"Come to camp..."

"Come to camp girls, come to camp girls,
It's a jolly life and free
Sun and air girls, love and care girls,
It's a joy for you and me..."

- When my mom taught me this girl scout (girls' guide in India)song I didn't have any camping experience. I knew some people would go and live in tents, eat badly cooked (part uncooked) food and almost freeze at night. I was not much bothered. I started camping at 26 when I went to Bay View State Park in WA with Arnab for our first wedding anniversary. It was in western Washington, right beside the Pacific. It was cold and cloudy even in June and we didn't have air mattresses to sleep on so we almost froze!! But it was a great experience!!

The hall of moss trail at Olympic National Park

Luckily me and my husband have similar likes and dislikes and camping is definitely one of our "super likes" so this summer as soon as it started to get a little warm and sunny in WA, we got out tents and hiking boots out. WA is a beautiful state, I'm in love with the pines, spruces, firs and alders that have made WA the "evergreen state". With that when Mt. Rainier covers half the sky in front of you, Mt. Baker glistens in the sunlight with his two companion peaks, the Pacific stretches from end to end or Snoqualmie plunges a great height covering the foliage in a misty spray, it becomes heavenly!

While hiking or camping in the backcountry, where even the smartest smartphone doesn't have network coverage, the most techie person would have nothing to do but to admire Nature. Camping at Cougar Rock in Mt. Rainier National Park was awesome. At night when we were going to sleep, we lay awake for a while. It was dark in the forest, bears and coyotes were "loosed till dawn" and we could hear the sound of Nisqually river flowing nearby. Everything was calm but we knew the snow-capped-smoldering-inside "Restless Giant" Rainier was awake and was guarding us.

Pacific from Kalaloch Lodge

We have seen the diamond studded night sky in Olympic National park. It was the perfect night sky with the star gazer's rival (our big ol' Moon) not there so shine down her "borrowed light" on us. For the first time in my life I saw the Milky Way, and I saw innumerable stars, stars and stars studding the black half dome over us! All this time, Pacific was rumbling and splashing and going up in surf in front of us with his foamy, frothy waves. I had to sing Tagore's "Aji joto taara tobo akashe" and "Mahabishwe Mahakashe" at that time. It would have been an insult to Bengali culture if I didn't do that!!!

Breakfast 

Cooking a frugal meal while camping and living in the Spartan way shows us how little our true needs are. We just need a shelter, some food and enough clothing to keep us warm. That's it. Oh yes, and a companion to share this life with. Nothing more. Just like Jerome said in his masterpiece "Three Men in a Boat", "it's the lumber, man", everything else in life which we value so much is all "lumber". Throw them overboard, Jerome said, and your boat of life would be easy to pull through.

On a chilly, misty morning when a sizzling bacon is cooking on an open fire or when you're making s'mores, playing fireside games with your camper friends, or when you're hiking up up up on the trails with a furry marmot crazily whistling at you, a blue jay flying across white snow, you wouldn't want to trade those experiences for anything in the world. You'll realize what it feels to say "The sky thy roof, the grass thy bed and food what chance may bring"...

That's Nysqually glacier in the background

PS: We are going camping the next long weekend. Hopefully a furry friend would be coming along with us too this time :-)