#bronsons camp outlaw

[sticks-and-stone]

Bronson’s Camp Outlaw

April 10, 2020 - April 12, 2020

For the April 2020 camping trip, I took my girlfriend to Bronson’s Camp Outlaw. This was an interesting trip to plan because I had never been there and didn’t know anyone that had. I found them on an app called HipCamp which is basically an AirBnB for camping. You pay money to sleep in someone's backyard. Obviously this idea rang a little weird for me, but I figured with the state parks closed for COVID-19, I had few options. I spent a long time deciding on a “campground”. I looked through reviews for hours before I decided on Bronsons. And honestly, for the price I paid, it was a really great find. 

Madison and I drove down right after work on Friday. When we arrived, the mom and pop type vibe bled through hard. There was a house at the top of the hill as we arrived. I assumed (incorrectly) that this was the office to check-in. As I walked up to it, a man came over to me and asked if I was checking in. He then directed me to this grassed area right on the water’s edge that had a wood pile, a fire pit, lots of seats, and two pop up canopies. 

It took them a while to find my reservation. Apparently husband books on HipCamp and wife books on Facebook. This caused some confusion and they did not know where to put me. I ended up following the wife and the first dude (we’ll call him Buddy because I can not remember his name) to the long row of river-side “campsites”. I only put this in quotations because there were no markers or indications where one site started and the other ended. 

We chose our site at the end of the row of tents and cars and began to map out how we would set up. I had the camping carpet and the site was about the size of it and absolutely overrun with cypress roots (the ones that stick up and come to a rounded point out of the ground). This made the setup pretty odd, but we made it work.

Instead of placing the carpet out in front of the tent, we placed it completely under the tent. This allowed it to double as our footprint too, luckily, due to the small nature of our tent, we were able to find a small plot of dirt without cypress roots so we wouldn't have to sleep on top of them. 

As we got set up, Buddy and Deb (the owner) kept coming around to see if we needed any help. I guess two girls doing this alone made us look vulnerable? We kept declining. I bought some firewood and Buddy brought it to our site for us. I asked where I could dig a fire pit (there was no grill or fire ring) and they just kind of shrugged and said “anywhere you want, don’t be dumb though”. So that was neat. 

Once we got the tent completely set up, I found a spot that split the difference between the tent and the river bank our site overlooked and dug a shallow hole and started a fire. By this point it was dark. 

A quick shout out to one of the game changing pieces of gear this trip: clip-on lights for hats. Since trip #2 I have sworn that I would never go camping without a headlamp, but this took it even a step further. These little lights clipped to our hat bills, completely eliminating the need for a headlamp. No more messing up my hair or squeezing my head! And the best part? $1 each at Walmart. 

So with the new help of my hat clip light I got the fire started and we ate the sandwiches that Madison got from Publix earlier in the day before I got off of work. The next thing I worked on was the other game changer for this trip: fishing poles! I grabbed two small Zebcos rod and reel combos from Walmart for a measly $10 each and a small tackle kit for about $12!  I used my lap and the fold out table (there was no picnic table on site) to get the poles all set up. Our site sat literal feet from the water’s edge so I was excited to throw a line out at daybreak the next day.

Madison ended up going to sleep before me while I stayed up and took in my surroundings. I couldn’t see much due to the dark, but I could smell the river in front and behind me. (the sites lined a sort-of peninsular so there was water everywhere) My neighbors (arguably too close to us for comfort) were actually really nice and proved helpful the next day with our fishing lessons. They ran their van all night but the humming noise was quite lulling. I loved looking out on the dark water and seeing the occasional top feeder break the surface. It was peaceful. The sites were smaller than I was used to and lacked my usual amenities, but I liked this place. I liked the whole vibe. 

I went to bed and fell asleep instantly. I woke up before the sun and decided to walk alone in the dark to the bathroom. The bathroom was a glorified outhouse. Which bothers me NONE. It’s camping. You walk in the room to a concrete floor, soaked. A pedestal sink - dingy, a “shower” which was basically a hose coming through the wall and a shower curtain, then finally, a toilet. It was pretty gross and definitely a hovering situation, but again; its camping. I was just happy enough to have a private place to pee. Due to the closeness of our site neighbors and the comfortable vicinity to the bathhouse, I never bothered to set up the pop up potty. 

I got back to the site, started a fire, and waited for sunrise. As soon as the day broke, I threw a line out next to this big tree at the edge of the water on our site. Then Madison woke up and joined me and we had a little breakfast and I had coffee. We spent the entire day fishing off and on. I got some writing done, she read her book, and we just lounged around the river's edge and watched people come and go on kayaks and boats. It was a great day. I caught some brim, Madison caught a few too, we befriended a lot of strangers, and watched kids swim in the water next to the boat launch over by check-in. It was a great day. Madison really took to fishing and fell in love with it. We ended up going through all of our hooks and bobbers though. We kept getting snagged on the brush and losing equipment. The little dock near our site became very useful. We had lots of success fishing with bread and hotdogs (left by our neighbors).

We headed to bed early like I tend to do on night two of camping trips, around 9pm. But right as we were laying down, a family of 4 pulled up in an F350 with its brights on and began setting up right next to us. They kept apologizing for the noise and lights, but it was hard to be angry after the great day we had. They blocked my car in, but promised to move their truck before morning - they didn’t. Their tent was huge - one of those multiroom deals and I have no idea how they set it up with cypress roots everywhere but they did it. Madison and I sat up in our beds (we switched the second night so she could try the cot) and made up backstories for them and made fun of their very awkward teenage children. 

The next morning I had to pee really bad as I woke up and had to wait outside the bathroom for the mom of that family who apparently was applying makeup in the ONLY BATHROOM THE CAMPGROUND HAD. I was pissed, but I dealt with it. We threw another couple of lines out, but worked pretty quickly to get packed up and headed out. It didn’t take long to pack up as we didn’t unpack much. Without a table or big enough site, there wasn’t much to unpack. I did most of the cleaning up and packed myself, though Madison did sweep the tent out which is my least favorite camping chore. So that was nice. We got out quickly, dropped our trash at the dumpster, and headed to McDonalds for a real meal, then home to nap. 

The size and conditions of the sites were tricky, the sites were too close together, and I would have had a better time if I had kayaks with me,  but we made it work. I plan to go back to Bronsons in the future with Jenna, but I want to continue to improve our gear first.  But for a last-minute rush trip, it was pretty great. 

Stay Dirty, 

Stone.