Really only one… but it did sound like a clever title, right?
Like I mentioned before, el chico and I packed up and headed out on a camping trip on Friday morning. Accompanying us was el hermano del chico, along with a handful of my boyfriend’s buddies. This trip was for his birthday, and I’m pretty sure there was no better way he’d spend it than with friends, biking, a bonfire, food, and beer. I’d hope that me being there was somewhat of an added bonus too. 
Our camping adventure took place at Baker Park Reserve, located in Maple Plain, Minnesota. Truthfully, this was only about 20 minutes outside of the city, but it FELT like we were far enough away to be truly “camping.” You don’t need to portage, dig your own potty hole, or be attacked by a bear for the experience to be legit. Plus, Baker has tons of great stuff goin’ on – I was going to list it all, and then I saw this handy little key on their website:
Family friendly, triathlete friendly, manly-man [respectfully] drinking beer friendly. It’s all good.
We got there around 2:00, and after a quick preview of our camp-site, decided to depart on a ride.
It was a lovely two hour ride, sans run-ins with any semis. Or moose. After riding, we decided to get in a little open water swimming before the rest of the crew got there. All I’m gonna say is we got some good choppy water practice (and rehydrated with a little lake water…), which did a good job of tuckering us out. At which time we we decided we were ready for this:
Aforementioned buddies began to arrive, nature walks were had, wildlife was sought after (to no avail – the “wildest” thing we saw was a beaver. Or was it a hedge hog? Prairie dog? I don’t know… it looked like a tubby squirrel on roids. I clearly don’t spend nearly enough time “in the wild.”)
After hanging out at the campsite and unpacking a bit… we realized we better pitch our tents before it got too dark to see what we were doing. How many triathletes does it take to pitch a tent? Also only one, but we’re a helpful breed. We share our body glide… we zip each other’s wetsuits… we’ll for sure help pitch a tent.
We played some games, and then it was time to start el fuego and get some food in the belly. El hermano was designated grill master.
(Note: you don’t really need lighter fluid for self starting coals. But obviously that’s just how triathletes roll… lighter fluid = jet fuel. Watch your back when we get out on those bikes!)
And then I neglected to take pictures for basically rest of the night. Because we were too busy eating. And eating some more. Not kidding guys.. there was a lot of [really delicious/maybe not 100% healthy] food. 
I did manage to snap one.
(This was the best I could do at 10:25 pm…)
The next morning I woke up early – surprise surprise – but luckily I was not the only one up. Apparently some of these kids were raised under the impression that coffee is optional in the morning. Not so mis amigos. So I coerced convinced El chico to go scout out some coffee with me. We ventured out of Baker to a little local bakery/cafe type place and returned with six cups for the people that were awake already. Ya’ snooze, ya lose hombre. I’m not sure the coffee was any better than gas station quality, but I have learned not to turn down coffee when it’s there. Black. Gold. If it’s available, it’s good. Don’t argue.
Baker Park has this nice little 10K loop paved trail, and a 1 mile loop around all the camp sites, as well as miles of unpaved. I was going to do a few loops of the 10K trail on my roller blades, but after a quick 5 minutes on wheels I scratched that idea and pulled on my Asics. 7.4 miles later I was a sweaty beast – not because I was running fast, but because it was FUMID as hell. (Told ya’ I’d find a way to use it!)
When I got back from my run, one of the ladies whooped out a can of pancake-whoopie and got to bidness. I was super impressed with these bonfire pancakes, but apparently even more impressed with my coffee.
Lovin’ my coffee…
Lovin’ sus panqueques…
The remaining two photos are for the viewing pleasure of my girl J.B. and el novio de mi madre. He likes animals. I got a bunch more but due to my crappy photo taking skills the swiftness of these lil’ ones… they’re all blurry.
Puppy love? Oh yes. These two are in it to win it.
Ya mom. I play hard.
Real hard.
So that in sum is my camping experience at Baker Park. I would most definitely go back, weather it would be for an overnight or just for a training day. Hmmm… UMN team camping trip? Maybe?!
And now I go.
The end.
-E
Note to NorthFace… you’re warm, but you got nothin’ on Minnesota.
