The Refresh Button - Aug 2015
A week or so ago I ventured out with my son Donavon and my brother Evan. We packed our backpacks full of useful outdoorsy stuff, donned amphibious shoes, and lined our belts with machetes and knives. We parked in a public location and hiked down a public trail. The trail ended soon enough and the adventure began.
This will be a mostly picture blog post. Pics are straight from my cell phone, not photochopt up.
Campsite in the morningThe river was about 40 yards south of camp, in the direction the camera is facing. It produced a covering of fog in the morning but the thick forest did a good job of keeping dew off us.
I decided to go have a look at the river as the sun was rising and I'm glad I did. I'd never seen these particular views of the river.
Where creek meets river
Fog obscured most of the river
Soggy spiderwebs were everywhere
After we'd eaten (we make sure to always pack way more food than necessary) we hiked.
A forgotten path that led to ...
... a neglected fence, where we discovered a wide gap which led to ...
... a hidden lake (abandoned granite quarry)
It might not be obvious from the pictures, but the lake is maybe 150 yards across at its widest and the highest cliff is 60-75 feet above the water. The lake is crystal clear and the water's warm, not like the river. When you throw a bright stone into the water, you can watch it for several seconds as it slips into the blue depths. Something about that clarity kept me from swimming in it. My imagination has me convinced there's a Watcher in the Water or Del Lago lurking just out of sight. For some reason, I'm more comfortable not being able to see what lies beneath.
more exploring
nap time... until it rainedCamping isn't as comfortable as not-camping. That fact seems to be people's main aversion to it. It is mine. But comfort isn't why you camp. If you can plan for and expect a level of compromised comfort before you head into the wild it'll serve you well. Then all the things to appreciate about camping will rise to the surface.
This will be a mostly picture blog post. Pics are straight from my cell phone, not photochopt up.
Campsite in the morningThe river was about 40 yards south of camp, in the direction the camera is facing. It produced a covering of fog in the morning but the thick forest did a good job of keeping dew off us.I decided to go have a look at the river as the sun was rising and I'm glad I did. I'd never seen these particular views of the river.
Where creek meets river
Fog obscured most of the river
Soggy spiderwebs were everywhereAfter we'd eaten (we make sure to always pack way more food than necessary) we hiked.
A forgotten path that led to ...
... a neglected fence, where we discovered a wide gap which led to ...
... a hidden lake (abandoned granite quarry)
It might not be obvious from the pictures, but the lake is maybe 150 yards across at its widest and the highest cliff is 60-75 feet above the water. The lake is crystal clear and the water's warm, not like the river. When you throw a bright stone into the water, you can watch it for several seconds as it slips into the blue depths. Something about that clarity kept me from swimming in it. My imagination has me convinced there's a Watcher in the Water or Del Lago lurking just out of sight. For some reason, I'm more comfortable not being able to see what lies beneath.
more exploring
nap time... until it rainedCamping isn't as comfortable as not-camping. That fact seems to be people's main aversion to it. It is mine. But comfort isn't why you camp. If you can plan for and expect a level of compromised comfort before you head into the wild it'll serve you well. Then all the things to appreciate about camping will rise to the surface.
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