Dude. We need to go camping.

[Nick]

Eaten is better then rotten

[Brad]

I can always bring my recurve or compound bow and you can try those out. They are specifically left-handed designed though.

[zourtney]

By "specifically left-handed designed" I assume you mean one or both of the following:

    a) "specifically right-handed designed"
    b) "specifically designed in a way that left-handed people can not effectively use it; with difficulty of aim and bruised forearm being the best case scenario."

Do we need a "Dude, we should go projectiling" thread?

[Brad]

By "specifically left-handed design" I actually meant the complete opposite. Apparently a NOT managed to escape from my sentence.

[zourtney]

I was almost certain that is what you meant, yes. Still, I had to nitpick.

[Nick]

I miss the trees again.

[zourtney]

As do I. This is nothing unusual, though. My desire to be in the woods is something more like a state of being. It's who I am. Something inside me says "poot" in the face of the urban bland, no matter how many neon lights are nailed to its face. Speaking of which, Dodge Neons...yes, there is another reason to go to the woods and see the trees.

I propose a good day's hike next time we go camping. True, you can't really go anywhere without finding a 5 year old beer can and some jerk's spent shotgun cartridges, but we can try. Bring the GPS, a pair of boots, some water and 8 hours of daylight. Pick a direction and let's go that way. If mediocrity wins out, we should at least find a good foot trail we haven't been on in a while, and follow that. (But that increases the likelihood of Jerkman's birdshot plastic scattered about.)

Any takers?

[Nick]

There are more then a few trails up in our usual area that are far longer then the average jerk would be willing to walk. The nice thing about jerks is they tend not to put too much extra effort into their jerkitude. So if you cant drive there or it requeres more then a 10 min walk then such locations might be marginally safe.

I was going to post links to hiking trail maps, but it seems that all the PDFs are gone. I once found some national forrest maps of the detroit area online, but I can't locate them now. I think its time I scan my maps for easier access. The USFS or BLM or someone should have a repository of all the maps. Charge $15 for a lifetime membership to access them. Or they could provide them to me AS I PAY TAXES! But yeah, I don't think they are the best funded part of the government so I would be willing to pay a little for the access. $15 should be more then enough seeing as they wont have to print them and they already have digital copies. I talked to one of the map makers at dep. of Forestry. She said everything was created with software now, nothing was drawn by hand. So you know they have PDFs. And Grrrr.

Anyway. I did  find that trail I was trying to hike that one time... its to Bagby hotsprings not Brightenbush. And its 14+ miles of walking to get there. That's about 5 hours of a normal walk. Much longer up hills and the like .

[zourtney]

Now, that's what I'm talking about That's a good hike. If we ever get to backpacking level of awesomeness, we should do something like that. Or, if there is a road on the other side, have someone pick us up (or we park a vehicle there and drive to the other side).

[Nick]

No road on the other side of that trail. It goes into the middle of the Bull of the Woods wilderness. Kinda towards Opal Creek I think. Huge area that is foot traffic only. Though I did read that there is a horse trail that also leads to it from a different direction. It might be a shorter walk out to go that way. But I don't know as I am maples as I am.

[zourtney]

Cool, the more isolated the better! Except, that's probably too much for a day hike. Sounds fun!

[Nick]

Wow. Umm.
       

But I don't know as I am maples as I am.

I don't remember writing that sentence, nor do I know what it might mean.

[zourtney]

I was wondering abog that one too. It's almost poetic. The kind of thing that belongs on a forum signature

Camp-camp! Maybe we should do something next weekend, the 28-29?

[Nick]

I will check but I think I can keep that time free. Howabout Brad? You busy then?

[Nick]

Any more news on the camping front? I am definitely still up for it.