Going it alone, in the woods!

As most of you already know, I recently became unemployed, or Funemployed as I prefer to call it. Which means I have all the time in the world to do everything I enjoy, and also that money has become a limiting factor. So I've decided to make good use of my time off and take some close to home vacations in order to see my own country more in depth. The Pacific Northwest is my first destination, a region I have been to a few times and always left feeling that I wanted to stay longer. I'm currently taking about 3 weeks to travel Oregon and Washington, visiting friends, National Parks, and just generally exploring.

The biggest challenge to keeping within a budget is lodging, so I've decided that I will camp whenever possible. And the challenge with this is that I will be camping alone! I've camped a lot in my life, but never by myself. When I first started thinking about it, I couldn't decide if this was something that was wise to do, so I started asking around. And pretty much everyone was of the same opinion - as a solo female, camping is risky, and I should be thinking twice about it.

This of course, didn't sit well with me, because I have never been one to let the facts that I am 1) ALONE and 2) a GIRL stop me from any of my travels. But I HAVE been saavy, and after a lot of deliberating and conversations, I concluded that camping alone is OK, as long as I am careful about where I stay. Established campsites like KOA, State Parks, and any other place that charges a fee and has lots of people are probably pretty safe; some place off the side of the road with a clearing in the trees is probably not.

Another concern was GEAR ... camping involves a lot of stuff, and stuff costs money, and the whole point of camping is to save money. Soooo ... that means that I need to keep it pretty simple. Of course, with camping, simplicity can be a trade-off for comfort and enjoyment. Most of the necessary stuff I already had, and a lot of it I was able to borrow. I bought a $30 hiker tent, opting not to drop $200 on something fancy from REI. I also gladly spent the money to pick up an air mattress, because I learned my lesson the last time I camped with a tiny little pad. As for food, I chose to keep it really simple, leaving out such luxuries as butter, milk and ketchup. (This was more to save space than save money.)

And last week, I loaded up my car, strapped my bike on the back, and headed North. My first stop was Medford, which I used as a jumping off place to visit Crater Lake. I figured Crater Lake was a good spot to do a "test run" of my camping preparedness, because I wanted to see if all my equipment was functional and if I was perhaps trying to go a bit too minimalist. As I found out later, the answers respectively were NO and YES. Good thing it was only two days!

The first decision I had was choosing where to camp. Crater Lake has two choices - There is Lost Creek, which costs $10 and has tent-only camping. Then there is Mazama Village, the big family campsite with spaces for tents and RV's, plus flush toilets and hot showers. It costs twice as much as Lost Creek. The true camper and money saver in me decided I would first check out the tent-only site, which turned out to be about a 15 mile drive from the park entrance, waaaaay out in the boonies of the park. I parked my car and had lunch there, imagining what the place would be like come nightfall. There were about 5 other campsites with people in them, but nobody was there at that time of day. It seemed safe enough ... but then I remembered how dark it gets in the wilderness, thought about my unused equipment, and made the decision to pay the extra money to stay at the family site. I figured I could tolerate generators and loud kids in exchange for feeling safe.

The Mazama campground turned out to be much better than expected. The sites were built to give plenty of privacy, and the generators were off most of the time. No loud kids, but there were some loud drunks that probably scared away the bears. I set up my tent, blew up the air mattress, got the propane stove working ... so far so good. Made some basic dinner, thinking, Yea, now I'm camping! I managed to collect enough fire wood for a small fire (thank you Girl Scouts!) and got it going as night began to fall. It was finally getting proper dark around 8 pm, so I went to turn on the lantern, a battery powered one that had so kindly been loaned to me by some friends. Press the button ... nothing. Press it again ... nothing. Shake shake shake, check the batteries ... nothing. So here I was, my first night camping alone, and I had no lantern. I had burned most of my wood and the fire was dying, which left me with only a flashlight, a bike headlight, and my car headlights for the rest of the night. At that point, I found myself REALLY glad that I had not stayed out in the boondocks camping. It was sort of lousy to have no proper light, but not a huge deal. Sat in my car and read for a bit, journaled by flashlight, whatever. Good excuse to go to bed early!

