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After camping almost every day for 3 years and then moving into a trailer, I miss it. And the last few months have been so hectic. Between holidays, travel, being sick, and family gatherings I am overstimulated and feeling blah. So I decided I needed to get away from people and enjoy some nature.
I have a go-to spot out by the Superstition Mountains. It has a beautiful view of the mountains, enough space that people aren’t typically camped close to you, and endless sunshine. I planned to stay for 2 nights and my friend Raelene would join me for 1. I ended up staying 3 because it was just so nice!
My plan for the trip was to get some sun, read my book, snack, journal, and enjoy the quiet.
Day 1 was a little crazy. I had to drive north to my storage unit to grab a few things and then came back down to the desert. But the road was closed because of road construction. I guess they were blasting rocks and needed more time to clean and stabilize it so I ended up having to drive an hour out of my way to get where I was going. The drive ended up being kind of nice though and it took me through an area of Arizona that I’ve never seen before.
By the time I got to my camping area it was almost 4pm and I was ready to sit, smoke a joint, and just relax. But that wasn’t about to happen yet… It’s been a year or so since I’ve camped here and it looks like they have blocked all of the roads to motorized vehicles. I can’t say I blame them though. Last time I was here I talked to a sheriff that was going around checking for permits. He said people had been trashing it (something I noticed getting worse over the years) and ATV users were going off road too much and causing damage so they had to start enforcing the permits. So I guess they had enough and just closed that area down. It’s a bummer but they did open the other side of the road and I easily found a spot there.
I finally got settled around 4:30, took Sheila for a good walk, and then got the tent set up. I was ready to relax but unfortunately, my neighbor had zero control over his dogs. As I was getting ready for dinner 2 husky mixes came charging into my camp. Luckily, I have the reflexes of a cat and was able to grab Sheila and get her in the car. These dogs had zero recall and their owner had zero sense of urgency in trying to get them. They were friendly it seemed, but I don’t take risks with Sheila being rushed by strange dogs. The guy eventually caught up to them (again no rush bro) and they kept walking. He didn’t even acknowledge me.
After that shit show I made a simple dinner for myself, fed Sheila, and read until bedtime, which was around 7:30 lol. When camping I tend to follow the sun’s schedule. Once it gets dark I go to bed and get up with the sunrise.
And damn I slept good! We then had a nice slow morning. I made tea and had some leftovers for breakfast, fed Sheila, and went for a walk. And then the dogs came back…
While getting Sheila’s breakfast ready I happened to see them coming out of the corner of my eye. Again, I grabbed Sheila and put her in the car. She was barking, the other dogs were barking, and off in the distance I heard the guy calling them. Eventually, they went back. I let Sheila back out of the car and continued to make her breakfast and out of nowhere, those 2 rushed Sheila… There was barking and chaos but I managed to grab her and put her back in the car. I tried to shoo the dogs away and the guy was once again half-ass calling them. It took a minute but they finally left.
Once they got to their camp I could hear the guy tell them “no” a bunch and put them in the car. He did eventually leave and then come back a few hours later and we had no more issues with his dogs. So maybe he went and bought a leash.
So our relaxing day got off to a rough start but it quickly improved. Sheila and I have been working on her reactivity for years and it’s finally paying off! Her reaction to them was actually pretty minimal and she recovered quickly after they left. I did her breakfast in a Kong wobble so she could have a little mental stimulation and some sniffing to help her settle. Then she had a good roll in the dirt, a small zoom, and some more sniffing. After that, she settled down and was ready to relax.
And then we truly started our day of resting and recharging!
After the ban I deleted tiktok and honestly, it’s been amazing. If I still had it there is a good chance I would’ve just wasted the day doom scrolling. But instead, I did a ton of reading, journaling, and daydreaming. I was able to zone out and listen to the birds. We went for several walks, I did some stretching, we played fetch, and Sheila got to enjoy a turkey foot!
Raelene showed up around 4 and we spent some time with the dogs getting acclimated to each other. We have spent the last 2 years slowly introducing Sheila to Rogue in neutral areas and from a distance. Gradually, she’s accepted him and even initiates play with him on occasion! But we still make sure to give them (her) space to decide if she wants to play with him or just tolerate him in her general area. Luckily, he is such a good boy and reads her body language so well. If she starts to feel overwhelmed all she has to do is the slightest lip curl or change her ears and he walks away.
After we got the dogs settled it was time for us to hang out. We had tons of snacks, we smoked a little, and just chit-chatted. She also brought some edible glitter so we had fancy drinks!
As the sun started to set we got ready for a campfire. In the past we have had camping trips where we stayed up until 6am listening to music and dancing and drinking. I’m happy to say we have moved past that. We now get stoned, sit by a fire, eat snacks, listen to some medieval music, and barely talk. Huge improvement if you ask me. We hung out until around 9:30 and then we crashed.
The next morning we had coffee and tea, walked the dogs around, and had some more snacks before we went to our respective camps for quiet time. If you like quiet and are a little more on the introverted side I highly recommend having a friend that is cool with you guys ignoring each other. Just hanging out in the same general space without the need to fill the silence.
Our dogs were settled and we both just hung out by our cars reading for a while. The weather was sunny and perfect, the birds were singing, and it was such a solid way to spend the morning.
Raelene had to leave about mid-day and at that point I was still undecided if I wanted to go home. I had no plans and nothing forcing me to be home that day so I decided to have one more night. And that was a great choice. Another full day of reading, relaxing, and eating good food. And of course, an early bedtime!
The next day we packed up around 11 and headed home. This is really what I needed after the last few months and I decided I need to get back out there on the regular. I love being in nature, and especially with all of the trailer work, I need some time to decompress and disconnect. I need the clarity I get out there so I can work on Sheila’s training, my content, and exploring my creativity.