This weekend I went for a much easier camping trip than some of my previous bike camping and backpacking trips this summer. Perfect Seattle summer weather is nearing its end, transitioning from dependable sunshine to checking the two-day forecast to determine one’s weekend plans, so I am planning to take advantage of any sunny weekend. My trip this weekend had all of a 10 minute hike from the car to the camping site, another 10 minutes to set up camp, and then a full day of doing nothing in particular.
Throughout the day, I followed another camper around as he continually came up empty handed in his quest to find gold in the mud and sand of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. There was almost certainly no gold to be found, and even with a tremendous effort, the reality of the situation won the day. I then chose to chop through a log which was needlessly thick, had zero chance of being brought to flames, and was perfectly fine remaining whole, but after swinging the hatchet a couple times, I needed to swing it until the log was split, blisters be damned!
In the evening, rock skipping turned into feats of strength and accuracy with attempts to chuck rocks across the river, and nearly across the river at another rock. Only on a lazy day in the forest could such a mindlessly fun activity be so engaging. Certainly, there was no one keeping score of the size of the logs chopped, there was no mental or material benefit to the person who hit the rock or the shore, but the joy of accomplishing tasks for no reason is too fun to be left alone for the day. Perhaps, I am not the guy who requires a great reason to do something, but just the desire to stave off boredom, hence why this post is arriving on the internet this afternoon.