As I climbed in my sleeping bag on the first night, I realized that I could see the stars if my tent door was open. Laying there looking up at the night sky, I felt this giddy sense of excitement. And I was damn proud of myself. My mattress was cozy, my sleeping bag was warm, and gosh darnnit I was ready to spend the night in the woods by myself! After awhile I zipped up the tent and dozed off to sleep, happy that I had decided to do this.

And....two hours later I was awake again. Not because there were bears or axe murderers roaming the campsite, but because I was COLD. Yes, my lightweight, high-tech mummy bag was no match for the Oregon mountains. And that $30 tent? Well, its not water-proof, and that nighttime condensation comes right through. I spent most of the night adjusting into various fetal positions and arranging my sleeping bag to cover my face while still leaving a little breathing hole. I didn't dare get up and put on more layers, because I didn't want to lose the heat that I had built up, and I had just enough to allow me to get some sleep. It was a really, really long night. I found out later that it had been around 35 degrees. Yikes! The sunrise has never looked so good.

Ok, so my first night didn't go so smoothly. But hey, I didn't get mauled by bears or molested by some toothless mountain man - These were solveable problems! The next night I was determined to get it right. I would buy batteries at the camp store to solve the lantern problem. And the cold? Well, that was easy - add an undershirt, hooded sweatshirt and second pair of socks, plus two hot water bottles to build up more heat inside my sleeping bag. I planned to sleep like a baby the following night.

But the universe didn't seem to be working with me. The campstore was out of batteries - since they are closing for the season in a few days, they weren't restocking anymore. The nearest town was 15 miles away, but I didn't know if they would even have D batteries. But I did, on a whim, ask my neighbors (the loud drunks, very nice folks), who lo and behold had 4 D batteries that they gladly gave me, refusing any money or trade in exchange. Take the old batteries out, pop the new ones in ... and ... nothing! Shit, really? Juan and Merilee, I owe you guys a new lantern, because I think I managed to break this one during the journey. So here I was, another night with only the flashlight and headlights. But I did have a ton of firewood that I had gathered during my drive around the lake, and of course I wasn't opposed to going to bed early, since I was so convinced that I would sleep wonderfully that night. After a delicious dinner of soup from a can (tastes WAY better when camping), a bit of time spent staring at the fire, and some journaling by flashlight, I decided it was time. I will admit, I went to bed with a bit of apprehension that second night, fearing another uncomfortable night. Throw on the extra layers, make two hot water bottles using my Sigg and an empty Aquafina bottle ... sleep should be no problem, right?

Wrong. I was STILL cold. Turns out that triple layers, 2 hot water bottles and my high-tech sleeping bag are still no match for the Oregon mountains. It was a little better than the first night, but still not the blissful slumber I had hoped for. But it didn't really matter, because I had done it - I had survived my first time camping by myself. I know what I need next time - some warmer stuff for sleeping, a rain fly for the tent, and just a bit more in the kitchen so I can make meals that are slightly better than cans of soup. And there will be more camping on this trip - assuming the weather cooperates, because I'm really not up for rain camping!

Pictures to come soon!

Medford Oregon

Howdy, writing from the lovely town of Medford, Oregon, after a long day on the river. I know I haven't been writing much lately, but since this blog was originally started to share travel stories, I thought it would be good to write about my current trip. I'm taking at least 3 weeks in the Pacific Northwest, visiting a few friends along the way and exploring some areas I've always been curious about. I say "at least 3 weeks" because I really don't have a specific time I have to be back, and I could easily see this stretching for quite a while, given all the places I want to see. I'm not bringing a guide book, which is unusual for me. This trip will be more impulsive than what I usually do - I love love love the idea of "just going with it." I have a loose plan, a road atlas, a few people to stay with, my bike, my camera and some basic camping supplies. Let's see where life takes me!

