Some of the best memories are the ones made sitting around a campfire. Whether with good friends, family, or simply alone, campfires provide a welcoming warmth to all who gaze into their hypnotic flames. A camping location becomes home when the campfire is stoked into life.
During a recent return overnight backpacking trip into Mammoth Cave NP, another such campfire provided moments of warmth during a cold evening and even colder morning. Please enjoy...Campfire Moments
It was a more innocent time of my youth played out in a location where fond memories and important life experiences served to move me along the path to becoming an adult. Southeastern Oklahoma is where I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's. The Mayberry-like little town of Wister harbors a great deal of my youthful exuberances and life experiences. I suppose that is why I enjoy watching reruns of old television shows like The Andy Griffith Show and even The Waltons. There are so many parallels to growing up in Wister to those shows, it is almost uncanny.
I do remember one strange event that happened in that little town and to this day, I have been unable to come up with a logical explanation. I must have been ten maybe eleven years old. It was during the long dog days of summer and the early days of America's space program were moving toward its maturity, but it was during that time when just getting something up there was problematic at best. I was absolutely fascinated with the subject of space exploration including the stars and planets and the night sky. Back then the night skies of Southeastern Oklahoma were clear and unhindered by haze and light pollution. One evening late, well after sundown, I stood in the vacant field next to my grandparents home. That field covered maybe an acre or so and was lined with trees on two sides. It offered a clear and unobstructed view of the night sky.
No moon was out so the sky seemed filled with crisp stars and I distinctly remember how bright they were that evening with the Milky Way haze arching across its breadth. I stood not quite in the middle of that field looking up at the brilliant heavenly arena. To my right, toward the south, high in the sky a very bright star hovered in the blackness, alone with no other stars nearby or at least within some distance from it. It appeared as an isolated beacon and I suspected it was the planet Jupiter because it carried the same kind of characteristic brightness. A few moments later to the east a much dimmer point of light began to arch across the sky moving toward the west just coming into view over the tops of the trees. At first I figured it was an airplane flying very high, but within a short time I realized it was not for there were no flashing lights. It wasn't unusual even then to be able to see a satellite fly across the night sky as they reflected the sunlight, and I was sure that is what I seeing. It had about the same luminosity as the other typical stars.
As I watched the dim light drift across the darkness, before long it became apparent it was likely to intersect the bright light I had noticed before. I really wanted to see that as it would have been a rare event indeed to see. Closer and closer it drew to the brighter star. I never took my eyes off the moving light, never blinked for fear of missing the instant it would cross the brighter light. As it came within a few degrees of the brighter light it began to slow down just a little and as it drew alongside...it stopped. I blinked...took another look and sure enough there were now two lights hovering high above one next to the other. I wished I had a pair of binoculars for a closer look, but had to rely on my eyesight alone.
I stood there stunned thinking I had somehow lost sight of it, but no, it was still there just a few degrees from the brighter light. Where there was once one bright light isolated against the background, now there were two, one bright and one somewhat dimmer right next to it. I remember saying to myself "Wow!"...What is that?" A few moments went by and my excitement began to stir even more as I kept looking trying to see if I had simply lost sight of the moving light. To my astonishment, as I was looking at the bright point of light...it began to move...in the opposite direction toward the east at a much faster pace. I watched it sail across the sky much faster than a high flying airplane and within moments, its movement took it where the trees on the east side of the field obscured my sight of it. The other dimmer light remained where it was.
I was so excited not knowing what I had just seen, I ran into the the house and started jabbering about the incident. The reaction I received from my parents and grandparents was..."That's nice...time to stay in now." No amount of excitement or explanation on my part swayed them to asked any questions so I shelved the incident into the recesses of my memories. Even so, as strange as it was, I know what I saw, and the description noted in this post is true and as accurate as I remember it being, even if it did occur a long time ago to a young boy. Being that the space program was in its infancy at the time, its seems unlikely to have been something NASA or the military could have pulled off.
Fast forward a few years to 1967 and my family lived in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. my friend Rocky and I lived a mile or so apart so it was not uncommon for us to walk back and forth between each others houses. The shortcut took us down a dusty old alley. One summer evening, he and I were walking from our house to his and were horsing around walking down that alley. It was getting pretty dark, but the ambient light of the town provided enough illumination so we could see. About half way down that alley, we both looked up and saw something floating low across the sky just above the trees in front of us, some distance away but still close enough we could make out some details. It appeared to be three different colored lights forming a soft triangle surrounds a central light. It hovered in silence slowly drifting in the sky. We started laughing about it jokingly popping off, "Hey look...there's a UFO...ha ha."
