I Love The Smell of Green

I need to go camping

Published on May 8, 2005 By MasonM In Blogging

Sitting out on the lanai the scent of the green living things wafts through the air. This brings to my mind the many hours I have happily spent in the woods. Nothing even comes close to the feeling of spending time out in the forest surrounded by the many living things which call this place home. The air heavy with the smells of trees, grasses, mosses, and decaying leaves. The sounds of the many creatures going about the business of their lives beats the noise from any television or radio.

I can't envision a more serene surrounding than when spending time camping. I always feel at peace when in the forest. Also, when I'm in the "civilized" world, I rarely eat breakfast. But when camping I always awake famished and ready for that first cup of coffee and a hearty meal. Somehow food just seems to taste better when cooked over an open fire. Just the act of preparing the meal requires building the fire and cooking using only primitive tools which seems to make the meal more personal somehow.

I have been known to go camping for several weeks at a time. My personal record is 6 months, breaking camp only when the winter imposed itself. Somehow when I get out there, I just don't want to come back. Sometimes it takes a supreme effort to force myself to break camp for the trip back to civilization.

I'm hoping that I will be healed enough to be working to make the money to go camping before the season is out this year. But that's a catch-22 as working suggests a work schedule and a weekend just never seems long enough for a decent camping trip.

I really need to go camping.

Comments

Trudygolightly

on May 08, 2005

Camping when I was a child consisted of dad renting a little housekeeping cabin, bringing in a box of food, and we'd go
fishing in a rented boat. At the time that was heaven to me, and of course my folks did what they could.
The summer of 1993 a former co-worker showed up on my doorstep and that started a summer of real camping.
On labor day weekend, the last of our "outings", we ended up in the BWCA~we had rented a canoe, parked my
old Chevy wagon, with lots of food, and set out on this huge lake to fish for just a couple of hours......
A storm came up, and we went to shore. We were stranded there overnight, and all we had was cheesepopcorn
and pop. We built a fire and took turns staying awake to keep it going.
The next morning while my friend and son went to get the canoe loaded, I putzed around the campsite, then heard
a whole lotta rustling in the brush, thinking it was the guys I turned to look, and could see them, out of the corner of my eye
on the lake!! Whatever was in the brush was big and coming my way. I've never moved so fast, I jumped into the lake and
crawled into the canoe and almost past out!

MasonM

on May 08, 2005

LOL good story Trudy

Was probably just a deer, but then again who knows?

I've met up with everything from ground squirrels to bears when camping. It's always interesting. One trip, I went with my girlfriend at the time. As she wasn't used to camping we went to a state campground. I figured that would be wilderness enough for her.

As some friends were using the next site over we had all gotten together and had more a enough to drink. Well, I had forgotten to clear the picnic table and she didn't know it was needed. The next morning we got up and our loaf of bread was gone.

My girlfriend was quite upset thinking another camper had stolen it. I assured her that was very much against the unwritten camper's code and that an animal had likely made off with it. She didn't believe me and was in a huff about it.

We drove in to town and bought more bread and ice and returned. When we got back, there was the loaf of bread, right where it had been left the night before, but with a large hole torn in it and some bread missing. It was obvious a racoon had been at it.

We made a few jokes about the racoon's wife scolding him for bringing home the wrong kind of bread and went on about our business. That night I left the bread on a stump and we watched from inside the tent. No sooner had things grow quite than here comes Mr. Racoon to have another bit of bread.

He dragged off the loaf while we watched. The following day when we returned from swimming in the lake, there was what was left of the bread, sitting right on the very stump it hade been stolen from the night before. A very polite and consciencious racoon for sure.

Manopeace

on May 08, 2005

Please don't talk to me about creatures today after my run in with that spider

MasonM

on May 08, 2005

Please don't talk to me about creatures today after my run in with that spider

Maybe it was just looking for a snack.

Shovelheat

on May 08, 2005

I used to camping all the time as a kid growing up on a farm. Back then (mid 70's) kids did it all the time. I can remember grabbing a few things and hollering at my mom "I'm going camping" as the old screen door slammed behind me. "Where?" she would holler behind me. "Somewhere on the river!" and that was fine with her.

Ahh, the good old days...

Trudygolightly

on May 08, 2005

We made a few jokes about the racoon's wife scolding him for bringing home the wrong kind of bread and went on about our business. That night I left the bread on a stump and we watched from inside the tent. No sooner had things grow quite than here comes Mr. Racoon to have another bit of bread.He dragged off the loaf while we watched. The following day when we returned from swimming in the lake, there was what was left of the bread, sitting right on the very stump it hade been stolen from the night before. A very polite and consciencious racoon for sure.

That is so funny! and I didn't know that they would bring things back! how weird was that??? what a Kodak moment!

MasonM

on May 08, 2005

That is so funny! and I didn't know that they would bring things back! how weird was that??? what a Kodak moment!

They normally don't. Must have been a well educated and refinely civilized sort of racoon.

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