Camping: Columbine Campground, Carson National Forest

June 25-27, 2021

Alan and I initially had our inaugural camping trip planned for this weekend so it was already on both our calendars. After we bumped up our first trip to Redondo Campground in the Jemez Mountains to May, we decided to just keep the event on our calendar and make our second trip this weekend.

I was slightly more prepared than I was the first time, we faced more adversity and I accomplished more than I did in May. Read on to hear all about it!

The weather forecast called for cooler weather Friday and rain most of the day both Saturday and Sunday. I was looking forward to facing the adversity so when I’m camping alone, I know I’ll have a better idea of how to handle it.

Preparation

I’ve begun the process of assembling a couple of full time camping bins, just some 18 gallon Sterilite storage bins that I already had laying around that are now designated as “My Camping Stuff” bins.

The first bin has my hammock, my new hammock straps, a pair of leather work gloves, headlamp, new lanterns, my Jackery, and my air mattress.

The second bin is more of an “assemble just before” setup for now, containing pots and pans, and utensils and such that I currently don’t have “camping only” versions of, but will be accumulating very soon.

My new tent (first thoughts on the tent will be coming soon) doesn’t fit into either of these bins, so the question is, do I just grin and bear it or do I get a bigger bin? I do currently have a large storage bin with wheels that I used for my first season of art and craft shows. It did come in handy and have thought about getting a new one for my camping stuff, but I like the idea of keeping everything in their own separate bins which would make distribution easier at the campsite.

I did discover that I do need some help with time management. I seriously did not give myself enough time to prep and pack and found myself scrambling last minute. While I did the same thing last time, mostly out of necessity (I needed to get some last minute things with my paycheck on departure day), I really didn’t need to do that this time around. I was just simply unprepared.

Friday morning, I packed up the car, loaded Ash and at 9:00, departed for the three hour drive up to Red River.

The drive wound north through Santa Fe and Espanola before hooking east to parallel the Rio Grande river. As I drove, I saw several rafting and kayaking excursions coursing down the river. I got to the river access point where I saw the vans and trailers that had offloaded the riders and took note: New Mexico River Adventures, based out of Embudo, NM. An e-mail has been sent to them already.

Arrival and Setup

I got to the Columbine Campground right around noon. As I drove through the main loop, I took note of how separated the individual campsites were by trees. Each site was fairly secluded from the others, either by trees or by small hills.

I looped around to find Alan waiting at site number 19. He said that was the last available site so we would be doubling up this time around. No matter, he was going to be sleeping in his truck again, with a snazzy new camper shell tent. I can’t say for certain but it appears to be something like this DAC Truck Tent.

I backed into the parking slot ahead of his truck and began unloading my car, just as it started raining. Without knowing how long it was going to rain, we decided we’d better get my spot settled before too long, or I might end up doing it in the rain AND in the dark.

I pitched the Coleman Sundome 4 person tent I picked up on Amazon a few weeks ago at the back of the site, butting up against a nice little section of forest. By the time the tent was up, I was soaked, the ground around the tent was muddy and Ash had snuck in making the floor of the tent a muddy mess. Per Alan’s suggestion, I held off on putting up my air mattress until it had a chance to dry out and I could kind of sweep out some of the dirt that had been tracked in. Once the floor was as clean as I was going to get it, I plugged the mattress pump into the Jackery and let it go. It pumped up nice and firm in about 2 minutes.

Dinner

On our previous trip, I had mentioned that I wanted to make chili for our first dinner, then use the chili for lunch and dinner Saturday. To me, chili is like the quintessential camping meal. I mean, think about it- meat and beans simmering all day in a cast iron Dutch oven over a bed of coals in your fire ring? How does that not scream camping to you?

Well, I never got the chance to properly season my cast iron Dutch oven (again, poor time management), and the rain held the campfire at bay for a while, so I wound up making the chili in one of my stovetop pots that I brought on Alan’s Coleman 2 burner stove. It turned out just as good as it usually does when I make it at home, and coupled with the cornbread I made Thursday night, it was an excellent first night meal.

Now, as you may or may not be able to tell, that is a dog bowl I am eating out of. Alan was sure to give me a hard time about it, but it’s stainless steel, so not prone to breaking, it’s a perfect size and there’s nothing on it indicating that it’s a dog bowl, and even if there was, so what? I had three with me, Ash was only using two so I commandeered this bowl for use for the rest of the trip and will be using the others in upcoming trips as well. By the end of the weekend, I had Alan on board with the idea as well.

