Tag Archives: Camping

1,000 Sunsets and 1,000 Sunrises

Camping

Joyce and I just surpassed our 1,000th night of camping together

This wasn’t a goal or even something I was closely tracking. We started camping as a couple just before we were married in 2002. Considering the fact that we both have full time jobs, getting out nearly 100 nights per year really wasn’t that difficult; although for most people it would be impossible to do because they are to busy dealing with life, instead of living life. I wrote about this in Managing Your Recreation Inventory.

For us, camping isn’t about sitting around a campsite, but about spending time together in the wilderness, which includes hiking, fishing, boating, stargazing, and even generally doing nothing but talking and listening to one another.

We have enjoyed the lowest and highest deserts, the heights of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, rivers, lakes, streams, oceans, and the deepest canyons. We have seen wildlife of all kinds. We have experienced extreme heat, freezing cold, snow, rain, and balmy weather.

A few pictures from the past…

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A Birthday Camping Trip @ Guajome

Camping,

A SPECIAL DAY

2014-04-06-6

Yesterday was Joyce’s xx-something birthday. Seems many women don’t like their age disclosed when they hit “milestone” birthdays. Not sure if Joyce minds age disclosure, so I won’t tell you how young she is.

In celebration of her birthday we could have done many things, but Joyce decided she wanted to do a special camping trip. After 13 consecutive camping trips in the desert, she wanted to go somewhere that had lots of green trees and plants, and cool moisture laden air — translation: near the ocean. More than that, she wanted to go to Guajome. This actually surprised me; not her wanting to go to Guajome, but that she wanted to go camping. I had visions of her wanting to do a weekend getaway to a 5 Star resort and/or dinner at an upscale restaurant.

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Backpacking/Camping Decision Tree

Backpacking, Camping, General Talk,

JT 2014-03-27

It appears that my wife has a “Bucket List” and a To Do List.

I have neither.

Her To Do List includes fixing a leak in the roof, which is required before the interior remodel can be completed. The remodel started in 2000; the roof leak appeared a few years later.

So this week I put the roof issue on my own To Do List, which was completely empty – actually I had to create a list. However it was too windy outside this week.

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Managing Your Recreation Inventory

Backpacking Gear, Camping, General Talk, , ,

Inventory Clip ArtNo, this isn’t about gear. A while back I wrote an article about backpacking gear getting boring. So is camping gear.

It is time to talk about getting out into the wilderness and actually using your gear.

Sometimes I am amazed by the amount of time so many folks spend on the Internet talking about camping or backpacking, but not really going out and actually doing it. So many people talk about not having the time to camp or hike. Here is a little secret, you can go camping and/or backpacking over 100 days per year and work full time!

Before you say, “But I don’t live close to wild areas,” consider doing this: MOVE

If getting outdoors is important, which I assume is true for most people who spend days on end on Internet forums talking about it, then move if you live far from recreational opportunities.

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