Always Be Chasing

Camping, Hiking, Wanderlust, and Snacks

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In To The Woods I Go

This weekend I am headed into the woods alone. I have some tasks...fix our heating system, work on a gas line, fix a curtain rod and maybe even frame out a room. Mostly I will be alone with my thoughts. It feels like such a gift to be able to do and yet it feels hard to peel anyone else away from their city life to enjoy the rite. Rite of Fall or rite of the new season? It’s hard not to wax poetic when it comes to the woods. What else can capture it if you aren’t engaging all of the senses in person. That cold air and smell? The sound of the trees giving in to the weight of decay. Decay not swept away. Left alone to revitalize. Been reading a lot of Mary Oliver lately.

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WHEN I AM AMONG TREES  by Mary Oliver "When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks, and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches. And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you, too, have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.

Mary Oliver

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I’ve been giving a ton of thought to the flora of my environment the past few weeks. The plants in my office, the beech trees in front of my office, and the sassafras along the paths near my cabin. I have been working on what I want in a food forest and reading a ton about permaculture. I’m getting deep.

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It’s the pictures that adventure blogs DON’T post which are the realist. At 1am this morning only 4 miles from our cabin and about two minutes before losing cell reception, we hit a deer very hard. We are okay with minor scrapes and burns (from the airbags) but very glad to have made it. We feel privileged to be in a newer car with safety features and decent insurance. This could have gone south very easily. The dog was the most shaken up, but we were in a hotel within a few hours and are already back home in Chicago. What a weird day.

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Awesome trip to Seattle with not nearly enough hiking. I did get to go to the flagship REI and climb their wall. Fun times #optoutside

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Crag dog, stick bugs, sore shoulders, climbed all of the routes I tried. Day one of two (at Alto Pass, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/B12QEfeBxja/?igshid=1uegww85vymkf

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Good times in Michigan and an impromptu low country boil. Tasty.

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Finn turned up this weekend and we couldn’t be happier. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of him while trying to figure out who he really is. UPDATE: He is in Chicago with us, and the city is blowing his mind!!

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I did a thing

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Look at this sick new backpacking hat I got FOR FREE yesterday!

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Bond Falls was a surprising treat. It was on the way to Pictured Rocks right off of 45, and it was a simple but beautiful hike up and around some falls. The family had a great time too. 

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I rolled the dice with booking a site at Franklin Lake. It was the last site left in what looked like the last campground that had availability in Wisconsin for 4th of July weekend. I was worried it was going to be super open, no shade, and not a great find, but I was mistaken. I would book this site again in a heartbeat. 

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Pictured Rocks and Lake in the Clouds. Both are wonderful but I feel like the Porkies will always reach me in a different way than the more touristy pictured rocks. We did a backpacking trip in the Porkies almost exactly a year ago, and even though it poured down rain, it was one of my favorite trips. 

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These kids can hang in there with the best of em. They can go from bratty screaming a-holes to the cutest kids in 0 seconds, but they always try their best. Even on adventures that feature a ton of biting black flies. 

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Consult the maps! Or Mountain Project

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Got some bouldering in at Rib Mountain in Wisconsin. It’s always kind of hard to find specific routes here but when you find them they are pretty fun and easy to top out on since you can usually just walk around the backside. Last time I was here I probably wouldn’t have done a single route, but I felt a lot better about them today.