Trip 4: Car Camping for your convenience

Mission: Vehicle Recovery and Dirt Time for Dudes
Date: 3-21 thru 3-23
Temp:
Location: Kankakee River State Park
Purpose: Test my new tent and have a slightly extended stay.

Trip four was a mini-excursion mostly for pure entertainment than anything else. Recently, my car died. I had to have it towed to Kankakee to be fixed and they said it would probably be done for Thursday. Well cool. We have a few days off and have to head down there anyhow. Why not take along the BOB's and a couple fishing poles and go relax for a few days and sharpen a few skills while we are at it. We ended up finally hitting the road near 4pm Tuesday and then had to deal with Chicago outbound rush hour traffic. All in all twas not that bad at all. We stopped at Dick's to pick up a few last minute items such as a tarp or footprint for my tent and a couple fishing lures.

The Drive down to old Kanakakee was boring as usual. Being that Kakakee is my hometown we had to at least stop and see my mother. She filled our bellies with her famous Spaghetti and sent on our way. I love my dear mother alot. She seemed to think that we were insane and we would be better off pitching our tents in the backyard in case we got cold and had to come in. She's too funy. Then we were off. We pulled into the campgroud at a fairly late our ,but the camp hostess was gracious enough to greet us with a warm smile and told us to have fun. We slected a suitable site near a path to the river pitched the tents and got a fire up and running with little trouble at all. For the most part nighting was out of the ordinary. We heard a pack of coyotes off in the distance, which I am not sure I will ever get REALLY used to being so city bound these days. I woke early the next morning and Jake was still sawing logs. I couldn't resist the warm sunlight and the sound of the river about 50 yards away. I grabbed my trusty fishing pole and set off to find my big catch. HA!!! Admittedly it has been a number of years since I have fished the Kankakee river. Whne I was younger I knew I needed live bait in order to get a damned thing. Ooops. Oh well, we all know fishing really has nothing to do with catching fish but communing with nature and being alone with yourself for a while. For an hour I remembered exactly why I love spring so much. I ended up abandoning my pursuit of today's lunch for a while to observe the life springing all around me. The budding wild cabbage, mustard-seed, trees and wildlife were my companions. Bliss. How else can I describe it? I felt for a single solitary moment that I could melt away and become one with all that is around. I almost found how I am connected to the great web of life but was brought back to reality by small grumbling in my stomach...*sigh* Oh well... I can come back here and be part of this later...

When I returned to camp Jake began to stir and we went about the rest of the day with normal camp activities: Sharpening Knives and Axes, gathering firewood, cooking lunch, etc. As I am writing it occurs to me I should spend some more time working on my survival skills such as tracking, hunting, navigation, etc. I am a littel rusty. The good news is that i know the Kanakee River area well so getting lost was not really much of a concern, but it wouldn't kill me to brush up.

(MOre soon including cotyotes and an encounter with a wolf...)

NEW TENT!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

I LOVE EBAY!!!!!

As of late I have been on an ebay kick. I have been lucky enough to have all positive experiences so far hopefully I haven't just jinxed myself. The good news is that I bid on and won a brand new Mountain Hardware PCT 2. I got it for $100 when it retails for $175. Not a bad deal. This tent is pretty unique in its shape. The 2 in the title denotes that it is a supposed to be a 2 person tent. I can see where 2 normal sized people would fit SNUGLY into this tent. In fact, it is the perfect size for me and my gear. There are two mini-vestibules inside the tent and tons of pockets inside for organizing gear. One of the features I like the most however is the rain-fly. This flies gives two 8' sqaure vestibules outside the mesh for muddyboots additional gear or perhaps one day a dog. The fly also has two windows built in so you can get an idea of the conditions outside your tent(or for your buddy to scare the living piss out of you by peering in with the ole flashlight under the face creepy trick.) There ar ealso additional guy-out points on the fly for when things get really rough. All in all, I think i am going to love this tent.

