The memories remain
Jul 20, 2017 9:42:19 GMT -5
Post by Wes on Jul 20, 2017 9:42:19 GMT -5
Another column picked up from the paper.
I recently happened to notice a large camping tent set up in someone's yard. I don't know if it was there for kids to play in, or maybe for a little extra housing for someone visiting for the holiday, but it sure took me back.
I haven't done any camping in the last few years, but there was a time that I did a lot of it, and this having been the best getaway weekend of the summer made me realize just how much I'd like to be camped by some lake somewhere, just hanging out for the weekend like I used to do.
By camping, I don't mean driving in a big mobile cottage with all the comforts of home. I'm talking about things like tents and sleeping bags and backpacks. I've camped out of kayaks and canoes, and admittedly, out of the trunk of a car from time to time clear back to when I was a little kid.
Probably the most memorable camping experience I had was when I did the Grand Canyon in 2003. It was a guided tour so I didn't have to take my own equipment, but that was just as well since the sand got into everything. The big reason it sticks in my mind is not just the incredible scenery, but the that that it was one of the rare times I got to sleep under the stars. Normally, that's something we don't do in the East, mostly because of dew and mosquitoes, although I have done it.
I have camped other places -- lots of them in Michigan, including Isle Royale, but most of the surrounding states as well, plus Colorado. I can look back at it and say that I wish I had done it more than I had, but things like work and family got in the way, too.
The lust is still there. When Kathy and I went out west back three years ago, I drove by a number of beaches on the Oregon and California coasts where I would have loved to pitch a tent, build a campfire, and just watch the ocean roll in. I have a poster on the wall that says "Campfires -- best therapy ever," and I'm sure it's absolutely right.
The best camping of all is when you're out somewhere, in the woods, on a beach, on grasslands or something when no one else is camped around, rather than being in a crowded, noisy campground. I remember a time that two friends and I gave up on a slum like that and spent the next night camping out of our kayaks on a wilderness island. Much, much better!
I never used a lot of expensive high-tech gear. It strikes me that I bought a couple of sleeping bags at a long-gone discount store back about the time Kathy and I got married. I still have them and still used them until I pretty much gave up camping. I dreamed for years of having a sleeping bag that's big enough for me to be comfortable in it, and finally bought a really quality bag. I doubt if I've used it five times. Ditto tents; I got along on a series of cheap jobs for years, until I finally bought the tent I'd dreamed of for decades. I may have used it as much as a dozen times. I lusted for years for a type of camp stove popular in Europe but unobtainable here because the licensed importer preferred to sell their own useless junk. I finally had to order the stove directly from England back in the early days of the Internet.
I was collecting some good gear since a group of us was planning a major trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, but some of the other people bombed out and the remainder of us wound up having to put it off for another year that never came.
Now all that gear sits in storage, and I'll probably never use it again since in recent years it's become very difficult for me to get up off the ground. That takes a lot of fun out of it.
I occasionally go to the storeroom where that stuff sits, look at it and feel guilty that I'm not using it and probably never will again, but it gave me some good times while it lasted, and at least the memories remain.
I recently happened to notice a large camping tent set up in someone's yard. I don't know if it was there for kids to play in, or maybe for a little extra housing for someone visiting for the holiday, but it sure took me back.
I haven't done any camping in the last few years, but there was a time that I did a lot of it, and this having been the best getaway weekend of the summer made me realize just how much I'd like to be camped by some lake somewhere, just hanging out for the weekend like I used to do.
By camping, I don't mean driving in a big mobile cottage with all the comforts of home. I'm talking about things like tents and sleeping bags and backpacks. I've camped out of kayaks and canoes, and admittedly, out of the trunk of a car from time to time clear back to when I was a little kid.
Probably the most memorable camping experience I had was when I did the Grand Canyon in 2003. It was a guided tour so I didn't have to take my own equipment, but that was just as well since the sand got into everything. The big reason it sticks in my mind is not just the incredible scenery, but the that that it was one of the rare times I got to sleep under the stars. Normally, that's something we don't do in the East, mostly because of dew and mosquitoes, although I have done it.
I have camped other places -- lots of them in Michigan, including Isle Royale, but most of the surrounding states as well, plus Colorado. I can look back at it and say that I wish I had done it more than I had, but things like work and family got in the way, too.
The lust is still there. When Kathy and I went out west back three years ago, I drove by a number of beaches on the Oregon and California coasts where I would have loved to pitch a tent, build a campfire, and just watch the ocean roll in. I have a poster on the wall that says "Campfires -- best therapy ever," and I'm sure it's absolutely right.
The best camping of all is when you're out somewhere, in the woods, on a beach, on grasslands or something when no one else is camped around, rather than being in a crowded, noisy campground. I remember a time that two friends and I gave up on a slum like that and spent the next night camping out of our kayaks on a wilderness island. Much, much better!
I never used a lot of expensive high-tech gear. It strikes me that I bought a couple of sleeping bags at a long-gone discount store back about the time Kathy and I got married. I still have them and still used them until I pretty much gave up camping. I dreamed for years of having a sleeping bag that's big enough for me to be comfortable in it, and finally bought a really quality bag. I doubt if I've used it five times. Ditto tents; I got along on a series of cheap jobs for years, until I finally bought the tent I'd dreamed of for decades. I may have used it as much as a dozen times. I lusted for years for a type of camp stove popular in Europe but unobtainable here because the licensed importer preferred to sell their own useless junk. I finally had to order the stove directly from England back in the early days of the Internet.
I was collecting some good gear since a group of us was planning a major trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, but some of the other people bombed out and the remainder of us wound up having to put it off for another year that never came.
Now all that gear sits in storage, and I'll probably never use it again since in recent years it's become very difficult for me to get up off the ground. That takes a lot of fun out of it.
I occasionally go to the storeroom where that stuff sits, look at it and feel guilty that I'm not using it and probably never will again, but it gave me some good times while it lasted, and at least the memories remain.