The Rogue Valley, where I am now, is beautiful, and looks much more like California than much of the rest of Oregon. I'm currently staying with Vicki and Tommy, who are the only reason I would ever bother to stay in Medford. (Oregon people know what I mean!) Vicki is an old high school friend of my mom's and she has sort of "adopted" my brother and I over the years. My Reel Mammie! While Vicki is my mom's age, Tommy is 91, and still going strong - an amazing dude and living proof that healthy lifestyle does pay off. They are two of the most wonderful people I know :)

Today was kayaking day! I rented a Tahiti inflatable kayak and floated down the Rogue River for about 3.5 hours. There were some minor Class I rapids, but mostly just mellow floating. It was HOT and the water was ICY cold, which made for perfect conditions. This time of year, they release water from the bottom of the dam, (which is of course much colder than the water at the top that has been warmed by the sun) to create conditions needed for salmon spawning. I'm telling you, whenever the water splashed in from the side of the boat, it was intense and actually took my breath away. And no, I did not fall in. That would have been rough :/

I couldn't take pictures because I didn't want to risk getting the camera wet, but this is pretty much the scenery I had:

Beautiful!

I also saw a naked guy sitting on bank in his yard - No pictures, sorry. And not some hippie who just liked to be naked, but a local exhibitionist who (I learned later) is usually out there for the viewing pleasure of the rafters and has been cited several times for indecent exposure. I was lucky enough not to get him at a dancing moment though.

Tomorrow I am off to Crater Lake to camp for a day or two. I'm a little apprehensive about camping alone - do I have everything I need, is it safe, etc? So I think its good to start off at an established campground where there will be plenty of people and facilities. I'm excited about Crater Lake too, I've heard a lot of great things about it.

Cheers, off to bed!

Confessions of a (former) Facebook Resistor

I have finally succumbed to the pressures and jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. It took over 3 years for me to give in, during which I was one of the proud few that were "not on Facebook." But it was starting to get ridiculous. In addition to the constant pressures of various friends, I would frequently get comments like:

"I forgot about you because you're not on Facebook."
"You should join Facebook so we can keep in touch!"
"I actually was worried that you were dead because I couldn't find you on Facebook." (not a joke)

It's crazy actually, the degree to which people nowadays seem to rely on this one website to conduct their social lives. Everyone has told me that it makes staying in touch sooooo much easier, so I'm curious to see how many friends come back into my life now that I have joined. I can say that email has not been very good for staying in touch, because you actually have to make the effort to write email to whoever you want to stay in touch with.

So why did I hold out for so long? I think I have to blame MySpace actually. I joined MySpace shortly before Facebook came around, and while it did serve some useful purposes, for the most part I despised MySpace. The clunky profiles that crashed my computer, the awkward interface, the prevailing sense of ego and desperate struggle to assert some sort of identity...the exact reason that teens love it was the reason that I hated it. I found that every time I used MySpace, I was left with this feeling that everyone else was cooler than I was and having much more fun. How lame is that?

So when FB first came out, and people started telling me how much better it was, I wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't need another thing to make me spend more time on the computer, and MS had left such a bad taste in my mouth. Plus, I started getting these emails from people who I barely knew inviting me to join FB, which I found to be really, really invasive. I hated the idea of a site that raided your email list to recruit more users. So I made a decision not to join.

And as time went on, the FB force started to grow. Around the time that I was in Japan, I started to notice a tinge of shock and confusion in peoples' reactions when I told them I was not on FB. "You're not on Facebook? (looking at me like I was an alien) WHY??" And that made it even more of a turn-off for me - the fact that people expected me to be on there; as if it was this requirement to be a normal person. It really brought out the subversive counter-culture side of me (thanks Berkeley!), and I despised the idea of becoming a part of it.

I also had a few friends that were obsessed with it in a very unhealthy way, checking it every 5 minutes and essentially using it to stalk people. I noticed that people used it to actually conduct their social lives and maintain their friendships, which honestly freaked me out. Why do I need a website to manage my social life for me? I worry that in this internet world that we rely too much on computers for too many things, and the fact that socialization is now taking place more and more online rather than face-to-face is really unnerving to me.

But at some point .... my resistance started to crumble. I can't say what it was, probably because it was a lot of factors. The fact that I have a lot more time on my hands right now was huge actually - not only do I now have time to spend maintaining friendships on the internet, I also have time to actually SEE old friends, which is really nice. There are some people from way back in my life that I have no way of getting in touch with, and FB is my only hope. I have sort of shifted my perception of FB - rather than be annoyed by the fact that people rely on it to stay in touch, I am starting to think of it as a helpful tool that really does make sense in this day and age.

