If a Person "Goes" in the Woods....

Over the past 12+ years of being married, my wife and I have had a number of dogs. We have had different ages, from new puppy to full-grown. We have had different breeds from Lab to Terrier to Boxer. I have heard it said that dogs don’t “poop where they eat”, or “pee where they sleep.” I will unapologetically admit that I am a cat person and I don’t understand the whole idea of people treating their pets like they are people, but, in terms of instincts, it makes sense to me that an animal will pick a different place to eliminate waste than where they eat or sleep. It is too bad that there are people out there who don’t grasp what even animals understand.

Over Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I took our kiddos camping. We are avid campers and there are some places that we go to annually.  One of those places is on the Washington Coast near some amazing lighthouses. It would be a reasonable guess that I am writing about camping with babies.  Reasonable, but wrong.

At the last minute, another couple that we know decided to come camping with us. The campsite had enough room for two tents and the spot was already paid for, so we thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal. This was our first trip of the season and our second since we went back to tent camping.

Between trips with my family when I was a kid and my time in the Boy Scouts, I have done a lot of camping. I am comfortable in the woods and can handle nearly any imaginable situation. There are some things that Wilderness Survival training cannot prepare you for.

While we are tent camping, it is not an uncivilized set of conditions.  About 110 yards from our campsite, there is a bathroom. Not a pit toilet, but an actual bathroom, complete with running water, sinks, and a working shower. This is so much more developed than the pit toilets that I have used in other places. Also, the path to the bathrooms is really a paved road.

On our first evening in camp, after getting things set up and putting the kiddos to bed, the four adults decided to stay up and play games. In the middle of playing, our female companion declared that she needed to use the bathroom. She got up from the table and disappeared from sight, and then she returned in less than a minute. Not only was the speed of her constitutional a surprise, but, she did not have a flashlight on her. I am comfortable walking in the woods in the dark, but I really don’t think that I could have made that round trip, while conducting business in between in less than a minute. When my wife asked how she did that so fast, she told us that she just went behind their tent. To say that I was shocked and offended would be more than an understatement.

One of the tenants that are taught in Scouting is a respect for the land. You leave a campsite in at least as good of condition as you found it in if not better. From a survival perspective, eliminating waste near where you sleep or eat presents a large potential to contaminate available water as well as attract other animals in the area. I tried to explain this to her, but what I had to say fell on deaf or uncaring ears. When we arrived in camp, the Park Ranger told us that there was a bear spotted in the general area where we were going to camp.

This practice of peeing in the campsite continued over the course of the weekend. I don’t think she even saw the inside of the restroom that weekend. A mistake that I made was probably keeping my mouth shut for as long as I did. In the afternoon of the second day camping, we came back to the campsite to put the kiddos down for naps. We sat in the campsite and read while our companions decided to spend more time sightseeing. They arrived a short time after we did and it was decide that we would play some more games. My wife asked me to go and get something from inside our tent. While I was inside looking for whatever I was supposed to find, I heard a sound that reminded me of someone slowly pouring out a water bottle.  My first thought was that an animal decided to go near our tent. I hurried outside to shoo the animal away and was surprised to find out that the animal is human. Our companion decided to go behind our tent instead of going the short distance to the building that is the bathroom. There are some things that happen in life that you wish you could unsee. This was one that I wish I could use some sort of mental bleach to wash the image away.

I am a pretty easygoing person most of the time. I don’t anger easily and I think I am pretty good about thinking about what I am going to say before I say it. That was all tested in those few moments.

It may seem obvious, but I was really upset. I looked at the event as her giving us a visible example of how little respect she has for my family and me. She could have missed and urinated all over our tent that she chose to go behind and that I was in at the time.  For some people I think it would be like peeing in the corner of the hotel room instead of the bathroom. Difference is that you are less likely to be caught doing this while camping.

It was a battle of wills that I had a really difficult time fighting. I am not a yeller, but I yelled. I think I made it clear that I was angry. While didn’t call names, I wouldn’t let her get nearly me let alone hug me like she tried to do. Not only because she didn’t washed her hands afterward, but, I also, I was pretty sure the hug may have turned into strangling on my part. I wished there was a Park Ranger nearby so she could at least get a citation. I am sure there are laws about doing this sort of thing.

What happened next didn’t do anything to calm me down. She tried to justify what she did. Her argument was that when you go backpacking, you did holes and go just wherever. Keep in mind, we were not backpacking and at no time did her hands ever touch a shovel on this trip.

The rest of the trip was a challenge for me. The tension was tangible and while I love to camp and be outdoors, I was more than anxious to get home. On the last morning, as we were breaking camp, I could tell that we were all getting frustrated with each other.  All of my time and experience camping has given me the skill of being able to break down a tent and make it fit in the bag that it came in. I do it almost as well as the machines they use in the tent factories. As I was rolling up the tent, I put my body weight on the roll to force the air out. The same companion who didn’t use the designated facilities all weekend, decided to jump on my back as though she was trying to dog pile on me. This upset a back injury that I suffered in a car wreck a few years ago. I yelled at her to get off of me. She got mad at me for yelling at her, even though we had just told her about the injury. They didn’t stay too much longer after that. This is just a small snap shot of our weekend., but that is another blog post.

My wife and I had the best time on the trip after they went home. We got to explore and do things with the kiddos and just enjoy being with each other without worry about outside pressures and schedules. That, in my opinion, is what a weekend get away is supposed to be about.

I want to know what your opinion is. Do you think I overreacted and I had no business getting mad, or do you think we went camping with crazy?