Occupation of Independence

An outdoorsman should not insist on his route being a loop.  But, still, a loop is fun if you can make one.  There was a possible loop from camp on my ridge.   Nothing sets you up for success like choosing a route with just the right amount of uncertainty.  It is possible that  the road will turn into pure rubble or become so overgrown that it is unpassable.   Don't overstudy it!  Don't lust for postcard scenery; try to get interested in ordinary things that you are likely to find.  By "ordinary things" I mean fundamental processes that make life on planet Earth possible.    That is how I felt when the little dog and I came up on the widest and lushest swale of the whole summer.  And I didn't expect it at all. I need to spend an entire post rhapsodizing about swales.  For the moment, suffice it to say that this was that magical moment when skepticism evaporated and I realized that the route was a success. Finally we turned right to reascend the ridge, back to cam

It was easy to get started early that morning.  I was motivated.  I had some errands in town, about 2000' lower than the stony ridge I was camped on.  In town it was expected to be triple digits in the afternoon, again.   (Hardly any towns in the Inland Northwest are high altitude and comfortable.) When I drove by a large lake I was surprised that nobody was there.  But really, who goes out to play in the water at 7 a.m.?  By 11 a.m. some people would surely be out there, enjoying it. Thinking about that brought on a powerful wave of nostalgia, despite "going to the lake to cool off" not being a big part of my childhood.  But most people at least remember running through lawn sprinklers as a child.  There are other pleasant memories, such as the anticipation of grandmother or mother making ice-cold lemonade.  Or getting a little bit of relief from a porch swing or riding a bicycle. This is time for my annual advertisement for the chapter, "Quincy", in the "

I was looking at the movies available on tubitv.com,   and found "Elmer Gantry", made around 1960, and featuring a powerful performance by Burt Lancaster.  (I watched it with the Brave browser and Adblock, which worked great.)  The movie is more worthwhile if you take it allegorically.  The story is about Christian revivalists in the Bible Belt, but many of its points apply just as well to other popular delusions, such as democratic politics. Elmer Gantry seems a lot like Donald Trump.  I wonder if the legacy of the Trump era will be that presidential candidates will always arise through the entertainment industry, and that their on-camera personality is the only thing that will matter.

 Ponderosa forests have a large fan club in the camping community, and I am a member.  But in mid-summer, the shade in these forests is not quite good enough.  This makes a guy appreciate the thicker shade of spruce forests.  I can't believe I said that. Many campers prefer the panoramic views of more open land to the locked-down viewscape of a thick spruce forest.  Then, when they do come out into the open, it is really fun: All in all, it is a good thing that one month is different from the others, and that one forest isn't just like all the others. It was also fun to come back into Idaho.  I begged for mercy at the local grocery store: could they spare a couple extra grocery bags?  I had used up all my bags in Oregon and I use grocery bags as trash bags!  Why is it environmentally-correct to have to buy larger trash bags to dispose of kitchen waste?  It is also nice to be rid of the 10 cent deposit on bottles and cans.  I want to support the Oregon law, but the recycling ma