New York Part II

During our four-day trip to NYC, we squeezed in a camping trip to the Oquaga Creek State Park with a group of Singaporeans living in NYC, some of whom we only met for the first time there and then.

Not wanting to check in our luggage at the airport, we traveled light thinking that the weather would reach just around 60s Fahrenheit (below 20 degree Celsius) at the coldest.
While the rest of the New Yorkers brought sleeping bags, warm clothings and tents to the campsite, the Houstonians happily brought along just our tent which we hand carried all the way from Houston.

We really regretted not bringing more…

It was so cold that all 11 of us cuddled around the campfire all night, stepping away only to take a quick shower. We only went back to our tent after a ranger “told us off” for being noisy during quiet hours at around midnight.

That’s when the torture began…

I brought a pair of three-quarter pants and t-shirt for sleeping. Although I also had a fleece jacket, it was simply not enough. I kept waking up all night. At one point, it got so cold that I emptied my backpack and put my frozen feet into the bag to keep warm. Innovative leh!! Wen calls it the feet in bag technique. Eventually, I even took out my dirty clothing and wrapped them around the part of my legs that were exposed to the blistering cold. Yet, it was still not warm enuff.

Even Tim who can usually withstand cold couldn’t sleep too. Neither could Celia. Tim kept checking on me throughout the night coz he was so worried that I might just stop breathing. So sweet....

Only Wen slept through the night and even snored so soundly. He only woke up coz he needed to go to the loo. By the way, he only had bermudas but covered one leg with Celia's three-quarter pants and the other with Tim's berms. I think cold weather really suits him better.

The worst was when morning was about to break. With water vapor settled all around the tent, it got so cold and wet that we almost froze to death! We found out only the next day that the temperature actually dropped to 39 Fahrenheit (4 degree Celsius)!!

It seems that every time Tim and I go camping in the US, it is always under extreme weather conditions. The first time was at Grand Canyon where it reached over 110 Fahrenheit (43 celsius) while this time round the temperature went the other way. Are we nuts or what? I think we have a tendency to torture ourselves.

Oh did i mention showering was really a torture? None of us wanted to be the first to bathe. So after the first two brave girls that went came to tell us how shiok it was to bathe with hot water, the rest of us couldn't wait to shower.

The only problem was that by the time the third girl went to bathe, the hot water had run out. The rest of us had to bathe with cold water. And guess what i did? After a quick shower (i think i only bathed for less than 4 mins), I mistakenly took the hair conditioner and applied it on my hands and leg thinking it was my body lotion. I almost fainted when i realized my mistake. The thought that i have to bathe again in the cold was definitely not fun. In the end, i just washed myself at the basin instead of taking a shower. This was all thanks to Celia who brought the conditioner which is in the exact same bottle as my lotion.

All in all, it was a really memorable camping trip. We didn’t do much but still we had lotsa fun.

Check out the photos with Wen's farnie captions: