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...)
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...)
posted by Dustin L. Derry at 2:25 PM
1 Comments:
Looking forward to your next entry.
B
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