Friday, June 8, 2007

contained by the river, but not by the wild

Day mileage - 32.7
Total mileage - 167.4
Campsite - Kutztown, PA


Farms, farms and more farms today, nothing too exciting. The terrain was relatively flat, we could have scored a decent number of miles today. Since we drank with Graham’s cousin last night, we were a bit hung over and could only pull 32.7 miles. We ended the day in Kutztown, which is surrounded by small local farms (big surprise). We got off the route in an attempt to find legal campgrounds, but the ones we did find were owned by a family of bright red red necks who tried to charge us 25 bucks a tent. We rode a little further away from the route till we found the only decent ground we could pitch a tent on, but it was across a river! (See photo of Bryan and Graham crossing with their gear) Graham and I were a little hesitant, but Bryan insisted it was best to set up before darkness ate away the rest of the Sun; and besides, it was "charachter building," a phrase Bryan often used in hope of luring us to his side. well sadly to say, it worked everytime. We took our cleats and socks off, put on flipflops, and crossed the river carrying our heavy gear. darkness hit us pretty fast it seemed, and as soon as it did the gound began its natural motion. Everything came alive, from spiders, to turtles, to deer, to mosquitos, to monkeys, to bigfoots... Etcetera doesn't quite give "everything" justice! After we ate, we jumped into out tents, zipped up the doors so to keep living things out, and listened to the (many) sounds of nature. laying there in the big oudoors, I suddenly felt clausterphobic. How could it be that one can contain potential danger by containing himself from nature. I thought about what I would do if in an emergency I had to get out of the woods. Then I forced my self to sleep for the sake of sanity. We roughed it out that night, to say the least, but it was a great "charachter building" experience.


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