The 2nd annual Tucson Furs camping trip was the 2nd weekend of July (so why am I just now writing about it? Because I wanted to include my artings, that's why--click on the bold letters to get to the pics they're referring to.

Let's see, we had (in no particular order)  Fragman1919a4,  DOPR5,  Dakotawolf,  bwarroo,  fluffydemon666,  Kandy_Fosky,  pyrofoks,  pedrolerenard, Flame (I can't find his FA account!), Ven (ditto),  bryantfox, and  Kazfox.

Again we camped on breathtaking Mt Lemmon, in the Coronado National Forest. It officially started Thursday the 8th, but due to work neither myself nor Dakotah could go until Friday. Happily she was able to give me a lift, since I'm not good at all at negotiating mountains (and neither is my car).

We had a late start to begin with, leaving downtown Tucson around 5:30-ish. The late start was exacerbated by a one-hour setback caused by road construction fuxxing up my dubious copiloting, which successfully got us to the wrong damned mountain. Dakotah didn't mind at all; we were going through an area that had been monsooned on, and she delighted in driving with her head out the window, raptuously inhaling the smell of the rain & the mesquite (I am not making that up).

Once on the correct mountain, our travel up was both nail-baiting (heights!) and very, very fun. Driving aside, Dakotah makes for a great traveling companion & enjoys stopping to look at things as much as I do. As long as daylight permitted, we took every opportunity to gawk at the scenery. It was worth gawking at. Tucson is in its monsoon season, so there were several areas of Tucson getting deluged far below, and a plethora of rainbows all around us. Sunsets are especially gorgeous during the monsoon season, moreso when viewed at several thousand feet.

At one of ours stops, there were several yellow flowers scattered amidst nondescript scree, weeds, & rubble. We both took pictures, then (as in other stops) Dakotah wasted no time in jumping over the barrier & trying to give me a heart attack by running pell-mell along the mountain's edge. I decided to edit my pictures, & noticed that it seemed that one of the buds was opening up. We were then treated to a display of biology.

We arrived at Camp Spencer after dark, with an enthusiastic welcoming committee of our fellow furries. We were treated to the tale of how everyone got a warning for being too bloody damned loud the night before (Pop rocks! Ass foam! [don't ask]).

I was very impressed by the latrines & the water at the campground. As a veteran camper I've learned to be appreciative of a clean latrine well-stocked with tp & funk-free, potable water. The facilities were brand-new; consequently they were the cleanest latrines I will probably ever see in my life. The water was clear & the pump spigot was high enough to make washing my hair a fairly easy process.

It rained off & on the entire weekend; enough to make us wet on occasion but not enough to make us miserable. Once again, Pyro's parachute, strung up over the main camping area, proved to be an incredibly useful thing to take shelter under (from both rain & sun).

I made shipwreck, traditional Girl Scout breakfast fare (scrambled omelet), and also made horseradish & orange zest scrambled eggs that were appreciated by those with the balls to try it. While cooking, it was said that bacon makes everything better. The general consensus was that boobs also make everything better. Then it was decided that tentacles make everything better, too. I thought, why not all three?

The campground was more populated than the previous year's, so there were less critters to be easily found. Throughout the weekend a group of yellow-eyed juncos took turns battling with their reflections in :fragman1919s: 's chrome bumper. Saturday morning a horny toad was briefly adopted by Kandy. There was a vole (or possibly more than one) who spent the weekend nomming on scraps tossed close to the holes he made close to the fire (the better to beg from us). The vole turned his nose up at healthy food like romaine lettuce, but went ape-cookies over a dense monstrosity Wolf called cornbread & the rest of us called inedible. And there was also the occasional giant bug.

The only downside were a pack of annoying children who threw rocks at the squirrels & played soccer against the latrines, and Officious Ranger Dickhead who came by while we were breaking camp to snottily invite us to camp elsewhere since we were so loud. To be fair, we were a loud group (especially, it seems, on Thursday night)--but I believe we were being also blamed for the ruckus other campers were making (particularly the aforementioned kids & the guys playing country-western music in the middle of the night).

We did the usual things. I got to braid both Dakotah's & DOPR's hair. Some went on hikes, some kept the fire going, some went on trips to get giant cookies at the top of the mountain, we did artings, i got a bug in my ear, and we all generally had a lot of fun. I very much look forward to next year's trip!