Weird Weather Makes Me Remonisce

Four weeks ago I was snowshoeing during my lunch break at work…four days ago it was 80 degrees outside and I was watching a movie in my back yard.…four hours ago it was snowing again.  The weather is a constant surprise here in New England, and I love it.  I’ve lived temporarily in northern California, Central America, the Caribbean and Asia but I could never give up life in New England. 

While Central America provided me with some amazing weather, I really missed the snow.   If you’re a SCUBA diver there is no better place to live.  You simply take your dive gear to the curb, hail a passing cab (they’re everywhere) and get a ride to the beach for $5.  But the leaves never change to the brilliant colors like they do here, and then there are all those nasty things in the jungle.  I spent several months living and working in the jungle when I was 19 or 20 and it was the only time in my life where dehydration almost killed me.   You really have to be careful because if the heat doesn’t get you a snake or a spider will.  I would become a bit phobic having to check the insides of my shoes for scorpions before I put them on every morning…or having to check under the toilet seat for a tarantula.  It still makes my skin crawl.  Did you know that red ants build their ant-hills to be almost six feet tall down there?  I don’t miss that at all.

The Caribbean is nice for a while but it’s a whole different way of life that I don’t think I could ever adjust to.  Living in paradise has its own unique set of problems.  Being from the U.S. meant I was automatically loved when I walked inside a store (because of my U.S. currency) and then instantly hated while walking the streets.  I encountered groups of young men who survived entirely off of cornering Americans and bullying them into giving up their money.  This was before the days of debit cards, when everyone carried cash.  Maybe it’s changed a little since the early ‘90s, I don’t know.   The food prices were insane!  I understand that beef and other imported items should cost more, but even the fish?  Locally caught mahi-mahi and red snapper were more expensive there then at a store in New Hampshire.  I guess the greed in people takes over and they just expect you’ll pay more for it…and we do.  To give you an example, a good burger & fries here in the U.S. will cost you about $10 maximum at a burger joint and maybe $17 at a fancy sit down restaurant.  In the Caribbean, a burger and fries will cost you about $30 plus gratuity.  Gratuity is not an option either.  When your bill comes it will clearly state, “GRATUITY NOT INCLUDED!!!!” in red ink and underlined about six times.  Not paying a 15% gratuity can get you barred from a restaurant for life.  That’s not the way I like to do business.

Asia was pretty close to the conditions I was used to in New England.  I was on the South Korean peninsula and was blessed with snow, spring rains and no poisonous animals.  There were those nasty Japanese Hornets but I didn’t see too many of them.  Autumn still didn’t bring me the bright colored leaves I missed, but the hardest thing to get used to was the culture of the people of Korea.  They are a very polite people and I have only good things to say about them but the customs and food are just so different from what a westerner is used to.  They snacked on dried squid as we snack on potato chips and they eat kimchi (pronounced CHEM-chee) as a side dish with almost every meal.  For those who don’t know, kimchi is an aromatic fermented cabbage salad that could make a seagull faint. They are very age-oriented too.  For example, I was so impressed with the way Korean families care for their elderly.  They don’t ship them to nursing homes and write them off.  In most cases the elderly remain the “heads” of the family until their deaths.  However, I did not like how things were marketed in ads and on television.  They believe children are the future and so everything is marketed toward kids; cars, dish soap, food, everything.  To make it worse, all commercials (radio & T.V.) were narrated by young women with agonizingly high-pitched voices so that they would sound like little children. 

Of all the places I've lived (other than New England) northern California was the easiest to adjust to, for obvious reasons.  I spent two years living and working between Monterey and the east side of the Los Padre National Forest.  Obviously the culture wasn’t much of a change; just the weather and climate.  It was strange that while in Monterey it was always damp and foggy, while only two hours away, King City was almost like a desert.  The topography of the area plays so much into the region.  The first time I drove through Napa Valley was at night and my mind was playing tricks on me.  I looked out over a vast field of grapes that stretched all the way to the horizon.  All I could see was blackness.  Having grown up near Gloucester, Massachusetts my mind could not accept that an area that large (without lights) was anything other than water.  It was a strange feeling that my mind just couldn’t process.  These days I live near the White Mountains and enjoy the seasons of “summer, autumn, winter and spring”…but in California the seasons were more like “fire, flood, drought and earthquake.”

