 Ursula is all set for the camping experience! |
 Yeah, the kid from the city is unloading his off-roading VW Golf. |
 To while away the time until the others show, Ursula sets something on fire. |
 It's a good fire, and not the last one she'll commandeer over the weekend. |
 This is our cool-ass campsite, next to the cool-ass artificially-planted pines. |
 The vault latrine: nicer than we expected, bugs and all. |
 We did not expect a dapper little hut on site! Maybe it's what people sleep in? We used it to store food and firewood. |
 Kicky little cantilevered and swiveling grill for the firepit. |
 The unpacking of civilized trappings commences and the table is only used for storage. |
 Clearer shot of the break in the trees from our camp leading to grassy fields, maybe wetlands. |
 On the other side of the camp from the pines was a scopic birch forest. |
 Just down the slope from our campfire was a strange little cairn of stones and logs, like a shallow grave. |
 All through the camping experience I was overwhelmed by the lush, vibrant glowing green of the vegetation! |
 My eyes never tired of being dazzled by the chartreuse mathematics of fern! |
 Along with building great fires, Ursula also succumbed to the need to constantly futz with them. |
 Evening descended upon our campsite and we hadn't seen the others yet - they were missing everything! |
 Finally, once people started showing up, Ursula and Beth collaborated on a delicious stir-fry for everyone. |
 They boiled rice, sauteed vegetables, and everyone was pleasantly surprised. |
 Joe and worm wait patiently for the buzz to set in. |
 Joe (different one) and Beth unpack their necessities and get settled in. |
 There, the stir fry! Isn't that freakin' delicious-looking? I'm still enthused about it! |
 Dan leans into the conversation as worm snacks from his camping gear and hides carrots up his nose for later. |
 The next morning, I hiked down to the car to get breakfast supplies, hoping to remember our menu correctly. |
 No, I'm not very pretty in the morning. But beavers and mosquitos don't judge. |
 A long section of the path leading to camp was this: a foundation of thick branches and a bed of dirt and gravel molded into shape. |
 I couldn't get over these crazy pines: letting their lower branches die off as they all scramble to grow the tallest and hog up all the sun. |
 It's hard to get discouraged at mile-long hikes to the car and back when the trail is this beautiful. |
Old dead tree collapsed against another. Too bad we can't climb these bad boys. |
 This was a particularly nasty, evil-looking knot of dead trees and branches that charmed both worm and I. |
 This was the notification of our site. We paid for another site another mile down the trail but never ended up using it! |
 Not only can you hike and ski here, but you can sharpen your claws on the signs. |
 The first time Ursula and I hiked up from the car, this is what we saw: verdant birch forest opening up into a huge lot of pines. It was impressive. |
 Yo, Willie! This portage calls for cat jerky! |
 Once in a while there was a small metal culvert that permitted streams to flow beneath the paths. |
 Just another shot of the thriving, vital forests of which I couldn't get enough. |
 And I couldn't help noticing all the little scenes that begged to be played with by Star Wars action figures... |
 Yet another row of ferns, they grew every-freakin'-where. |
 How does it happen that one tree burns to a stump but its neighbor is unscathed? |
 In hindsight, it is only too obvious that the best way to split wood is with another tree. |
 Some joker probably spent a weekend setting up little stick structures like this, to remind everyone of The Blair Witch Project. |
 And now we boil water and prepare to clean some dishes. |
 Hey, it's Warthog and Julie, and they brought Renee Zellwiger with them (just out of shot). |
 Ursula meditates upon her morning chai and watches the campfire smoulder. |
 Joe is likewise in a thoughtful moment, contemplating. It's early yet. |
 Dan is full of beans and ready for whatever nature might toss his way. |
 worm, braced with chai, is also prepared for an adventure which involves a lot of walking. |
 Joe pokes around his provisions and prepares for something. |
 Joe, Joe, and Ursula utilize the large flat log benches that were great at first but would not yield to soft city butts, and we were all sore by Sunday. |
 Julie and Beth chuckle over something as Renee blinks in the smoke. |
 Unconfident with our tent's weather-resisting properties, worm devises to use a tarp as a makeshift tent-fly. |
 Beth and Dan mill about purposefully. |
 worm is intent to weather-proof the tent, come hell or high water. |
 It's kind of like a post-apoc tipi, but it will keep the meteorites out. |
 Joe and Beth listen to Ursula's story of the time her head exploded. |
 And off we go, self-confident and enthused, into the embrace of Mother Nature! |
 While visiting Warthog's campsite, I discovered a huge-ass lake behind it and had to go check it out. |
 Yes, definitely a lake, especially with all that water. |
 You see a little red canoe poking out, giddy with anticipation to get out and start floating independent of land. |
 Lake weeds, tiny water lilies or whatever leafy surface-floating weed. I don't know. |
