The Bright Side: January 2019

Ready to go!

I didn't grow up as part of an outdoorsy family, so I am not really sure where I came from or why I've always had this overwhelming desire to be outside whenever possible. Shelley (who also does not come from nature lovers) was admittedly a little wary of my "let's go on a hike down this random path with no destination" attitude, but has since come along and discovered how much she enjoys it too.

Now we're the people who seek adventures and try to be spontaneous-- I say try because there isn't a ton of freedom to do this while also being a responsible human who was not born independently wealthy. In the last year, though, we have done some pretty cool things, including sleeping on a beach overnight and-- most recently-- winter camping.

Icy Nalgenes

We were on a hike over the summer and learned of a group that does winter camping excursions, so we signed up for the information session. I had a lot of gear because at one point I planned to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, which has not happened yet but will one day. This past weekend, we set out for our overnight jaunt in the 20 degree temps.

Our home away from home

The whole occasion was pretty cool. We pitched our tent for the first time-- we got it over the summer and planned to use it in the fall but it was Rain City here the whole time so we never got around to it. We learned about some primitive shelters to make in case of an emergency (praying I never have to sleep in the woods in a lean-to in the middle of winter) and met some awesome people. We learned to start a fire using wet materials from cold, wet conditions, and then used that fire to cook our food. The overall attitude was uplifting and the conversation was good. Shells and I learned a lot as well.

There was a vibe that I found particularly amusing, and it always came about over gear. Everyone is familiar with certain brands and there was the, "Oh, are those Sorels?" about my lined waterproof boots or "We got this at REI" said by a couple I thought had a sponsorship from them, they were so decked out. Some people made their own materials, like a camp stove-- that was cool. And there was our camp stove, a Shelley find from Amazon that cooks three different ways and folds up with its own cutting board.

headlamps and lukewarm cocoa

People shared their adventures and told us places to go, and overall it was nice to get away from it all and stare at the stars near a bonfire, listening to coyotes howl hauntingly in the distance.

Boots and lantern tucked away for the night

When the time came to crawl into our little two-person tent for the night, the wind decided to pick up and the temperature dropped as it snowed. I spent a good portion of the night waking up not from cold but from fear that one of those distant coyotes were actually not-so-distant and would decide that after eating a ding-dong and some soup by the fire, I would be a tasty little snack. At one point, probably around 4am, the tent blew so hard the material was hitting us in the head. I opened my eye and met Shelley's eye staring at me, and we started cracking up. She said, "Why did it decide to become the blizzard of '19 and why are we not in our warm bed?" and we couldn't stop laughing. We prepared well enough that even though it sounded insane outside and we woke up to at least an inch of snow, we were warm.

Tropical Snowman

Snow!

The next morning, seeing the sun come up over pristine snow was incredible. I know it probably sounds insane, but I am excited to do this again.

As we were leaving, our car got stuck going uphill because of the ice from the night before. Every person with us rallied together-- pushing the car, offering to call AAA, laying down branches for traction, or even just offering snacks and building a tropical snowman to keep morale up.

The Bright Side: It was incredible to come together with new people and see everyone so willing to help and just be kind. It's important to not judge people based on looks or jobs or who you think they voted for or what lifestyle they have, because in reality people are people and I do believe they are generally good. Oftentimes, it is easy to become despondent in the negativity of news and news feeds, and I am guilty of that as well. This was a good way to detach from that and see the goodness in others in action, and I am thankful for that.