The week had been extremely hectic, with work, helping Paula move around and xcessive partying. Vinodh mailed on Thursday inviting me and sk for a camping trip to Oklahoma...Been fixed in Dallas for almost 8 months now, and dying for a break to stretch ym legs, i agreed. The members on this rather incredible trip will be myself, Vinodh, Anirban and Mekala
We started out on a lazy saturday morning, finally at 11 am (we had agreed on 9 am, talk about punctuality!). We bought some beer and ice and headed out towards oklahoma via the Interstate Highway 35
We had talks abt various topics ranging from current politics, how India can become rich in the next century, a particular character called Boris in Anirban's lab and his antics, state of affairs in Dallas etc. The chat was mostly informative to me but dont know how far with the others ;)
Once we left the lone star state (Texas) the scenery completely changed..Oklahoma is native Indian country (not East indian, which I am...I am talking abt American Indian)...hill country and very beautiful...reminded me of Kodaikanal in India...
We reached the Robbers cave state park at 3 PM on Saturday evening...
http://www.oklahomaparks.com/detail.asp?id=1+5U+3607
After searching for a place to camp for abt 30 mins, we found a nice isolated spot by the lake with a small cascade upstream.
We wanted to explore the territory, so started to walk as far as the main lake - with me and Anirban jumping inside the main area of the dam (check out the pic). We then came back to the campsite and made some barbecued chicken and meat with asparagus..The food vanished before our eyes instantly...(Read as we were very hungry...)We then took some pictures, started a bonfire to warm our ass. We bought the worng type of coal so had an incredible adventure to make it burn...It was a full moon night (Gosh only if I were a werewolf or vampire :D) and we took some amazing pictures in the ambient moonlight and chatted for sometime. It was like returning to the wild. But in a more civilized way as restrooms were only a quarter mile away ;)
By 10:30 PM I was tired and felt sleepy (as I mentioned, I had an extremely hectic week before) and crashed. The climate became very cool and rained, but thankfully the tents were good enough and did not get wet. Byt morning I woke up at 7 AM and the rest of the gang were already out - apparent Anirban and Mekala did not have a good sleep as the water leaked inside and Vinodh was early too....I woke up to the smell of good tea, courtesy of Vinodh - wildstyle. Nevertheless after drinking the tea we went to hke along the robbers cave trail, hiking to the top of the mountain through the torturous caves the robbers had used for hiding. It was kind of funny that there were no witnesses to robbers having stayed there - only that some travelers were robbed and a woman murdered around that area, that made ppl think that te outlaws would have hid here. Robbers or not, the area was one hell of a place for bandits to stay. The trail included places like the stone corral, devil's rock and names of similar nature to create a missense of adventure. The view of the lake and surrounding plains from the top of the mountain was very nive and we also had a glimpse of what looked like a barricaded area with dish antenna at the top of the mountain, which made me wonder if it was the headquarters of "Men in Black" :D
After that we drove bac in search of food to eat ad ended up in a secluded place by the lake, with no human presence for half a mile...It cud have been a good place to take a dip...Maybe skinny dip ;) but my company was not so enthusiastic abt it, and so the mission was aborted. Its hard to find a bunch of crazy people who share my same sense of misadventure. We returned from the place to the entrance of the park and then left the park to te nearby city of Wilburton to have food at a Mexican restaurant. After that we decided it was getting late and set out on the return journey back to Dallas. This time around we decided to take a scenic longer route via Oklahoma backcountry, instead of the highway, which is more monotonous.
On the whole it was an interesting trip esp to me as it was my first camping experience - returning the call of the wild.
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