Under the vagina tree

Richardson Grove, CA: Sept 8th-14th 2009
My year begins in September. I still have some weird internal clock from going to school that tells me that the “new year” starts in September. Now I have a new reason to think that. I look forward to this camping trip all year long. Technically I’m still a “newbie” to camping, but I think I caught on to it pretty quickly. The idea of camping as recreation is strange. Over 100 years ago, our ancestors were “camping” because they had to. People were “roughing it” out in the wilderness to survive. I doubt they would call what they were doing “fun”. But that’s the privilege we have for living in our world now. We get to “escape” our lives for a little while, go out into the wilderness and just let our minds turn to jelly. This camping trip symbolizes many things. It’s the end of summer but definitely a new beginning. It’s a bonding experience I make with my friends. Relationships are made stronger or completely destroyed. It’s also a chance to connect with yourself; check in and recharge..

It’s difficult to walk into a situation and not have expectations. Some people can do it, I can’t. I do know better than to have the same expectations as last year, but for some reason I was a little bit anxious. There were all these things I wanted to do before we left. I wanted to get a new battery for my camera. I wanted to buy new tapes. I wanted to buy an extra first-aid kit. I didn’t pack until the absolute last minute. I don’t know what happened. I ran out of time. For some reason, this happens every so often. People have “off days”, I tend to have “off weeks”. Whenever this happens it’s concerning to me. It makes me think I am distracted for some reason; not thinking straight. And when I get like this, I make bad decisions. I try not to think about it too much and move on. I don’t want it to ruin my trip….

Day 1: Robbie, Adrian and I arrive a little after 1 pm. Thankfully, our favorite camping spot is open. We get out to stretch our weary limbs from a not so long 4 hour trip. I say “not so long” because even though it was definitely a 4 hour trip, it did not feel like one. Our conversations were kept to a minimum, we even stopped a couple of times but before we knew it, we were here. No time to relax though, there is work to be done. We start out by completely emptying out Robbie’s car. Tents, chairs, overnight bags, blow-up beds, sleeping bags, pillows, all our food, food equipment, etc. etc. Then it’s time to set up tents. It’s back-breaking work; long  and tiring. From sitting in a car for 4 hours to all of a sudden lifting, hauling, bending, squatting at an elevation of about 150 m., believe me it’s hard work. After we set up our tents, we have to pull out the food and set it up into the cabinets available, so the bears won’t get to it. (There is always the threat of bears there.) Set up the grill, set up the burners, we set up everything to make our little spot feel more like “home.” About 2 hours later, we were satisfied enough to sit for a bit and enjoy a smoke. But we definitely were not done yet, there was still the matter of food and wood. We stop by this curio shop that’s carved into the mountain all the time for wood… Mostly they sell souvenirs of the redwoods (key chains, pens and whatnot) and some interesting wood carvings of bears and raccoons, sometimes a Disney character or two will be in the mix. And of course, fire wood. We were excited to learn that the firewood price had gone down about a buck this year. That was good news to our wallets especially since they raised the prices at the campsite. A dollar is a dollar. We loaded the car with 6 bags of wood and we were off. Finally, the end was near and soon we would all be sitting by the fire happily munching on hot dogs, playing games and drinking!

The excitement of saving a few dollars was soon replaced by irritation when we found out why the bags were cheaper…there was no kindling wood. (Hmmm….) Robbie had to work extra hard to pull off pieces of wood from the larger logs with a flathead screwdriver and a hammer. It was serious work. Adrian and I watched from a safe distance because the stance Robbie was using in taking apart the logs just didn’t seem all that safe. At any minute I could see a piece of wood being hurled in the air and hitting any one of us in the face or a piece of wood flying up and hitting Robbie in the eye or worse yet, Robbie getting a splinter! Splinters are no joke. Adrian and I tried our best to suggest different ways of obtaining the small pieces of wood but in the end, we knew it had to be done. After some time, Robbie was able to pull of some pieces; enough to start a fire. I had brought some fliers from my old job to burn and aid in the starting of the fire. They wouldn’t burn. (Double hmm…) They were these super glossy fliers with some sort of non-burning ink. When they did finally catch on fire, they would burn fairly quickly. We used them anyways; it couldn’t have been good for the environment, but it was all we had. After it was all said and done, we had a fire going and that’s what mattered. I labelled the events as “set backs” and nothing more, put it in a box in my mind and stored it away….