04-12-11 - somewhere to sleep in the open

04-12-11
Someplace to sleep in the open. Somewhere that’s warm and alive
26.1 miles
Recovery day. I wake up from the 3 or so hours I got of sleep in the Loves Truck Stop parking lot.
I post a few things and then head out to find Bynam Creek to camp at. It’s further out than Plum Point along the Enid Lake shoreline, but it’s free. I’m down to about $40 and this is limiting my options.
I get to Bynum Creek and two workers are using blowers to clear leaves from the campsites and parking lot that where scattered around from last nights Tornado warming.
I check a few sites and select one that is fairly level and dry.
I set up camp. Take Mischa for a little walk and then go for some shut eye. All by 9:30 am.
I rest until about around 1 pm and have been noticing this place, even thought remote is getting much more “traffic” than the Plum Point location. There is a boat ramp, but the water level isn’t high enough at ramp end, so most are taking a turn at the bottom and heading to the right around the shoreline to go fishing primarily.
A few come up and slow as they see my vehicle and then continue down and around the bend. Still a few others see my vehicle, start to back into a nearby space, like they are going to camp as well…and then take off. I don’t understand it. I don’t think I look that scary. Or why someone would come all the way out here to camp…and then speed off when they see another person at the campsite.
In the mid afternoon, mischa and I go out for a long walk and head down to the sandy strand that all the boaters head out along. I find a shoe, several socks, a snow glove and a pair of Waders. I wonder who lost them and under what circumstances and if it was one person or several; a single incident of over a period of a year or so.
As the day moves into evening I’ve actually started a fire on the grill. I make rice and add in Chili with no beans. I have a little bit of tortilla chips and put that at the bottom of a plastic Tupperware bowel and pour some of the chili over it and add some of the rice on to that. I give some of the concoction to Mischa (minus the chips) and try mine. Pretty good. The chips add a little crisp texture to the dish. I retain about two thirds of the rice for the next day’s meals.
Around 8pm I head in for more welcomed sleep I keep a weather eye open for people coming into the area after dark. I AM the only camper and am always weary as to who these late night cruisers are and why they are there. I keep one of the privacy flaps tied open so I can see out. A few are coming off the beach after dark. Ok, die hard fishers…I can see that. But someone who comes in halts and slowly loops the parking lot, stops near the top…and ten leaves speeding out of the area? What’s that about/ There was also someone who cruised in slowly and left the same way. A Big green truck., just around midnight. I hoped it was a ranger checking on the site. But the slow crawl in and out of the area just seemed creepy..
Another person came in just after 3am, but they head down the ramp and around the strand. Now that’s a dedicated fisher! After that I close the privacy flap. The air is getting colder and I don’t expect many more visitors until near morning.
And that’s how the day begins. A couple of avid anglers drive in around 6:30 and Mischa starts to nuzzle me to get up. The rest was so delightful I linger a bit more. Not on MY watch, Mischa seems to indicate. Ok, OK, I’m up! Sheesh!