Camping and the Outdoors

I am reflecting on the feeling I sometimes get, that feeling that one is in limbo, stuck, that things aren’t changing and that one’s efforts aren’t having any effect.

I am writing because it is precisely at these times that the next step presents itself. Of course, with hiking, the answer is almost immediately apparent and the hikers reading this will go: the next step is the answer!

There aren’t really any answers to feelings, just more feelings. However, ‘the next step’ as answer is the appropriate response because things are always changing, and so taking the next step is the way through these feelings of futility and awfulness. On a hike, these feelings can arise anytime on the hike, if one is distracted or enjoying the hike or just having a wonderful time.

Then, when one is tired and hungry and sore and hot and sweaty and one more thing must be dealt with, like a nagging strap bruise, one gets the feeling that the hike is a waste of time or your companions are annoying or whatever the load is, and then, as one keeps walking, the next step gets easier, or the next step takes one to another just like it, but a small animal is noticed, or a beautiful plant or perhaps a swallow of cool crisp water from another’s canteen and then, there it is. The moment is clear and sweet.

Like our lives in our houses or offices or whatever our workplaces are, the next step happens. It can bring misery or happiness, but it will bring something.

The 4 hour trail: the Wodehouse route. ‘Sounds easy’, I thought. About half the hike was spent on inclines, with the last part of the walk doing direct cross-contour walking! It wasn’t easy.
Ok, so my hike was tough. So I got sunburn in some weird places where I neglected to ensure the sunscreen went. Oh yes, if I haven’t already done the blah-blah: PUT SUNSCREEN ON EVERYWHERE. A LOT OF IT. The back of my right upper arm, from the hem of my t-shirt to my elbow got burned when we came down the mountain. Put on sunscreen all over. Nothing like feeling like an idiot to go with the scratchy hot burn. And that wonderful stress of knowing you have stepped into the group holding up the ‘I am at high risk for skin cancer’ signs. Sigh.

So was it worth it? YES!

There was no one else on the trail. We saw antelope, snakes, a lizard’s hunting leap, waving flowers on a ledge, cairns on top of the world, the Needle in the Drakensberg proper off in the blue hazy distance. We heard the hissing music of a group of swallows diving past us into the cool water bouncing up out of the green green valley.

The wind nudged and fussed against us once we got up to the shoulder of the hike, and later, as we descended, life ran across the shadows of the grass down far below.

The trail was the Wodehouse route in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. It was marked “4 hours”, as I said, and it can be done in that time by the average hiker. Cyril and I are not average - we stop and talk a lot! I am fit and I found the hike eminently doable. Children under the age of 12 will struggle, unless they are very fit. The descent requires some strength, and is a largely continuous cross-contour downhill from the summit.

The landscape was very green, and the fresh air was luxurious. I was swimming in open space!

The start of the hike…

A view looking down:

A windswept flower just short of the summit…

and the summit itself.

I am back in South Africa. The summer is beating down, the air like hot paper brushing my face.

I am working on a system to assist the power generation utility to reduce peak loads so there won’t be blackouts during times of high demand. We were told that the head office would be reducing its air-conditioning settings in the standard response to the peak loads. It resulted in our offices having the airconditioning turned off entirely (or so it felt). So there we were, sweating while we tried to concentrate on alleviating the very situation we  found ourselves in!

After months of walking everywhere, driving through big city traffic is a trial. I do like the motionless fuel gauge on my 55 mpg turbodiesel car, though! And I get to listen to Birmingham music!
The landscape is attracting me differently than the landscape in the USA did. There’s more body-centric, almost visceral response to the environment here. I put down roots in Birmingham, USA, and the people, the sky and land and cold and music are embedded. I feel richer and more complex for it. South Africa feels even better.

Next weekend I will be going on a day hike with a good friend. The veldt calls.

List of South African experiences:

The call of laughing doves.

