I went camping with some local furs Oct 1 – Oct 4. This write up will document the experience I had on the trip. Overall, it was the best camping trip I have done this year. I got to be silly, meet other people, and relax without having to be responsible for anyone else.
Day 1: Thursday October 1st
I left my wife’s Dr. appt in Lutherville and went to pick up another fur I was taking to the campsite. We stopped at Walgreens because he needed to pickup some Items, I needed to pickup some items, and the camp organizers needed some copies of a document campers needed to sign and turn in to camp.
We picked all of the stuff up and headed out to Gambrill State Park in Fredrick. Spent the trip there talking with my rider. He had some interesting stories and I shared a few of mine. Always good to have an extrovert to bring out the personality of an introvert like myself.
We arrived at camp and I spent 2 hours setting up the tent, air mattress, and getting everything into the tent. The temps were in the mid 80s. I was afraid that my POTS symptoms would hit but it was only mild tachycardia and dizziness. I was wiped out after setting up though.
Pictures of my Tent
Pic of me on Day 1
Once I set up everything I went and took a shower at the bathhouse and came back to chill at the campsite. I ate a Lunchable and relaxed at the main site canopy.
One of the camp organizers let me try a piece of her home made pumpkin pie. This pie was made from scratch and blew away any pumpkin pie I have ever tasted. I mean dug out real pumkins and made the crust by hand home made. Absolute fire. I must learn how to do this myself.
I did my best to engage the Thursday campers on Thursday night. I am naturally shy and introverted in person thanks to social anxiety. I tend to hang back and listen to everyone and get to know them through Observation. I will talk if spoken or asked a question but I usually don’t initiate.
I tend to speak softly most of the time. Unless I am doing a bit, yelling to get someone’s attention in a serious situation, singing , in a loud environment, or extremely frustrated.
I also do not talk over other people. If someone starts talking while I’m talking I will just stop talking and wait. If there is a need to interrupt I can but it takes a huge amount of mental effort to do so. Two people talking at the same time means no one is listening in my mind.
I went to sleep around 10pm after a bit of socializing. First day I broke over 9000 step in a single day.
Day 2: Friday, October 2nd
Friday was a day of health related issues. Wake up with low blood glucose of 49 at 4:45AM and then at 12PM the “POTS” symptoms started as the temps went up into the mid 80’s again. I had tacychardia up to 130bpm while sitting, strong dizziness, and at one point it was so bad that I stood up and had to roll fall back down due to dizziness and dimming vision.
The low blood glucose was easy to battle. One Coke , two cups of ramen, and a cup of hot chocolate bumped my blood glucose up into the low 100’s and keep it there until breakfast.
I showered before making the breakfast shown below. I decided to put on some Gold Bond powder that I had bought at Walgreens. This is the one in the Blue bottle instead of green or yellow. I’ve used both before without issue.
The stuff in the blue bottle is different somehow. Only 1% menthol content but damn was it strong. I definitely questioned my choice for about 30-45 minutes with my more sensitive parts switching between fire and ice.
First Breakfast of Champions
I left after breakfast to go get some items for the camp and to get ice for my cooler. My first stop was to McDonald’s for my second breakfast for a #2 meal with a Coke.
After eating second breakfast, I went out to Home Depot to get some reflective tape and some reflectors on poles. The reflectors were to mark a mini trench in the ground so people making a beeline across the grass to go to the bath house didn’t trip and fall. The reflective tape was used on guy wires to prevent tripping.
After Home Depot I decided to flex on every Hobbit ever by having Third breakfast by buying a sizzli at WaWa along with 4 x Rainbow Candy Flavored 5 Hour energy shots and cigarettes. I did forget to buy ice here which lead to my final morning stop.
After Third Breakfast, I stopped at 7-11 to buy a 20 lb bag of ice. I put half of it in my cooler since that’s all that would fit. I drove back to camp and delivered the Items from Home Depot and contributed the remaining Ice to the camp drink cooler.
Riding to Home Depot and Multiple Breakfasts
Around noon, my heart rate spiked to 130bpm while sitting in a chair chilling around the others. I sat for awhile but the rate stayed high. I had to jump up to avoid a stinging insect and got extremely dizzy.