Within a few seconds our laughter turned silent as we looked at each other, then the object again. "Wow...what is that?" and we started running toward his house. By the time we got there, the object was hovering just behind his house, with some trees and an old multi-storied apartment building blocking our view, so we ran around to the other side of it and I caught a glimpse of it through the trees before losing sight of it. When we broke into the open on the other side of the apartment building, it was gone.
We buzzed all evening about it wondering what we had just seen. Later when I went home, I told my dad about it. His response was typical, "Oh...okay."
Some years later I mentioned the incident to Rocky and he looked at me like I was crazy. "What are you talking about?" "What do you mean, what am I talking about....you don't remember that night?"
'Not a clue what you are talking about."
I could not believe my ears, because, well frankly...we did see it and I definitely remember that night.
I've never been one to put much credibility into hauntings and tend to take them with a grain of salt. However...I would not so readily write off a series of incidents that occured...to me...back in the mid-1990's.
I had taken a new temporary contract job in Denver, Colorado. The pay was good but it meant I had to be away from home for extended periods of time. I stayed in a small studio apartment in Aurora. It was indeed small consisting of a single main room, small kitchen, walk thru closet, and a small bathroom. It did have a fireplace though which was nice, and a sliding glass door to the outside as it was on the ground floor.
Over time I began to notice odd things were happening while I lived there. Between the main room and the kitchen was a see through mantel area where I kept a small box where I placed my keys and wallet and loose change. I remember getting up early one morning to get ready for work and as was customary I reached for my keys and wallet in the box. The wallet was there, but open, but the keys were not. I looked all over the place, bathroom, pants pockets, laundry basket, kitchen, between the cushions on my small fold out couch and bed combo, they were nowhere to be found. Eventually, I rummaged through this cheap cardboard two level dresser thing where I kept clean socks and other things and found the keys buried down deep inside the top drawer.
I could not image how they got there. I didn't put them there. I always placed them in that box on the mantel. Anyway, I shrugged it off and headed out to work. Odd events like that continued to happen. I would wake up in the middle of the night and discover the kitchen light or the bathroom light was on. I know I did not turn them on or leave them on. Again I would shrug off the incident and go back to sleep. The lost key thing continued to occur from time to time and before long when I could not find my keys, I would always discover them in the top drawer of that cardboard dresser. It was becoming comical...almost.
This kind of thing carried on at random over several months, then took another somewhat stranger turn. One evening, late while I was asleep, I was awakened with a start. It felt like someone had shook my shoulder trying to wake me up. When I jolted upright, noone or anything was there. I shook it off as an odd dream...until one night as I lay suspended between half awake and half asleep, I experienced a strange sensation that someone was hovering or standing over me. I rolled upright, and for an instant thought I saw a dark figure standing at the foot of my fold out couch/bed. In an instant it was gone. That one shook me up...a little...and I did not sleep well that night. The rough thing about it was, that was not the only time it ever happened.
Other little things happened as well. One evening while I was watching a football game, a small picture I had placed on top of the small mantel over the fireplace suddenly flew off the shelf. It didn't just slide off and fall to the ground, it flew off several feet as though someone or something had flipped it over.
One of the oddest occurrence happened in broad daylight. It was a Saturday morning and I was preparing to go on a hike up in the Rocky Mountain National Park. The little television/VCR combination set I used had two ways to turn it on or off; the switch on the set or via the remote control. If the set was on and the power went off, when the power came back on the set would not turn itself back on. You had to manually turn it on again. As I was finishing up in the bathroom, the TV was on and playing in the background when it suddenly shut off. My first thought was the power had gone out, but I still had lights on in the bathroom. While I stood there trying to make sense of what had happened, a few seconds later the TV came back on, then... a few seconds after that, it went off again and it came back on a few seconds later. This occurred several times over the next several minutes. I checked the remote control to see if it maybe had been wedged between something that was pressing on the on/off button. It was just sitting there. Eventually, I left for my trip and came back that evening...to discover the TV was...on.
I never did ask the management if something bad had ever happened in that apartment. All I know is, some strange and odd things did occur from time to time during my stay there.