 Our group contemplates the lake and declares it a sufficient enough obstacle to not venture crossing. |
 Joe kicks around while worm offers unsolicited editorialization. |
 Ever the man of action, worm sets off on his own for a short distance. |
 I'm not pretty in the early afternoon, either, but you can see worm ambling out on the log behind me. |
 Here he demonstrates an ultimately self-defeating alternative to burying one's feces in the woods. |
 I spotted this butterfly on some flowers but was unable to get the white-balance to acknowledge its true colors! |
 Another shot of the same thing. Damn. |
 I decided to start collecting pictures of much flora, even if I didn't know its names. |
 These looked like buttercups but were way too tall in the stalk. |
 More plants, and an inadvertantly interesting shot. |
 It's the same lake, but from a slightly different perspective, farther off to one side. |
 It's hilarious: worm was surprisingly displeased to find this caterpillar on his shirt. |
 Lunch is served at Warthog's campsite, and we partake. |
 A whole mess of hotdogs, hamburgers, stuff that goes with them, and fruit. |
 I cleverly, blindly point the camera over my shoulder to frame Warthog and Julie! |
 Dunno what this was, but we saw a lot of it and it was pretty. |
 The only wildlife I caught on film: a turtle sunning himself on a log. |
 Mighty and wretched, this old tree yet reaches up to the sky. |
 What would this be? A crocus of some sort? Yes, I'm ignorant of botany.(Alexis informs me this is an iris.) |
 I could not get over scenes such as this, vibrant grassland and beautiful pines! |
 Our group took off for more sightseeing. |
 Another aged, dead tree, collapsed against its compatriot. |
 Evidence of beavers who have no respect for nature. |
 The beavers can only hope their tree will fall towards the water, but have practically no way to effect this. |
 That's where we're going, off to see the bogs! A new thrill! |
 A lovely violet flower, if nameless. |
 Beth was taken with this tableau of nature growing, dying, and breaking down to feed the next cycle. |
 The group split up more or less in half and we looked at everything in our own time. |
 I couldn't imagine what kind of small rodents or large insects might have made these holes... |
 Here comes everyone, after reading all the signs and taking a breather. |
 Everyone loved looking at everything, pointing things out to each other. |
 I knew this one! Cotton... weed, I think. Cotton-something. I saw it on a sign. |
 I was taken with the thick moisture-storing leaves of this plant, wondered whether it was toxic. |
 A lot of these were in the bogs: long slender stalk that bent and from which hung bulbous flowers about to bloom. |
 Here's two more of the aforementioned plants, opening up wider. |
 We found a pond in the middle of the bog. Or maybe it was a lake? What qualifies a body of water as a lake? |
 There were other people enjoying the view out here before us, but strangers don't comfortably share such a small boardwalk. |
 And some more of those crocus-lilac-violet kinda things, they were plentiful on the shore of the pond in the bog. |
 Oh yes, and everyone thought the pitcher plants were very cool, of course. Insectile demise! |
 I happened to notice this little grotto of black water beneath a tree, beside the boardwalk. |
 Some of the daintiest flowers we saw out there, pink and calling for our attention. worm related to the group they did indeed look like ladies' slippers. |
 More of those heavy bulbous plants about to open up. |
 I'm pretty confident I can say this was, indeed, the first bog in which I have ever been. |
 Another patch of the pitcher plants. |
 Beth zoomed in carefully to peer inside. |
 Also, everywhere we walked, I noticed these mushrooms whose caps split roughly into fifths. |
 And I have no idea what was going on here, but I liked the effect. Hope it's not an exotic leaf blight. |
 Another little grove of mushrooms. Nature begs to be noticed! |
 These cute little white flowers were also abundant throughout the trails. |
 This was a shelf fungus getting started out on a tree. |
 Maybe these would've shelved out if the host tree hadn't collapsed. |
 Beth and I both thought this looked like some kind of elf-serving doorway... |
 This is definitely a lily. I'm not dumb about this one. Definitely a lily. |
 Another shot of the lake. I couldn't get enough of the lake. |
 We should've thought about canoeing. We'll do that next time, I'm sure. |
 More lilies, growing in the nurturing damp of the bog. |
 Dan sets up his badass equipment to get a detailed shot. |
 I noticed this segment of dead tree suspended in the branches. |
 ...I'm not sure why I needed a picture of this muck. |
 Here's a patch of cattails, puffy with whatever they're made of. |
 I was interested in this bamboo-looking reed growing intermittantly. |
 This, of course, was also very pretty. I will learn these names. |
 This was an attractive variant of ferns growing out here. Maybe it's not a fern at all... |
 Most of our group noticed and appreciated the patterning of lichen on this rock. |
 I liked these wormy little pinecones growing all over this certain tree. |
 Even huge, broad leafs can capture my attention for a while. |