I decided to get a cold shower. Those can reduce my internal temperature and stop the attack or reduce its duration. While the cold shower initially worked, by the time I got back to camp the benefits had worn off since the bath house was 0.13 miles from the campsite.
I laid down in the tent and tried to cool off. In the laying position, the heart doesn’t have to work as hard to get blood to various places. Over the next 45 minutes I could feel heat rising to my skin then eventually cooling off. Heart rate dropped to 105 bpm.
After that I got back up and within 30 minutes the symptoms were back. I went and took a second cold shower which worked as well as the first one. I closed the tent windows up as it was cooler and laid in the tent naked to dissipate heat faster. This got my heart rate down to 95
After that, I took 200-250mg of THC via RSO oil because it had been 8 hours of 120-130 heart rate. That much THC will drop my heart rate whether or not it’s caused by Anxiety or Overheating. 15-20mg will work for anxiety but if its temp related it takes an order of magnitude more. Sadly that much is basically a trip to Alpha Centari.
At one point during this 9 hour ordeal, I tried to stand up from sitting on one of the air mattresses in my tent and Immediately got dizzy and nearly blacked out falling back down to the tent floor. Fortunately, I know how to fall safely in most situations so I was unhurt just annoyed. I guess teaching myself that skill to prank people back in my late teens / early 20’s is useful now!
I did manage to put on some glow necklaces and walk around being a silly glowing folf. (Fox-Wolf hybrid) Hopefully it brought some joy to everyone. I did bring 100 glow necklaces and left a box out at the main site. I don’t think anyone used any or even noticed them. I probably should have mentioned it in a louder voice when more people were present.
I was wearing 7 glow necklaces the first night. Even put a post on blue sky asking how many and giving the hint that not all of them are easily seen.
Glow Sticks Challenge Part 1
Around 10PM the THC was kicking in hard. I had taken a pic of the sunset earlier. I took another pic of the night sky and went to bed to end Day 2. I enjoyed listening to the other furs banter and talk while I drifted off to sleep.
Day 3 : Saturday, October 3rd
Saturday was the best day of the trip for me. I woke up to another low blood glucose alarm at 1AM. This time it was 59 but I was shaking and barely able to stumble to my car to chug the last Coke. I then had to make ramen in the dead of night. I don’t think I woke anyone up.
I went back to sleep for a few hours then got up and made breakfast of more ramen. I had some camp bacon which was good. Spent most of the day chilling with some minor POTS symptoms happening.
I spent a bit of time with hanging around the main site and fire. Sitting in my camping chair and occasionally engaging people.
I got stickers from some people and put them on my water bottle. I then decided it would be fun to play on the swing set.
First attempt I went over to make sure I could still do it. I could though my height makes it a challenge with my legs. My arms are also out of shape so I could feel them burning while swinging. I was able to do it and dismount the swing pretty easily.
I asked another fur if he would record me on the swing. He agreed and we took about a minute of video. I started of being silly and swinging. When I went to stop and dismount, the swing slipped out from behind me and dumped me unceremoniously on to the ground. This was super fun!
Pics of the main camp area. Stickers and a neat piece of
art of my fursona!
I spent some time afterward doing vocal training. I am trying to get my upper range for both my normal and falsetto voice back to where they used to be. I have a few goofy songs with vocals that go slightly above that range that I was singing in my car.
I was able to do another test run of singing “Hello” by Adele. I hope to eventually cover this song and possibly sing it at Karaoke when I go to Fur the ‘more in April. I have improved but need some additional work on remembering the lyrics and maintaining pitch in places.
I don’t usually post videos of me practicing a song but I will this time. This was particularly challenging as I have another sinus infection thanks to a reflux attack a day before camp. That’s why the glasses come off and my facial expressions may seem odd.
I also recorded a short of a bit I used to do at drive-thru restaurants. The premise is simple. Start every sentence with “BY THE GODS!!!,” and end it with “In accordance with the prophecy” I would alternate between this and my Captain Picard voice back in the day when hitting McDonald’s or Burger King.
I ate more ramen after this for dinner. There was a taco bar but because my GERD is so reactive to certain foods, I skipped that meal. I had some hot dogs the previous day that were good though.
