Trip Report: Killing Time 5/23/15 - 5/24/15

So, there was some talk on one of the forums about glamping, which then lead to a discussion about whether people go camping to relax or for other reasons. So this past weekend I figured I would just go out into the woods to relax. I didn’t plan anything; no hunting, no fishing, no specific objective at all. I figured I would just walk about during the day, set up camp, and relax.

To that end, I picked out a relatively easy trip. I was to follow a set of trails up a mountain, and then camp out when I found a good spot somewhere further up. It was about 10 miles round trip. It would give me plenty of free time to kill during the day and relax.

I decided to take Rhea with me, who is in desperate need of a haircut.

I approached the mountain from the faster, but steeper side. It made for some scrambling up slopes. Luckily Rhea is a pro at climbing up nearly vertical rock. She is not as good as she was a few years back, but she can still climb up 70 degree rock without a problem.

Around mid day I reached a ridge on top of the mountain. From there it was fairly smooth travel.

Early afternoon I reached a valley where I intended to camp. My hope was that there would be a few pools of later there, but no such luck. For the rest of the trip I had to ration out the water I had brought, about three litters.

On the plus side, I was in a location with plenty of standing dead pine, and even some birch. It made fire prep very easy even with limited tools. 

With fire prep done, and camp set up, I took a nap for a few hours. When I woke up, I got the fire going.

The only thing left to do was to cook up dinner. I carry a small one litter pot without a bail. People often think that you have to suspend a pot over a fire, or put it directly on the coals, but just putting it right next to the fire will get your water boiling in no time.

As usual, I went to sleep when the sun went down. The mosquitoes were swarming, and I got eaten up pretty badly. For fortunately, the night was relatively cold and they subsided.

The next day we ate breakfast. I was very low on water, so we started on our way out. It took us less that five hours to make it out of the forest, but we did run out of water before that. Unfortunately there was just no water left for me refill. The soil in this are is very rocky, so when the temperatures go up, the water sources dry up. It wasn’t a big issue this time because it was just a relaxing trip, but it can be a headache in some cases.

So, that some relaxing for you. I find that it gets pretty boring. There is only so much sitting around the fire and sleeping that I can do. It’s not bad to just hang out from time to time though.