music: Sound Travels on 89.9 WERU, Maine (webcast)
Last year’s April Vacation took the Monkey Wrench Gang (me, TMO, 1ey, and Montana) to the South of Utah. This year, with incredibly open-ended travels on the horizon, I decided to stick it out in Boston and make some effort to investigate the universe locally. Original plans for the opening of break were to take off to the White Mountains to enjoy the first 70 degree days of the year, but due to events related to Jesus and bunnies that lay eggs this weekend I was left stranded. I went through the usual list of outdoorsy co-conspirators but nothing panned out.
I recalled late on Thursday night a shot in the dark that 1ey and I attempted a couple years back that turned out to be genius: a post on craigslist for some wayward souls to blindly join up in an expedition. Last time we found Matt, renegade writer and Harvard Senior, and the three of us headed up to Montreal and Quebec city for a long weekend. Criagslist has found me music gear, housing, and bandmates; why not some people who want to go camping this weekend? It was worth a shot, and worth 5 minutes before hitting the sack. The call went out:
weekend backpacking trip to NH
Reply to: davidtaus@anize.org
Date: 2006-04-13, 11:31PM EDTso i was planning on doing an overnight hiking trip to NH but my friends bailed on me. I’m still really pumped about getting some time in on trail this weekend but not pumped enough to go at it solo. been there and done that, but it’s much more fun (and safer) with other people. anybody out there up for a weekend of hiking?
(hiking here means > 25 lb backpack, elevation gains and losses, probably 5+ miles per day in the whites, sleeping in a tent, water purification, carry out your waste, all that stuff. not quite a stroll through the city park.)
me: 27/m, teacher for boston public who has friday off, would much rather spend a night out-of-doors this weekend than in his apartment. i have a car, tent, stove, maps, and knowhow. you hopefully have a a proper pack, sleeping bag, raingear, warm layers, a good attitude, and are not an axe murderer. because i don’t like camping with axe murderers.
drop an email if interested.
* this is in or around somerville
thanks-
david
* no — it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
There was a smattering of responses, mostly “I can’t go this weekend, but let’s go some time” or “I don’t have the gear for it but it sounds interesting!” Too little, too late, it seems. But among the apologies and rain checks, I find an email from John Muir in my inbox. Which is a big deal, because 1) it’s freakin’ John Muir! and 2) I though he was dead. Anyhow, here’s what ol’ Johnny had to say:
TO: davidtaus@anize.org
DATE: 4/14/2006, 11:57 AM
FROM: jmuir@trailhead.netDear David —
A few minutes ago I chanced up your message. At that moment every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring winds, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. I, too, hunger for a return to the wilds. I yearn to cast off the shackles of the city and take to the hills and glens. The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.
If you’ll allow, let us climb together into the mountains and get their good tidings. Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. I am sorry to learn that your friends “bailed” on you. I recall a hike in California where, to my dismay, my compatriots bailed the murky waters from the prior day’s coffee pot onto my snoring face. The grounds stayed interwoven in the fibers of my beard just as the song of the kestrel on a frosty morning is woven into my very being. I could still taste coffee when I began our descent into Yosemite. It was good and I smile now to think of it.
Shall we discuss provisioning? I have several pounds of salt pork and pemmican, stout rope, malt beer and a trusty axe—though I am not an axe murderer ;-) I hope it is not your intent to make this a hunting expedition! I consider that foul pursuit to be the very business of murder and will protest most vehemently and spit on you.
I am please to hear that you are “pumped about getting some…on trail this weekend”. I would be sad to see you go solo. I can promise that even though we may fag out after a long day toting our gear, I will still be “up for it” the next day. May I inquire as to your response to this parable? If you woke up in a tent and had mayonaise on your hindquarters would you tell anyone? I pray your answer is a resounding “NO!” and then we shall go camping.
May the road rise to meet you, fellow wanderer! And may we rise to this occassion as brothers in arms and hearts.
Sincerely,
J.
Genius. Craigslist comes through again.
John, if you’re out there, tell your boys down at the Sierra Club offices that the check’s in the mail. Also, if you could, put in a word with the good folks running the Mt. Whitney Trail Lottery for me come mid-July?
I opted for a hike around the Fells yesterday instead. It was really an attempt to break in my new hiking boots and test out a pair of trekking poles I picked up. I figured that on a 7 mile day hike over more or less flat terrain that I could get away without duct tape or moleskin. Stupid stupid. Today i’m nursing blisters the size of silver dollars. A pain in the heel for me, but probably a commonplace second thought for the likes of John Muir. Maybe I’ll ask him about blisters next time he writes.
Posted by davidtaus at April 15, 2006 10:54 AM | TrackBack