks, Simon gave us a fire show:

and I discovered that my camera has a fireworks setting!

I pitched my tent for the very first time in the dark. Here’s what it looked like in the morning! Boring for you to look at, I know, but I was excited. SO DAMN EXCITED! CAMPYCON! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Thanks, Kate & Theo! This tent was one of my birthday auction BONANZAS!

The next morning, we had a fine, fine breakfast, played some Magic: The Gathering, and then proceeded up the mountain to Dinky Peak. I didn’t bring a t-shirt so I wore my old, ratty, long underwear-ish long sleeve. It got hot enough that I literally bit the sleeves off.

Yes, that’s the shirt.

The end. See you next year, if you’ve got the dice for it!