Went camping last night in Portola Redwoods State Park with a gaggle of girls.
When we arrived at dusk and began to set up camp, we noticed that one of the long poles for our tent was broken.
Then we discovered that we did not have a tent. Just two tent rain covers that did not have a place for poles. Some boys had used it last time, and so, somewhere out there is a family with two tents and no rain covers.
So we arced the two working poles between redwoods and secured them to each other under tension with a piece of string. We used the broken pole as a v-shaped roof structure, and then tossed the rain cover over the whole lot. We tied the snap-buckles at each corner to a nearby sapling or fallen log. And it held up well to the light sprinkle of rain that came a few hours later in the night.
Everyone else had a proper tent.
But this morning, the girls agreed that we had the coolest fort of the bunch, with redwood greenery integrated into our vaulted ceiling, and a council of trees surrounding us, and a secret alcove in the burned-out base of the giant tree. It became a stable for sundry stuffed animals that came out to play.
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