PHILADELPHIA — In the midst of a brutal heat wave last month, my family went camping in tents and sleeping bags. We gathered around fire too. We do this for fun.
There’s no middle ground with camping. Few say “it’s fine.” People, like me, love and obsess over it. It’s the one week each year where I tighten the bolts on family bonds. The bad internet connection helps. Some hate camping, and they like letting you know. I’d like to think that’s from one bad experience or a skunk/raccoon phobia. They’re campground mainstays.
Hot, humid weather can really ruin a camping trip, though. There’s not much you can do about it, besides leave or remove the tent’s rain fly to let more hot air in. I languished one sleepless night a few years ago, sweaty and alone in Caledonia State Park, wondering whether to bail on that sweat lodge and sleep in the car. It was worse than the February night I slept through a snowstorm at Ricketts Glen State Park, surrounded by coyotes.
