This season’s been so incredibly mild; it’s terrible hunting weather, but really nice for camping. I went up to get my trailer and move it down to Anderson, where Don was parked. I’d hoped to have the whole crew around to use as my guinea pigs for cooking over the fire, but half of them stayed up on the other side of the highway. Turns out that they had much better luck than we did; we didn’t see any game at all. The only strike we had was way too close to the park, so we didn’t risk turning the dogs loose.

But we drove around all day, Don and Dean and I, and I got my head on straight again over the job thing. I spent a lot of time taking mental pictures; since I wasn’t driving, I didn’t want to ask Don to stop every half-hour so I could jump out and grab one. I did get some though, again playing with the low-light settings around the campfire.

The sky was unusually beautiful going up in Friday morning, so I did stop my truck. This is near where my friend Big Jeff lives.

After some teasing sprinkles on Friday afternoon, Saturday turned out to be one of those clean, clear fall days that are usually obscured by smog and woodsmoke down here in the valley. The airplanes were certainly busy too, but they made the sky interesting.

I took myself off to get firewood when Don and Dean were getting desperate and going out into some really rough country. I realized when I came back to camp to have a nap that I’d dropped my pocketknife somewhere up there. I went back and looked for it and got lucky and found it lying right in the road.

On Saturday night, I alternated between cooking a peach cobbler over the fire, playing with the camera, and dreaming out loud with the boys about starting up a guide service. They’d be good at it; I’d just like to go along once in a while to take pictures and maybe to cook in camp. It’ll never happen, but it’s fun to roll around in my head.

It turns out that cooking with a dutch oven is a little tricky with a time-sensitive dish. Stew could have bubbled as long as it wanted, but cobbler went from not-done to a little burned in no time flat. It’s really fussy too, lifting the lid with a tire iron, shovelling coals out of the fire (and damn near losing my eyebrows in the process) and trying to keep the heat even all around it. Next time it will be better, but it wasn’t horrible and it was very satisfying to cook that way. If I were going back up there this year, I’d try it again, but I brought the trailer down to show the insurance agent, and I sort of doubt that I’ll have my portable house available in two weeks, one way or another.

Besides, it’s long past time that I got some work done around the house. I’ve been slacking all season, but it’s been for a good cause. My head’s on straight and I got my money’s worth out of my tags and all of those payments on the trailer this year. This is the time of year that I live for, after all. I’m a little disappointed that it’s gone, but maybe I’ll take a day or two after I get things to order.