For the past 10 years, I've been researching, collecting, storing, and learning everything I need to do solo survival camping in the woods. I've been wanting to do physically this for literally 10 years, and now I live in a house where I have the stability to be able to go do that. I'm starting small.
On Sundays, starting next week, I'll be taking a bus in my city to some woods somewhere (gotta do some research on bus routes and forest areas) and spending a couple-few hours in those woods, practicing my knife skills with wood, scoping out high vs low areas for good camp setups, identifying wood for fires, and identifying local plants.
I'm taking a notebook with me, so when I return to that spot, I can start to familiarise myself with those areas, mark landmarks, see what's changed.
Eventually I want to do overnight camps a few times, then a day or two, and finally weeklong trips. A long/short-term (within a couple years at least) goal is to get a scooter, e-bike, or small car. I may be in the Forest City, but there's something different about going to a place that ISN'T inside city limits that I just C R A V E.
I have a billion-and-one pieces of brain knowledge, but no practical physicality when it comes to the skills one needs in the woods; hence, the day trips in my local area.
Today I learned how to make pemmican. I'm seriously hoping that solo camping is for me, and that I'm not going to get out there and find I hate every bit of it.
i think the best ship is the girl who's always trying to get stuff done and complete her mission and the guy who helps her know when to take a break and have fun and not crack under the stress of it all.
lots of things about chapter 6 have wrecked me but this camp interaction in particular always guts me. the raw, resigned sadness in arthur’s “what are you talking about” is enough to leave me hospitalized for 7-9 business days. it’s one of those moments that very aptly encapsulates the futility of arthur giving everything he has to someone who is content to bleed him dry and still be unimpressed with the taking.
pitched battle inside my brain between the part of me that's desperately shaking myself by the shoulders going "YOU HAVE GOT TO ACTUALLY LIVE THE KIND OF LIFE YOU IMAGINE INSTEAD OF JUST SITTING AROUND IMAGINING IT UNTIL YOU DIE!!" and the part of me that's clutching my face going "is this allowed? is this allowed?? is this allowed???"