Camp Crucible – Shangri-La of Kink!

Writing by MelissaBound

 

Gratuitous boob picture from Camp Crucible. May 2015

Shangri-La is a fictional land described in the 1933 book “Lost Horizon”, as a perfect valley where people age slower, live happily and freely in harmony with nature and the spirit world. While no such place is truly ideal, our nearest experience to date, was the Montreal Fetish Weekend. There, we could present fetish attire in an urban environment, and within limits, express various BDSM accoutrements. Anytime there is an opportunity to be outside in a judgment free zone, it is a special treat. Camp Crucible raises the bar, by eliminating the vanilla people, and by eliminating some of the risks of living and moving in a judgmental vanilla society.
The location is ideal. When you are there, you feel safe, even when the vanilla world invades in the form of restaurant supply trucks. One must wonder what stories those guys tell when they get back to the office, and if they fight over who gets to make the delivery next time. May in northern Maryland is green and lush. While there is no guarantee on the weather, we were very fortunate to have beautiful clear weather and no rain while we were there. Even the bugs seemed to not be too bad yet. I got the impression that the stink bugs were much reduced over previous years. I don’t think I even got a mosquito bite, and I never sprayed myself with any bug spray. Spiders did not bother me either. There was sufficient tree shade, that I never put any sunscreen on, and never got pink.

When you are there, you feel free. Wild and free! You can be naked, covered in fetishwear or just jeans and a T-shirt and no one looks at you any differently for it. You can lay in the grass, let your junk hang out, or present however you feel. Human ponies run wild in the streets, and children in diapers way past the size babies wear play and frolic without fear of harm. Sometimes freedom is not expressed obviously. Slaves are abundant, and auctions to sell and buy them happen happily. Pain beyond explanation frees the mind to experience things beyond words.
When you think of a world where there is no vanilla, that is what camp is like. You can go shopping, swimming, take a drive (albeit a short one), take in a movie or a restaurant, walk to a friends house, walk to your favorite dungeon (the Crucible of course! – in camp form). You can go flying, although not as high as the A-10 Thunderbolts that seem to fly over in search of a softer kind of target on occasion. All kinds of amazing things can happen.
So what did this camp virgin do? Well, my Mistress had signed us up for the first session, lasting Saturday from the beginning of camp, until Wednesday at noon when we needed to leave. That was 2 half days and 3 full days, with 4 nights of sleeping there. I signed up for a kidnapping beforehand, which I did with no knowledge of what was possible or what to expect. I detailed that elsewhere in THIS WRITING extensively. We stayed in a cabin with our leather family, the DEN, and really enjoyed the facility. The bathrooms were modern and clean, and even though the cabins are made of log, and hardly air tight, they were in good repair. I could see around the camp where many repairs had been recently made. The cafeteria style meals were very tasty and food was abundant.
We started our camp experience by studying the schedule and concluding that it would be best to get our required chores out of the way. Yes, even in a kink paradise you have to work, so we both got assignments driving EzGo carts in shuttle service around the camp at the same time. This was nice because neither of us had to miss out on what the other was doing, as we were doing it at the same time. Let me tell you, after 4 hours of constantly running an EzGo around the camp, my boobs were getting pretty sore! I had to hold them in certain spots where it was really bumpy. We had hoped this would be an opporutnity to meet a lot of people, but there really were not that many riders in that amount of time. By our first supper time, all our chores were over and we could focus on really getting down to enjoying the experience.

Meal time is nice at camp. One of the things that sets Camp Crucible apart from other events that take place at Ramblewood is that the total population of camp can be seated at the cafeteria at once. This means one meal sitting for everybody, and we eat together like a big family. The kitchen help is a mix of paid staff and people working off their chore assignments, so there seems to be plenty of help, and plenty of food. Naturally certain leather families sit together, but that doesn’t keep people from mingling or conversing. After the meal, announcements are made, and everybody cleans up after themselves. Our cabin group ate together, and we always tried to grab the same table so we could find each other easily.
Evenings are nice, and there is a mix of people just relaxing and hanging out together, or playing in a dungeon (there were different ones) or playing outside, doing suspensions under a tree, or whatever people want to do. There are always scheduled activities and depending on the event, there may be a large or small contingent of campers interested in partaking of that. We spent most of Saturday night just relaxing and getting things set up. Our family puts up a couple of canopies outside and creates the Den Oasis. The men in the group seem to like to partake in cigars and light drinking, and we all just sat around and chatted.

 

New Family. Home at Camp

Our first night was pretty cool temperature wise, which was nice, and made for good sleeping. As the nights went on, the temps seemed to come up a bit each night, and the challenge of staying comfortable fell more to the box fans we had brought along. On the hotter evenings, the Oasis outside was THE place to stay cool, as the cabins tended to retain a lot of heat. The other nice thing about Oasis type set ups, is they are very inviting for others to stop by and chat. Your outside, and people can see you, and that allows them to learn where you are, if they want to seek you out for play or whatever. Otherwise, people are in their cabins, and unless you know where to find them, you may not see them easily. My Mistress and I, along with the other couples, had pushed two single beds together to form a double. We used bungee cords to hold them together so we wouldn’t fall through the crack. After all, there could be some serious sex going on!