 This was a particularly unpleasant-looking plant blight I spotted. |
 This tree has surely seen better days. Nature can be so cruel to its children. |
 Full of nature, Joe and worm strike out on the trail. |
 The less determined, more playful segment happily dallies behind. |
 A couple marker signs, only one of which directly concerned us. |
 Eww! Spider eggs! Icky! |
 Another picturesque bloom of pine branches. |
 These have got to be buttercups, height or no. |
 Everyone looked at me strangely, but I had to have a picture of this particular acorn. |
 Now our group left the comfort of our camp and headed out to Beaver Lake. |
 Beautiful grassy wetlands, spindly dead trees, and the lake. |
 Though we spotted no beavers, we found two lodges on this lake! |
 I don't know why I'm so fascinated with wetlands like this. |
 Both lodges are visible here (sorry I discolored them in Photoshop). |
 Photoshop gives, and Photoshop takes away. Why is this so dark!? |
 There, this is a satisfying view of the lake and the forest fringing it. |
 We stopped on the trail to have some snacks and read about beavers. |
 Dan's equipment is somewhat heavy to carry for great distances, but it takes fantastic pictures. |
 Detail of the clear lake on this beautiful day. We really lucked out there. |
 Dan sets up for shots of the landscape. |
 Detail of the lodge. Why no beavers? What the hell do they eat, anyway? |
 I have no idea why an automatic digital camera goes blurry at a long-distance shot. |
 Past the blackened tree remnant was a grove of pale saplings and more forest. |
 A darker-than-necessary shot of a fairly straight line of water wending from the lake. There were a few of these - were they formed by beavers? |
 Thank the rangers for the platforms, or we'd really be slogging now. |
 We got closer to the skinny dead trees on the other side of the lake. |
 Why should I be mocked for wanting a picture of a state park-provided birdhouse? But I was. |
 Either this is a practice tree for young 'uns, or beavers are catching ADD from humans. |
 Detail of the other lodge, once we'd walked to the other side of the lake. |
 Another water-trail through the weeds, as if beavers swim here a lot. |
 And another half-ass job on gnawing this tree down. Way to go, guys, you're an inspiration to us all. |
 These fallen trees formed a kind of boardwalk of their own, perhaps used by crafty beavers? Or just coincidence? |
 The fallen trees led up the hill into the forest. |
 We traipsed on into the woods, struggling up the hill on unacclimated feet. |
 At least the signs assured us we were definitely supposed to be walking here. |
 I was interested in this thick bolt of trees growing very closely together in this field. |
 Once, many generations ago, beavers knew how to finish what they started. |
 Was this lightning or something? This is certainly no tree disease... |
 Beth discovers that beavers, supposed to be vegetarians, will not say no to a tasty little kid. |
 More mushrooms! Obviously. |
 Big open sky and beautiful green trees, taken from our campsite (large picture - going to use this as desktop wallpaper). |
 Dan, Beth, and Joe stimulate their mental activity with Travel Scrabble. |
 Worm boils more water for whatever beverage. It was a weekend of beverages. |
 Ursula checks herself for ticks, a concern in the back of all our minds. |
 Nichole shows up in the early evening and is seen here playing around with Dan's IR filter. |
 This is a shot of our campfire through the IR filter, as I held it before my camera. |
 Worm's all tuckered-out and stretches out for a little nap. I threw rocks at him. |
 Though we all love camping, it's time to admit we're a little exhausted from tromping around for miles and miles. |
 Doesn't worm look like he was born to survive in the woods? |
 Nichole gets a little crazy while shucking corn. Just a little. |
 Ursula peels her own corn for an evening snack that will not stop. |
 "Hey, you're taking those pictures kinda low..." Well, here's proof that I'm not. |
 Yes, "corn" is the byword of the evening, everyone's doin' it. |
 ...Almost everyone. |
 Difficult to see, but for some reason I thought I could take a night-shot of our campsite. |
 Night falls but spirits are high as we kick back and socialize. |
 And we have a little to drink... |
 Dan is rarin' to go. If everyone ever rared, he rares, I tell you. |
 Nichole says, "Life is a bucket full of joy." |
 It's Sunday morning and no one's much in the mood for pictures. |
 Worm makes himself some toast, a cue many of us follow. |
 And Beth gets revenge on me by taking this glorious image of me sucking down oatmeal. |
 He's got kielbasa and coffee, but Joe looks ready to bite the camera. |
 Aw, it's sprinkling a little! That means everyone has to cower in terror in the wood shack. |
 Everyone except for me and Dan, of course. We fear not the feel of nature on our faces. |
 Camping winds down and the table is full of dirty dishes as our water supply dwindles. |
 Worm snacks on things that could go in a breakfast. |
 He also insists that all the dishes at least get washed down, if not rinsed, before we pack. |
 Dan helps out, drying and I think whistling. I can hear him whistling, anyway. |
 You can almost kinda see another butterfly in the middle of this picture, with its wings held up. |