The huge double rainbow bright and vivid across half the sky.

The smiles

Birds calling in the morning

Frangipani blossoms in my garden

Watching cricket

Watching  Super14 rugby

The smell of the earth and the air

Distant thunderstorm greying out the sky

Melville

Twilight in a garden with bulbuls and doves

Whee! It snowed on my face this morning, as I emerged from the always deceptively warm staircase of my block of flats.

It was a light dusting, but my cruel, crazy beautiful world had swung slightly towards the better side of the jam-on-toast, and I just went ‘whee!’ inside. I have a Valentine, too. More “whee!”.

North Korea has agreed to abandon its nuclear efforts. Oddly enough, a chance meeting and the removal of idiots paved the way. It pays to keep in mind that it is people who make it possible to talk to people. That this is a strange and unknown concept in the lexicon of international relations scares me. A great deal of scary is involved here. Almost as much as knowing that “global warming” is Bush White House speak for switching on that model of the earth with the light bulb within it. For when the illustrious leader wants to know where Pyongyang is. Or Darfur. Or Brazil. Or the Great Barrier Reef. Or New Orleans.

Right. Yes. Ok. I know I was speaking of good things. There is the gift of nothing. There are warm socks on a cold morning as one returns to bed with warm drinks. There are snowflakes dancing in the air like the white plastic in American Beauty. There are sips of hot coffee with cold cold cheeks.

When emerging from a tent in the cold, cold mountain air, there is also this feeling of “whee!”. The clear clear world, and the small universe surrounding the camp, the tents, the brewing coffee and tea and the scrumptious breakfast cooking smells, are as crisp and real as the chairs, the hushed mutterings of aides and the air of great huge gun cabinets that pervades the atmosphere at nuclear power playground talks. “That’s MY Tonka truck! Whaaaaaaaa! That’s MY plutonium! *smack, slap*”. What to do, then? Know that there is a pin in the globe in the White House marking where you are. Keep in mind that everyone breathes the same atmosphere. It might be warm, cold, with or without snow, with or without a Valentine, and with or without that warmed globe, with the light inside peeking out through the holes in Vietnam, Korea, the Bay of Pigs, Granada, Somalia, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. How will the world look when the light shines out through the holes in Baghdad?

Will global warming have melted the pins in the White house model? Will Kim Jong Il have his Tonka truck? Will you be my valentine?

I want to explore the ways in which we build up to decisions. I have followed the decisions made in extremis by mountaineers, hikers and climbers, as deduced by investigators after accidents, emergencies, rescues and also in writing, such as “Touching the Void” by Joe Simpson.

It is well known that decision-making is impaired by extremes in the body: lack of oxygen, water, heat, cold (and of course, emotion).

In a classic experiment, experienced airline and jet pilots were shown that within only a few seconds of losing oxygen, they would be unable to complete even the most trivial task. The pilots scoffed at this. So, they did the tests. The experimenters set the pilots the task of signing their names. When the cabin altitude was abruptly set to the cruising altitude of the jets, that is, set to the oxygen available at that altitude (None!) while they wrote, not one pilot was able to complete signing their name. Within a few seconds, the pilots lost all fine motor control. A few seconds! It took the test to show them that they would not have time to do anything but get their oxygen masks on, if there was a violent decompression, and in some cases, even that was doubtful.

It is the same with mountaineers, hikers and climbers. We often do not understand how dangerously our faculties are impaired by simply being at altitude, or too cold or dehydrated or suffering from sunstroke. Simpson states that he and Simon, his climbing partner, made poor decisions because they had run out of gas for their stove, could not melt snow to drink and became dehydrated. They were also taking the calculated risk of cimbing only as a pair.
A few inquiries into deaths in the outdoors have discussed the poor decision-making of the group leaders, and even the best, most experienced climbers can make poor decisions. Top alpine climbers, Arctic explorers and you and I, all can and do succumb to the elements unexpectedly, making us into poor decision-makers, and, even more frightening, without us being aware of it.

