Camping

How is it that we humans have the tendency to think of the things we want to do “next summer”, before the fall is over and before winter even sets in? Knowing full well that we have nearly 6 months to wait for any sign of summer weather, at least in MN we do.
I find it to be the case that every year, around the 1^st of December, I begin to make my camping plans for the following year, with much more anticipation than “camping” merits, I might add. When I speak of camping, we are talking about the “old fashion” kind, a tent. Having had the joy of a modern 5^th wheel camper, which was used for a 5 week vacation to Florida one winter, I do know the difference in “camping” the modern way and camping in a traditional manner. The cost and time to maintain a modern camper that is only used a few times a year just did not seem worth it, so I sold the thing and used the proceeds to transform our barn’s hayloft to a woodshop, which I spend far more time in than I would the camper. So now all my camping is back to a tent of some kind.

Remembering back to the first time I went “camping” as a child is a real treat. My children have camped from the time they were a few months old, so they will never have the same kind of memories as I dig up from the cobwebs of my mind, nearly 43 years ago. As is often the case in the things we remember, the “memory” is much more agreeable than the actual experience, for the simple reason that I woke up on the ground under a homemade quilt with my head chewed nearly off from mosquito bites. Other than that, I decided I liked “camping”.

I feel certain it was the summer of 68’ or 69’. My father gather up the whole family, which at that time included 5 children, to take us camping on a little farm pond that belonged to a man he was working for. Camping, most of the time, requires a body of water for the atmosphere to be proper, unless it happens to be a hunting trip, in which case the only water you need is for drinking and cleaning up. The tendency to camp near water also insures the company of many biting insects, and, as a general rule, insects really enjoy human companionship.

This pond was not very big, but I being a young fisherman, was in no way discouraged that my fishing prospects were somewhat limited. I don’t recall that we caught any fish. My clearest memory is of rolling up in my quilt by a campfire, with my father, mother and siblings doing likewise. There was a lot of grumbling from the female corner about the mosquitoes, but I was content enough in that I was “camping”. We did not have a tent in those days. By mornings light I remember my mother and maybe some sisters were found to have fled to the car seats to sleep, with the windows up tight!

My camping methods have advanced, somewhat, since that long ago night in southern Ohio. Now we use either a modern nylon tent, or a white canvas wall tent that even has a chimney hole, so that we can use a woodstove if it is cold. When backpacking and canoeing into the backcountry, a nylon tent is about the only good option, considering the weight and bulk of a canvas tent. For pure comfort, a canvas wall tent is hard to beat. They are roomy enough to set up cots to sleep on, plus they breath enough to have a heat source. Any heat in a nylon tent will soon give you a shower from the condensation that drops from the ceiling, besides if you try to use a woodstove in a nylon tent, it is nearly certain, that you will end up with a pile of melted nylon in short order!

My last noteworthy camping was this past spring (2011). It was a trip into the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) of northeast MN. For those not familiar with the BWCA, it consists of a million acres of wilderness area laying on the Canadian border. It is a “controlled wilderness”, meaning that the “powers that be” will only permit a certain number of travelers to enter the wilderness on any given day. That has its own merits and criticisms, but it does reduce congestion along the travel routes, which are from lake to lake over portages that have been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years by traveling people in that area of the world. I have had the privilege of camping in the BWCA off and on since 1986, it is one of the unique places in our state where one can leave all modern modes of transportation or communication and lose themselves in a wilderness environment. There are no motors of any kind permitted beyond the outlying parts of the wilderness, so all travel will be by canoe or foot. Cell phones don’t work, at least in the areas that I have been to of late. All I can say about that is, I would not take one even if they did work, the experience could not possibly be the same if one had constant communication with the hectic outside world, which we are trying to escape from to begin with.

This last trip was also my most unforgettable trip into the BWCA. Due to unfavorable weather conditions. Even though it was in late May, a time when MN normally can expect the black flies and mosquitoes not to be out in force, they were on the first day. After that, they could not fly, being grounded by gale force winds! Now strong winds and canoe travel do not mix, but nature does not take into account the desires of travelers.

Part of the allure of wilderness camping is the ability, for a few days, to be transported, as a time machine, to the days before modern travel. I have found that for the average person, canoeing is one of the few ways to get into the wilderness and still enjoy some solitude. Backpacking is a natural alternative for those hardy enough to participate in that sport. But long before my ‘carcass’ began to fall apart, I decided that travel by canoe was ideal for my temperament. For starters I like to fish, that requires lots of water. Second, backpacking demands a minimal amount of gear, that requires a lot of sacrifice of comfort while encamped, to my opinion. Third, I get bored just “walking”, unless there is a better hiking environment than what I find in our great state. MN is full of great places, but hiking trails are not among our top attractions. After all, how many miles of “tundra” do you care to see? J But lakes! We have them by the thousands, according to our license plates, we are the land of ten thousand lakes, but the DNR assures us that this is a “low count” and there are many more than 10,000 lakes in our state. I would like to fish every one of them! Still working on that.

If you wonder what it is like to be in a canoe with white caps around a foot high, I can tell you it is “exciting”. It calls of a steady hand and careful navigation. You don’t let yourself get crossways to the waves, not unless you are wanting to go swimming. You must go with the waves or straight into them. As our good luck had it, on the day we really needed to travel the wind was to our back, so we rode the waves at a speed seldom seen before the steam engine. If we had been facing into that gale, more than likely we would have went into “camp” and waited for a calm. Travel speed into the wind is about as slow as a turtle on a greased road, there is a lot of energy put into the paddle, but very little forward progress.

Camping is not for everyone, especially ‘backwoods’ camping. But there are not many sports that can be done at such low cost in money as camping. Most of the equipment, if purchased wisely, will last a lifetime. No matter how the trip turns out, the memories are there to be dug out of the archive of our minds anytime we want them. Some of my most cherished memories are around a campfire somewhere beyond the roads, while the sun sets over a lake that has not seen a motor in 50 years. The moose and bear make it their home, the busy beaver is always at work, building dams or storing food for the long winter and the ‘haunting cry of the loon’ echoes across the water like a sound from another age in history.

Yep, I am going to make another trip into the BWCA next spring, but I am not going to carry enough food for a month! That is another story better left alone.