Prompts: Dichotomy, Car (road trip), Pink (soundtrack), Pack (for a wilderness trip/couples edition)
No offense to y’all, but today is my sad day. It’s the day when I absolutely, positively, must do digital stuff inside. It happens occasionally, but my mottos have always been:
Being Outside, Mostly
Maps Marked, Stars Gazed, Tales Told
Get Outside And Look Up!
To a lesser extent, the fan favorite We Do The Weird Stuff (But Not The WEIRD Stuff) sums up a busman’s holiday where Natty B and I put a string of randoms together to form Our Next Plan yesterday. Putting aside home renovation, camp work, and the concerns of our day jobs, we took a meandering road trip through the smokey ridges and valleys of NY, VT, and NH. If we were 30 years younger this would be a vlog, but when inspiration struck, I had Natty send “dichotomy, Pink, car, pack” to my Messenger and we plunged on. Here are the fleshed-out prompts.
Dichotomy. When we plan an endeavor, ANY endeavor, we balance what we each expect or desire with what we each can withstand or endure with/by/for our partner. For this year, our trek can now be broken down to a table after an all-day road trip.
We Both Want distance (>10 miles from the trailhead), 5 days duration, good food, and togetherness (we have spent a lot of time apart lately).
Natty B Wants to live in the woods instead of hiking every day (she hiked a 50-mile solo last summer) and to just hang out and read a book (Shogun, I think) at our rustic tent camp.
Eddy Wants at least one dinner over a fire if possible (lots of BSA MREs in his past) and a bit more civilization (if he can’t find or make an open lean-to he will at least lash together a kitchen table and a comfy chair)
Car. It was important that we dealt with preparation and lists. This trip was hatched over a beer and a sandwich when Natty finished her Cranberry Lake 50 last August and was a part of sporadic conversation through this spring. Finding the time and motivation was tricky. My guiding, her book research, our day jobs, and a lot of trips to Arizona, Scotland, and Utah (Bryce NP for NB last week!) kept taking center focus away from our August hike, the first time we would be backpacking together since 1999. Placing the talk in a moving, pressurized container finished up things nicely (like an Insta-pot), cooking our dichotomous lists into our current tasty plan.
Pink. My go-to playlist for driving motivation, I did feel a little bit ganged up on. We both love her. Truth About Love is about as perfect a creation as I can imagine. The storylines might be considered by the suspicious to subliminally influence discussions in a certain way, but no hard verifiable evidence emerged. I will probably be sleeping in a tent, not a lean-to. Natty is also a rockstar.
Pack. Where all this leads us now is an engagement with our each and several goals and the equipment to make it happen. Menu is fixed- separate styles of brekky and lunch, aiming for calorie density for NB and tastiness for me. Dinner will be maximum effort (maybe a second bear cannister?) Pack weight, the experts, tell me should be no greater than 20% of my body weight. See previous blogs for an acrimonious debate on our personal style on this…I will aim for an all-up weight for my Osprey Aether Plus 85 of 15% (37.5#) which will include a hatchet/folding saw/cordage for pioneer projects and a campfire if allowed. I will attempt at the last minute to sneak a lightweight Dutch into Natty’s Aura AG 65. History (and the history teacher) are going to be against me.
If this is something y’all have figured out with your partners, let us know. First person to reach out with a solution, working or hilarious, wins a stylish Ephemeradk beanie. Until next week (packing lists competition, hat winners competition, and sun-and-star party news) Be Safe and Get Outside!
Ed Guenther
Ephemeradk@outlook.com
