Holiday campers can expect wet

Rain, seething, falling.

I scatter wild rose petals.

Dad, this is boring.

If you had to write your Memorial Day camping experience in the form of a haiku, would those lines cover it?

Cold, wet weather is forecast as Inland Northwest residents prepare for this year’s first mass exodus to campgrounds and forests by shaking last year’s graham cracker crumbs out of their children’s sleeping bags. In other words, the annual experience of sharing crowded campgrounds in the rain is coming together in the usual way.

“We are shaping up almost like normal,” said John Hagerty at All About Sports in Coeur d’Alene. But, Hagerty mused, it seems like something’s missing. Rain pelted downtown Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday as Hagery’s face lit up with an Aha!

Just before the weekend, he said, “We should have a tease of sun and nice weather and then, by Sunday, the rain comes and crushes you.”

Campgrounds around North Idaho and Eastern Washington report being filled up – some hit their limits weeks ago. And yet weary campground staffers at places like Farragut State Park on the southern end of Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille expect carloads of wild-eyed optimists to show up Friday and expect to find a space.

In Washington, the wild-eyed optimists will have to drive a while. All reservable campsites in Eastern Washington have been booked, said Brett Lake, a call-center worker who takes reservations for Washington State Parks. Out of 43 parks in Washington that take reservations, only two had spaces left on Wednesday – Osoyoos Lake up in the Okanogan Valley, and Paradise Point just north of Vancouver, Wash.

“I had a lady begging me yesterday, ‘Can’t you find a place for me and my two tents?’ I wanted to say she could rent space in my back yard, but I didn’t,” joked Nancy Fletcher, office specialist at Farragut, which filled up weeks ago. “We go through this every year.”

There are two schools of thought, it seems, on the phenomenon of mass migrations to campgrounds on Memorial Day weekends when the rain is falling, falling and the corn dogs are soggy and the kids are crabby and bored.

There’s the We’re-Tougher-Than-the-Weather- School: Ed Segrist of Kellogg was wearing a short-sleeved shirt as he and his wife, Carolyn, waited at the counter to reserve camping space at Farragut. Outside, rain hissed from a steel sky.

You could almost hear Ed scoff.

“We lived in Scotland when I was in the service,” Ed said. “The weather was much like this. It was windy and unpredictable. If you wanted to get out and do something, you just did it. You didn’t let the weather stop you.”

Before moving to Kellogg two years ago, the couple lived in Western Washington, near Bremerton. “We’ve done our share of camping in the rain,” Carolyn said.

Tough, sturdy talk from tough, sturdy folks. Chat with them a few minutes and there comes a ray of hope that rain will simply turn tail and run if enough stout fists are shaken in its direction.

So, what place did they pick? Are the Segrists ready to march right out and pitch a tent?

“Well, we’re going with a group of three other couples and they suggested mid-July,” Carolyn said. “They have more familiarity with this area and I think the weather was a factor.”

Corndog ketchup smear.

Dog smells fill the Costco tent.

Outhouse far away.

People try to be tough, said Pam Ellis, office specialist at Farragut who juggled reservations from folks at the counter, calling on the phone, or reserving spaces online. “I’ve been here 11 years and I remember some soggy ones. People will always put in that first night to see if maybe it won’t get better.

“Then some will tough it out through two nights to see if maybe it won’t get better,” she said.

Then the reality sinks in: It’s not going to get better until the morning you go back to work or school.

Then there is the school of thought where people stay far, far away from the woods.

“It’s amazing to me that so many people go out and do it in spite of everybody all trampling over each other and in spite of everybody fighting over campsites and in spite of the inevitable rain,” All About Sports’ Hagerty said , a border collie curled up and rainy-day napping in the Coeur d’Alene sporting goods store. “For me, I’m staying away.”

Kathy Booth, an avid camper in Coeur d’Alene, has a similar rule of thumb:

“There are two days you don’t go camping – Memorial Day and Fourth of July. If you stay in town, you’ll see less people,” she said.

Like churches or political parties, people seem to pick their school of thought on holiday camping early in life. And it can be tough to change, to explore the other side. So, for both schools, here is a National Weather Service haiku for the weekend:

Thunderstorm Friday.

Snow above 6,000 feet.

Don’t forget the cards.

The weather is a factor in other ways.

Kent Wellner, recreation program manager for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, said more sites should be accessible because of a low snowpack this year.

“I’m guessing we’re going to have access to some country that wasn’t available on previous Memorial Days.”

Bringing firewood from home would be a safe bet, rather than risking wet kindling at campsites, he said.

Gary Long, assistant region manager for the Washington State Parks Eastern Region in Wenatchee, said recent rainfall has rivers higher than normal and warned of swift currents.

Fire danger will be low over the weekend, but Long anticipates fire restrictions sooner than normal this year because of the low snowpack.