Camping Gratitude

Thank you Lord for the morning Thank you for the quiet.  There is only the sound of the creek rushing by. The sound of the highway has hardly woken. I heard one truck go by. There are no sirens. I don’t even have a heat making noise.  She mumbled in her sleep a bit. The dog didn’t make a sound till I got out of bed and used the toilet. Thank you for indoor plumbing and water.

Thank you that I have water. Yesterday I backed the trailer into the water hose post catching the hose on the trailer and pulling off the top causing an unstoppable geyser requiring public works to be called.  She was sitting beside there and didn’t call to tell me I was going to hit something. I couldn’t see it in the mirrors. I’m no good at backing up and relied on her there to help. « I didn’t know what you were doing , » she said, « I couldn’t see. » 

I was blaming and upset.  Another expense I thought. I could pay but equipment costs too much to maintain.  I did damage my last trip out also backing up the trailer.  There are problems in design of the equipment. I’ve asked for help and been brushed off.  It’s the story of my life these days.  Aging.  I express concerns and they’re brushed off. I aware of death.  

Thank you for this day again. I’m glad to be alive.  

Yesterday I got lost in the back woods driving my quad. I took a left turn thinking it would lead to Jura,  It eventually lead to Eris.  But I’d started to secondary main looking logging road only to have it descend into a rock strewn steep trail that had me descending in a bit of terror using first gear and a lot of braking. Madigan was on the Honda Tracker quad behind me.  I’d long given up looking for game and was focussed totally on the descent and not pitchpoling or tipping to left or right. I was glad to cross the railway path but turned north rather than south.  Fortunately some kids on motorcycles appeared and I headed down from where they came up.

That’s when I found the Eris fire department. Across the road a delightful man was backing up his hoe. I drove the quad to him. He got out of his cab when I asked him how I’d get back to Heimbre Mountain Road.  He asked how I’d come to be there and told m I’d made a wrong turn at the sand pit.  He drew me a map. His kid come out to watch the adults. His dogs visitted my dog.  I turned around the quad and headed back out only to find myself in a private property. 

I came out of the private property and turned up a road leading up the mountain. It didn’t seem steep at first but when I hit the bend I could see the next stretch was way to steep. It was broken rocky uneven and I’d have to stand the whole way up if I hoped to make it. I tried to back down but the path was uneven and I immediately feared tipping to the side. There was only one hope, gun it. I did. Ending on a bit of flat beside the trail, heart racing and breath shallow. I didn’t even bother looking back at Madigan. He was leaning into my back his little heart thumping. I was about to be frozen so gunned it again making it to a turn on the off road moss not quite tilting over as I came around.  Then it was straight and back down the trail convinced I’d been guarded by angels and nearly escaped rolling with a quad on top of me,  I headed back to Eris and took a different trail up the mountain eventually arriving at the railway trail , back to the sand pit and onto the tunnel, the helpful guide had marked in his hand written map.  The tunnel clinched it . I was going to be okay.  I found the highway and took the Hiembre Mountain road back to my truck.

Thank you God the truck and trailer were undisturbed. Thank you God that Madigan and I were unhurt.  Thank you God for the beautiful sunny day with just a touch of rain and cloud now,  Thank you God for the Camper. It was great to see it there and great to see Laura sitting outside. I’d thought on the way I’d ask for her help backing in.  But as she was  sitting outside I thought she’d be watching, That’s when I backed the trailer into the tap and created havoc the geyser creating a puddle as I went to get the manager.

He returned and called city works. It was a municipal campground, 

They had it fixed and I was thankful.  I was tired and didb’t know what I was thinking. That they’d shut down the camp. Catastrophising as usual. They did shut the water off for a few minutes but only to that site.  