In more recent times I experienced another odd phenomena. I was on a fall season two night three day backpacking trip into the backcountry of Mammoth Cave National Park. On the first day I sort of accidentally missed my turnoff to my first nights campsite and ended up discovering an old cemetery. At first discovery I of course thought it was of some interest as the numerous headstones appeared to be quite old, but I did not take a closer look at that time. My immediate problem though was what to do about getting back on the correct trail. By this time I had already hiked a ways and was tired and the thought of backtracking and continuing my hike just was not very appealing. I decided I would just camp in the woods next to the cemetery.
I chose a very good place to set up camp and went about my normal chores of doing so. By the time I had finished it well into the afternoon and because I wanted to capture some photographs I set about exploring the area. While I was setting up camp and during the exploring I made, I kept hearing what sounded like a child or children laughing off in the distance. My first thought was someone with kids was hiking down the trail. The laughing was random and subtle, almost to the point of being barely audible at times but was definitely something I kept hearing. Everytime I heard it, I would look and search the area visually in the direction from which it came. I never saw anyone, just kept hearing the soft sound of a child's laughter. As I explored the area, did also find what appeared to be the rock foundation of an old cabin. No structure remained, but the squared off rocks were stacked in a neat series of rows...like for an foundation of an old home.
As the day closed in toward the evening, I stepped into the cemetery for a closer look. There over 40 weathered and gray headstones of various sizes many with no inscriptions, just a small field stone placed to mark a grave. However many of the others did retain crude inscriptions...and many of them were of...children. Some of the children's headstones include the name, date of birth, and date of death. Sadly, some of them were only a few years old with a several only a couple of months old. The realization there were so many children buried in this ancient cemetery sent a chill down my back. Was I hearing echoes of children laughing from times past...or was it just the wind. You can watch the full Youtube video episode at: https://youtu.be/DL6reEx6qqg
I have a few other tales of such things, like the Legend of Skull Bluff chronicled in this blog and on my YouTube site:
https://beyondthecampfirebykeith.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-legend-of-skull-bluff-true-story.html
but I will reserve them for another time or allow you to explore the story of how the Spirit of Skull Bluff wreaked havoc on me during a canoe float trip on Arkansas' Buffalo River.
I hope you enjoyed this post about strange and odd events I've experienced through the years.
The words stuff and lure are actually appropriate for most of it...as most of it is purposely designed to catch the unwary shopper and does little to improve your outdoor experience. Even so, the majority of the outdoor gear I now use was at one time...new, and even though now old, still functional and useful.
Let's start with my Old Town canoe. As of this post it is almost 20 years old and has developed numerous scars, dents, dings, and gouges, yet it is still a highly functional vessel. It weighs in at around 59 pounds, perhaps a bit heavy to portage over a long distance, but still light enough to be lifted and carried across my shoulders without too much effort. Near the front and toward the stern there are signs of wear and tear, but with a little Marine JB Weld application, the deep scars have been sealed and re-enforced.
Once a year for the past several years I have removed and refinished the wooden thwarts applying a bit extra varnish to the ends to create a waterproof seal at the most vulnerable places. All the fittings are then securely tightened upon reassembly. There are newer, lighter weight canoes available today, however I doubt they are any more functional than my 20 year old canoe, and I do believe my old one retains the classic lines of a traditional canoe the newer ones seemed to lack. The newer ones are also quite a bit more expensive.I also use wooden paddles. I love the look and feel of a wooden paddle. The newer fiberglass or light weight aluminum or carbon fibre paddles with plastic blades just don't do it for me. I'm a traditionalist at heart and even though the newer ones are functional, they just don't stand the test of time when compared to a wooden paddle.
Last year I took two old inexpensive Feather Brand wooden paddles and combined them into a single, double bladed paddle. It was an experiment actually, just to see if it might work and to recycle two old paddles I no longer used. Turns out this new recycled double paddle works great and has become my favorite paddle to use on long haul canoe trips. As a bonus it retains the classic look and feel of wood. Someday I will do a Youtube video on how I made that paddle.
Backpacking is an activity I have jump started back to life after some sporadic attempts spaced apart through the years. Although I had done enough to feel like I was at least somewhat seasoned as a backpacker, the gear I use is and was old school stuff. As a result it was/is also heavy. I needed to reduce the weight I carried. I started with eliminating things I really did not need and did purchase a new lightweight cook stove that saved me several pounds of weight. I also used a packer tent that was just too small and with the supplied poles, too heavy. I did two things that reduced my carry weight with the tent. I eliminated the poles, and then also started using a small tarp in place of a tent. There are times a tent is preferable, but it needs poles to stand up correctly so I simply cut some when I use it. The tarp option is certainly lighter in weight, but the tarp I used was simply too small and provided only a superficial covering.
