Occupation of Independence

  Is there a general pattern to how people change as they spend more time in the outdoors?  I notice it in myself.  But do other people go through the same thing? At the beginning, people are excited by 'breathtakingly beautiful' tourist scenery, that is, anything freakishly big, vertical, colorful, etc. And then how do they evolve?  Perhaps they become more interested in some activity or skill, be it hiking or fly fishing.  But recreation can still smell a bit vacation-ish or touristy. I am guessing that they lose their obsession with 'pretty' and become more interested in the real and authentic processes of Nature.  They want to grow food or raise a litter of puppies, cut firewood or build a cabin. Maybe that is one reason why I was interested in the local mushroom hunters in this forest.  Another group of 'gatherers' is the firewood guys.  They too looked so proud and satisfied as they hauled away their quarry.  Did they remove the bark from the tree?  How di

  Sometimes you just have to take a chance.  I chose to return to camp on an unfamiliar road.  Actually I knew it looked OK on the high-altitude end, and the low-altitude end started graded and wide.    But one can get a 'sinking' feeling while ascending a mountain.  It was not confidence-building to have to cross a couple streams. Think of all the $5.45/gallon gasoline disappearing into a 6.0 liter V8 engine.  This had better work.  The view was certainly nice towards the top. Looking down on the Grande Ronde valley, Oregon. Finally the road was starting to flatten out, and the forest had the same look as it did back at camp.  So I've made it! Whoops. Ahead of me was 75 yards of axle-deep ruts in mud ooze.  There was no way to drive around it.  At least I am old and wise enough to not make matters worse by being stubborn and macho.  So I surrendered, but how?  There was no way to turn around. I had to back up a quarter mile to a junction where I could do a three point turn

  It is hard to believe but I am now camping in a Left Coast state. Apparently, 'travel makes strange bedfellows.'   Of course I am in the 'hinterland', the 'flyover' part of the state, where all the 'Deplorables' live.  Still, there is some contamination from Portland and Eugene.  And the coffee culture of Seattle/Portland is quite strong around here. How many of these little coffee drive-throughs will survive the economic turmoil?  I started thinking about this back in Idaho after seeing a mobile coffee shop, parked on the edge of a small town. My goodness, was it cute!  It was a homemade trailer, made to look like a little mining shack.  I wonder about the people who own it.  They must be drastically different than a standard cubicle-rat.  Perhaps I romanticize these owners just because of their spunk, courage, and independence.  Does anybody care about these independent owners becoming casualties? But will coffee shops disappear? You'd think so.

What is the opposite of helio-therapy? I can't think of the right term. But whatever the term is, I have gotten it the last couple weeks.  It is a miracle cure. I thought that I was a terminal sun-hater, brown-hater, and a few other things. But three weeks as a human mushroom... Morel, Brain, and Coral mushrooms. The Coral, on the right, is 4" across.  ... and I am cured! The photo credit goes to a fellow camper who was a mushroom hunter.  I have gotten a kick out of the mushroom hunters in the forest.  They take their hunt so seriously -- more seriously than most people would take gold-prospectin'.  They are even secretive about where they found their mushrooms, and told me that there were bear tracks in the area or a cougar sighting.  You could say that about any place in the western public lands, so why are they mentioning it! This is a perfect example of how human beings can sometimes be seen at their best.  It's rare.  Can you think of more examples? Their "b