LITMIR.BIZ

      PREFACE

      Picture this: Buchanan, New York, 1963. A young man, and by young I mean 5 years old, joins his family on the first day of what would become a family tradition—camping on a beautiful strip of beach along the banks of the Hudson River. Yes, the Hudson River. We were oblivious to the environmental struggles this majestic river was and would be facing. All we knew was that the river provided one long endless summer of fun with swimming, water skiing, hiking, and, of course, camping.

      We spent many hot summer nights in that behemoth of a tent we lugged along with us, a giant Coleman canvas cabin structure with massive aluminum poles that took hours to erect, but once up hosted many late-night gin rummy games and endless conversations around lantern light.

      And that’s where it started, and for the life of me, I can’t remember a time when I was not in camping mode, whether it was pitching a tent along a beautiful hiking trail, beside a scenic river, or in a public campground, the tent was always at the ready to rekindle those memories and make new ones.

      Eventually I married my wife, Maggie, and we moved from New Jersey to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, along the state’s Gulf Coast. Quickly I learned that Alabama has some of the most beautiful public campgrounds anywhere. They’re much more than just a place to put up a tent for a night or two. They are scenic, inviting, friendly, and teeming with recreational opportunities, and in Alabama the adventures seem endless. I have car camped on crisp winter nights at DeSoto State Park when the campground was nearly deserted and snow silently fell around me; I have spent nights at Monte Sano State Park and left the warm glow of my campfire to take in planetarium shows and glimpses of the heavens through the telescopes at the Von Braun Astronomical Observatory before turning in for the night; and I have spent more than one night along the banks of Lake Chinnabee in the Talladega National Forest, using it as a base camp for amazing hikes to high mountain peaks, ridges, and cascading waterfalls.

      Recreational opportunities and amazing landscapes abound at or near Alabama’s campgrounds. Fishermen have plenty of opportunities to try for some world-record fishing along the banks of thousands of miles of rivers and waterways and, of course, on the Gulf of

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