Migratory Dispatch No. 3: Notes from the Journal
Inspired by Lewis & Clark, A Modern-Day Exploration Captured in Words and Maps
Ever since reading The Journals of Lewis & Clark seven years ago, I vowed to carry a small Moleskin notebook while traveling to jot down notes about our experiences around the world. While our adventures pale in comparison to those of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, I record them nonetheless.
Below are a few entries and photos from our first few weeks on the road toward Maine.
2023-06-21
62 degrees at 11:22a! Spent a good night at the Meadow Creek campground at New River Gorge National Park. The firefly show at the campsite was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. So many fireflys blinking on and off in the mountains that surround the campsites.
2023-06-23
Night time at Shenandoah National Park, Loft Mountain campground. Heavy rain falling outside now at 10p. Dense fog this morning — or low cloud deck? — on the drive in from the south entrance made for difficult (read: no) sightseeing. So we headed straight for camp after clearing the gate and snagged a first-come-first-served site. A good site, No. 76, good enough for a friendly deer who also took up residence near the picnic table earlier.
2023-06-29
Bennington, Vermont. Adorable town! Reminds me a lot of downtown Covington with a small but vibrant shopping, eating, drinking, and business district. Also a nice, central small park similar to the Tammany Trace Trailhead. A notable difference: the weather! 69 degrees and a cool breeze at lunch time. S & I just enjoyed a picnic lunch at the small park with salami, cheese, fruit, and wine.
2023-06-30
Manchester, Vermont. Classy town with a nice main street, water features, and surrounded by forests and hills (mountains?). Look of a high-end retirement community. There is some money here, for sure. Would be a great place to live a quieter, simpler life by all appearances. And learn how to fly fish at the local fishing school! We spent the night in an outdoor store’s parking lot near the pub where we had a nice meal — cod, caesar sald, onion rings, local beers.
55 degrees when I woke at 5:30a. No noticeable wildfire smoke smell, but you could see a haziness in the air looking into the distance yesterday afternoon.
Remember … everything is practice! If living in a camper van is hard, it is an opportunity to practice doing something hard. In this way, you get stronger and better than you were before.
2023-07-01
Woodstock, Vermont. Found a nice place to swim here in the Pemigewasset River, near the bridge south of town. Water is ice! Estimate in the 50s. Took the cold plunge yesterday at sunset, refreshing both physically and mentally. Spiritually, too.
2023-07-02
Blackberry Crossing campground in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. A rainy start to the day, we are enjoying a lazy morning. NH is the winner of this trip so far: Lots of places to swim, impressive waterfalls, great hikes. Two places of note, Sabbaday Falls for hiking and a magnificent payoff in the waterfall itself and Lower Falls for a refreshing cold plunge. Water may be in the upper 40s according to the ranger at LF.
Mosquitos “very troublesome” last night at Blackberry1. Swarmed by large versions of the blood-suckers, larger than our swamp variety back home. The buzzing did abate after 8p, when it was a good time then to take the dogs out to relieve themselves before bed.
“Over the long term the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems we create; you just have to imagine how much our ability to solve problems improves.” — Kevin Kelly
Follow Along with Felt
Maps stand the test of time when it comes to documenting a journey. It is a natural medium through which to share the experience, as there is such a strong current of geography and place on any trip through the physical world.
To that end, Felt, a collaborative, web-based mapping platform, is being used to catalog our trip this summer. Felt democratizes map-making with an easy-to-start and easy-to-use model that seems well-suited for this type of application.
Follow along on the map here.
The Boondocking Count
One of the goals for the trip this summer is to boondock at least 50 percent of the time. We are going to be away from home for 42 days, so that means we need to boondock at least 21 nights to succeed.
The updated boondocking count through this morning:
Total nights = 17
Total nights boondocking = 14
—
82 percent boondocking
Here I steal from the journals of Lewis & Clark. It is my favorite way to note mosquito activities when journaling.