Last Canadian summer I was in Côte d’Ivoire with MSF, so I was unable to join my friends for the 5th Legendary Annual Summer Camping Trip. This year I vowed that, no matter what, I would make the trip. Having had my right ACL and meniscus knee surgery in April, I had a good excuse to spend several months unemployed while doing intensive physio in Canada. We made a 4 day weekend out of the BC August long weekend and headed out to a familiar spot: Ashnola Campground, just outside Keremeos.
As I have done each time I go legendary camping, I spent the entire weekend in costume. This year, I was a frighteningly large gecko. One of my tent mates, Geneviève, spent most of the drive from Vancouver to the campsite sewing this amazing flag to warn the others about our tent’s dangerous inhabitants:
Lisa’s tent was a castle by the river:
As always, we had a nice campfire setup, which produced some amazing, slightly charred, cuisine during the weekend.
Of course, camping wouldn’t be legendary without good old-fashioned physical exercise. We played many sports, such as beersbee, in which an empty bottle is placed on a post (in our case, a small log placed on a slightly larger log) and each team attempts to knock the other team’s bottle off by throwing a frisbee disc.
Here’s a quick video showing our eventually victorious team getting a point:
6th Legendary Annual Summer Camping Trip: Beersbee from Chris Anderson on Vimeo.
Other sports included Streetfighter II: Campground Combat Edition. The most exciting match was Vega vs Chun-Li. The winner, predictably, was Gecko.
For the safety of all concerned, all sporting events were overseen by Nate, the Danger Ranger:
On Sunday, we continued our time-tested tradition of visiting the Allison Resort Getaway in Penticton, where we were treated to scrumptious snacks and deliciously decadent desserts. The scenery on the way was superb:
The mandatory Legendary Camping group shot with the Allisons:
On Sunday night, two Latin American guys came over from another campsite and brought along a guitar to join our campfire sing-along:
Enjoying the fireside music:
Lastly, a legendary camping post wouldn’t be complete without a photo of someone waking up outside:
