Camping with Shay and George

A couple weeks ago, I went camping with shay and George in Penitente Canyon near Center. Eric didn’t come, and it was really nice to be able to hang out with them alone. I felt like I was really funny and enjoyable company the whole time, and it was nice to have the attention and feel like I was their friend and not just an accessory to Eric. I was hoping it would make them value me more for myself and want to hang out alone with me more often, but it hasn’t really changed anything. Ive tried a couple times to make pans to hang out with them since but they are evasive about it. Maybe I wasn’t as cool as I thought and made a complete ass of myself.

It was good times tho, another friend of theirs, a guy around my age named Oscar came along. I think it was his first time camping. He seemed sort of lost and pensive and forlorn the whole night. He came along to try rock climbing, but Caleb (Shay and George’s son) had forgotten to pack the gear. When George found out, he got really angry. Understandably so.. however I was perturbed by how quick he was to denounce Caleb as both a person and his son, saying things like “Kids are good for nothing, just a waste of money and time” while Caleb sat there silently, looking at the ground.

So we hiked around a little bit, and the guys went bouldering. Really it just consisted of them hanging on to a ledge for as long as they could. They couldn’t really make any upward progress, but it was still interesting to watch. It was absolutely beautiful country tho, a very popular climbing spot seen from the numerous hooks drilled into the rock.

Campsites cost $15 a night tho, with a max of 2 (or maybe 3) tents per site. So we had to get 2 sites. George paid for it all along with all the food and stuff, so I was really grateful. We smoked a lot of weed and I took a few hits of Jagermeister and had a beer even tho Im not a drinker. On the way out of Monte, the cap to the Jager broke and we had to pour it into empty soda bottles. Then later that night, after most of it had been consumed, a moth flew in and died in the bottom of the bottle. Tequilas got worms, but Jager’s got moths.

I can kinda understand why Shay is so wishy washy sometimes. George has a real anger problem and is quite controlling. For example the guys were out climbing and me and shay were back at camp. It was already starting to get dark so I suggested we start a fire. Shay seemed really nervous and said “I think we should wait for them to get back so they can do it.” I didn’t really understand why, we were perfectly capable of building a fire. So I started gathering wood and broke a huge dead branch – when it broke I lost my balance and fell on my ass lol. But I got it all set up and ready to go. But then Caleb and George came back up and caleb took apart my whole fire and said “im the boyscout, let me do this, you did it wrong.” George agreed and helped him take it over and remake it. I was offended, but let it slide and tried to just have a good night. There was no reason to destroy my fire and rebuild it. It’s a fire. Its not rocket science. It works and that’s all that matters. I felt aggrivated that later after all that, they started throwing plastic and trash into the fire. Gross! Just pack out your trash dude .. I could tell that if Shay tries to do anything on her own, she just gets shut down by George and Caleb. And then George turns around and complains about her being so passive and indecisive.

In the morning of course I was up before everyone. Im always the first one up. Tho apparently, Oscar had been up before me and was sitting around waiting at like 5am at the picnic table, but no one got up so he went back to sleep. When I got up at about 6, I hadnt noticed him getting up and I went hiking around for a bit by myself waiting for the others to get up. When they did get up I went down and we had a great breakfast. All I know is George can cook some mean bacon. Why doesn’t my bacon ever come out good? Its always burnt, and/or flat. His was perfectly crispy without being burnt, and got the nice waves and curls in it. Anyways, Oscar still hadnt showed and we started to worry. I went down and packed up my tent and gear and made sure to make a lot of noise but nothing stirred in Oscars tent. We thought maybe he wandered off somewhere early in the morning, and in the back of my head I worried he had alcohol poisoning. But eventually he showed, seems he had simply gone back to deep sleep since no one else was up at 5.

Overall it was a fun trip and Im glad I went. Apparently nearby Witches Canyon is haunted. I think this is a really awesome area and if it wasn’t so public Id really enjoy exploring it more. Still, Id like to go back sometime.