Pawcatuck River Overnight/Bastille Day Campout - June 27-28, 2026

Heading out from Bradford

I was up early yesterday to finish packing for the Pawcatuck River Overnight/Bastille Day Campout at the Burlingame Canoe Campsites on the on the Pawcatuck River.

Back in the old days, RICKA held an annual summer camping trip – the Bastille Day Campout. Bastille Day is a national holiday in France that celebrates the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Why Bastille Day was chosen as a theme for a RICKA camping trip has been lost to history. The connection to summer is obvious, and maybe it was a simple as that.

Camp is set up

The event was originally held on Dutch Island. When the DEM prohibited camping on Dutch Island in 1991, it moved to the Burlingame Canoe Campsites on the Pawcatuck. It was celebrated with an assortment of French and French-Canadian delicacies – mostly wine and beer.

Reviving this RICKA tradition seemed like a worthy challenge, so for the past few years we have been organizing a summer overnight trip at the Burlingame Canoe Campsites. This year, we met at the Bradford Landing at 12:30 to load up our boats. The group included Bill, JD, Chuck, Cindy, Roberta, Jose, Danny, Tim, Terrie, Jay and me. It would be the first trip with gear for my new Mad River Explorer - it paddled great and carried a ton of gear.

Sausages for dinner

The forecast called for a slight chance of showers in the afternoon, but otherwise warm. When we arrived at Burlingame we found that the wooded site at the top of the steep bank was occupied, but the field was empty. We hauled up our gear and set up camp in the field. We started the dinner fire, then cooled off taking turns on the rope swing as the fire burned down to coals for cooking.

As always, the food was plentiful. We had hummus with flat bread and fruit salad as appetizers; Cesar salad, lasagna, mac and cheese, sausage and peppers and hot dogs for dinner; and apple crisp, carrot cake and chocolate macaroons for desert. After dinner, we settled in around the campfire for a night of tall-tales and war-stories. I finally turned in at around 10:00.

Bill and me in the Explorer 17

Before I knew it, morning light was streaming through my tent. I got up around 6:00, started the fire and got the coffee perking. Terrie was already up, and Danny was up shortly after. I fired up my Dutch oven to make a batch of cinnamon rolls; Terrie grilled some brown bread, and we had egg-in-a-hole with home fries and bacon. No one ever goes hungry on these trips.

After breakfast we packed for the trip back to Bradford. I was on the road by 11:00, and I was home by 12:00. We will definitely put the Bastille Day Campout on the RICKA calendar again next year.

The crew at the take-out at Bradford

Links:

My Pictures