Post by spence on Jul 2, 2021 22:07:12 GMT -7
What I do doesn't qualify as a trek, so I'm posting here.
For several years I’ve spent a day alone in the woods to celebrate my birthday. Sometimes it’s a hunt, sometimes just a short trek including an experiment with some colonial food or skill. Since my birthday is in late November I frequently have to delay my outing until the hunting seasons for deer and turkey are finished, then the holidays come along, so January is not unusual. This year with all the bovine excrement going on I didn’t get to it until middle of June. It was still a pleasure.
I picked a day with temperature of 73°, bright sun and light wind predicted, and was surprised when the weatherman got it right. I made a short hike into the woods to get out of the sight of civilization and picked a spot for lunch in a familiar place. A big old osage orange tree has been my seat on many a squirrel or deer hunt, and it served well again.
Press the timer button first, dummy!
It had rained a bunch the day and night before, so dry wood on the ground was hard to come by. I collected enough pine branches from an old fallen tree nearby and settled in to make my lunch. I used a new, small burning glass lens I recently found in some old gear and with some cedar bark, fat wood and a candle was soon roasting my lunch of chicken breast on a stick.
I had decided to make this outing as simple as could be, so I brought no cooking or eating gear. When the chicken was well roasted and the cornpone warmed on the coals I rounded up a slab of bark from a dead tree for a plate and had a nice relaxed lunch.
For the next hour or so I shot my smoothbore at casual targets just because, and it was fun. I wadded with brown paper and tow and was pleased with both the gun and the old man doing the shooting.
A deer trail passed right by my seat, and I found that it was one of five well-used ones which all merged like the spokes of a wheel a few yards away. I know where I’ll be sitting when deer season opens this year.
This was a simple outing, but it still worked the magic I expect whenever I’m alone in the woods. Being able to enjoy even this little celebration of an 87th birthday is more than most can manage, and I’m appreciative of the fact. The Japanese have a word which expresses many complex thoughts, the main one of which is “I’m not ready for it to be over yet.”
Madadayo.
Spence
For several years I’ve spent a day alone in the woods to celebrate my birthday. Sometimes it’s a hunt, sometimes just a short trek including an experiment with some colonial food or skill. Since my birthday is in late November I frequently have to delay my outing until the hunting seasons for deer and turkey are finished, then the holidays come along, so January is not unusual. This year with all the bovine excrement going on I didn’t get to it until middle of June. It was still a pleasure.
I picked a day with temperature of 73°, bright sun and light wind predicted, and was surprised when the weatherman got it right. I made a short hike into the woods to get out of the sight of civilization and picked a spot for lunch in a familiar place. A big old osage orange tree has been my seat on many a squirrel or deer hunt, and it served well again.
Press the timer button first, dummy!
It had rained a bunch the day and night before, so dry wood on the ground was hard to come by. I collected enough pine branches from an old fallen tree nearby and settled in to make my lunch. I used a new, small burning glass lens I recently found in some old gear and with some cedar bark, fat wood and a candle was soon roasting my lunch of chicken breast on a stick.
I had decided to make this outing as simple as could be, so I brought no cooking or eating gear. When the chicken was well roasted and the cornpone warmed on the coals I rounded up a slab of bark from a dead tree for a plate and had a nice relaxed lunch.
For the next hour or so I shot my smoothbore at casual targets just because, and it was fun. I wadded with brown paper and tow and was pleased with both the gun and the old man doing the shooting.
A deer trail passed right by my seat, and I found that it was one of five well-used ones which all merged like the spokes of a wheel a few yards away. I know where I’ll be sitting when deer season opens this year.
This was a simple outing, but it still worked the magic I expect whenever I’m alone in the woods. Being able to enjoy even this little celebration of an 87th birthday is more than most can manage, and I’m appreciative of the fact. The Japanese have a word which expresses many complex thoughts, the main one of which is “I’m not ready for it to be over yet.”
Madadayo.
Spence