What is to be done to keep us safe in the outdoors then? I have harped on planning at length, and I will go into it again. If there are plans in place and the reasoning behind those plans is clear, this can help a great deal when the group agonises over a course of action. Be prepared for the worst case, always. In cold weather, having backup dry warm clothes could literally mean the difference between life and death, if a too-cold leader then goes ahead and makes a bad decision while suffering from hypothermia. If one thinks about how important it is to make solid rational decisions about options to take in an emergency, and how these decisions can affect one’s judgment, small little backup plans take on an importance few people realise.

There are also ways to assist one another in keeping alert and aware, to help the leaders make good decisions. Checking one another’s reaction times, writing down backup plans and policies, all are a good part of team cohesion and keeping up with fast-changing conditions during an emergency. Teams who know one another well and which have been on many expeditions and outings together are at an advantage when trying to get the best out of leaders and also when to question leadership.

Having the right equipment, being prepared and staying safe depend on many factors. As long as everyone in the team is aware of the limitations of their own perceptions and the limitations of their abilities, they will make better decisions under pressure and increase the chances of surviving in an emergency.

For the less risky outings and small walks, this kind of awareness can make the outing run smoothly and increase enjoyment. This advice can be applied in all apects of our lives.
In fact, a good dose of self-awareness or self-knowledge always goes a long way. As the Oracle of Delphi said: Know thyself.

Shakespeare started his plays with characters walking on: there was no curtain, so there was no grand scene revealed on the curtain whisking open.

Is life like this? I think so. When we are born, we travel into the world just as we are. The mother is naked, the infant is naked.

When I go out walking in the outdoors, nothing is hidden. As I hike, walk, drive, travel, the world is there, unadorned. The world plays itself, unashamedly free of clothing or drapery, for us.

When I look out over the mountains or at a garden, there is nothing covering the garden or the dropping land. The earth, my surroundings, my environment, what my eyes absorb, my skin feels, ears hear, what I smell and taste - all this is immediately there for me. I don’t have to log in. I don’t have to copy it to my hard drive. I don’t have to open my book to page 34. I can blink. I can laugh and shout. There it is. There is no dissembling, no obscuring, no hiddenness. Just me and what I perceive.

Of course, everything I perceive through all my senses is like this. When we hike, camp, set up a tent and a campfire outdoors, we are in a place where life is lived as it is. Sure, when we kick back on our sofa and watch some TV, we are doing the same thing. We perceive our surroundings as they are: a play, a pretend entertainment. The outdoors is never pretending. It is consistently, just…existence. No distracting abstractions of life. No trying shams or fake dramas. It’s all real dramas when the map reader plonks the group in a muddy bog or a couple runs out of toilet paper…

I’m now going to walk out of here and walk home, and there will be air on my cheek and twilight on my head.

Go hiking! Go camping!

It is winter here in Birmingham, Alabama, with temperatures cold enough to require a scarf, gloves and a hat. Socks are not really problematic, as my shoes are warm enough most of the time. The rest of the world has weather.
Synthetic fleece is pretty much my material of choice for these items of clothing. I will have only the softest fabrics against my skin, especially if I am walking or camping and will be wearing these items most of each day’s activities. I have a knitted woollen scarf which is proving to be an excellent warmer for most conditions, and one evening when I had no head covering, I could wrap it round my head. Hey, I may have looked funny, but I was warm, OK? Fleece has one thing against it - it is generally quite expensive and if not of the best quality, will get those irritating little balls on it that the guy who bought the company sells those clothes shavers for. If the fleece is of the best qualty, it generall has wannabe yuppie-goading labels on it, like North Face, Columbia, Polar, Cold Fusion, Olympus, Vayu, Cold Play or Pete’s Proper Perspiration Plunging Warm Cobber’s Clobber. (That’ll get you some good argy bargy on the South Island…)
Hats must exhibit a few mandatory characteristics: sufficient to cover the forehead, ears and neck, washable and must not look like an angry dishevelled owl crouching on my head. The hat can be adorned with art and stuff. It can be knitted from cotton yarn. It can be a balaclava for intense cold if it wants to. One warm hat generally suffices for most of my needs. When it get really, really cold, I’ll probably put the hood of my jacket over my head, over the hat anyway. The hat should also not be too tight so that it hurts me where the earpieces of my sunglasses go over my ears.

