
oil on board, $250 not framed
CAMPING
The camping trip was to get me out of the city. I desperately needed some peace and quiet. I was burnt to a crisp from bartending and stressing with all the people and all the noise.
Three blissful days in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, in a valley with wild flowers, water in a creek and a half-dome tent. Bliss.
The first evening my boyfriend and I sat still and listened to all the quiet! It was actually a little frightening. Not a sound, nothing but the creek. Scary. We put up the tent in the light of the campfire and went to sleep.
The next morning was COLD, COLD! Brushing my teeth in the creek made me scream out from the pain of ice water on my teeth! Brrrrr... not to mention baring my bottom to pee! But OH! the smells and the sounds of the birds in a forest waking up with light! Is there anything better? I felt invigorated!
Oh, and I started my period. I had tampons so it wasn’t a big deal just bad timing.
That first morning my boyfriend snuck up on a fish (that’s what he told me). He reached into the creek and pulled out a trout with his bare hands! We were both surprised and so was the fish! I wouldn’t eat it. I figured it was hurt or sick or something. I never heard of anyone catching a trout barehanded! He cooked it on the little camp stove and giggled as he ate the whole thing. I munched on trail mix and wished the fish had been caught with a line.
That morning I painted and my boyfriend hiked around. He showed me what bear shit looked like. Wow. Who knew? I thought it would have been a 10 lb terd but it looked like pickling spice to me.
We were in an aspen grove so I chose to carve our initials in one of the aspens. It took me over an hour. I didn’t do it too big, just medium sized and out of view. I thought someday I’d come back to that tree and reminisce about “the good old days”. My boyfriend hated that I’d done that to a tree. Oh well.
The day flew by and we built our large campfire right at sundown. My boyfriend told me to toss my used tampons into the fire so bears wouldn’t catch the scent. HUH? He told me we might hear some rustling in the bushes because bears would be able to smell me “in heat”. You can imagine I did not sleep at all that night. I heard every sound for miles and miles and miles. No bears attacked us/me, I’m happy to report. But it made me uneasy.
The next morning, after our chilly awakening and tooth care, we cooked oatmeal on the little stove and planned our hike up the mountains. I was still scared of the bears finding me. My boyfriend said they wouldn’t come after me in broad daylight. They were brown bears. They didn’t do that.
We packed our goods and loaded up the heavy two back packs and took off for our quiet, private hike. We hadn’t gotten far when my boyfriend suggested we rest for a moment and turn to look at the view behind and below us, to soak it in and enjoy the panorama.
We watched in silence and it was really pure bliss.
I noticed some movement down below. Brown bears???
A minute later my boyfriend noted that the movement was coming up the mountain in our vicinity. Oh my, I was so scared. He wore a hunting knife on his hip but that was the only weapon we had.
Just as I was ready to run for it, I saw that the intruder (into our blissful experience) was a human. Still headed our way. The movie, “Deliverance” hadn’t been thought of yet, so a human didn’t scare me at all. But where was he going? He was coming our way but we weren’t on a trail! We were just in the middle of a forest!
Onward came the man. I thought perhaps he knew who we were and was coming to give us a message. There must be an emergency somewhere! My boyfriend agreed with me so we stood on the sloping hill to see where the man would go and wait for him.
When he got closer I could tell he was an American Indian and he even had a long black braid down his back. He had no backpack, no canteen, nothing in his hands. He was dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans.
When he got within 20 feet of us, my boyfriend called out to him,, “hello!”. He did not reply and kept coming to us. I looked at my boyfriend with a question mark! A BIG question mark! WTF?
He said, “hello” another time and suddenly the man was right in front of us. No one said a word. No one moved. We stared at each other, in silence.
After what seemed an eternity, the stranger said, “You’re in my way”, very matter of fact.
My boyfriend and I quickly separated so that he could walk between us. He continued up the hill and never looked back.
We went back to town. I never went camping again.






