Sierra Solitude

~ Chapter 2 ~

Pine needles & Granite

I guess one of the classic signs of "getting old" is when a person starts thinking about their earlier years as a child; in my case, a slightly overly, shall we say energetic, dirty faced country boy from Iowa.

Lets face it,a young boy growing up in the country can be a wonderful experience. Not only are there pockets full of wiggly (dead) things that need examining and go-carts that need more "go", but there's also plenty of great locations to build one of those very sectretive no-girls-allowed-need-a-password-to-get-in kind of fort or hideout.

When you're a kid it's easy to use the imagination to visualize an idea. Sometimes a structure can be as simple as leaning branches against a group of small saplings to form a "room" or as complex as modifiying an old desk and some barrel halves that were "discovered" in a far off farm machinery graveyard in the middle of a field. Imagination was the key which opened the door to innovation.

Perhaps my just-for-fun fort building experiences of yesteryear are finding their way into my now serious wilderness shelters of today.

In the woods, not only does it take a trained eye to recognize a good shelter/camp site that meets most or all of the shelter priorities, but the selection process itself needs to be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time---especially if it's cold or rainy with darkness approaching.

I'm fortunate in that it usually doesn't take me very long to spot a site with potential and depending on the circumstances can usually have a comfortable camp set up within the hour. And in my case, it also helps knowing there are many natural shelters scattered throughout the Sierra mainly those that have been formed from large granite formations. A nice trade off, I might add, due to the lack of an inexaustable supply of trees to work with like that of the northern forests.

In total there were four camps that I used on this trip. I'll do my best to describe each one in the order in which they were established.

Camp 1

This is where I spent the first evening preparing my gear in relatively comfortable conditions. It was the same camp I used earlier in the year to store my depot supplies.

Camp 2

For my second camp, I scouted out several sites in the area then finally settled on this group of rocks. At first glance it doesn't seem like much but with a little imagination this rugged piece of mountainside was transformed into a cozy little shelter.

Preparing the site

The first step in making this site livable was to level the sleeping area and add a thick layer of pine- needles. Notice the large rocks that were placed at the foot of the bed to keep the pine needles in place.

I should mention that there was already a thick layer of pine needles in the immediate area which is one of the things I look for when seeking out a shelter site. It takes time and energy to transport materials to another area so it pays to think ahead.

A photographic side note. In order for me to shoot this photograph of the site, I inserted my walking stick/Ultrapod combo into a rock crevice, climbed up on a rock and took aim. To help frame the shot, I placed a small rock at the top of my head so when I looked through the view finder, I knew exactly where to line everything up. Sometimes I laugh out loud and wonder if anyone's watching me perform these wilderness acrobatics!

Adding the tarp

Most of the time was spent thinking of a way to suspend the tarp. Using a few rocks and some poly-twine and running the ridge-line directly through the center, I was able to create a diamond shaped configuration. If you look close you can see the shelters occupant looking out one of the "windows".

A view from overhead

Here you can see the several types of anchoring points I used for suspending and securing the tarp.

For the ridge line I tied one end around a rock I wedged between two boulders (left side of photo) then ran it over the shelter site and tied it off to a tree. The first of the two remaining corners was tied around a rock just above where my head would be and the second to a thick branch held in place by a heavy rock.

Despite the shelters small size, it was both comfortable and warm. If given the choice between a large or small shelter I would choose the latter not only because there are less materials to gather but it also reflects and retains body heat better. There are also less drafts.

Camp 3

This is the shelter/camp site I spent most of my time at during this trip. It's the same camp I used on my "Invitation" trip so being there again brought back many fond memories. The entire camp had a certain feeling of familiarity and warmth that only comes from spending a lot of quality time in one area in fact, as I approached this camp on the first day, two eagles flew out side-by-side from its wooded entrance. Talk about a warm welcome!

Unlike some of my other camps, Camp 3 was a fair distance from any streams which people naturally gravitate to when stopping over for the night. Part of my routine was to visit the stream after breakfast and just before going to bed so filling my cook-can and water bottle during both trips was usually sufficient.

The tarp "system"

Due to the odd layout of the surrounding boulders, suspending a tarp over this sleeping area was a bit more of a challenge. Using a couple logs and some engineering mayhem, I was able to errect a shelter that probably would have done well in keeping me protected from the elements.

The entrance

I find that there's a happy medium when it comes to choosing the correct tarp size. A tarp that's too big is going to be very hard to "mold" into confined spaces and can often turn into a large noisy "sail" when the wind is blowing. If the tarp is too small you can run the obvious risk of not having enough room for both you and your supplies as well as not having enough material for constructing some of the more elaborate shelters with sides and floors.

Camp 4

Later in the trip, I traveled up to Bill's camp for a short visit. It didn't take long to spot this nice area and before I knew it, I had a nice comfortable little sleeping area set up. Ahh, the life of a Woodsbum.

(Photo courtesy of "Wild" Bill Hay)

The kitchen/living room

Directly behind my sleeping area was a narrow "hallway" that led to a cozy little "room" formed by the surrounding boulders. I used this room as an area to prepare my meals and to visit with Bill. With it's two humble pine trees and trickling sounds of the nearby stream, the area reminded me of a Japanese type garden or a place where one goes to meditate. Needless to say, I immediately fell in love with this unique little wilderness oasis.

The fire

Cooking in this room was a lot of fun! To prepare the fire area I simply dug a small hole into the sand, making sure to leave enough space to prevent scarring the surrounding boulders. I used the Fire Barn technique to light my fires therefore only needed two small stones to serve as the "foundation".

Somewhere around Bill's camp I unearthed a flat piece of metal and used it as a fire reflector when the drafts in the room would shift. The metal also helped keep the branch I was using to suspend my cook-pot from catching fire.

I should mention that the areas in which I build my fires are quite a contrast from those huge, unsightly fire-rings left behind by many campers. I find it unnessesary to build such structures and go out of my way to make sure I don't leave any signs of my ever having been there, in fact, I usually make a game out of scattering debris over the affected area just to see how well I can restore it back to its original state.