Gloves? Well, the list of criteria for good gloves almost certainly point to having a collection of gloves and mittens to fulfil any job. The criteria, ladies and gentlemen, for our lovely gloves tonight are: fit comfortably without irritation, no leftover length at the end of each finger, slightly elasticised at the wrists, washable, robust palm material (not on undergloves), breathable and water-permeable material (except in specialised outer layers), allow finger work, be warm enough to prevent frostbite, windproof.  When doing some serious hiking or camping that might involve very low temperatures, I take along a pair of hi-tech gloves to manage moisture under a pair of thick, highly insulated mittens. He gloves alone, if they are to fit onto my hands and still allow me to manage snaps and fasteners and buttons and GPS’ and maps will not be warm enough, and mittens alone will cause my hands to freeze to manage snaps etc. I like mittens that bunch two fingers together so that I can make Mork’s “nano-nano” or Dr Spock’s “live long and prosper.” (Did aliens invent winter?) Two or more layers of handwear generally mean that only the first layer can be a glove, with the remaining layers forced to be mittens, as multiple layers on the fingers can be critically cumbersome. For Antarctic conditions, the South African teams would wear silk undergloves, heavier warm, windproof gloves and a pair of heavy duty water- and fire-proof mittens. The scientists on the team dresed this way to drive caterpillar tractors between the S.A.N.A.E. base and the supply ship, hauling sleds with food and fuel supplies and equipment. The multiple layers allow one to take off the outer layer for fine fingerwork, should it be required, without exposing bare flesh to frostbite.
Scarves are OK for most weather, and can be a welcome wrap in sudden gusts of wind. I find scarves to work well when the weather is cold but not too cold and when I wear a heavy winter jacket I like to have a scarf to keep the layer of warm air trapped by the jacket from whooshing out. I also like to have a scarf because many jackets I have worn get very cold from exhaled condensation in the cold. A scarf remains warm and snuggly even when one breathes on it, especially if it is a natural fibre. I also think a scarf should not be too long. Just look what happens to the superheroes, dahling! No cape! I mean, no long scarf.
When temperatures are going to get really cold, hiking boots and two layers of good cotton socks are generally sufficient. Even on below-freezing hikes, my feet have not been cold, and I was wearing a good pair of hiking boots. Hiking through snow generally requires specialised equipment and snow-capable boots are a pretty good idea. Socks should fit snugly to minimise slip sliding away, or blisters will be problematic, Julio.

Again, and I seem to find this a lot when I write about the world of hiking: It seems to come down to planning. Didn’t plan for your cold weather hike? What? Have you got the brain worms, human?

One of the great things about camping is an almost wiping clean of baggage and mental clutter.

It might be due to it being stressful travelling out to a place that is decidedly not comfortable, served with amenities or well insulated. It is a place that is definitely not comfortable and can be quite scary.

It might be due to a sense of removal of all the things around us that contribute to our stress and our sense of responsibility for what happens in our lives.

Camping out is also an activity that equalises in very odd ways. The great intellectual, the powerfully brilliant academic will struggle up that climbing path in their own very personal ways. In many instances it can reduce the person to a much simpler and more likeable lump. It could also result in a great deal of stress that bubbles up in little internecine conflicts or outbursts or silences.

