Helping "Adventure" Survive

 Some local people talked to me at camp, the other day.  I wish this kind of thing happened more often.   One fellow had an electric car that he talked about quite a bit.  

I was camped on some BLM land that didn't get many visitors.  The locals were not suspicious of me -- well, maybe a little.  They seemed curious about me.  Or maybe they were flattered that their area was finally appreciated by a 'camper/tourist.'

I instinctively moved away from these mountains when I was looking for a place to camp.  It is nice to stay close enough to see them, of course, but I don't want to be too close.

I found a nice area of green BLM hills, and camped right at a topographic saddle, where it was flat.  The cellphone signal ended on the back side of the saddle.

You can just barely see my trailer as a small white rectangle towards the center of the photo, above.  My little dog and I had walked up the two-track road that you can see in the foreground.  These hills can be big.  

Since this area is close to the Humboldt River, one of the lucky east/west rivers that created the California Trail, it was time to dig out "Wagons West," by Frank McLynn.  Excellent book.  I have become such a sucker for Oregon or California Trail books the last couple years.  Maybe it is because 'adventure' is a word that gets constantly bandied about, but it is really a malapropism in the modern world.  

For instance, many van nomads would have put the camping location at the saddle into some damned "free campsite" website/app, thereby destroying its ambiance.  Or, after pulling in, they would have quickly built a stone campfire ring, which just serves as a magnet to draw in the next camper, and the next...