This week featured three consecutive sunny, mild lovely days. Dare I say it?! It’s nice out in New England! The favorable weather gets the ants in the pants going! Let’s talk camping! Please enjoy today’s post: Summer Camping Strategy.
Summer Camping Strategy
As the invisible unmentionable bears down upon us, a grim kaka cloud, the natural world is given reprieve. The hailstorm of peoplekind’s by-products, plastics, metals, chemicals, solvents, solutes, floatsom, jetsom, our kaka, slows… almost to a halt.
The sun breaks through, people go outside. Spring blossoms.
Mother Nature shirks the clutches which gripped so tightly before. They slip momentarily.
Her lungs gaining strength, she responds.
Social distancing brings introspection… and lots of runners! There’s a focus on physical health, it’s noticeable.
Both empathy and anxiety hang in the air, permeating all “interactions,” a dividing veil. We’re further apart, yet closer than ever with our techno gadget distraction hand-machines and budding ears.
The irony of this pridaca-shizer-storm is not lost on this humble booger, I mean, blogger.
Dang it, almost got that one…
To Times Ahead... And Camping Adventures!
We were able to get out in a very limited way for a brief, social-distanced hike. Upon arrival at the spot, I immediately realized I forgot to pack my hiking boots.
Cheese and rice! Jiminey Cricke-tears!
Luckily, I happened to throw a pair of cheap “water shoes” into the trunk I bought a few years back, but infrequently put on my actual tootsies. They’re a life-saver if you like walking through streams/rivers and/or on rocky/corral-laden beaches.
I do this more than I’d like to admit… You know, forget one thing…
Never exactly critical, the item is just something you needed to make it all work. For dudes, at least, this is predominantly and predictably confined within the sock and underpants categories. For years, I struggled mightily to consistently remember to pack a belt in my gym bag. It never occurred to this caveman to house a back-up at the office… for… years. And, for a cubicle residing paper jockey, this could be devastating to one’s well-manicured office persona and lead to hysterical bouts of self-consciousness, psychotic attention to maintaining a semi-untucked dress shirt to hide the offense, but not all the way untucked!
Dear God!
What were we talking about?
Oh, yeah. Water shoes.
I forgot my hiking boots, so I slapped on the water shoes, whilst maintaining clad stockings.
Suddenly, I transformed into a ninja… no, a native american… no, no, no a lithe, jungle cat.
I bounded down the trail, light of foot and silent as a stalking predator.
Watch that puddle though, JR!
Squish!!!!!
Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Appetite Whetted
We plopped our booties down by a beautiful lake to complete the hike. Lazily chatting, our orientation brought unplanned benefits: a cooling, light breeze off the water.
M and I decided on the spot that we’d return for camping sometime this summer. We scoped out some sites.
The experience reaffirmed a growing appreciation that we don’t need to go far to enjoy the bounties of Nature. It’s right there. We are incredibly blessed to live where we live. I hope that you are fortunate enough to enjoy this simple blessing as well, and if not, you and/or others are making strides to change this, locally and meaningfully. May we protect and preserve our public spaces with unwavering resolve.
Summer Camping Strategy Breakdown
Prior to the unmentionable, M and I were thinking about extending our camping adventures from the previous summer, i.e. go deeper into New Hampshire and Maine.
Summer and Fall are shaping up to be even busier than we imagined and the unmentionable, so a shift in our summer camping plans may be prudent. I think we’ll mostly stick to exploring cools spots in our own backyard!
North Quabbin Region
- The North Quabbin region of Massachusetts looks like one big state park if you blur your eyes when viewing on a map.
- There’s tons of cool stuff to explore if you’re into hiking, historical sites, country roads… ahhhhh
- I’m probably a bit biased because it’s the general area of where I grew up, so it always feels like going home for me.
- Cape Cod
- We love heading out to the outer cape for camping after Labor Day. We just learned the campsite we like is extending their season a bit due to the unmentionable. Maybe the entire Cape will “extend their season” this year? We booked a tent camping site for September!
- Mt. Grace Region
- M and I are becoming more adventurous with our hiking. We’re not quite up for something totally rugged and unstructured like tramping out to a random lean-to on the AT for example… yet.
- We do want to hike Mt. Grace though. I’ve read some pretty dandy authors hiked and wrote about it. Maybe this humble blogger can find similar inspiration.
- Boston Harbor Islands
- This is our holy grail. We still haven’t been able to seize one of these coveted camping spots… but we sure would like to!
- Hopefully, we are vigilant/psychotic enough to keep track of the opening ferry schedules and limited camp sites that are available on these islands.
- I can’t wait to wake up in the ocean looking back at Boston at sunrise… I’ll snap a picture for yuz.
Conclusion
So there you have it. A loose outline of where we’ll be pointing our chariots come go-time and we can get out for some summer camping fun. The weather is gettin’ purty nice, as they say, we won’t have to wait long.