That was okay in dry, warm weather, but in cooler and/or damp weather it would not work. That is when I remember having an old Coleman 8 person tent I did not use anymore in my attic. It came with a rainfly, so I extracted it from the case and discovered the rainfly was almost three times the size of the tarp I had been using and only weighed slightly more. It is a perfect example of recycling old gear toward a newer use. The larger tarp can be rigged several ways to provide a safe and secure covering for any kind of outing.
Hiking boots are a vital piece of gear when it comes to backpacking. Mine are probably 15 years or more old, however, the soles are still in good shape as are the uppers with one exception. On one of the boots part of the seam/rim has separated from the upper just slightly, enough though to warrant some kind of repair action. After a good cleaning, I judicially applied ample amounts of ShoeGoo, a kind of shoe glue. After allowing it to season for a day or two, the boot was almost good as new and ready for several more seasons of hiking. A tube of ShoeGoo was a lot cheaper than a new pair of hiking boots or even paying a shoe repairman for a fix.
As a photographer, I will from time to time think of ways I can recycle old gear to enhance my attempts at capturing nature. Sometimes you get caught out in wet weather. Even though most camera gear is weather-proof to some degree, most camera gear do not do well in wet weather. I needed something to cover my camera and large 50-500 lens to protect it from wet conditions. Stuffed underneath some of my old outdoor gear was an old set of rain gear I did not use anymore. It had a camo pattern to it so I got the idea to cut off a leg from the pants to fit as a sleeve over the lens that also extended around the camera body. Worked like a charm. Cost me nothing, and weighs virtually nothing and provides a good waterproof solution.
Sewing has become a standard and necessary skill for me. Many of my outdoor clothes through wear and tear develop threadbare abrasions, rips, and other assorted holes if not addressed will continue to grow into something more destructive. I've gotten pretty good at patching up such things. As I already stated I've made simple bags and other containers, but I am far from being able to sew any kind of clothing. I have also added extra tie down loops to my tarps to make securing and hanging them easier and more efficient. My old sleeping bag was becoming threadbare along the inside top portion and had developed a significant rip in the ripstop nylon causing some of the stuffing to come out. I took an old flannel sheet and cut a portion of it to shape, then using the sewing machine stitched in the flannel material across the ripped out section...Good as new adding extended life to my old sleeping bag. With the remainder of that old flannel sheet, I folded it lengthwise and stitched it across the bottom and about 3/4 the way up one side to make a soft, warm, sleeping bag liner. My cost...$0.00...New store bought liner...$30.00 to $60.00.
If I thought about it long enough, I could come up with other recycling solutions for old outdoor gear, but you are by now probably getting the idea of where I am going with this post. Extending the life of the outdoor gear you already have is certainly cheaper than buying new stuff. With a little creative thinking, new useful solutions for gear that has been sitting in the garage for a while can provide you with many more months or even years of service.
The previous BTC post reviewed the importance of staying motivated and provided a few tips and pointers on how to start a physical conditioning routine as an older outdoor photographer. As part two of this series I'd like to offer a few more tips that helps to sustain your motivation to get out and explore the outdoors.
Tip One: Start simple..and discover outdoor opportunities close to home. I'd love to spend time in Yellowstone NP, or Yosemite NP, and maybe take my canoe to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota for a week of backcountry canoeing. I'd even love getting back to the Tallgrass Prairie region in Oklahoma or the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. However, right now those desires are simply not possible for me to fulfill. Once I determined that being able to make those trips anytime soon were not likely to occur, my outdoor options became a lot simpler. I started looking more earnestly for opportunities closer to home and discovered just how abundant those opportunities were. I asked myself, If not those exotic adventures, what then can I do close to home? Since that time I have discovered the joys of canoe camping on Barren River Lake which is about a thirty to forty-five minute drive from my house.
I can experience pretty much the same kind of outings I'd find in the Boundary Waters area, it's just a matter of perspective. I also discovered numerous backpacking opportunities in the backcountry of Mammoth Cave NP, about a 45 minute drive north of my home. It's a near wilderness adventure with ample miles of trails and primitive camping locations. I also spend time in the woodlands and cornfields behind my house watching and photographing the local deer population. These and other opportunities await me almost everyday virtually right outside my backdoor. It just requires a mindset shift to accept the idea of making the most of what I do have available close to home.