 

Bedtime usually came late, and we wandered into bed on most nights by 1:00am. Breakfast is at 9:00am each day, and we found that we typically woke up around 7:30 to 8:00am. That gave us an hour or so to get dressed and go to breakfast. The bathroom was spacious enough, that we never had contention with other campers trying to get dressed. The bathroom is unisex, so no surprises in there. With a lot of showers running the room could get pretty humid, so sometimes the best plan for getting dressed is to get clean and get out, and either dress in your cabin or outside.
The headquarters building, as it was called, was the focal point of the camp complex. That’s where we ate, shopped, mingled and relaxed. The pool is there, and some of the classes were held down there. There were 3 people assigned to the duty of photography. I had wanted to do a photoshoot that I had dreamed up weeks before, and so I went down to the pool and requested a photographer. They used the radio and found someone for me, but he admitted that photo composition was not his thing. William came around and you can see the results.

 

Another fun activity that I enjoyed was the fashion show, put on by the little’s at camp. Anyone is welcome, and there was a good dozen of us that wanted to strut our stuff. This is held at the amphitheater as is the slave auction which follows. The slave auction was interesting, but neither my Mistress nor I brought much. This has happened to us before, and we have a theory about it. Be that as it may, it is still fun, and I was bought by Kali the owner of Passional, who was one of the main vendors at camp. Since she is busy working the event, rather than just enjoying it like the rest of us, I was enslaved to her store for an hour, helping with re-hanging the fine selection of kilts that she has.

Leather outfit

Two of the most awesome things that happened at camp, I had the privileged to be invited to. One was the wedding of Chaotic Kat and Painboy. Their ceremony at the amphitheater was extremely well done, and very touching. We each were given a stone to write a one word wish on. Love was too easy, so I opted for “faith”. That they should always have faith in one anther to live the life they seek for themselves. We were each invited to come up and drop our stone in a basket and state what was written on it. i suppose these stones will serve as reminders to them for eternity, of their awesome time at camp and in each others lives.

 

The other most awesome thing that happened at camp, I was too afraid, grossed out, or whatever to partake in, and that was Painboy’s crucifixion. My Mistress had been asked to participate in this weeks before camp, and we have several conversations about it. Her participation and the event are better suited to be explained by another writing done by someone other than me. I stayed at the Oasis and played my guitar while many at camp watched. I suppose in my mind I was drowning out the screams that Painboy made, not that my guitar really could cover them up. He had already been strung up in the trees earlier, and I was able to see him hanging all the way across the campground, so the memory of that was still fresh in my mind. I have problems dealing with events that involve blood, and so I missed out on what I am sure was a powerful experience.

 

My Mistress and I play all the time, so for us, it was not as important to go to the dungeon ever day, as it was just totally enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of camp. She had a pretty full dance card some days, and there was not always time to do everything. We did go to the upper dungeon and had a fun scene involving an ass hook that lasted all the way until we got back to the cabin. It’s not just anywhere that you can be partially bound, with a double ball ass hook up your tush, forced to get into an EzGo, and be given a punishing ride back to your cabin for futher abuse. LOL

 

One of the more relaxing activities I did was to get a Henna tattoo with my friend and cabin mate babybethie. This was in the works since before camp started, and I was very tickled that we could go get them together. My Mistress also joined us and got one as well. The artist was exceptional, and I thought she did a really nice job! Once it was done, I had to let it dry for an hour before I could move, so I got a nice nap laying there. There was a real good breeze that day, and the window shutters were blowing around, and it was just wonderful to lay there and enjoy the summer.

Bondage hena tattoo

I took in Beth and Preston’s foot message class, and brought some great skills back to my Mistress’ feet. I know she was happy that I went, and I was happy to learn another way to please her.
The formal dinner was a highlight for us also, as we were very much in tune with each other as we celebrated our anniversary week. When we arrived on Saturday, we waited for camp to open, and at noon we observed the moment of our 28th union.

 

Later in the week we observed the 3rd year of our re-commitment under God.

Camp was a totally awesome experience, and even though I consider myself a seasoned kinkster, I’m never too old to learn. The thing that I think I took away from camp the most was that no matter who or what you think you are, want to be or actually are, it is all the same. Let me explain.

As a bi-gendered transexual, I have my own struggles. I have to deal with a lot of the issues regular transgendered people have to deal with, and have to tolerate the constant mis-genderings that go on (like Lady Green CONSTANTLY not even trying in the foot massage class sigh). I tend to look at a lot of people through my own lens, but at camp I was able to step outside of that and see things in a new and clearer vision. Human ponies ARE ponies. They are not just role playing. Little’s ARE very young human beings, with their own developmental issues, and regardless of sexual preference, gender, fetishes, desires, and the list goes on… these people ARE who or what they are, and most importantly, they are Human. Humans who should not be judged or scorned, or looked down on or segmented out just because they are different. All I’ve ever wanted are for people to accept me for what I am, and who I am, and for the most part, I’ve been blessed for that to be the case. But I know everyone who doesn’t fit in the boxes that the vanilla world has established, are not always as free and comfortable to feel the same. Camp Crucible is the Shangri-La land where this positively can happen, and it is a shame that it can only happen once a year. Is it camp yet?

 

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