I write this from the desk of a hotel in downtown Portland, OR. What a welcome luxury after about a month of camping in the woods. In-between Wagyu burgers, oysters, craft beer, pizza, sushi, martinis, live music, and dancing in the streets, trying to remember our camp travels from the past month proves much easier to forget. Good thing that Marilynn takes photos.

We left Phoenix on June 15^th in search of a cool place to sleep.

The best sleep that we ever get happens in the back of the Tacoma pickup, but it has to be borderline cold at night. At 8500 feet altitude, Panguitch Lake in Utah fits the bill. The woods chill during the evening, and we sleep to a cool breeze that carries sounds of the woods.

Lucky for us, the National Forest Campground allow fires in designated “safe” fire rings. Camping without a fire does not appeal to us as much.

Our friend, Dick, camps with us for the first three nights. First time he has camped in about thirty-eight years. Camping entails a lot of work, but it pays off when you kick your feet up, sip a few cold ones, and cook some fresh caught trout on the embers before snoring in slumber. No, I did not catch any trout after three days of fishing, but our friendly neighbor sure did, and he delighted in sharing them with us. Thank you, neighbor John.

Marilynn goes hiking with Dick through Red and Bryce Canyons, while I go fishing without catching again.

Dang, good thing that our neighbor has not left the campground yet.

After three nights sleeping in the cool woods, rancid sticky armpits, filthy feet, and, well, you understand how these natural occurrences weaken the romance of the moment. Time to drive twenty miles to a gas station that offers four-dollar showers. We are refreshed, and ready for three more nights in the woods. Our friend Dick heads back to the ovens of Phoenix, leaving me to hike with Marilynn in Cedar Breaks National Monument. A welcome relief from fishing and not catching.

We take a brief clean-up luxury stay at a motel in Flagstaff, AZ where smoke from nearby wildfires fills the air. Hooray, it is road trip time again! Let’s drive across the desert, through Las Vegas, enroute to the only cool temperatures in the United States – northern California and the Oregon coast. But first, we shall stop at Alien Area 51 outside of Beatty, NV for a brothel photo op amidst another supermoon.

Eventually, we make camp on the Mad River, CA. Delicious leftover smoked brisket burrito from the Palomino Room in Red Bluff accompanies eggs in morning camp quite naturally.

Temperatures reach the high nineties during the day here, so we are off to see the wizard of cool nights in the Redwood Forest. Wow, do we luck out with first come, first serve camping.

Just happened to drive by a site that folks just left. We extend our stay at this huge campsite in the middle of the giants with no neighbors within sight.

Stay tuned for our next post where we cop a campsite in old growth forest, a few miles from the Oregon coast. Temperatures get to the low fifties at night here, making for some damn good sleeping.

Thank you, Abundant Universe!