After dinner walked around and a new song popped up on YouTube Music. It’s Classical + EDM, intense, fast, and really good. I added it to my list!.
I sat and listened to it on repeat for about 30 minutes sitting around the fire. Repeated listening is how I dissect each instrument and all of the patterns of a song. I can both feel music and visualize it to a point in my head for some reason. I can usually pick out each instrument and what its playing during various parts of a song. It does take 100’s of listens to fully understand and map every detail. If you saw me sitting there moving in time with my eyes closed, I was listening to this and beginning to memorize it.
I decided to double up the glow sticks on night 3. I was wearing a total of 14 glow sticks. All my extremities, my neck, and waist had one or more glow stick necklaces. The one around my waist had to be fastened with electrical tape and took 2 glow sticks to make a belt. I did put another post on bluesky asking how many. I also did a follow up listing how many and leaving a fill in the blanks for the locations. There will always be one or more you can’t easily see.
One person complimented me on the idea of weaving glow sticks through the holes of my Crocs. I was trying to get certain colors and ended up with 2 extra purple ones. Since I didn’t really have a good place for them being that everywhere else was covered, I wove them through the holes in my Crocs.
Before I went to bed I took additional THC to keep the POTS down. Same high dose as I was already in considerable pain from all the walking I did. THC killed both POTS and Pain.
I went to my car and laid on the hood staring at the stars in the night sky and listening to / softly singing “Ashokan Farewell”. I managed to take a really neat picture of the night sky accidentally. I intended to take the picture but when I hit the button my phone takes several seconds in low light mode to snap the picture. I managed to get what looks like a shooting star or meteorite in the shot.
Ashokan Farewell that I was singing / listening to,
I went to bed around 11. Singing this song softly and knowing I would miss camping and the people I had met. The lyrics are fitting as is the song which is in a Scottish Lament style.
Day 4: Sunday, October 4th
I woke early due to not being able to sleep well. I made my ramen to keep the blood glucose happy. I went and took my shower. I put on my grey sweats outfit with the TMNT hoodie. I spent about an hour packing my stuff in the car. The person that rode with me to camp told me his parents were picking him up. He helped me pack the last bit of gear. I left around 10:30 AM as I needed to be back by 1pm. The chaos of family and work life was calling.
I grabbed McDonald’s on the way out of Fredrick and started my way home. It took about 2 hours with the extra stop I had to do close to home. Once I got home, I unpacked everything except the tent and camp stove. I still need to let the tent dry as its in my car wet.
I brought all of the other stuff in and put the massive amount of laundry in the kitchen near the Washer and Dryer. I started the first comforter and emptied all the trash cans in the house since trash pickup is Monday.
Final Thoughts
This was hands down the best trip I’ve taken in a very long time. I got to meet awesome people. I was able to relax and not think about work or clients and all the anxiety they drive. I was able to work on my own creative stuff and have silly fun.
If there is anything I would change its my health and how out of shape I am. I need to start some strength and endurance training to build up my legs, arms, and back.
I want to quit smoking before the next trip in May. It should help both my GERD and the tachycardia to a point. I do get more anxious, depressed, and have trouble with focus. Nicotine has been my anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, and ADHD meds for 31 years now.
I also would like to get to the point where I can stop THC entirely. It does fuck with my ability to regulate temperature. After about a day, I will start having hot and cold flashes in rapid succession. While it helps with POTS in a way I have a feeling it also contributes to it from that angle.
I will also bring more food! I ran out of lunchables, hot chocolate, and Coke!. I was left with ramen and life savers candy by Sunday morning. More would be better.
I would like to get a 2kwh portable power station with extra batteries. I would love to be able to use my more powerful laptop to do creative stuff while I’m camping. Since it only has 45 mins on its battery.
I may acquire a smaller tent for the next trip. I need one that is 6.5ft tall but not 8×16 feet. Unless someone is staying in the tent with me, using the other air mattress, there isn’t any point in carrying all that extra stuff.
What aren’t you telling us?
Only thing I’m not revealing here is the location of the glow stick(s) that can’t be seen. I won’t reveal that unless someone guesses it right. Then I will confirm it. Otherwise, That, is a secret! as the Great Priest Xelloss from the Slayer’s Next Anime would say.
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