Campfires always bring people together as does camping. This last weekend was my first annual Freeze Your Butt Off campout or FYBO for short. A camping weekend that takes place at Kickapoo State Park in Illinois. This trip allowed me to check off another State Park from my list as well as get to test out some of my new camping gear.

Before you start with the whole …. there he goes again buying more gear. I admit I might have a slight minor addiction to camping gadgets but all of this gear was purchased prior to the Jeep crapping out and me getting the 4 Runner. This means that every trip this year will be a new experience. New vehicle, new-ish gear, and new places…

My friend Scott and I left town around 10:30 on Thursday morning and headed out to Kickapoo State Park. The drive was around two hours but felt like it took forever mostly due to the wind. Gusts up to 50 miles an hour and my poor truck along with all the semis was all over the road. At least I was not the only one having issues keeping it in my lane. Thankfully the wind would die down as the day progressed into the evening and was completely non-existent by the time more of our crew would arrive.

 

The camp host was a very friendly gentleman with some amazing stories. We could have sat and listened to him for hours and hours. He like the crew is a traveler and adventure, but work is always got in the way. He would stop in quite a few times throughout the weekend to check in and say hi. There were very few other campers there this weekend so we had the pleasure to have him all to ourselves. (No sarcasm)

The park itself is not very large it does have some really nice hiking trails. One of them in particular has a very unique series of art items installed along the way. A local wood carving club has carved faces into logs and pieces of lumber and hung them high up in the trees.

The weather was fantastic. Beautiful during the day and cold at night. Cold enough that it made for good sleeping but not quite cold enough to be super uncomfortable. Granted we did have electricity at each campsite and were using electric heaters along with our normal winter-weight sleeping bags and such. While it was cheating a little we were just using the resources at our disposal.

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I only knew my friend Scott going into the weekend but by the end, I had gained 10 new friends and a whole group of folks looking to plan future meet-ups and adventures. While the weekend was not full of activities it was very much needed for a recharge. Many stories were swapped around the campfire and in the big kitchen tent during our family-style meals. We had all chipped in on food that we brought but it was Chef Scott who planned the menu and then we all brought parts of the whole. We did not go hungry and if you did then well you were not doing things correctly.

Sunday morning we packed everything up and said our goodbyes. We all headed back home to our normal lives waiting for winter to give way to spring and for our paths to cross again in the near future.

Until Next time happy trails and stay adventurous!