Camping With Kites
The Kites of Pacific Beach
by Mike Cox
of Ferndale WA
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GPS: 47.206183, -124.203317
There is a little State Park on the Washington coast in the little town of Pacific Beach. It boasts a nice little campground with bathrooms and hot showers. It also is right on a beautiful sandy beach that stretches for miles north of Joe Creek, which empties into the ocean just on the south boundary of the park. My wife and I go there every year, and plan to as long as we are able.
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Cation, wind noise on the videos in this article, adjust volume down when viewing.
Camping with Kites, this is our camp.
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Huge Parafoils called “Big Lifters”. The cable on the big ones is rated at 1800 lbs.
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We love the camping there. Lots of beach to comb in the mornings. Great fires on the beach with friends and family at night. It also offers something really unique on the weekend after labor day every September, a kite festival.
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This Bol Kite is 26′ across.
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Spinner in action (Bol Kites)
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It’s called the ”Up Your Wind Kite Festival”. Sponsored by HiFlyers Kite Shop (For information contact Scott at 360-276-8377). [Scott also sells kites of all sorts and will help get yours going again if something not to good happens to it, most repairs are free or at least very reasonable.]
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This year it fell on September 11-13, 2009
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18′ x88′ Peter Lynn Giant Octopus
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I highly recommend it.
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Falling “people” in the sky – scale, the purple guy is about 12 feet tall.
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A flock of eleven foot pterodactyls
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The kite and people watching is very entertaining. By the end of breakfast, cars and trucks with small, custom trailers are setting up on the breezy beach. They unfurl these mammoth sized kites that fill the skies with color and motion.
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Some of the many acrobatic kites
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From big parafoils that act as platforms with tails blowing in the air, the kiters attach to their cables other kites and socks that are shaped and colored as everything from fish to people to cats to strange geometric shapes. There are giant spinning kites, box kites of every shape, and even a few diamond shaped kites like the kind I used to make with my Dad when I was a kid.
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Caught by another photographer! (Sherry Stanton of Friday Harbor)
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Then come the acrobatic kites and their ballets in the sky. All the while families with little ones are out there and find a little free space to have the kids fly a kite or two. Campers and day-trippers alike come by with their leached dogs to check it all out. Artists with their charcoal, paints, and pastels are represented too.
Others just use the beach as it was meant to be, just kick back and read a good book.
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each of these squids are about 10′ x 35′
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What Makes A Great Hunting Camp?
What Makes a Great Hunting Camp?
by Mike Cox
of Friday Harbor WA
GPS: 46.9466, -121.3059
What does it take to put together a great hunting camp? What’s the most important thing to bring to make the time in camp the best time possible?
Let me tell you about my favorite hunting camp. We’ve been setting up this camp for the past twelve years, almost without exception. There are about six in our group, usually, this varies from year to year. We have had as many as eight and as few as four, but always enough to get the camp work done. My friend Dave Avilla has a large wall tent, about 16 feet by 36 feet, give or take.
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My wife calls it The Guys Little Condo in the Woods. We think it’s much nicer than that!
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It takes us about an hour to set up with four people. We rake out the area level, and get the tent shell up. Then two in the group (Warren, with the chain saw and maul, and some one to help) will get into a pickup and go buck up some fire wood while the rest finish setting up the inside of the tent. All the furniture is homemade and collapsible. By the time they are back with the wood the inside is ready to go, complete with:
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Four Double Bunks
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Tables
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Benches
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Kitchen: Complete with grill, prep area, pantry shelves, and oven
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Propane tanks
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Hot water tank
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Dry wood storage area
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Lanterns
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Washing sink
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And last of all we light the Wood Burner Stove(s) : have two usually just use one.
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Site arrival to finish of complete set up, about two and a half hours. It’s time well spent.
The kitchen alone makes it worthwhile. It allows for some really fine eating for tent camping. The propane powered cast iron grill is two feet by three and a half feet, plenty of room so every one eats at the same time. It helps that we bring partially prepped food. For instance, everybody in our group loves breakfast, anytime of day. So we par-bake potatoes and wrap them in bacon, and we have this oversized grater that we shred the spuds, bacon and all right on the grill, awesome hash browns!
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We bring marinated steaks and/or chicken and buy our ham sliced in nice thick ham steaks. Lots of fresh fruit, and somebody’s wife will always make some pie or cake for dessert. Nobody goes hungry on our trips.
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We also have a three gallon stainless container, with a lid and a pour valve, of drinking water always on the wood stove, for tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and for cleaning up. We switch off cleaning duties.
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We archery hunt, so we always have a little shooting range set up close by, measured off in ten yard increments. We also pick a pair of trees and tie off a cross beam to hang any animal we might bring back to camp.
It’s pretty common for at least one of us to hang around camp and keep things ship shape. That was me this last year, as I wasn’t hunting, I just went for the camping.
It was my favorite hunting camp ever!
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But what was it that made it so nice? Not the wall tent. Not the sweet setup inside the tent. Not the little archery range. Not the great food, nor the comfy bunks either.
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Its the people and the attitude you bring that makes the camp great!
What makes a great hunting camp is the folks that get together with you for that special time in the woods, when just breathing the crisp fall air is enough to make you thankful that your alive. It’s the friends that sit around with you in the evenings and talk with you, sharing old stories that you probably heard before, when all of you are so dog tired from tromping over hills and streams all day. It’s the stupid jokes and ruthless ribbing that come your way when you screwed up and missed that shot. It’s the helping hands that come to work with you and get the field dressing job over with.
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A great hunting camp is packed with love for the sport, respect for each other, enough seriousness to know you can depend on each other, and enough humor to keep things in good graces when mistakes are made.
Most of all it’s being able to look back through your rear view memory at a few days you got to spend with your friends or family out there in the outdoors.
You can have a great hunting camp with whatever gear you have, as long you bring friends and all keep the attitude that your there to enjoy the woods and each others company….. Of course finding an elk or deer can help considerably.
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