I enjoyed all the places I’ve lived and I’m incredibly grateful to have had the chance to travel when I was young.  Now that I’m older I’m most happy when my yard is aflame with the colors of fall leaves, blanketed with fluffy white snow or just covered with patches of clover.  The smell of lilacs blooming in the spring and apples in the fall.  The sounds of seagulls at the shore and frogs croaking at night.  Where a sandwich costs less than two hours pay and nothing venomous is hiding in my shoes.

Not Winter & Not Summer

I have a difficult time keeping focused this time of year.  My mind has drifted away from deadlines and spreadsheet to kayaking and camping.  It’s true that there is still a little snow on the ground right now, but this year was a complete wash when it comes to snowshoeing.  We only had one or two good days of snow since October and that is most unusual for New Hampshire.  I’ve been hoping for snow for months but it seems I’m just not going to get my wish.  So I’ve decided to spend my free (and some borrowed) mental energies on looking forward to summer.  This year I really want to do some remote camping. 

There’s work to do!  There are two modes of thought when it comes to remote camping.  The first involves reserving (and paying for) a remote campsite on a lake inside a state park.  The second method requires hours of searching on Google Earth for small abandoned or uninhabited islands.  Both methods have drawbacks and benefits. 

Paying to stay in a state park or state forest allows me to give back to the agencies that maintain the lands and waters I love so much.  It also provide me with a semi-safe place to leave my car for two or three days without it getting broken into or stolen.  But I also risk losing my money if the campsites close due to bad weather.  Then there’s the thing I really don’t like about state parks; other campers.  It’s hard for me to consider it a “real” camping experience if there are families running around in matching T-shirts, screaming at their kids and basically just going out of their way to annoy me.  This is why I prefer the art of “dark camping.”

Dark camping demands stealth, planning and the acceptance of a little risk.  This works best if you can have a friend drop you and your boat off while you keep your car at their place.   I prefer small wooded islands in the middle of rivers or lakes; this makes it difficult for anyone to stumble upon you by accident.  It also greatly reduces the chance of anyone landing on the island after dark and if they do they’ll probably be so drunk you’ll hear them way before they stagger onto the island.  On the other hand, there are times when you will run into others doing exactly what you’re doing; and you thought you were the only one.  Timing is key; you’ll want to land at dusk and quickly conceal your brightly colored kayak or canoe.  You can either drag it deep into the woods or throw a brown tarp or blanket over it.  I prefer the drag method because the kayak contains all the camping gear anyway.   At this stage your biggest threat are the houses on shore.  Those houses contain old, nosy, retired people with nothing better to do but watch kayakers and canoers.  If you land on your island too soon they’ll notice what you’re doing.  If you land too late you won’t be able to see well enough to set up your campsite safely.  If you think you might be visible from shore, just use a brown tarp as a visual barrier to break up the pattern of your campsite and hide your movements.  This is what all those years of setting up living room forts was all about; it prepared you for this day!  As darkness falls, it’s time to fire up the stove.  If you’re in a dry area with a lot of dead wood laying around, I recommend skipping the camp fire.  A small gas stove can provide you with quite a meal if you’re an experienced camper.  After all is eaten and cleaned it’s time to relax.  Take your chair and head to the edge of the water with a book and a small glow stick or just lie back and listen.  I recommend glow sticks over flashlights because they’ll burn all night without a battery, they are completely waterproof and they are less noticeable by people looking at the island.  If you need to douse the light quickly you can just stick it in your pocket.  If rain should roll in, just use your brown tarp as a roof instead of a wall by tying all four corners to trees.  Just remember to tip the tarp in the direction you want to water to flow so it doesn’t pool up and flood your tent or sleeping area.  The rain can be a friend a friend.  It reduces the visibility of others as well as making all the local boat traffic disappear.  

There is the risk of running into a land owner or a law enforcement officer.  If you claim ignorance the officer will usually let you slide.  Claiming ignorance to a land owner usually only works if you package it with fifty bucks.  This is about the same amount of money you would have spent on one of those “official” camp sites anyway…so, nothing lost.   Surprisingly I’ve found that the biggest threat on these little islands at night is ants.  Island ants are very territorial and very hungry.  Plan ahead and bring an enclosed tent or a hammock.  Yeah, I’m ready for summer.