I should have known that was going to happen sooner or later- to fall asleep and miss my deadline. As I have been writing later at night, and really that has been the only time I’m using a computer. Even using my phone a bit, it is hard to imagine how much time I used to sit and start at a screen- regardless of what I was doing on it. Now, it’s the last thing I reach for, as I’d rather do almost anything than to sit with my laptop here.
Not that I’ve been walking for distance either, rather just as much as I can maintain proper form. No matter what I’m doing though, I tend to do little mini squats wherever I’m at, or just stop and try to touch my toes or do a set of windmills. That’s one part I really love about primitive camping, I can do whatever weird stuff I do- this morning I was doing sets of lunging steps up and down in front of my tent- without have any one around close enough to see.
In twelve days now, I’ve yet to speak to a single person here. There have been no people within distance to speak to. Three different vehicles, a large RV, a truck with a camper cover, and a pop up camper (though I never saw the vehicle that pulled it,) have come in and out of the primitive loop- yet not a single person has walked around that I have seen. On my walks around, I’ve neither seen any of the occupants or the pulling vehicles usually.
There was one couple I saw sitting on the back of a pickup truck down my lake- only about fifty feet away on spur from the loop I usually walk, yet I just let them be and kept walking. The birds, usually at dusk and dawn can really make a lot of noise. Not the random chirps, that’s all just part of the background, yet there is some flying object that gives a bellowing shriek as it goes. Two nights last week there was some type of ground animals up the hill from my tent- all fighting and shrieking for an hour or so, I didn’t investigate.
A herd of perhaps wild cows – skinny looking jerseys and holsteins, way too skinny to be milking cows – crossing the street on the way through the park. A dozen of them, I had to slow and stop to let one pass, before those remaining to cross let me go ahead. And one salamander yesterday. That’s it for the animals out here so far. What does this place have? Dirt. Rocks. Hills. Pokey things. All the plants are pokey. And everything is dry, so very dry.
So yesterdays adventure, definitely my new hiking outfit. It’s hard to say which I like more, the hat, the sandals or the shorts, yet my legs certainly like the sandals the most. Aside from being barefoot or regular flip flops, this is the minimum amount of ankle support possible, forcing me to keep my foot positioned properly with each step. Also, in the same way with each step it force me to keep my left foot raised as it moves forward for the next step, else I’d drag my toe on the ground.
And the trek poles, wow. Once I got the hang of using them with a few minutes time, they were awesome. I still have a lot balance issues, hence walking with a cane or cart in public, and these poles are just like a cane in each hand. With the adjustability, I was able to set them tall to really use them to both add stability and take some of the weight off my lower body, specifically my left leg. It really made a big difference and let me cover terrain at a speed that I couldn’t before.
Each step out here is different. And with the sandals I have to watch every foot step on the left, as each rock it lands on will tilt the foot left or right, forward or aft- motion your ankle is supposed to take automatically, not mine. If I land on it centered I can comfortably rotate my body over like a pole vaulter, yet with the rocks out here, almost no footstep is level. Usually, this would slow me down a lot, yet with the trek poles I can easily put one out to the side to keep me from tipping- or even slowing down as I keep my weight above center.
Today so far? Well just the routine. Waking at sunrise, relaxing until the restroom, breakfast, a walk, and a few glasses of tea. Cool and cloudy today just over seventy, kind of nice break.
Okay, time to get on with the day.