Home Away from Home

We've been trying to fit in as much outdoor time as possible in October, and my husband talked me into taking Thursday off so we could go out backpacking again Thursday and Friday. The weather looked promising: partly cloudy Thursday afternoon, turning to completely clear and cold overnight, with chilly temperatures and blue skies and sunshine forecast for Friday.

We'd kicked off backpacking season with a trip to Sproul in early September, welcomed October's arrival at the Hammersley Wild Area, and enjoyed a real bugle-fest in Quehanna's Valley of the Elk last week. For this trip, we talked about going to Kinzua, but it seemed too far to go for just one night. So back to Sproul we went, to round things out.

This is the campsite we call Pine Glen, in Sproul State Forest. It's the shortest backpack we do. And so we tend to carry in a bit more of the amenities: I'm speaking primarily of chairs in bags, a thing that you do not carry on a five-mile backpack trip, but that you might on a shorter trek. It's surprising how much more civilized camping is with actual chairs to sit in.

I am a girl who likes to get the business of the day out of the way first. So as soon as we arrive, I clear my area of pine cones and other woods debris, set up my tent, and arrange my gear. It takes maybe a half-hour for the entire set-up of my campsite.

Steps involved include laying down the ground sheet, putting up the tent (easy peasy, this is the easiest to set up tent I've ever had), putting two blankets down on the floor, putting out my silver sleeping pad, pumping up a second green one (Big Agnes) with a bicycle tire pump, tossing out the sleeping bag, and then tucking all the gear bags and remainders into the tent for safe keeping. Then the three fast friends (Alex the Alligator, Tiny Tiger, and Little Bear) get placed on top of the tent to stand guard against wild animals. ;-)

My backpacking partner, on the other hand - yeah, that guy in the chair on the left, wearing a pink shirt - he likes to wait until it's nearly dark to set up his tent. That's cutting it short, in my opinion. (In this photo, some of his gear is airing out on the line.) But then the next morning, he is always the first one to tear his tent down, a task he sometimes completes even before I am out of my own tent for the day.

This is one of the quietest campsites we know of. The afternoon light filters beautifully through the trees to the left in this shot. So that's where our chairs are set up, where we will sit and read and listen to music and talk and just enjoy our time together; where we will spend the rest of our day.

In the right of the photo, there's my blue Kelty Ridgeway backpack, old-school, big and sturdy. You might even call it retro. I bought it in 1987 for less than $50 from L.L. Bean, and it is still in perfect condition. My purple neoprene cooler in front of the pack holds my food and drink for the trip. My husband's pack - the Jansport Carson XL-tall, quite a bit bigger than mine - is to the right, which is where he will eventually set up his tent.

So here is a photo of our little home away from home, in the woods of Sproul State Forest. The song to accompany this image is a tune I've just recently discovered, Home Away from Home, by the Canopy Climbers.