ESTABLISHED 2010 - Beyond The Campfire was created to encourage readers to explore the great outdoors and to observe it close up. Get out and take a hike, go fishing or canoeing, or simply stretch out on a blanket under a summer sky...and take your camera along. We'll talk about combining outdoor activities with photography. We'll look at everything from improving your understanding of the basics of photography to more advanced techniques including things like how to see photographically and capturing the light. We'll explore the night sky, location shoots, using off camera speedlights along with nature and landscape. Grab your camera...strap on your hiking boots...and join me. I think you will enjoy the adventure.

Thursday, May 1, 2025

Countdown - (Coming Soon)

 Writing a novel is something I thought about doing for many years but never followed through because of my lack of writing skills to pull it off. Last year (2024) I revisited that idea and a storyline I had played around with, to finally complete that first attempt at creating a full blown novel. It's title, Running The Edge, and it reflected the premise of a story based on the operations of an elite U.S. Coast Guard Lifeboat Search and Rescue unit...something in which I have some personal experience. 

I enjoyed creating that book so much, in more recent times I decided to write a sequel to it called 'Countdown'. It is a continuation of the same premise of the first book using the same characters and setting. Countdown is a more involved story with twists and turns where the main characters are thrown into dangerous situations made more demanding and serious by a time limit factor. It explores the personal relationships between the characters and how they overcome not only their personal haunting demons, but external events that threatens to destroy everything and everyone they love. It is a story about good vs evil and one that will send the reader to the edge of their seat.

A third book in the series may be in the works in the near future, but for now, I'll just leave you with enjoying this newest of novels called Countdown...available May 26, 2025 on Amazon in paperback and ebook formats.

Please enjoy this short Promo Video...



Tuesday, April 22, 2025

A True Adventure - Book Revue

I not only enjoy writing and have indeed written a great deal on various subjects, mostly about personal outdoor adventures and photography. (I have also written and published a novel, my first, last year and I am currently working on my second one.) This blog contains well over 500 articles about those subjects. Not only do I enjoy writing, I also enjoy reading. 

As a child I learned the value of reading. My favorite kind of books back then were true adventure stories. They still are today and I have read and re-read a number of good ones. One of my favorites is the true story of Kon Tiki. 

Going forward as part of this blog, I will from time to time post a book revue about an adventure book I have read. In this post we'll explore this amazing adventure and how it helped to nurture me as a young boy to grow into dreaming of grand adventures.

The Story

Kon Tiki is the true story written by Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl. Thor developed a theory about how the Polynesian islands became inhabited basing his theory on observations and deductions on the similarity of cultures found in South America to those found across Polynesia. He believed those similarities were so strong, he thought it was possible for peoples from South America to have navigated westward across the Pacific on rafts made from balsa wood logs.

Balsa wood grew along the coast in the highlands of what is now Peru and the peoples there learned to construct rafts using the logs to sail along the coast. Even some of the legends and stories passed down from generations across Polynesia referred to their ancient ancestors as having come from where the sun rises on large rafts.

To prove his theory, he and a select team of five other men built a raft using the same techniques the ancient ones used and took off on journey to sail across the Pacific. They encountered hardships and amazing experiences along the way. About 100 days after embarking, they ran aground on a small uninhabited  island, one that was part of a chain of islands that were inhabited.

The journey did not prove that Polynesia was indeed populated from people from South America. It only proved that is was possible.

The Impact

As a young boy I often dreamed of grand adventures and those dreams and the ideals surrounding the challenge of them, formed deep within my mindset. Opportunities to partake of such things never truly materialized, but the influence of having read this story certainly played a roll in my pursuing other kinds of adventures.

My joining the U.S. Coast Guard three years into my college career certainly was influenced by the idea of chasing an adventure...and it became the defining adventure of and the single most influential moment of my life, before or since. Hiking into the woodlands, camping, canoeing and canoe camping, hunting, fishing, and yes even photography all were products germinated from the seed of adventure this book planted within my young mind.

Recommendations

I know many good people who rarely read anything much beyond a shopping list. Many young folks today are almost all visually oriented relying on video and other visual mass media for their entertainment. Being visually fed has its limitations. Allowing your mind to absorb and generate it own visual references is by far a better way to explore life. This book is written at a level that young teens can become engrossed with the story. Certainly adults have the ability to do so if they take the time to read it.

This story took place in 1947, an era when ordinary men could part of an adventure such as this and live a fascinating true life story. The ability to do such things today is limited for so many reasons, but the ability to expand your own ability to dream of grand adventures is as full and exciting as ever. Kon Tiki can provide the reader with that sense of adventure they may never be able to live themselves, but it can also serve to motivate and propel some to achieve amazing things.


Saturday, April 5, 2025

Old School Camping in Foul Weather

 Well, the 2025 Spring season has turned into a wet one. Just a few weeks ago I was gearing up getting ready for some canoe camping adventures. Since then, we've had so much rain, my traditional canoe camping location has been inundated. Canoe camping is out of the question for now. Barren River Lake is currently over 25 feet above its normal summer pool. That is very near its flood stage level with more rain in the forecast. All the remote camping areas on the lake are underwater and the lake itself looks like chocolate milk. Not too inviting at the moment. We dodged a bullet just a few days ago when a strong thunderstorm passed through. During that stretch which occurred around 1:00 AM, a deluge of rain, literally a wall of rain, hammered our remote area, then it suddenly stopped. Behind it a little distance away, I heard a loud and steady roar that grew ever louder and closer. I got up and checked the weather station. At that very moment they were showing a large supercell with a well defined hook echo passing directly over where we live. It had a definite tornadic signature, but luckily it never produced a live tornado that touched the ground. My neighbor said he stepped outside at that time and could see the rotation of the clouds directly above.

