Walking in the Albany Pine Bush this afternoon, I was thinking how much I miss spending nights in the wilderness. Those open canopies, like Moose River Plains or even Confusion Flats in the Western Adirondacks are special. While I have a trip planned for 2 1/2 weeks from now, itβs seems like that could be an eternity. I guess I could out somewhere sooner, although the issue would be that there is still a lot of snow up north and the next few weekends I expect to be fairly busy. But itβs obvious that nicer weather is heading our way, and I fully expect to spend more nights in the near future out in the wilderness.
Years ago, I would occasionally use styrofoam coffee cups while camping. There convenient, they are one less dish to wash. Despite what the greenies will tell you, in a hot fire, styrofoam burns fine. Itβs cheap, and it doesnβt involve cutting down trees. Then I switched to a regular coffee mug, as I like the feel of the mug in my hands on a cold morning at camp.
After a while I started getting tired of washing the coffee cup, but I want a disposable, e.g. that I could discard and burn, and that I could take in the truck to sip coffee. I got these plastic-coated paper cups with lids which were quite nice, but relatively expensive. I used up the paper cups but still had lids, so I was thinking I could get some cheap styrofoam cups, and use them with the lids. They donβt fit, and I hate how they feel in my hands, and how they make the coffee taste.
I wentback to the old ceramic coffee cup to enjoy my coffee up at camp. They arenβt that hard to wash. And maybe go green, and use a reusable cup in the truck. Coffee cups are easy to rinse out, they are much less of a pain then plates, which I think I will continue to use paper or foam ones that are disposable and burnable up at camp. I figure if they arenβt going to the landfill because Iβm burning them, I donβt have to feel guilty about using them once and tossing them, although I guess you could argue that your still wasting the chemicals and trees that make up the styrofoam or paper plates. But so be it.
I honestly didnβt think that much of my trip up to Cole Hill State Forest over the weekend.
But somebody said to me, I am jealous of your adventure.
It really wasnβt that much of an adventure, just a quick, inexpensive overnight out to Cole Hill. I was going out to my parents house on Sunday, so it was only a little out of way, and I figured it would be a nice adventure. Maybe I should cherish the little things in life, but I really donβt because itβs not a particularly noteworthy trip, just a quick night in the hammock, decided mostly while I was at Thacher Park earlier in the day.
Jealousy is something I think about a lot these days. While one shouldnβt covert what others have, itβs hard not to compare yourself to others. It seems like other people always have all the nice toys, go on the nice adventures. Mine are relatively simple, I have that run-down apartment, that old jacked up truck, a mountain bike, and a lot of equipment that is wearing out or is junk. A lot of people have kids and families, go exotic places, see great things. I do relatively simple trips, things often not that far from home. I wish I owned my own land, had acreage, ATVs and other toys. But I donβt.
Increasingly on clear nights Iβve been killing the lights earlier after dusk then the past in favor of being able to see the stars better and enjoying the laser lightening bug light show that I have that puts pretty ever shifting green dots on the trees.
The truth is when I got the laser lightening bug show I was concerned about pointing it up towards the tree branches with all those sensational news stories about the laser Christmas lights blinding pilots. So I did some of my own fact based research on the topic and also tried shining the lights at distant hill tops and I found very little light traveled beyond 500 feet. Maybe problematic next to an airport but not to a plane thousands of feet in the air. I also tend to angle things no more than 30 to 40 degrees.
With the stars up above and the lights elegantly illuminating the tree branches it really is nice. Both the natural beauty above and the artificial beauty looking ahead. It makes for some nice quiet time in the wilderness.