Solo: The Big 24 Hours

I gather my things and walk to my tarp. It must have rained last night because the ground is a little wet. It’s a little humid but cool with a small wind. After a couple minutes I notice a hole in my tarp. Nothing large, located on the farthest point of the “ridgeline”. It must have formed from the tension being applied for so long. The tarp is not meant for camping, more so for covering things like mulch or putting leaves on it and then dragging it out to the woods. At least that’s how my family uses this kind of tarp. I had some duct tape on my Nalgene from the last outdoor leadership trip so I was able to patch it up with that. I can hear tons of red winged black birds from the field, with their calls often overlapping or starting right after each other. About 30 minutes go by and I am extremely bored. There are definitely things to do, but I don’t want to do them. I feel like that is the most extreme and worst kind of boredom; there are things to do but you don’t want to do them you know that you can stop being bored but you don’t. Looking back on this it is quite philosophical and complicated for something so simple such as being bored. About 5 minutes go by and I hear a pileated woodpecker. When they try to pierce the tree’s bark it makes a sound so rapid it is almost like a machine gun. They also make a very fast honk or clucking sound. I wasn’t able to see it thought because it took me so long to write about hearing the woodpecker that I missed it. I went back to my tarp and tried to make a mini spear by carving a stick with my Swiss Army knife. However I stopped about halfway in because it looked like it was damaging my knife’s locking system. Swiss Army knives don’t have locking systems, per se, but they do have tension when trying to open and close the blade and other tools. Then I decided to eat lunch. At first I thought of going to the river but I didn’t want to walk so far. Next I thought about climbing a tree but I didn’t find any trees that I liked or were easy to climb one handed, but it wasn’t a total waste. While looking for a tree I saw maybe 2 wood frogs in the creek. Now I know there is actually some life in the creek. I decided to sit under a tree at the entrance to the woods and watch the birds. I was later deterred by some sort of bug. It was gray and had 2 black spots below its neck. When I realized it wasn’t a grasshopper of some kind I left and sat neat the bird feeder. I didn’t see much however, just a female red bellied woodpecker, black capped chickadee, mourning dove (not at the bird feeder), and a nuthatch. After lunch I heard a hawk and went to see if it was in its usual spot. It wasn’t there, but I did see a deer, so it was quite worthwhile. When I went back to my tarp I decided to break some sticks. It’s oddly satisfying to whack a stick against a tree and have it break. It’s like you are stronger than your weapon, or something you would see out of a Lord of The Rings movie. I went on another hike down to the river and then turned back. The minnows in the river have grown and I noticed a place where the drop off down to the river is extremely steep. I’d say 75 degrees. On the way back I saw the hawk on its usual perch, with its back turned looking majestically over its shoulder at the field. I also saw a pileated woodpecker. This time I didn’t bother to write in my journal and then go. I went to bed around 10:30 and ate a sandwich in my sleeping bag. I thought it would be kind of fun, and I was also hungry. I woke up around 5:17 AM and quickly fell back asleep and woke up around 9:00 AM. Then I just tried to sleep in as much as possible.