With Laura’s help I actually backed the trailer into the site without hitting anything else.  I then unhitched the trailer and backed in the truck. For future reference I won’t bring a trailer to this campground. We’ve been coming here thirty years and only twice have I brought a trailer. This is the only time on season and the park was packed and maneuverability was anxiety provoking. I’m exhausted at the end of the day of hunting too. Too much time on the couch and Netflix since Covid. I walk the dog but no athleticism sinc the crisis.  The camper has been in repair half the time too during hunting season because I keep breaking something or it’s just wear and tear. This weekend a happy jack failed and I’ve had to hand crank the jack.  When I get back I’m hoping John will fix it. The waitlist for repairs on trailers is 3 to 6 months. Now I’m in the season when I actually use the trailer.  Oh well, Thank you God I’m alive, Laura’s alive, Madigan’s alive and we’re out here in the wilderness taking a break from the city and the work demands and insaiety.  Thank you for all your blessings ,Thank you for Oxford which has been continually distracting me and filling me with doubt and concern.  Looking back is difficult these days as there seems so little forward. I’ve begun reading old books and watching old movie s and enjoying them. I simply don’t see a future. I’m just muddling along and that’s okay but the new adventure just isn’t there. I m. I’ve a list of achievements but I read Thomas Merton on obscurity and consider the need to surrender and question letting go.  I am going gentle into the night and I’m not raging. Just muddling. I dob’t like the politics and the lies and taxes and the corruption upst me.  Gratitude is the answer. God is good all the time. The Infinite holds every possibility. Phillips was right . My God is too small. I must trust and accept grace. This too will pass. The Hound of Heaven will find me. The long dark night of the soul will end, I’m do the next right thing,  Time is of an essence, Joy awaits. Thank you Jesus. 

Princeton Hunt

Laura, Madigan and I stayed in the Princeton Municipal campground.  I unloaded the Adventurer camper on site with the city water and electricity.  There was a portable honeypot I was able to use a few times in the week to unload the black and grey water central sani dump.  I used the Ford 350 to tow the trailer with the Honda 420 Ranger quad up into the mountains or into the valley.  Laura stayed with the camper reading, doing cross words, napping, drinking coffee, doing cross roads, making sandwiches.  Madigan I were hunting

I should sit in ambush or walk more in the woods. But the camp opened their gates at 7 am. Sunrise was 630 to 700 and it took a half hour to get to any hunting area.  At best I was in the woods at 8 am.  Not the before dawn start my mentor Bill Mewhort, Obi Wan Hunter would have insisted on. But most morning deer I have shot have been around 10 am or evening at dusk. The grouse I shot this trip were anytime from 8 am to 1 pm.  

I saw a couple of bucks and saw other guys get a couple of deer. In the town there were dozens of doe. I say I’m on a grouse hunt and if I were to shoot a deer it would be an ‘enhanced grouse hunt’ or ‘grouse hunt with benefits’. 

The fact is the weather was splendid.  One day of rain which is good for hunting and another day of bone cold chill despite long johns and fleece coats and scarves.  The scenery was so inspiring, evergreen, and changing autumn colours with explosions of gold and orange.  I loved the blue sky and cloud formation with views of hills going for miles. Fog filled the valley a couple of mornings.  

I am afraid of walking much in the woods as I’ve become older and less stable on my feet. Once called ‘Billy goat gruff’ for running down mountains, Laura joked and called me “Biden’ when I stumbled climbing steps.  Frankly I’m afraid of slipping and breaking a limb out in the wilderness something I never even thought of a few years back.  Also the last deer I shot a few years back was only a hundred yards off the road but pulling it through the debris and stumps and over logs was brutual.  I just don’t have the strength so I have become the road hunter I made fun of younger. I don’t stray far from the trails and logging roads.  It’s humbling but I still enjoy the glorious outdoors. The fragrances of foliage and autumn were exquisite. The sights were so uplifting. Nature at its best.  Having my trusty companion along was great fun too. He loves hunting and loves riding on the back of the quad.  He was especially proud when I’d shoot a grouse and he’d run off to fetch it waddling back carrying a bird half his size.  He’d drop it at my feet. I’d dress it and give him the heart and liver as a treat. The grouse breast is a delicacy I enjoy mostly with rice fried with butter and marmalade or just barbecued.

It was dark by 630 and I had loaded the trailer with the quad , locked my Ruger 3006 and 20 guage shot gun in the truck and headed back. I’d be with Laura around 700 to 730 pm after dark and barbecue steaks, pork or chicken.  I picked up pizza one time and A&W burgers and fries another time as I had to travel through town.  It’s a bit like Glamping, fairly comfortable with both propane and electric heat.  In the morning the sunrise was mauve and at night deep Halloween orange colours. 