And honestly, part of it was just curiousity - I don't go a day without seeing a FB reference in the news -- its one of the biggest cultural phenomena of our time, and I want to see what all the fuss is about!

So after weeks of deliberation, I finally joined today. Within an hour, I was back in touch with a generous handful of old friends, and I know there are a LOT more to come over the next few weeks. I've gotten messages from people that would not answer my recent emails because they prefer FB. I've learned that an old high school friend got married, and another had a child. And the addiction factor - well, I'm already doing that thing where I check my email every 10 minutes to see if there are FB updates. Oh no!!! Hopefully that will wear off over time, but I doubt it.

One thing that I do not want to get in the habit of doing is checking my FB while I am with other people. Whether it is when my bf is at my house, or I am out to dinner with friends, I am still uncomfortable with the idea of taking attention away from the people who are actually in the room with me to give attention to people online. That is just creepy, and it reminds of the portral of the future in Wall-E, where people communicate using screens attached to their easy-chairs.

Welcome to the future!

A seed has been planted ...

A new idea has been brewing in my head the past two days. It may be something that fades away after a week or so, or it could be something life changing.

The idea started during a phone conversation with an old friend two nights ago. We had been talking about the Japan trip and I was musing about the fact that every student travel company I know is based on the idea of big groups and tours where all decisions are made for you. Or in other words, the kind of travel I despise. I was telling my friend that one of the most profound realizations I had during the Japan trip was letting the students be the leaders instead of me. As in, "here is the map of the Tokyo subway system, its your job to get us to our hotel, ask me questions if you need to." And then step back and let the student do the work. Not only did it take pressure off me, it turned out to be a profoundly empowering exercise for the students - to realize that you can navigate the Tokyo subway system with nothing but a map in your hand is pretty amazing.

The funny thing is - I don't think I would have ever realized this on my own, because I was so stressed out the whole time about being an effective leader - and by effective, I was thinking solely in terms of getting where we needed to go, on time, without getting lost too often. I was trying so hard to prove myself as a group leader that I ended up being a control freak, essentially running a trip just like the ones I despise where the participants don't really have to think for themselves. And it was Adam, my co-chaperon, who suggested that I step back and let the kids take the lead more often. Turned out to be the best suggestion ever - all 4 students proved to be totally adept at leading, and some of them actually really enjoyed it.

Looking back, it is odd that I didn't think of this myself. Flashback: Costa Rica, 2001, 21 year old American girl fresh out of college. I arrived in the middle of the night, managed to find a hotel, scared out of my mind, got up in the morning and proceed to make my way half way across the country via public trans, helped only by my guidebook and crappy Spanish, and successfully meet up with a friend in a very out of the way location. It was one of the greatest highs of my life - the realization that I could actually get around a foreign place by myself was indescribably awesome. That feeling of empowerment that comes from independent travel is still one of the biggest draws for me.

Back to the phone conversation with my friend - I was telling him how cool it was to let the students take the lead in Japan. We started musing on the subject of whether a student travel company based on that idea even existed. And my friend made the suggestion - why don't I think about starting one? Then we came to the idea of a non-profit organization that takes at-risk, inner city students abroad, involving them as much as possible in the planning and implementation of the trip.

That idea kept me awake for about 2 hours that night. Just laying in bed at 2 am, envisioning what it could be. And the more I thought, the more excited I got. Here is a way to combine my passions of teaching and travel in a viable career. I thought about all the ideas and visions I had for my Japan trip this year -- all the cool things I wanted to do to make the experience better, but simply didn't have the time because of the teaching job. Recently I have been musing about the perfect job for me ... it is something related to student travel ... but I find myself with a distaste for everything that already exists. But this is something I could create on my own terms, according to my own vision.

I spent the day today researching the non-profit sector, grant writing and fundraising. Before I get too far, I need to do a reality check. The major lesson I took from today: starting and operating a non-profit involves many things that I have little or no experience in - finance, law, accounting, marketing, fundraising .. just to name a few. So the reality check today was that it will not all be about teaching and traveling. But I knew that already, deep down.

So for now I will let the idea stew and continue my research. I need to get a better reading of the funding possibilities right now, and have some honest conversations with myself about whether this is really something I want to do.

The seed has been planted ... we will see what grows!