Camping at San Mateo Campgrounds - San Clemente, CA

Not really understanding the word ‘ironic’ the way some Europeans do, I would like to say that with all the fires raging on right now, I find it ironic that this entry is about camping. And not ironically at all, the campgrounds that I’m writing about is pretty damn close to be surrounded by flames.



Two weekends ago (I missed a weekend due to illness), a few of us went camping in San Mateo campgrounds near San Clemente. It’s the campgrounds we typically go to due to its proximity to the beach. San Mateo is actually the first campground I went to in California and the campground that got me over my hatred for camping.


You might have to strain to see it in this picture, but these guys playing football totally destroyed one of their tents from a pass from the 50 yard line.

When I was younger, camping was a big deal for my dad. He loved it. I have memories of camping in South Dakota with the buffalos. I have memories of the two week long summer trip camping up and down the Mississippi River. I even have memories of camping in butt ass cold weather every fall in Door County, WI. Every year we went camping SOMEWHERE, usually multiple times in a bunch of different weather. There were long hikes in the woods, swimming in mossy lakes, and bike rides on scenic paths.


Derek and Jamie

It was awful and I hated every single minute. What I remember is complaining about the long walks and bike rides. I remember crying buckets over having to take a shower with the june bugs. I remember holding a grudge that I was only allowed one s’more after dinner. And I remember every time it rained my tent flooded because I always set it up on a slight hill. The only thing I did like was collecting sticks for the fire, putting said sticks in the fire, and carving a stick for the marshmallows. Since that was all of an hours worth of fun, I was pretty miserable most of the time. What can I say; I was an indoor type of kid.


Andrea and Oliver

These miseries kept me from camping for a long, long time. When I was college age, friends from school would go on camping trips up in the Dells area. I always refused. I really hated camping that much. When I moved out to CA in 2000 I met up with a group that liked to go camping. I was hesitant at first, but agreed from the peer pressure. And you know what? It was awesome.


Derek and his sausage....and beans!

I never put two and two together in my head that if I went camping now, as an adult, I can do whatever I want. I don’t have to go for 18 mile walks if I don’t want to. I don’t have to shower with june bugs if I don’t want to. And I can certainly have as many damn s’mores as I wanted to (and beer for that matter!). I was hooked….

…to a degree. You can’t convince me to go on a camping trip where we have to hike up to the site with limited gear. I’m a car camper. I don’t care for pit toilets either, but I’ll deal with them if I have to. Just don’t ask me to crap in the woods.


A proper crapper is the flushing kind!

Anyhow, so we went camping a couple weeks ago. It was Derek, Ian, Ian’s little girl, Andrea, Andrea’s little boy, Kevin, and myself. Even though it rained on us the first night and I might have accidentally left both my pairs of shoes and hat out in the rain, it was fun. I ate too much as usual. I was fire-girl and kept the blaze going into the wee hours of the night (which in camping terms is like 11 o’clock). We never did go on our usual hike down to the beach (I claim tiredness due to child entertaining). I had a good time.


OK, totally awesome 'town in the dirt' that Oliver, Jamie and I built.

I’m hoping that San Mateo will survive the fires so that we can go again sometime.


And this is how you properly have a fire...