I have been on hikes where people were attracted to one another and started relationships. Others have formed informal hiking associations on the trail. It is really interesting to walk quietly and merely listen. On a hike, one can walk next to another person and talk, be silent or fall back or pull ahead. It is all natural and allowed and untroubled. The walking itself is a beautiful thing, a removal of a lot of stuff. Duing my life I sometimes find myself transfixed by an instant of perfect observation, when things suddenly come into a sharper focus all of themselves. On hikes it has happened a lot. On the 4t or 5th day of a Drakensberg hike, the walking became its own land and time. I looked out from the roof of Africa and the great distances became fixed within me.

Hiking and camping are activities that require us to be dedicated to the preparation, travelling, hiking and returning from the hike. We are to be so dedicated that we endure the discomfort and burden of all the things that happen on the hike, so that we can also experience the joys of the thing.
Sure, going on a hike is more effort than picking up the phone to order a pizza. However, I have taken advantage of friends who hike all the time, so all I had to do was say “I’m in” and follow any special instructions. Then I made sure I reported at the required place and time, either the dwelling of a fellow walking pack-carrier or at the parking lot at the national park where we hiked. No organisation hassles, no booking tangles and no payment coordination, no menu design. Just putting on the pack, settling it comfortably, looking up at the mountains and yeah - hi ho, hi ho!

Looking out off the edge of the Drakensberg.

Hi all

Lists are a great way to summarize a context, so here is a list of the jackets I want to have for all my activities.

Very warm, one piece, washable, easy to put on and take off, windproof, waterproof and stylish about-town winter jacket, also to be used for walking outings. Must not snag my beautiful knitted scarf, knitted with love in every stitch, that I WILL be wearing in all but the non-winteriest weather.
Running jacket that’s not too warm, not windproof, very washable, has a hood, small stretchy pockets to hold keys silently and to hold cellphone without jolting it. Very visible, either yellow colour or holding reflective strips so I don’t become pavement smears.
Indoor fashion jacket, black, doesn’t have to be easily washable, must make me look very dashing and gorgeous.

Seriously armoured, waterproof, breathable but convertible for winter riding, good neck fit with my helmet and armoured pants, very visible. (All motorcycling jackets seem to be made of black stealth material. Why?)
Windproof and waterproof lightweight rowing and cycling jacket, doesn’t have to be too visible (I wear lights), very washable, no sharp labels or irritating snaps, ties round the waist, has extra-long sleeves that can double as windproof mittens for oars or handlebars.
Serious hiking jacket. No cellphone or IPod or PDA or palmtop or handheld connection or access ports required, AT ALL, thanks. Waterproof, windproof, breathable if I want it to be. Removable layers. Light. Highly reflective. Contains emergency beacon and pockets for emergency water and rations. Climbers are still lost on Mt. Hood…

Cool casual jacket, zip up the front, special red and yellow birds sewed onto the chest, pockets, slight rips on the sleeve from the girl who gave it to us, black cotton, looks great with the dark stylish jacket.

Ultra-handsome formal dinner jacket. Yeah.

Other wishes: no leather. Synthetic materials are proving to be superior to leather in most apparel applications.

Also, no scratchy labels. Some of the manufacturers are cottoning on to this one…

For sale online - I can make better choices comfortably at home, with good size charts and a tape measure.

Of course, wearing it is the final measure, but for a really great jacket with all the features I want, I would be prepared to endure the returns policy. Especially because it has been made easy by the shippers here in the USA.

I would also like a jacket with a cappucino dispenser, book holder, inflatable pillow, flirt meter, built-in swiss army knife, to be bulletproof, readable by a credit card machine, conjure up flowers, have a butterfly perch, a nectar flute for hummingbirds, 3 volumes of poetry: shakespeare, ee cummings and a third poet, bubble blower and bubble solution, love poem printed on scented paper, reading light, cup, flap to enfold another in a warm embrace, chess board and pieces, photos of my loved ones, chocolate bar cooler. To be upgradable.