Camplore

I thought I had met wintertime. Once. At a camp reunion we had between Christmas and New Years. It snowed in the mountains, and those of us reuinioning spent most of our time chopping wood, huddled under sleeping bags and blankets on thin mattresses in the staff room, or drawing straws to see whose turn it was to go fix something really hot to eat or drink. How quickly we forget (well, it was some 25 years ago. Egad.).

I was assigned an Order of the Arrow ordeal with my eldest at the beginning of December at a Boy Scout camp in Texas. I was relieved it wasn’t going to be in August, as trail clearing and trash hauling tend to be the order of the day in the Order of the Arrow. And even though I had packed my positive attitude and (incognito, not knowing how welcome they would be) a few pocket warmers, I was amazed at the temperature in the teens we experienced both Friday and Saturday nights.
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My Life Scout returned from his trip to Philmont. Which was a great success for him, I am delighted to report. There were moments in the months leading up to this I wasn’t sure it would be, especially in regard to foot care. He was quite determined to not wear the requisite sock liners under his hiking socks during practice hikes, and he paid for it with many a serious blister. For Philmont, he wore liners for the entire trip until the last two days. So he still came home with major blisters.

A quick survey of the returning equipment turned up a few missing items. So if you’re hiking around Philmont and happen across these items, you can drop me a comment and thank me.
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Don’t wear anything off the shoulder or a tank shirt or undershirt UNLESS YOU WEAR SUNSCREEN. You’re inviting a nasty sunburn, and a few days underarm hair growth is not anything you want to share.

Don’t wear sandals. Duh. Poison ivy, critters, mud, it all invites catastrophe if you’re tootsies aren’t enclosed.

Don’t go sockless. Yuck anyway. In fact. don’t go without two pair of socks. When your feet look like ground beef on the trail and are covered with blisters you’ll understand why I say this. For best results, use a thin synthetic liner sock with thick wool socks on the outside. Cotton is not your friend for a long hike. Socks should come up past your ankles to protect from most plants and varmints.

Don’t forget a hat. It doesn’t even matter what it looks like as long as it protects your face from the sun. Ideally, it should protect your ears and the back of your neck as well, because the sun shines there too.

Don’t wear pants that drag the ground. You only wear them to a fray and run the risk of the person behind you stepping on them and embarassing everyone.

Don’t wear obscene tshirts. By the time I read one, I realize I’m much closer to you than I’d like to be.

Don’t wear military gear. If you want to wear military clothing, join the military.

Don’t be mistaken for a pirate. This encompasses the missing socks, a rag wrapped around your head, missing teeth and saying “Yar, Matey!”

A lesson in using the right stuff for the job came into full focus today for my teenage son.

He’d spent the latter part of the afternoon edging the yard, and was getting ready for a casual dinner out. Next time I saw him, he was cringing, grabbing his crotch and weaving around the yard saying, “It’s so cold, it’s freezing, man this hurts…”, etc. I laughed at him because I thought he was joking, then started to wonder because he was really frantic. I asked him what was wrong, and he managed to gasp that he had used his foot powder instead of cornstarch baby powder to “freshen up”.

Yikes. It was pretty amusing from afar, but I don’t think he thought so. It took a bit of a soak in the tub to get him settled down, and he said he still noticed the lingering effect a couple of hours later. Lesson the next: don’t use anything with menthol, eucalyptus oil or peppermint oil in an area you don’t want to have a really chilling effect.

Well, that’s something you wouldn’t want to try on the Philmont trek, now, isn’t it?

What a great day I had today. It’s beautiful in North Texas, if a little cool for the time of year. Heading out to the park I had to return for a long sleeve shirt. At the sprayground (the water was on and a few kids in it - amazing how they don’t feel the cold) I found a warm refractive section of concrete edging that had soaked up a little heat. It was lovely and quite pleasant and very busy.

Then the boys and I decided to go Geocaching. I’d read about it and threatened to go a few times with a friend, but never actually tried it until today.
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Translating termperature from that handy dial with the numbers on it at home to the campsite can get a little on the tricky side. It still is, if you’re using wood coals. But cooking with charcoal gives you a little more structure, at least.
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Girl Scout camp is a magical place. The opportunity to try new things, learn self-reliance, build lifelong friendships, and share all these things with a group of other girls was a valuable part of my growing-up years.

One of the things that made camp so special was we were isolated from the rest of the world. The only vehicles on the property were driven by the handyman or camp director. The area that surrounded my camp was national forest, and the drive to the camp property was about four miles up a dirt road to the top of the canyon. With the exception of true family emergencies, phone calls were not allowed. And to top it all off, the adults in positions of responsibility were known by names like Robin, Sailor, Freud and Woody.
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I just started jogging a little this past fall. I still don’t really like it yet, but I dislike it less than I did when I started. I was bored to exhaustion though, pounding my feet on the pavement. So I stirred up a repertoire of camp songs. I eventually broke down and bought a little Sony Walkman SRF-M80V. It has tv, weather and am/fm, so I’m set for receiving music, though my favorite station is our local NPR afiiliate. I can jog to a good interview on Morning Edition or Fresh Air. Then my sweetie bought me an iPod mini, so I can control what I’m hearing. But sometimes still, I disconnect the earphones, listen to the birds, and just rattle through a few camp songs.
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