So I won the bid and got my tracking number. In my excitment I watched the progress of my new tent via UPS.com and felt like a puppy awaiting his master at the window watching for my package to arrive. The buzzer rings and I fly down stiar with a huge grin on my face. I know I am silly, but I am REALLY excited at this point since I have been using the same crumby old dome tent since freshman year of high-school. It is so old that the walls are literally staritng to disintegrate, not particularly condusive to keeping out the elements or insects. Now when I get back up to my apartment it dawned on me that I have at least a week before I am going to be able to get some real dirt-time for my new home away from home. BUMMER DAY!!!! Well not quite. I figured that there is no reason I couldn't set it up at home and try it on for size at least. Great plan, right? Well all except the fact that this is not a free standing tent and reuires to me staked in at least 4 point to stand up correctly. Staked or tied. In my fervor I flipped up my bed against the wall and proceeded to figure out how I could rig some line around my room to 'stake' down the requisite points. I pulled out my trusty para-cord and went to task. 15 minutes later I had a complex web of paracord, dressers, radiators, and sharpies(yes the writing implement, the are really good for making toggles and stays.) running all around my room to simulate a full staking down of this portable palace. The good news was that I was efficient enough with my knot tying that I didn't even have to cut the para-cord at all. With my tent pitched, I grabbed agnes and a pillow and had a little campout. I love the size of my new tent. The dual wall design is awesome for removing condensation as well. I cannot wait to get her out in the field. In the morning I struck my tent and headed to work. My tent goes up in about 5 mins( proably faste ronce I get used to it) and comes down in a heartbeat. I also compared weights to my old tent and there is no comparison. The PCT weighs roughly half what my old tent did. WOOHOO. The pack is slowly getting lighter. Hopefully my next entry will have a full review and field test of the PCT2.

Blessings and Light,
'D'

(MORE SOON...I have some to write about this BIG adventure in my camping gear but time is not permitting)

When I was your age...

So last night was an unusal event in my life. My car died a few days ago so I have been reduced to the wiles of public transportation. Not a big deal. Forces me to walk a bit more now and I have to plan getting to work a little better now. No biggie really. The spring weather is abounding all around us and before I set out for work yestarday I thought to myself,'Self, if its nice tonight you should hike at part of your trip home. So I did the boyscout thing and attached my Nalgene bottle to my pack and tossed my poncho in a spare pocket and set off to work. Ruddy orchetra performances. Anyhow, the show was fine. But when it came time to head home it had been raining for several hours and the temperature dropped significantly. I asked the other folks that were working if they could give me a lift to the 'L' or where there was a bus running, as it was Sunday night and no buses run up in the area I work that late. Sadly, they had other plans and were going in a different direction. No sense in being upset about it, thats just how the cookie crumbles I suppose. So I set off for a bit of a hike. I first hiked to a train station that I new had no trains but might have a few busses running. Noone there when I arrived. I decided quickly call the CTA and see if I had any hope of catching one at this hour. The good news is yes there was hope, the bad news was that it was going to be almost an hour before it arrived. So I decided that it would be better if I just started walking. I would stay warm, get some exercise and have to sholder a bag that was about 15-20 pounds. Not a bad plan. I walked and walked and walked. I found that singing sea-chanties were not a bad way to pass the time. I also found that they helped set a pace for me a used my tread to keep the beat. Actually at one point I had to slow the tempo a touch since I was building up a good sweat and burning a little more energy than I wanted. I knew as soon as I slowed down the chilly night would set in and that, as we have proven on several occasions previous to this, is no fun. Anyhow, so I hike almost 4 miles before I heard the buses motoring down the road I was on. the good news in Chicago is that one does not have to nessecarily be at a bus stop for a bus to pick you up. So I flagged the driver downand stepped on the bus. Part of me felt guilty for not finishing the hike, but after two hours I was only 40% of the way home and the storm was coming on hard any moment now. You know, that anitcipation. You can feel the electicity in the air and would is so saturated with moisture that it does not even need to rain for everything to end up soggy as a sailor in a tempest. Wouldn't you know it, no sooner than I stepped on the bus, did all hell break loose from the impending storm. The good news is that I did not miss all the wet fun of the storm. Once I get off the train I still have a few blocks to go before I can climb the stairs to my home. So I did afterall have to bust out the poncho. At this point the only reason I did was for the good of my laptop, otherwise I would have let the storm have its way with me. Anyhow, the moral of the story: Don't be a wuss. If you have to walk, just walk. It's good for you.


