Naked Lake

[create_destiny]

Sometimes you gotta get out of the summer valley where the grass is stiff and yellow and go up where the dirt roads turn red. If you can endure the awful rattling of your 2-wheel drive (have faith!) you'll find green meadows with young pine forests where the earth is soft and crunchy and manzanita and sage sprawl close to the ground.



The air in the high sierra is dry and earthy and you can find solitary lakes with hidden camp sites right up on the shore. Your crack monkey dog can run free and you can swim and sun yourself on your own private naked lake.



You can collect hoards of firewood and stay up late watching the campfire flames bow violently to the cold air blowing off the lake and you can shiver and pull your camp chair closer to the fire. (You can think about how hot it is back home and ask your lover if you can wear his blue Buffalo Bills sweatshirt that you used to despise until you found yourself cold in the mountains at the end of July and he'll give it to you even though he forgot his toothbrush and you could have reminded him when you were packing but you didn't because you were irked at him at the moment and not telling him was your revenge).

You can chop up potatoes, onions and carrots, wrap it in foil with a hunk of hamburger and cook it on the coals. In thirty minutes you'll have yourself a silver platter.

You can carve little wooden boats and fill them with pine sap scraped off trees with your pocket knife and you can carefully place them in the fire in homage to your ancestors, watching the sap melt and sizzle, then burst into flames.

Comments

[posteverything.livejournal.com]

Lovely, absolutely.

[metalgypsy.livejournal.com]

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh you went without us!!!

oh man you are so busted. i am SO jealous...

[toodamnloud.livejournal.com]

Camping is a betrayal of our ancestors. They worked damn hard to ensure that I would never have to wander the wilderness and live in tents. I won't disappoint them by sleeping out of doors.

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

Well, this is simply a beautifully-written post. I think I prefer the pictures your words convey more than the actual photographs. Nicely done.

[honeywoney.livejournal.com]

Thanks for giving me some viacarious living! I'm not much of a journey-er to the east of here, just don't like the heat and then the elevation - aren't I an odd bird? Glad you had a great time in the wild. :)

[petunias-petals.livejournal.com]

ooo oooo sooo beautiful, we have been looking for those great "private" "rugged" camp spots where its not pre-fab. found a great one up on creek up hwy 70. i think i recongize that first meadow pic but i dont know where the is a nice small pvt lake. i think there is silver lake up there.

[jloopy.livejournal.com]

those pics almost make me want to go camping.

[korolyeva525.livejournal.com]

I may just be dense today... but is that a blue heeler in the 3rd picture?

[the-mongrel.livejournal.com]

awesome post dude

Silver Platers

[cwise.livejournal.com]

I wish I could have gone with you. It looks beautiful and I love the camp fire with silver platers cooking for dinner. You are soooo lucky to live close to such wonderful camping sites!

Very nice, Babe!

[lcurtis.livejournal.com]

Wow! I am impressed! The pictures are great and the writing is exceptional, too! Sounds like you had a very nice time. I think bf and the dog both passed the camping test with flying colors. I know you didn't miss the dead fish on the beach or having to go to bed at 5:00 p.m.! Take us there in October! Love ya, Mom

[lcurtis.livejournal.com]

Looks enchanting. I love the high, empty spaces where the mind can expand to meet the clear blue sky.