Tip Two: Slow down and Be In The Moment. Photographing nature requires a degree of patience well beyond other types of photography. Sometimes, maybe even most times, wildlife and nature in general simply do not cooperate. That is when you need to slow your mind down, and start looking for the other intrinsic values of being outdoors. When I do, I begin to hear more clearly the birds singing and see with renewed interest the graceful soaring of a hawk across a blue sky. I hear the wind searching through the trees, and feel the relaxed sense nature provides for taking time to simply be there. There is more to outdoor photography than taking pictures.
Enjoy the process. Empower the moment. Allow what you do to find its own path. There will be times nature will present herself to you in all of her glory, and there will be times when she tells you to wait until next time. Even when that happens, there is always something to gain from the experience, so slow down and allow yourself to simply be in the moment.
Tip Three: Keep a Journal of your activities. I recently discovered an old journal I had kept well over twenty years ago. In that journal was written many of the hunting and fishing and camping stories I experienced with my good friends Rocky, Curtis, and the now late Mr. Ralph. Rereading those simple entries brought many vivid memories back to life. It was as though I could feel the cold wind in my face again as we faced freezing temperatures and spitting sleet during a duck hunting episode. I recalled with delight the sites and sound of several thousand snow geese as they winged their way overhead at first light on a bitterly cold January day. When that huge largemouth bass broke free of the surface right next to Ralphs old Grumman canoe and snapped the line, well it was all captured in that journal. Those and other entries were special moments captured in simple prose when the memory was fresh. None of them were particularly well versed, just simple entries of what happened when and where. In more recent times, I've once again began to journal about my outdoor activities and have thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Back in 2010, I started this blog to chronicle the outdoor photography stories I experience and share some of the events and photography concepts I've used and learned about over the years. Sometimes, I go back and reread some of those early entries and almost always finish with a smile on my face. I've also started to create video productions about my outings. Doing so has taught me a great deal about just how much there is to learn about attempting such things, but I still enjoy the process. Those productions are visual journals...extensions really from those simple first entries I made so many years ago and are not intended to replace my outdoor journal entries, but to expand on leaving a legacies of stories for family and friends to share.
Tip Four: Try New Things, Avoid Falling Into A Rut. I floated along in my canoe last summer hugging a long, curving, ridge lined with rocky bluffs, and discovered an amazingly beautiful location on Barren River Lake. It was the kind of place easily overlooked, but by simply slowing down and allowing myself to explore a new location (for me) I was rewarded for my efforts. I tried something new that day just to see what was there. Not everyone can take off in a canoe. I've been doing it for close to fifty years now so I've gained through experience a sense of confidence in my ability to handle the situation.
The idea here is to not allow yourself get locked into doing the same ole thing the same ole way all the time. It is a easy habit to get trapped into, and yes...that was me for a very long time. But a few years ago I began to realize because of career related obligations, just how many years, and months, and days, and how many thousands of hours had gotten away from me. Somewhere along that timeline, I all but lost my identity. That is when I made a conscious effort to backup and rediscover who I was...and it became a revealing and rewarding path that lead into a new and refreshing timeline of discovery.
Tip Five: Seek Out Small Pleasures. 'It's when the cool air of morning hovers over the quiet hours is when I feel most at home, most in tune with where I am. Before the rays of daylight evaporate the darkness, while the last remnants of pre-dawn cling to life and fatigue continues to invade my eyes is when I realize just how important are moments such as these...' Those few words are the beginning of a Beyond the Campfire post I made way back in 2010 (The Gift of Small Pleasures). They rang true then...maybe even more so today...and remind me of how important it is to simply commune with nature at its simplest level. Sustaining your motivation as an older outdoor photographer can often become diffused and subdued as life's challenges take their toll. But, when you begin to seek out the small pleasures of life, well sometimes and maybe even most times, those challenges begin to take a backseat to how you face adversity.
Slowing down, reducing the busyness of your life, making time to step away from the routine and explore new adventures close to home or a ways off...well, a great many of life's rough edges can be smoothed over. It is not always the big things that matter the most or produce the most lasting impact. What really matters most are the small personal moments of our lives.
Watching a sunset reflect across the mirrored surface of a lake, listening to the voice of a stream as it chases its path over, through, and around the stones along its course, sitting in front of a campfire and feeling its warmth on a chilly fall evening...well, these are the kinds of small pleasures where infinite value is placed mostly upon the experience. Seek them out in your own life, and you will discover where they lie.
I hope these simple tips encourages you as an older outdoor photographer, or maybe even if you are still relatively young, to make time and experience a quality of life that enhances your desire to get out. Hope to see you out there...!
