wilderness

The original plan
for my current get-away
was to take a trip to the wilderness
with my youngest brother.

We didn't finalize any details
until 2 hours before our planned departure
including how we would get there
and where we were going.

Hitchhiking is always preferred
but he had to be home in time
to return to work.

So we opted to drive,
rarely an option for us.

It must have been divine intervention
that caused this thought to occur.
We can only imagine what would have become of us
if we hadn't a vehicle.

We found two perfect trees to tie our cordage between,
secured two shorter lengths with a square knot,
and staked our tarp into the ground.

A pit had already been dug by previous campers,
plenty of dead-fall was to be found,
and we spent an hour gathering and stacking
tinder, kindling, squaw wood, and bulk fuel firewood

I sensed that it was going to soon be raining.
So we utilized the jeep as a dry storage option,
even keeping some uncut, downed trees underneath the carriage

By the time that we had finished our work
the rain started to fall.
We made it to our shelter
watching the beauty of the forest from inside.

Our first issue was realized when no immediate water source was found.
We had the remainder of water that we had filled our canteens with from home
but this was all.
We had planned to boil water from a nearby river
which happened to be much further away than we had thought.
We also only had two small water bottles to store any gathered water in.

Research of the area before arrival is crucial
we knew this, but were to scatter-brained during our "planning" session.

Another issue was having packed too lightly.
this is something that I often pride myself on
but we had an entire vehicle to fill.

It was a restless night for me.
The mosquitoes and other biting/stinging insects had their way with me.
The rain was loud, beating against the tarp.
But after I settled into my sleeping bag
I eventually drifted off.
Morning felt like it would never come.

We woke and started our first fire
with our dry wood.
After the ashes were hot and ready
we got our baked beans ready.

No can opener
so we attempted to slice them open with our knives.
I accidentally caught my finger on the raggedly cut, tin lid

My hands were black from handling charred wood and dirt.
But the blood was very visible.
My pocket hand sanitizer made it's debut
and it burned like fire

My bandanna was now home
to not only mucus and baked beans
but also dried blood.

I cooked my beans in their can
buried in the red hot coals.
Benjamin tried his luck in a mess kit pan
over the fire
on top of a hand-fashioned, wooden grate.

We soon headed out to hike through the expanse
Our bags filled.
Our water topped off.
We hit the unmarked, unkept trails.

We used a map and a compass to navigate.
After 7 hours we were back to the trailhead
with darker complexions and tired eyes.

Back at camp we read and fell asleep.
Upon waking up we started our second fire
and cooked our second meal,
mixed greens and cheddar broccoli soup.
Food has tasted better and had less ash in it
but it wasn't awful.

A leak in the jeep's gas tank
brought our traveling to a halt.
However,
many lessons were learned and
much improvisation was had.

On the late night drive home
we stopped to get drive-thru pizza
and gas station Slurpees;
so that I could keep my eyes open
and not end our excursion even sooner.