Ten Days

Inside of Outside

Here's some journal notes I kept, while I was camping for ten days solo, in November and December, 2010.

Nov 28
Started hiking prob around 9ish. Hiked for maybe 1.5-2 hours. Camped on flat spot on rocks by lake. Can hear waves. Need to turn off light to save batteries.

Nov 29
Woke late morning. No time keeping device is wonderful. Cooked cereal. Packed up. Walked. Gorgeous views. Sunset grand, but view blocked. Passed a large animal. Deer? Stopped for lunch at cove. Spaghetti, mushrooms, tbits, and green curry sauce. Stretched. Need to stretch more. Earlier to bed today. Maybe 2 hours or 3 after dark. Read some. Figured 60-65 pages a day. Maybe I'll write a letter.

Nov 30
Woke up to rain. Packed slowly. Checked 4 phone message from park. None. Ate granola. Hiked. Cool checkerboard rocks. Walked through the swamp. Thought I'd be caught by the storm. Got to the beach. Made camp. Dried stuff. Cooked. Stretched. Laughed for joy. Huge blocks of cliff in the lake. Dreamt last night that the cliff I was on fell into the lake. Think I'll stay here a day or two. Depends on weather.

Dec 1
Rabbit! Rabbit! Didn't move today. Stayed @ beach. So beautiful. Snowed! Awed. Made a rain catch out of birch bark, balsam? bark, and a found H20 bottle. Made a fire. Dry birchbark is sooooo handy. Hope it's sunny tomorrow. Want to bathe. I stink. Left the sauces outside. Oops. Saw a mouse and a crow / raven. Gotta learn the difference. Ate asparagus today. All dehydrated veggies working great so far. Not as lonely as I thought I'd be. More prepared for it this time? 6 nights still to go though.

Dec 2
Stayed at the beach again. Oh my goodness. Snow on stones took my breath away this morn. Bathed. Frigid! Stayed in for maybe 60 seconds. Standing in snow while dressing was the worst. Sun helped. Ate lots of snow today. Walked for 3 hours. Followed a fox trail and a coyote trail. Texted Mom and Dad. Said all's well. Made a poetry word mix. Ate mock duck and rice / broccoli. Rodents got to one of the sauces. Hung food tonight.

Dec 3
Moved. Camping by a couple of small inland lakes. Frozen! Yesterday no ice on them. So many tracks in the fresh snow--squirrel, mouse, fox? Saw a hawk yesterday. Packing and moving takes a long time. Made snow and cedar tea tonight. Good. Also couscous. Delicious. Listened to the muffled silence of the woods. Loved it. Hugged a tree. Felt really good to hold something like that. Water pump froze. Not so great for winter. Waves are natural washing machine for ziplocs. Need a new sleeping bag. This one has lost lots of loft. Almost finished 1st fuel bottle.

Dec 4
Stayed by the lake. Found the trail. Right in front of me. So much snow on this beach. Walked to Cypress Lake. Yesterday, 1000s of little black bugs (1mm long 0.1 mm wide) falling from the sy. Greatest concentration under a browned cedar. White pine needle tea tonight. Finished my book. Made a fire. Tried to dry some stuff. Didn't really work. Weird flat trail in the woods. Beaver? About 1 foot wide, like someone dragged a box. Peanut sauce delish.

My phone has sudoku! It's amazing when one's world is focused, the things that become interesting. Every thing I do from pissing to walking to admiring the snow takes on a greater meaning somehow and becomes more memorable. I mean, the highlight of a couple of days ago was hugging a tree. Weird?

Dec 5
It's been cold the past couple of days. I've started eating 4 times a day. Glad I brought extra food. Tried carving today. Made a mimikake. Simple, but I'm proud of it. Some firs have this green algae or something growing on them. Makes their trunks bright green. Startling @ 1st, but cool. Ice formations on the rocks by the lake are amazing. So delicate, intricate, transient. Rival any cave stalactite. Imagine a thousand trees all made of glass, their tops scrunched together like a cauliflower, their trunks extending downwards, but not touching the ground, just floating in air. That's what some of them looked like. I'm eager to get out of here. Starting to get lonely. I looked at myself in my pot lid yesterday. 1st human face I'd seen in a week. Saw a woodpecker today, and saw 2 ravens. Know they're ravens cause they quorked.

Dec 6
Woked up to a raven in the tree above me. Making all sorts of strange calls. Sounded like a hen @ 1st, then I don't know what for 10 min. Then quork, quork, and flew away. Hiked maybe 10-11 k today. Probably my longest day. Beautiful views of course. Found a spring! I think. Drank from it. Wasn't very cold, but that may be because I was eating snow just before. Ate a lot of snow today, since my pump won't work. It's fun stuffing your face into a mound of fluffy snow. Next time I should bring some sugar crystals. Saw some cool trees. A birch with a beautiful gnarly split in the trunk. A birch and a fir that looked like they were dancing, a birch covered in some psychedelic bright orange fungus, and a lot of cedars with this cool light green lichen and dark green moss. Really wish I had my camera today. Texted mom and dad. Hiked until after dark. Probably shouldn't have. Was getting sketchy. Kept slipping, but wanted to get to next beach. Made it. Wish I hadn't--too windy here. 1 more day. Looking forward to seeing some faces soon. Oh! HIked a little side trail to a sink hole. A collapsed cave. Just looked like a big depression in the ground. Wasn't very impressed. Knees hurt a little at the end of today. Forgot to stretch tonight.

Dec 7 (Written several months later)
Woke. Packed up. Hiked for a few hours. Stopped at a fox den and watched for an hour. Didn't see anything, except a vole nearby. Finished all the chocolate covered almonds. Carved again today, while watching the sunset. Made a snake out of a cedar branch. Thought a snake would be easiest. Rested much of the day. Hiked until about 8 or 9 to get back to near the station, then rested. Hiked another 2 hours around a loop trail. Very cool. Trees bent nearly horizontal by wind. Spent most of the night napping in a hollow near the ranger's station.

Dec 8
Woke up very early and headed to the car. Iced over. Cleared it. Packed up. Saw another human. A ranger sitting in the office. Didn't talk to him though. Drove to Paddlefoot for my First Aid course. Saw lots of people there. Was very nice.