This year, Snake and I headed north with two intrepid companions, Birch and Nettle, to a camper I'd last visited in 1983. Our goals: to re-activate a defunct oil-burner, to vacuum and dispose of mouse-droppings, to melt snow into buckets of water and use these buckets to flush a toilet, and to strap ourselves onto narrow planks of fiberglass for the inexplicable purpose of eating generous facefuls of snow. I'm proud to report that we succeeded on all counts.
The cabinets were full of food well beyond the expiration date. The packaging, I think, has aged well beyond "kitch" into "classic". I'll be almost sorry to throw all this stuff away. I mean, who could part with a bottle of saccharin tablets? Or a brandy-glass with a moustache?
"I'm a grown-up man, and I deserve a grow-up bowl."
Sorry, chump. You'll eat out of tiny bowls with tiny spoons, like the rest of us!
A Woman's Day from 1973. 1973! BTW, nothing makes your friends happier than posting first-thing-in-the-morning-bedhead photographs of them on the internet.
While cooking a mean pound of bacon, "Stinging" Nettle realizes that no running water means no place to rinse his hands. (And since when does a man with the prefix "Stinging" care about hygeine, anyway?)
WHOLLY CRAP! This Magnavox TV set, with the built-in PONG game, is the same set that was here during my last visit, 20 years ago! My grandparents got so sick of me playing this game, they used to hide the paddles. My grandmother's ghost let out a wail of despair, I'm sure, when we found them this weekend. (No kidding: the paddles were at the back of a drawer in an end-table which had swollen shut with moisture and had to be broken open with hammers.)
The end of the road for us, at least for this trip, the trails bare of snow and nearly iced over. We had a fantastic view nonetheless, to which the exposure of this photo does little justice.
Teenagers at the top of the moutain prepare to race in what I take was an important, regional championship. I wonder if they have a category for late-20s schmos who haven't done this since childhood?
A view from the lodge at the top of the moutain. This trail accesses a couple of "black-diamonds."
If these fellows can do it, no reason I can't, right? (Of course, they are smart enough to wear helmets.)
This turned out to be one of my favorite trails. Steep enough to pick up tremendous speed, but wide enough that stopping was fairly easy. Plus, it was serviced by a little-used chairlift with short lines.
