BACKCOUNTRY

[Continuing]

Entering into preparation to go camping marks the beginning of camping. Your entire mind is filled with where you will be and what you will need when you're at that place, which is now because you want to think ahead of yourself being there so you know what you need when you get there.

Getting there in the mind put one out into the storage area to bring out the small saw and his Estwing E6-25A Forged Steel Camp Axe with an 11 inch steel handle, several small but lengthy bundles of nylon cord, three tightly folded tarps, a battery-lantern flashlight and some other tools.

He had a simple dome-shaped tent, a Eureka, with highly durable nylon stretched over three bending rods that folded down nicely into a light and manageable addition to all that he could fit in the backpack he'd been given by his grandparents.  It was the Osprey men's Atmos 65 A pack, top-of-the-line. Almost weightless, well-balanced and concrete sturdy with breathability and all weather seams putting scientific lockdown on moisture.

He would bring corned beef hash and eggs and bread and cheese and butter and a can of raviolis and four liver sausage sandwiches and mustard and otherwise he would starve.

Six bottles of ice cold Miller High Life.  Protein bars. Blueberries. Old film camera.

He prepped a few lines with various lures and spoons, he'd bring six or so set up already, some for bass, others for pan fish.

The cooler evenings now were what drew him out and back to the woods again. He could breathe out there. There was sacred darkness enough to see the shining stars in their true light.   Away, far away from the noisy lights and glare of the city one tenderly could hold and be held in the cool moist air itself through an evening under a moon with half a light on.

One could walk with God the whole day long without a single interruption not knowing what interruption was as pure being in true flow. Give me the forest. Challenge me to catch a few fish or eat boxed macaroni and cheese. I'll put fire in front of you out of nowhere. Cook you a meal, play you a love song.

I'll need my flask, thermos.