Every beginner at camping has had the same type of bemusing experience. Typically it happens in the empty corner of a Walmart parking lot. But it could be at a truck stop or a mostly empty national forest campground.
The camper is delighted to be camping alone, that is, free of noisy neighbors. Then some interloper (invader) moves in surprisingly close, despite the fact that there was plenty of room to space out.
That brings us to what happened today: we were a bit nervous to be camping in the real world again, after the bliss of camping in empty land to the north. "Real world" means a place known to everybody thanks to the blabbermouth "where to camp free" websites.
We made an excellent choice on an empty road, with some visual interest and with good places to ride, nearby. The scheme was to 'monopolize' the two end campsites on this dead-end road; that is, we took the two sites even though we could have fit in just one. In the Olde Days, taking just one site would have been a nice thing to do. But not these days -- nice guys finish last.
So I encouraged my friend to park perpendicularly in front of the last campsite, so that some invader wouldn't try to turn around in that last site when they finally discovered that it was a dead-end, or maybe even try to squeeze into that site, Colorado-style. Was that being a bit paranoid?
Several hours later a huge beautiful Sprinter van approached our campsites on this dead-end road, despite the entire area being mostly empty. It finally saw the 'blockage' on that last campsite, turned around in my site, and left. It probably would have parked in my site if I weren't there.
It was a satisfying experience. And yet, it was bittersweet. How are you to make friends with other campers, if you always assume the worst about them and try to block them from your life?
By luck I happened to be listening to an audiobook of Jack London's "Call of the Wild."
And Buck [the lead character, a dog] was merciless. He had learned well the law of club and fang, and he never forewent an advantage or drew back from a foe...
He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primodial life. It was misunderstood for fear...
Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law...
He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past with the present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed as the tides and seasons swayed.
Welcome to the post-Covid Reality of camping.
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| dog eat dog |
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