If you know anything about me then you know that I love Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Wilderness Park. A sizeable plot of land in Tulsa right on the Arkansas River. It contains miles of trails for people who like to walk, hike, run, bicycle, unicycle, geocache, picnic, and other things. The one thing you can’t do legally on Turkey Mountain is camp. Saturday night though the Great Tulsa Campout was held. One night this year where one could go camping. So I bought a pass, signed up to volunteer and headed for the mountain.
I got there, checked in, got my volunteer tshirt, and set up my tent. I haven’t had it out since Logan graduated out of Cub Scouts years ago. It still works just fine! Goes up and down easily, small to carry, holds all my stuff.
Here’s a 360 degree panorama. As you can see there were tents everywhere.
I rotated among several jobs. For a short while I helped people with parking. I also helped for a little while at the bounce tent.
Mostly I spent the time helping at the Atlatl demonstration helping Jason. He was a very patient teacher especially with the little kids. I tried it a couple of times, I’m needing practice bad.
Jason was pretty good. He ought to be. Plus he had the best tee shirt at the event. I got my work out in. I ran up and down the range fetching the spears. I got in my 10,000 plus steps in on my fitbit at least.
I also provided a little moral support to the firebuilding effort.
The smores crowd early, followed by the late night beer drinking crowd later, really enjoyed the fire. You can’t go camping without a campfire right?
For dinner Louies Dawg House was there with hot dogs and hot links with any topping you could think of. I had two!
There was lots of great music at the camp. Green Corn Rebellion, Ali Harter, and Grazzhopper played to an appreciative crowd.
I also helped create a glow walk through the adjacent woods. About 1600 glow sticks along the trail handing in the trees and strewn on the ground provided a magical effect while walking on the trail.
The next morning the sunrise was spectacular and everybody kind of slept in, others attended the yoga class. The beauty of an urban campout is that for coffee I went to a Starbucks about a mile away and got breakfast. I know that is major slacking but hey, the coffee was good.
The event was well organized and I think that everybody had fun. The guys that ran the event, Ryan Howell, Matt Carver, and Tyler Hanes were here there and everywhere making sure that everybody had a safe good time. If they have it next year I’ll be there again.
Explore Tulsa put together a nice video of the event narrated by Ryan Howell. You can get a little more of the flavor of the event.
I’m going to close with a video by Grazzhopper. They are good!!
Linking with Our World Tuesday
Have you been camping lately?
Oh, that looks as though everyone had a great time!! How fun!! And that sunrise was spectacular indeed and what an awesome capture you got!! Thanks for sharing the fun!! Hope you have a great new week!!
“The beauty of an urban campout is that for coffee I went to a Starbucks about a mile away and got breakfast.” You have know idea how I loved this sentence. A man after my own heart except that I don’t go camping but I do appreciate it when I can find a Starbucks when I am on the road 🙂 Looked like it was a huge success. My other half would have enjoyed that. The whimpy half likes soft downy mattresses too much.
This looks like fun, Yogi! I don’t remember you ever camping before. I forgive you for going to Starbucks. I would be right there with you! Love that sunrise!
That’s my kind of campout! What a lot of fun. Great job.
How fun to camp out the one night it’s possible. The glow walk would be cool. I’ve tried throw an atlatl a few times, and although I still throw like a girl it went farther than without the tool.
That looks fun, if you like that sort of thing. I confess I’m more a five star hotel sort of person! However, you do put a lot into your outdoor pursuits. I admire you, whilst not envying you:-)
Sounds like you had a great time! You cheated going to Starbucks but hey! If I had been there I would have gone too. ;))
We had a great time serving all the campers. But, next year we will be better staffed for the crowd. This year’s attendance was up substantially from last. You all worked us hard, but we enjoy the mountain and sharing the night with all of you.
Bill from Louies’s DawgHouse
Looks like a great time. Kudos to you for volunteering. I’ve never heard of Atlatl before–good way to get your steps in.
In the GREAT outdoors and you head to Starbucks? Tsk, tsk, tsk…
Tsk all you want Birdman!!
What a wonderful event and great shots not to mention you had Starbucks and great breakfast! My kind of ‘camping’ ~ Fun!
artmusedog and carol (A Creative Harbor)
Looks like a great event! I love that last shot.
A campfire is a must. Hope you toasted some marshmallows around the fire.
I haven’t been camping in years. My husband gets nervous at the idea!
Your sky picture is fantastic!