(Crap times runs short some days....MORE SOON)

Trip 3: Waterproofing? BAH! Who needs it?

Mission: Soggy Sloshing Slowly Slogging Swishing Semi-Silenty Stalking...
Date: 3-8 thru 3-9 2006
Temp: 37-52F Windchill-Nil
Location: Forests Near Elgin, IL
Purpose: Wet Test our gear.

Mission 3 was completely impromptu. Jake and I were at work remarking how nice the weather was for coming out of winter and heading into spring. There was no scenario as we were missing our scenario master due to illness. In Chicago, we have a unique blessing-curse. The weather here tends to change VERY rapidly and to the extremes. There is a saying in Illinois that if you don't like the weather wait around a few minutes, it is bound to change. And change it did. Checking back on the last trip the low was hovering between 0-10F, last night it was a high of 52. What a change indeed. I have to say that the higher temperatures made the trip far more comfotable and a little more exciting. Up to this point there was always a slight note of apprehension in the air because we knew that the trips could end up being miserable nights and slighty dangerous due to rapidly falling temperatures and snow. All in all, this was a damn fine trip despite spending much of it soggy.

Here's what happened:

Jake and I were working a show being done by an Orthodox Jewish all girls high-school. They are doing a version of Peter Pan and have even gone so far as to hire Fly by Foy to fly the girls around a bit. While this is not what I consider cutting edge theatre, these girls have alot of fun and well...it's a decent paycheck. The day was absolutely beautiful from start to finish. We were sitting at lunch joking about the show and enjoying the first day of amazing weather we have had in along time. Somehow we got on the topic of camping and we determined there was absolutely no reason we couldn't be out camping in such beautiful weather. The good news, I just so happened to have my pack already in the car fully loaded including food. (I went shopping the night previous to stock up on stuff. I wanted to make sure I had a full week's worth of gear for the next time I went out so that I might start training my muscles for a full-load. We offahndedly mentioned this little foray to our boss. His response? Cool. Don't get arrested. IN jail is not a valid excuse for being late to work. With this plan firmly in mind work would just not end quick enough. Grrrr...lets give em water joe or something so they sing faster or something...tick, tock, tick, tock....*DING* Thats a wrap guys lets lock it down and go home. We loaded up the Jeep with my gear and headed off to Elgin to get Jake's gear, water up, and set out.

As beautful as the day was, it was a littel damp the better part of the day. Never really raining but misting all over the place. No biggie. As we were doing our final gear check and loading up the Jeep there was a little teenitsy bolt of lighting and a almost imperceptable clap of thunder. I kind of grinned to myself and mentioned it to Jake. He laughed and said,'if its going to rain, let it, its fine by me.' Being the hearty and well prepared survivalists we are, rain-gear was already accounted for a month ago. Into the Jeep, Vrooom!!! We are off.