I had the star link wifi up and did some work respeonding to calls in the afternoon. I mostly enjoyed reading.  Madigan was so exhausted he curled up asleep right after dinner. We weren’t long after, climbing into bed between 9 and 10 and reading ebooks till falling asleep.

We’ve really enjoyed the camper and camping away from the city, off with nature. It’s healing. I joke saying I’m a summer pagan worshiping the sun and outdoors and winter Christian enjoying church services when winter shuts down summer.  I once enjoyed the winter with cross country and down hill skiing, ice fishing, and winter camping but now I’m afraid of the icy roads and simply don’t like cold so much.  I ache in cold’

This trip I had a moment of scare. I had parked the quad on a slight up hill to walk into the woods and sit in ambush looking down over the a great slash at the top of Copper Mountain.  The only trouble was I was stiff unsaddling and slipped and grabbed the handle bar to steady myself. I still fell but falling I’d also released the brake on the handlebar.  Struggling to get up I saw the quad head backwards slowly down the hill headed for the cliff on the right hand side of the road.  I got up and tried to jump on the quad, this is a guy who mounted horses as a youth by straggling them, but no more. There’s a major disconnect between my ideas of myself and reality so all that happened is I banged into the side of the quad smashing my shin rather than getting my leg over the saddle. Worse I fell again and was rolling down the road having landed hard on my hip. Thank god for fat at times like this. My butt cushioned the impact. I had successfully changed the direction of the quad so it smashed and rolled into the right hand ditch.  It didn’t flip but almost coming back onto all four while the keys had been throw out of the quad on the tilt.  I thought the keys had been lost on the roll and was concerned as I limped about thanking God finding the keys under the quad.  No big deal getting it out of the ditch and settled in park and brake on a flat stretch.

I hurt and I was shaking and I was not happy but I was thanking God for saving me and Madigan and the quad and my rifles.  Madigan had jumped clear.  I couldn’t find Advil but was thankful for the coffee I had.  A while later a couple of young guys passed in a truck and I wondered if they hadn’t seen what had occurred from further up the mountain and were just driving by to check if I was okay.  They stopped said , “Hi’ and carried on.  Leaving me with some face.  

It reminded me some of the time the truck began to slide backwards on an icy hill when I was getting the winch line out to run to a tree to help me up.  I jumped in the truck and with gassing it forward and pumping the brake and turning the tires saved myself and truck going off a cliff.  Pretty scarey and one of the more dangerous of winter hunting stunts I’d partaken in.

I am much more risk averse.  I was glad to get down the mountain early and get some ibuprofen and lie down.  Laura made soup and sandwich and commiserated with my kerfuffle.

I made a log fire with wood I’d carried in the trailer since August but not been able to use because of the fire ban which was finally lifted. I enjoyed sitting watching the fire and enjoying the smell of woodsmoke. Coming across logging operations in the back woods I’d enjoyed the scent of fresh cut timber.  Years back with a sinus infection and antibiotics I’d lost half my sense of smell so am so thankful when I can appreciate fragrances.

Other than that event the whole hunt was glorious . Even being saved by God had its appeal. Often I am just thankful that my truck is where I left it and often that I find my way out of where I’ve gone getting turned around on side logging roads.  I’ve spent hours trying to find my way back out of the unmarked trails of some maize.  The logging mains are numbered so I’m always happy when I find I’m on one and going down hill.  There’s many downhill roads so it’s easy to come in on one and come out somewhere else.  I’ve even lost my truck once when I first came to BC and didn’t have a clue about the way logging roads were distributed. I’d come from the east grid pattern and got lost a bunch early years.

We were sorry when the hunting trip was done. The fall happened on the Sunday and I chose to skip the evening hunted , too sore and stiff despite ipuprofen and rest. I loaded the camper on the truck so in the morning packing up went well.  We stopped at A&W on the way home and made sure Madigan got a burger while we had bacon egger , hashbrowns and coffee.  It was an easy ride with little traffic back to where we stow the camper before driving home to Burnaby.  It’s a day travel and set up and take down with any trip. For many years we’d do a three day weekend then a four day weekend and now it’s just great to have 10 days to justify all the travel, loading and unloading. We’ve become good at it too.  

What a wonderful vacation with Laura and Madigan.  Thank you Jesus. Thank you God. Thank you Creator!!!!