So, what does this have to do with old school camping. Well, not much really, but because the weather has been so off the charts wicked the last few weeks, I've not been able to get out much. So I thought I would explore the roll of how Old School Camping in foul weather served as a learning experience on how to deal with adverse situations when pursuing a few moments alone out in nature.

One of the first true backpacking trips I ever made was way back in the mid-1980's. I worked a lot of hours back then so time to get away was sparse and far between. I decided I needed to get away and wanted to make a backpacking trip. The closest place was a small lake called Greenleaf Lake, just south of Muskogee, Ok. Roughly a 10 mile loop circled the lake and offered at least an opportunity to try out this backpacking thing.

My backpacking gear was rather old school at the time. The pack was a cheap frame type, pretty small actually, but I managed to stuff it and strap to it all the assorted gear I would need. The only modern thing I had was a Coleman Peak One Packer stove. I still have that stove and it still works great. I got a late start and didn't arrive at the trailhead until late in the afternoon. Maybe 3 or 4 hours of daylight remained and since I had never hiked this loop before I did not know what to expect. Not more than a half hour into the hike, an ominous dark cloud started rolling in from the southwest accompanied by lightning and rain. I hiked faster and faster trying to find a suitable location to camp before that storm caught up with me.

The trail in places was not very well marked and not heavily used, so I had to guess at times where to walk. As a result I managed to lose the trail several times, but eventually found my way to it again. At one one point I had to jump across a small, swollen creek. Thought I could make it without  removing the pack. I didn't. Went in both feet up to my knees in the creek. My boots and socks were completely soaked and from then on I hiked with wet feet that turned into wet blisters. As I looped around and headed in a more southerly direction the steepness of the terrain did not offer any kind of suitable camping location...and the storm clouds grew closer and closer, and the thunder grew louder and sharper, and the wind grew stronger and stronger. It was time to seek shelter so I picked out the most level spot, which was not all that level, and threw up my little tent as fast as I could. Just as I drove in the last stake to hold the tent in place, the skies opened up and I barely crawled inside before being completely drenched.

Trees all around me were swaying. Lightning followed by instant thunder remained constant. On and on it continued well into the night. I did manage to warm up a meal using that Peak One stove, which was not easy within the tight confines of that little tent, but man-o-man did it ever storm. I could hear tree limbs crashing to the ground and my little tent bent and swayed in the wind, but to its credit, I stayed mostly dry through it all.

Not much sleep followed me that night. Not until in the early morning hours just before dawn did the storm let up and I managed a hour or so of sleep. When I awoke, I could hear birds singing and rain drops dripping from the trees. I climbed out into a glorious blue sky morning. My feet were blistered. My gear mostly waterlogged. I was hungry and sleep deprived, but I loaded up and headed on down the trail. By the time I reached my vehicle several miles later, my blistered feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk, but I made it...through the storm and all.

I've had numerous run ins with foul weather on camping trips. Some of them were down right challenging to say the least. One of the most challenging occurred some years back when my good buddy Rocky and I were on a multi-day float trip down Arkansas' Buffalo River. We experienced just about every kind of weather you could possibly run into with the exception of snow...and we came close to getting some that too.

We started out with almost perfect weather. Upper 70's to low 80's. Blue skies. Not much wind. Those conditions proved quite deceptive and as we continued our trip, the wind kicked up. I have yet to figure out why it is, that no matter what direction you travel in on a float trip, the wind is always in your face. It proved true on this trip. Strong gusty winds pushed and shoved at us so much so we found it difficult to even try to fish. We were worn out by the end of the day. Then the temperature began to drop. Coupled with the wind, it grew quite chilly. Toward the end of the second day as that cold front worked its way across the landscape, storm clouds began to build, then the thunder, along with lightning. Some of the lightning was quite intense and way too close for comfort. Being exposed like we were, we deemed it necessary to get off the river until the storm passed. It took over an hour for it to work through and we sat, not having any other options, under a group of trees during that time. Eventually, we shoved off again, but by now the cold front had infiltrated and the temperature began to drop...and it got down right cold. Rain was still spitting on us and at times, that rain turned into sleet. It felt like snow was on the way, but fortunately only sleet and freezing rain taunted us.

That second night turned quite cold and I didn't have quite enough cloths for that kind of weather. By the next morning, a fire was pretty much out of the question as everything was soaked so we ate some oatmeal heated by my Peak One stove and shoved off again only by this time the river level started to rise. As it turned out, our last day involved just a few, although chilly, river miles of floating and we were able to pull out around midday.  We certainly experienced a unique few days on that trip.

You know, some of the most memorable outings seemed to always revolve around the weather. I suppose spending much time outdoors you just learn to adapt to what nature throws at you. The old school way of approaching it is perhaps the most rewarding way.