Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Fort Building 101

For the first time in two years a couple that loves camping loaded up their Toyota 4Runner and headed off into the wilderness.

They ran around all morning like chickens with their heads cut off gathering up supplies only to discover, just as they were ready to blast off like a herd of turtles, that their tent had been stolen from the car in a recent break-in adventure carried out by two local bums. Here's hoping the local bums are getting good use of the beloved orange tent somewhere in Gastown. No doubt the tent went willingly with the bums due to an overwhelming level of neglect by it's rightful owners.

After calling around only to learn that none of their friends were major camping aficionados, as no one had a tent they could borrow, a decision was made to grab a tent along the way. Finally the open road.

Winding north along the coast with Mountains towering majestically on their right and the ocean stretching out mottled with islands to their left, the couple enjoyed rediscovering the freedom of a spontaneous weekend getaway.

Spontaneous is described in dictionary.com as: coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned.

Upon arrival at the campground the young couple discovered that camping is not an endeavour most people embark on spontaneously. Much like randomly deciding to dine around 8 p.m. at the latest most happening restaurant in New York City, without a reservation for a spot the couple was s.o.l. (shit outta luck!)

Uh-oh now they really were on an adventure. Can a couple city kids make in the wilderness without the protection of a National Park?

A decision was made to stop at the nearby town and ask a local yocal what to do. After mocking the idea that camping in a campground was truly camping the yocal helped the couple out, "That ain't camping. As long as you don't need fancy stuff like toilets and showers there's free camping all over here. Just drive 20min that way and when the road turns to a dirt road drive for another 10min then pick a spot along the river and camp."

About ten minutes down the road the couple realized since they would be camping without the supervision of Park Rangers they ought to head back into town for some water and firewood.

Okay now they were ready, they had all the supplies: tent, wood, water, matches, beer, wine, food, etc.

Time to head into the wild. Holy smokes this adventure was getting extreme. Sure enough the couple found a spot to camp for free beside the river surrounded by trees and mountains.

Here they built their fort, also known as: setting up camp.

Once camp was set up the fishing pole came out and the couple felt like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.



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