Honest, Iโm less cranky now that the rain has stopped for a day or two and can ride my bike to work.
Somehow watching Brothers Keeper, and listening to ever so woke Candice Baticeโs Sustained and reading the Oscar Willโs Plowing with Pigs and Other Creative Low-Budget Homesteading Solutions just kind of set me off. Maybe itโs because I feel so trapped, and all people want to talk to me about is camping, as if thatโs the only interesting in my life or whatโs keeping me alive. Why celebrate the interim solution? Itโs really just a a rehearsal for retirement, an interim time in my life to learn and build skills even if I canโt live the life I want as make money in city. I just find that book Sustained to be so woke, as so much of the crap in it is fake and meaningless notions, like not using paper towels (which I donโt use except at camp) or those fake paper throw-away containers that are supposed to better then the Styrofoam egg containers which disappears just fine if you got land or are up in wilderness.
Itโs the simple things that you have to do to survive this life, it fucking beats riding the bus to work, much less driving in. Thursday looks good but then rain again for Friday. I guess that probably means I shouldnโt plan on heading out of town on Friday. Maybe Iโll still go hiking on Saturday and do an overnight, or maybe Iโll wait another weekend. Sunday looks good, Saturday is a bit more marginal. But then again, itโs spring turkey season so I try to stay out of woods before noontime for a few more weekends. Not to mention the black flies!
This morning I made pancakes with onions, spinach, cornmeal and I seemed to get the spice mix just right and they came out pretty good. This evening I think I need to get to the store, though with the weather being nice for change, maybe Iโll have to just stop at Hannaford on way home and get the essentials, wait until later in the week to do more shopping . I kind of wish I had a better idea of what I want to do this weekend, but I am not sure with Friday night being as wet as itโs going to be. And that means things will be pretty sloppy on the trails on Saturday. Still a lot to summer ahead, indeed I was thinking itโs not long before Iโll be back up at Pisceo-Powley floating down the East Canada Creek. I was actually looking at the tube last weekend when I was getting out my summer clothes.
Thinking of all those fires, (fuck recycling) smoking a little grass, cooking some good meals on the campstove, listening to audio books and reading Iโm hammock, cooling off in creek. I know black fly season comes first, but if it gets hot out quickly, as it might very well happen based on 8-14 day outlook for the second half of May, Iโll hang up the screen tents and tons of deet, and just enjoy the wilderness while doing my best not to get eaten alive by the bugs. Really when it gets nice is Juneteenth. This year itโs a Thursday, but Iโll also take off that Friday, and maybe tack on a Monday. I doubt Iโll bother with a camping permit, but will just switch up campsites if I decide to stay more then 3 nights. Maybe start out at Stewart Landing then head up to Pisceo-Powley, though honestly Iโm going to need ice before three nights is up, so I might as well move to another campsite.
Youโre sick of hanginโ around and youโd like to travel Get tired of travelinโ and you want to settle down I guess they canโt revoke your soul for tryinโ Get out of the door and light out and look all around
Sometimes the lightโs all shininโ on me Other times I can barely see Lately it occurs to me What a long, strange trip itโs been
You know one of the terms I donโt like is โcampingโ. I usually prefer to say, โIโm heading out of town for weekendโ or whatever the time period that Iโm heading up to woods or wilderness to get away from it all.
Camping as a concept has a lot of problematic ideas surrounding it in my mind.
Camping as something you do in a developed facility. In many peopleโs minds, camping is something you do in an intensively developed facility, with flush-toilet bathrooms and showers, security patrols and often electricity. Camping is seen as something you pay for, not just some place in woods, an old driveway or dirt pad along a dirt road somewheres in the forest or a wilderness.
Camping is something you do in ear-shot, eye-shot of others. Rarely do I camp anywhere I can see or hear anybody else. I donโt want people hearing my music, smelling the smoke from my fires or noise from my guns. Iโd rather not keep it down, and a vlaue my privacy.
Camping is primarily about a destination, a camp. True I often hang around camp, but itโs more than sleeping. I ride trail and hike, in the summer months I fish and swim. In the autumn I hunt sometimes. Iโve been known to work remote from camp, and in many ways camp is a home base in remote country and not a destination alone. That said, I do like lazy afternoons in the hammock, doing a bunch of cooking and of course a big ol fire.