Ok, so camping in bear country has its challenges with food lockers, washing up water having to be walked to a central disposal point, teeth brushing happening in the restroom and not at taps in the camp areas etc.
For me, the biggest challenge is waking up to go to the bathroom before sun up. Not a big deal in Yosemite where the toilet blocks are in each loop and no more than 30 metres away in the middle of all the campers.
At Lodgepole (Sequoia), the nearest loos were over 250m away, with plenty of forestry between my campsite and the building. I would wake at 4 and quietly curse the mountains that meant it wasn’t light until 5.30.
That is, until today. At 5am I thought, I can’t wait, I’m going to have to get my flashlight and brace it. So I put on my noisy shoes, grabbed my headlamp and made my way to the toilet, scanning side to side for movement and listening for any noise to indicate there was a bear nearby. Success - made it there and back without incident.
And while we are talking about loos - I saw a TikTok a while back where a US woman was complaining about toilets in Australia because you had to use your hands to flush them. Didn’t think about it much at the time, but it is quite cool that many of the loos here have the flush mechanism down low so you flush it with your foot! Not exactly life-changing but a different take during COVID I imagine.
Long 8 hour day driving from camp to Lake Mead, where I am camping for the night so I can drive the 40min into Vegas to see Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent from Ted Lasso), do his standup routine.
Pulled into camp and it was a hot and blustery 45 degrees. Sorted a few things for the night, then made my way to the Cosmopolitan for the show, where I intended to splurge and pay for parking in their parking garage.
Made a dodgy turn at the Bellagio that had a few tourists wondering what the crazy chick was doing and parked the car.
Brett was very funny and worth the stress of driving on the Strip at peak afternoon time, he even read a question I’d asked him and told a story about it, and thanked me for travelling so far for the show. It was even worth it driving on the strip at 11pm following a 45 minute wait to get out of the parking garage.
It was even worth the ABS light and anti-swerve lights coming on on the dash and being terrified my brakes would fail on the short drive home. And it was even worth the night time temps which stayed in the low 30s with no aircon in my camper. Thankfully I’d bought a small rechargeable fan that ran for six hours and made just enough breeze to allow for a sweaty but rested night of sleep.
So my firsts (and hopefully a couple of lasts) - dark sky toileting in bear country and driving on the strip in Vegas - I’m not sure which one scared me most!
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