Peace and Quiet?

Two weeks ago I finally had an opportunity to go camping. When I go camping it’s a very austere exercise because I don’t like to take a lot of excess baggage. I don’t take a pop-up camper trailer or even a pop-up tent. Nor do I hop on a four wheeler and drive in. I shoulder my backpack and trek back in about 3miles. Part of the purpose of this hike was to test my gear and my stamina. The gear did fine and I got a so-so grade but I can definitely feel my years. It was near 90 and 98% humidity which did not help. The other reason for camping was to get away from politics, rotten news stories, and relax in the peace and quiet of nature. That was only partly successful as well.

Barely did I have my camp set up and my peace and quiet was rudely interrupted by ten four-wheelers roaring up the dirt road that had a locked gate at the other end. This happened three times! Their last hurrah coming at 11:30 PM, waking me from my sleep with the noise of their engines. At first I thought it was the Zombie Bikers from Hell. As the fog cleared from my brain I realized it was just the same idiots. I wonder how much wildlife they saw? They probably missed the deer and beaver, the squirrels, bluejays, and chipmunks that I enjoyed watching. Although I would have killed for one of their cold beer, I never approached these outriders. I am pleased to say that my hide went undetected by them with their motorized cacophony of spinning wheels, headlights and spotlights, and clouds of dust. My sleep was further molested by a lone coyote, an owl, beavers slapping their tails on the water, and the devil’s own squirrel who insisted on dropping pinecones on my tarp from forty feet up in the air and then chattering about it. I guess he didn’t like that they were ricocheting off into the brush.

Along with my usual compliment of firearms I had the Grayman Knives Kordofan 8 attached to the side of my Maxpedition™ backpack. It came in quite handy hacking dead branches into supports for my tarp and clearing the few briars out of my sleeping area. The deadwood was hard as nails and it took quite a bit of hacking to cut and sharpen the few pieces I needed. (I prefer to not cut up green trees just for an overnight camp.) The edge on the Kordofan 8 stayed sharp and did not knick or roll during hard use. In fact it stayed sharp enough to slice my finger when I brushed against it pushing back my mosquito net in the wee dark hours as nature called. I had driven it into the ground beside me in case the coyote came with his friends looking for supper. The black coating on the blade held up well during the chopping and being driven in the dry hard ground. My only complaint is the handle slabs need a little more radius on the edges to soften them. This is an easy task that I will attend to before my next outing.

Other than a deer nearly trashing my camp out of curiosity no other wildlife came close, that I know of, and the Zombie bikers did not come back anymore. Not quite the serene camping experience I was looking for but any time in the woods away from “civilization” is good time.