We have been chatting with members for a while about trying out a library camping trip – and now we are ready to make it a reality!

We are just getting started with working through the planning, and will keep you up to date as things firm up. But we want to give people a chance to have some fun with other library people, and to have fun exploring on their own – so it will all be pretty loose!

I have to say, we’ve had such fun with member events this year that we are looking forward to trying a new one!

This is NOT LIMITED to just members! If you work in a library, we want to hear from you!!

WHEN are we going? We have reservations for Fri June 28 – Sun June 30. You can come and stay one night, two nights, or no nights. We welcome people who want to come for an afternoon of fun on Saturday, and will have a couple scheduled events to help you plan your time.

WHERE are we going? As this is our first group camping event, we don’t want to go too far from home yet. So we are going to go to Lake Maria State Park. Here is their photo tour.

We are going to reserve their Group Camping site. It’s probably not the most beautiful in the park – but we will have plenty of room for everyone to pitch a tent and enjoy some outdoor time! And there will be lots of beautiful things for everyone to enjoy. We will be right on a hiking trail, so you will have easy access to explore some of the nice trails at this park!

There is a parking lot next to our camping area, so you can park and go forth from there. Or you can park closer to the park entrance and hike back to us.

WHAT is happening? We have reserved two nights. We will take names of people who want to come and hang with library people, so we know who to expect. You can come for either night, or both. You can even just stop by for an afternoon, to enjoy some outdoor time with a lovely group of people – or just to enjoy the park!

Saturday we will have two hour-long sessions scheduled to talk books and libraries. If you want to come for a shorter visit, this is a good opportunity. Chat with us, then spend some time on the trails before you head home.

We will talk books at 11:00 and at 2:00 on Saturday. We will pull up chairs, or sit at the picnic tables, to talk about books, Readers Advisory, and any other library topics. Drop by on your own schedule.

BONUS! We have a variety of books we will give away to attendees!

(Mary will be on-site the whole time, ready to answer questions or provide library-related camping thoughts!)

If you have not been to this park yet, you are in for a treat! There are several trails to hike, with different levels of difficulty to suit the interests and abilities of all levels of hikers. It’s just lovely! We will provide some hiking maps to our campers (and day visitors). There is a small, but very nice, nature center.

There will almost certainly be s’mores in the evenings. (I mean: is it even a camping trip without s’mores?? Seems unlikely.)

HOW??? I know we have a lot of camping people in our membership – great! (It’s not a requirement, of course – we embrace diversity of all sorts, including in the camping area!)

So if you want to give camping a try, but are not filled with equipment, we can work on finding some to borrow from people not able to attend. I find that people who camp tend to have excessive amounts of stuff – and that camping people are nice people who could be persuaded to share. (Heck – I have three sleeping bags and two tents myself, so we have at least a couple of people covered right there!)

WHO?? Come alone! Bring a friend! Bring the kids! (Note on that: Yes, we would be happy to see your family and kids! But we will count on you to know whether sleeping outside is too scary, or whether a day visit is more fun for younger people. )

We anticipate this will be a nice group of library-related people, and that we will get a chance to meet some new people and have some less-typical library fun!

Wrap It Up: We will have plenty of time to work out all the details, to give everyone the best chance to have fun on this member event!! It will be lovely to see you – for a night, for two, or just a few hours on Saturday! Library people are always fun, camping people are nice; put the two together and I think we are going to have a lovely member event!