After dinner, we busted out the marshmallows (I whittled my own marshmallow stick!) and made smores over the fire that Alan was able to build despite the rain.

Directly next to our campsite, over a short hill, was a trailhead. I had done some cursory glances for a trail in Red River, and I knew there was a trailhead at the campground, but I didn’t look very closely at the details. After dinner, I decided to go take a short walk on the trail to see what it was like, maybe I’d like to hike it.

The trail largely parallels Columbine Creek, which runs directly next to the campground, and offers some views of some waterfalls and nice little rapids for some wonderful sights and sounds. I got about half a mile up the trail before I decided I was going to hike part of it the next day.

When I got back to camp, we made drinks and Alan and I sat drinking next to the fire until it was bedtime.

Saturday

I slept much better than I did on our excursion to the Jemez in May. I know for a fact it’s because of the 18 inches of cushion provided by the air mattress I picked up for camping. I set up the bin that carried the mattress and the Jackery next to the bed in the tent to act as a sort of nightstand to keep my stuff contained but I’m still learning about some things that I’ll need to do differently. (My next trip will include an area out of the back of my car that will act as a kind of dressing room/quasi-kitchen area. More on that later.)

At some point in the night, Ash let himself out of the tent, assumingly to go to the bathroom. He simply pushed the flap open and, since it wasn’t zipped all the way up anyway, it unzipped enough for him to get out. After a bit, I called him back in and he came and hopped back into bed with me until we awoke to the sounds of birds at day’s first light.

I got up and made some coffee, shortly after which Alan got up. We made some breakfast (sausage, egg and green chile biscuits) before we all three headed out for a hike up the trail I had explored on Friday. (I’ll be making a separate post about the hike. Spolier alert: personal bests were set.)

We worked up a bit of an appetite on the hike so we assembled some Frito Pies for lunch, reheating the chili from Friday’s dinner and dumping it over Fritos, and topping it with green chile, cheese, and onions.

After lunch, we were all tuckered out so we all went and took an hour long nap. When we got up, we poured ourselves some more drinks, built a fire and just sat and enjoyed the rest of the day as it began raining on us once more.

Alan once more came through and built us an amazing fire on which we cooked up some hot dogs that we then topped with the last of the chili. We ended the night watching a large log burn down before turning in for the last sleep on this trip.

Departure

It rained pretty much all night Saturday night. Falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of the rain pattering on the top of the tent is exactly what I was after this trip.

I emerged from the tent once more at around 6:00 am and went straight to the coffee pot. As Alan got up, I started making our breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs. We ate then immediately started breaking camp in the rain.

Packing up all the stuff I had strewn about camp was a time consuming process, not to mention packing up the air mattress and tent, that were wet and muddy from a weekend in the rain.

I finally got everything packed and in the car and was on the road at about 8:30 am. I was planning on heading in to Red River proper to try and get a trinket for my souvenir wall, but as I started the drive down Main Street, I realized that nothing was open that early except eateries. The drive through town was nice though, especially in the rain. I got to the east end of town, turned around and headed back, finally getting home at noon on Sunday.

Final Thoughts

I had an awesome weekend camping in Red River. Sure, being soaked from the get-go kind of sucked, sitting in the rain most of the weekend was a pain at times and dealing with the mud in my tent and on my mattress was no fun, but it’s all part of the outdoor experience. Taking the bads with the goods, I suppose. For example, I wouldn’t have seen views like this if I hadn’t dealt with that:

A few things I know I have to get before I go at it solo include a good, heavyweight tarp, paracord and most importantly, a camping stove. Some “would be nice to haves” include camp-specific bedding, tarp poles and an extra tarp to create a shelter off the back of my car.

I also really need to work on my time management, and I need to start better planning meals in order to minimize the sheer amount of stuff I take with me on my trips. Packing my car as tightly as I have for both of my trips for a two night camping trip is a bit excessive and can likely be knocked down a bit.

But that’s what this is all about, right? Learning then doing. Thanks to Alan, I’ve learned a ton (like, I need to watch some videos on knot tying) and have had a blast while doing it.

As usual, I have pictures from this trip (as well as from Saturday’s hike) in my Photo Diary. Check back soon for the post on that hike, as well as first thoughts on the Coleman Sundome tent, the Intex air mattress I used on this trip, and more fun stuff coming up.

And finally, as always, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you!

Phil