Not two mintues into the drive and it started pouring down. We laughed and I silently egged-on the powers that be to give it to us full bore. As we pulled into our parking space Jake said to me something about it being perfectly honorable to call an abort of the mission if things get to sucky. I laughed heartily, grinned devilishly, and said,'Yeah Right. time to man the fuck up. Let's go.' We did our normal stretches and warmup to get the muscles loosened and let the rain set in. We discussed a minorly important topic, should I go plastic poncho style or use my favorite woolen cloak the way it was meant to be used. I chose the cloak. It is far less trouble to me with a cloak that is already serving as a rainfly for my pack than to try and work yet another peice of clothing into the mix. In fact I have to say my cloak fly-system is very gratifying. It is well attached to my pack and if I need shelter or extra warmth I just have to reach back a litlle and pull it around me. The hood is also tucked just behind my head so I have exra head cover if I so desire. I am convinced I made the right descision.

We trudged merrily onward and the rain came and went but there was not really much wind. The rain was coming down in torrents as is evidenced by the deluge coming from the drain on the viaduct we have to pass under to get to the trail-head. The hike itself was awesome. Not too much happened of much note. There was mud, in fact there was LOTS of mud. There some thorns, there was rain, and more rain, and then there was fog. It has always been one of nature most amazing feats to me. Watching the fog just grow out of the ground and materializing in front of you, like a ghostly aparition or the sort of mist that one would expect a genie to materlize from. When we reached the first stream, however, things got a little more interesting. The approach to the stream was nothing out of the ordinary until we heard a large splash ahead of us. Now, I am a generally paranoid person when I have unexpected company and that night was no exception. At first we wondered if some large critter fell in the water. Then another SPLOOSH!!! Hmmm. Well could it be someone playing a joke on us? The first one was off ot the right slightly this one off to the left a bit. So we our curiosity gets the best of us. Mostly due to the fact that Jake and I would like to know if there were other folks in the same space as us. Again paranoia really. We get a little closer to the stream and another SPLOOSH. It really sounded like large rocks or logs were being chucked into the water. Now being two overly adveturous guys we wanted to trace the source of the splashes. We repeatedly saw the splashes but no rock or log being chuck and no signs of other humans or even wildlife. After a bit of a march down the splashes continued and seemed as thoug hthey were constantly 10 or 20 feet ahead of us. At one point, Jake noticed a large pile of wood and sticks accross the bank. A den maybe? Indeed. Not more than two minutes later we notice a small dark spot moving in the water a ways away. finally after several more splashes and examining the evidence around us we concluded we had some new beaver friends. Well that was a bit of excitment. We hiked for another hour or so, checking out different paths and finds oceans of mud where ever we went. We tried to get down to the streambank we camped on the previous trip but the bogs and waterflow made that idea pretty null and void.

After mucking about and letting ourselves get soaked through to the bone we settled on a site that Nick and Jake used sometime back in Janurary or Feb. although we set back into the brush a bit more so we were not in direct LOS of the trail. We pitched the tents, got into some dry clothes, cooked up some noodles and rice , and chilled out for a while. Now, for me, this trip was VERY important because I was breaking in my new BAG, forever known now as Agnes. Agnes and I got to know each other really well that night. She is a real giver. She kept me warm and comfy out in the wild. I love Agnes. I believe her and I will be together for many years to come. This was the first time I have slept on an air matress while camping. There is now no other answer for me, if I have a choice in the matter. The only gripe I can say that I have with it is I filled it up too much so I could not feel the ground below. Oh, BOOHOO!!! A littel twist of the valve and POOF, feels like home. Sleep came very easily to me that night and I even dreamt, which is sort of unusual when I am camping. We both started stirring around 8:30 am to the sounds of geese migrating back North. What a feeling!!! The spring heralds flew over leisurly in droves. I counted at least 5 flocks just in the time we were cooking breakfast. A little food in the belly and the camp was a cinch to strike. The hike back was uneventful, however it made us yearn for more. I am reflecting upon this trip and I find the rain just fueled my tenacity and hunger for testing myself more. There is a feeling you get when your body is exhausted and you are in the middle of the forest. The soreness of your muscles just doesn't matter anymore and your mind sets itself free from your daily concerns. My spirit soared on the wind and pushed through the brush with the pack. For one single solitary moment, I was free of all worldy concerns. I would even go so far as to say I breifly brushed with the divine spirits of the Earth...

