S'mores galore

I think tent camping has a biblical basis. After all, didn't the Israelites spend forty years dwelling in tents in the wilderness? Unlike the Israelites, though, the 48 folks who camped together at Big South Fork last weekend didn't have a pillar of cloud by day or a pillar of fire by night to guide us, but we certainly had plenty of other reminders of God's presence in our midst. 

What a glorious weekend! The colors of the leaves were more vivid than I can ever recall on our previous annual camping trips to Big South Fork. The weather was much warmer than we had experienced in the past - I had never worn sandals and shorts while delivering my mini-sermon at the Saturday evening campfire before - but the evenings were comfortably cool and well-suited for a slumber in a sleeping bag. The daytime skies were a brilliant blue, and the evening skies were studded with more stars than we could ever count. The twelve families who gathered at the group campground at Bandy Creek - Stewarts, Atkinses, Fousts, Kennons, Walshes, Hartzells, Robersons, Cateses, Swineys, Gipsons, Pollards, and Robertsons - made a fresh batch of memories this past weekend, served up with a heaping helping of laughter. 

We took two group hikes during the weekend - a Saturday afternoon trek along the Big South Fork River to the O&W Railroad Bridge (4.6 miles round-trip) and a Sunday afternoon excursion along the Twin Arches Loop Trail (2.8 miles). During the rest of our time together, clusters of adults gathered around picnic tables and campfires, enjoying the kind of extended conversations that we rarely have time for during our busy days at home. Clumps of children shuffled through the woods on the lookout for the black bear that had been spotted in the campground earlier in the week. Some teenagers played football in the field, while others played cards in the pavilion. And we ate - a lot. Our community meal on Saturday evening - featuring four batches of chili and the Pollards' delicious cornbread, among many other dishes - was delicious as usual, but we were still able to consume large quantities of S'mores after the evening devotion around the campfire.

Camping at Big South Fork is like going back to a simpler time, a time when grownups passed the evening telling stories on the front porch while their children chased fireflies in the yard. Plenty of stories were shared this past weekend at Bandy Creek - stories that our children will undoubtedly recount to their own offspring in years to come. And while there were many outbursts of laughter among our children this past weekend, the adults laughed louder and longer. In fact, we often laughed until we cried. A cheerful heart really is good medicine (Proverbs 17:22).

happy camper

In October 1996, my family took our first camping trip to Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, which straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky border on the Cumberland Plateau. I had never camped in a tent before that weekend (sleeping in a car at a campground doesn't really count as camping, but those are stories for another day). I chose Big South Fork for our first camping experience because my friend Amy swore that the bathhouses were cleaner than her own bathrooms, so we acquired a tent and other basic equipment and made the three-hour drive to the Bandy Creek Campground. (FYI: The bathhouses really are incredibly clean.)

During that trip, we ran into Lauryn, a friend from church who I had first met on a mission trip to Scotland five years earlier. Lauryn told us that several families from our church were camping together at one of Bandy Creek's two group campgrounds, an experience that had become their annual tradition. Lauryn then invited us to join them for their community meal that evening, which we did. That night we asked them to add us to their camping roster, and we've been making the trip to Big South Fork every October since then. 

Chaney was a kindergartner the first time we camped; now he's a senior in high school. Camping at Big South Fork is one of our family's most cherished traditions. Tomorrow our family will set up at camp at Bandy Creek once again, along with eleven other families. In accordance with tradition, we will take a group hike on Saturday, which almost always features one or more boys getting their shoes wet in the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. Saturday night we will share a community meal (a chili supper) at the pavilion before regrouping around the campfire circle, where I will share an evening devotion (I'm thinking about Elijah). Afterwards, the teenagers (and some adults) usually head up to the field where we take advantage of the lack of light pollution and stargaze to our hearts' content. I can't wait!

"The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies display the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard" (Psalm 19:1-3).