Conclusions:
1. Agnes is the best sleeping bag I have ever had.
2. Dry clothes are a littel slice heaven when you have been soaked through for the past few hours.
3. I still need a new tent. The holes in my were a little bigger this time.
4. SPRING IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!
5. Beavers are fun littel critters.
6. I like hiking and camping far more in the spring than the winter.
7. There is a reason RWE and HDT left for walden so many years ago.
8. Even one night of camping can make all of your problems seem alot smaller.
9. I love Agnes.
10. The world is a big campground and I intend to explore more of it.

Blessings and Light,
'D'

(MORE SOON)

MY NEW BAG!!!!

I almost forgot to say something about it. I got my new sleeping bag the other day. I have been starting to trust Ebay a little. If fact I am really glad that I did. I got my new bag for $40 less than retail and it was new still in the shrinkwrap. I actually went to UPS to get the package as I was so excited. My new bag is a Big Agnes Encampent 15* Polyguard 3D Long with a left-hand zipper.

For a big guy like me it is PERFECT. I have been shopping for a bag for a while. All the current mummybags and such do not fit well around my shoulders. After tryout 20 or so bags at REI I finally stpped into the Encampment. It is ROOMY. I did not stay in it too long at the store so I didn't quite get to explore all the functions. When I got into it at home I was thrilled. I spent probably two hours just exploreing all the room and details of my new outdoor home. It is the best thing EVER!!! The long length is meant to accomadate someone 6'6" and has a girth of 73". This bag is so roomy that I could fit another person in there with me....hmmmm...there is also a heat baffle that is shaped to go gentle around your neck just under the face opening. the peculiar thing about Big Agnes bags is the lack of insulation on the bottom 1/3 of the bag. This reduces the wieght. In leui of the padding they have given you a slot that accomindates a sleeping pad. This weight you don't roll off your pad at night and pad ensures that your precious body heat doesn't sink itnot the group during the night. I now will swear by this system. I can't wait to get it out on the trail....now for a tent and GPS...

Gear Check!!!

So my regular walks down the lake shore and up the stairs are doing me some good. I am still a little winded at the end of one trip up the 7 floors but I could do more if I were so inclined. When I started this whole adventure I was cursing my health by the time I reached the top of the stairs and it took 5 or mins for me to recover. So GO ME!!!

It has occured to me that i should take an inventory of my gear and see where I am at. I am not equipped to find out much each piece weighs yet but soon.

My pack:

Kelty Tioga External Frame Pack
Generic 3 person summer tent
Big Agnes Encampment 15* bag.
Big Agnes 20x78 Inflatable sleeping pad
Small Micro-fiber fleece blanket
Small Camp Hatchet
Nightblaster LED headlamp
12" Bowie Knife
Forever Flashlight
Generic Close cell foam sleeping pad (just for winter)
Primus Technotrail Camp stove
Iso-Pro fuel cell
Two Nalgene 1-litre bottles
MSR Stainless bowl
Army Surplus titanimum mess kit
Folding Combination shovel/pick-axe
REI Candle Lantern
2 spare candle
2 packs water proof matches
Pack of generic fire-starter sticks
bag of lint
Wool cloak
spare long johns
spare shirt
extra pants
2 pair spare socks
REI medium pack towel
Big yellow poncho
2 large garbage bags
Various foodstuffs such as two mountain house meals, lipton side dishes, ramen soup, green-tea, cinnamon tea, Emercen-C, Ibuprofen, p-38 can opener, 3 spare AAA, etc.)

WHat I need next:
Water Filter System
New Tent
New hiking Boots
Compass or GPS

My WishList

REI Quarter Dome UL Tent
MSR MiniWorks EX Filter
Garmin Rino 120 GPS/Two-way radio