Yes, I realize there’s no Thursday blog. There’s also no Saturday blog. I’ll give you three guesses where we were. The first two don’t count.

And it was awesome. I’d forgotten just how much I love camping. Okay, that’s not entirely true. But I think I’d blocked it out so I wouldn’t be so disappointed when we didn’t have the time or money to go.

Where we go is a first come, first serve nature preserve in the Adirondacks on DEC land. There are no showers, no toilets, and most definitely no cell or web service (unless you drive most of the way out or climb to the top of a mountain). It’s breathtakingly beautiful and amazingly relaxing… even with all the work it took to get everything together. We had a smashing time.

Master took lots of pictures and I’m hoping to get Him to allow me to post some to the site despite His insistence that most of them suck. None of the kink variety. We decided to do things right this time. In other words, while we bought some wood, we foraged for most of it (and still managed to leave a small pile for the people who camp there next) and split it ourselves (sort of) and by night fall we were exhausted. During the day the area is entirely too full of people (of the small variety especially) to attempt anything more than a quick slap or pinch here and there. Especially considering we returned once to a woman taking her children “hiking” in our campsite.

Years ago, after learning of Master’s love for waterfalls, I took Him to the top of the biggest one in this preserve. It was covered with ice but still spilling over and He took a few pictures there. He also stepped through the ice (the rock wasn’t visible) and scared the bejesus out of me. I thought for sure He was going over. Then I freaked out getting Him back to the car because I was afraid He’d get hypothermia or frostbite or something. We managed to find the falls again with His brother and sister-in-law (and got lost in the dark) but we were crunched for time and couldn’t go down to the bottom for Him to get the full effect. 

This time, we made it to the bottom. And it was beautiful. Even with the rude ass kids running in front of the camera and jumping over the camera bag (full of expensive lenses… while their parents watched and said nothing… I’ve never wanted to slap someone so bad in my life). I got a tiny bit of sunburn (first one of the year) sitting at the bottom of the falls with my feet in the freezing cold water. I accidentally disturbed a tiny fish who was chilling all by his lonesome in the shallow pool I had my feet in. However, he preferred being in the pool when my feet were there and would swim away if I took my feet out. Weird fish.

No showers isn’t an excuse for being dirty as far as Master’s concerned. There was a stream running not too far away from the campsite and Master or I would go collect water in our percolator and warm it up on the fire so we could sponge bathe. We used camp soap that is biodegradable and environmentally safe so as not to destroy the delicate balance of nature and I washed my hair squatting over the stream using the percolator to pour water into my hair. Man was that a bitch. I have entirely too much hair.

It’s really difficult to wash standing up with almost nothing to hold on to or lean against. I’m hoping the next time the water in the stream is warmer (along with the weather) and we’ll be able to just go bathe in the stream. That will also make it possible for me to shave if I can find a pool closer to the campsite than the road. The best part for bathing I’ve found so far runs too close to the road for me to be squatting next to it with my cootch hanging out so I was given permission to stop shaving till we got home. I’m currently sporting a short bush (not even a quarter of an inch long) and waiting for my turn in the shower so I can shave.

There are outhouses in most of the campsites. There used to be outhouses in all of the campsites but one, according to the rangers, is just gone without a trace as to where it might have gone. We had to stand ours back up when we got there. Someone had knocked it over. Thankfully, because these are literally narrow buildings with small plastic toilets positioned over holes in the ground, there was no mess to clean up. We still chose peeing behind trees and saved using the outhouse for the dirtier duties. Neither of us likes outhouses much. We like stepping in feces even less, though, so outhouses are a necessary evil unfortunately.

We woke almost every morning to a raven perched on our fire circle and crowing softly. And on one of our trips out of the woods for ice for the cooler, we came back out to find a young bird (I’m not sure what type) perched on our front driver side tire. He was unmoved when I asked him nicely to fly away and just continued preening and sitting comfortably on the tire even though I was less than a foot away from him. Master finally coaxed him off the tire by way of a few slight nudges with the empty oil bottle. Watching him fly away, I felt bad for not attempting to catch him and take him to the ranger station. He was obviously either ill or injured. But I really had nothing in the car that would have sufficed as a temporary cage and I might have actually done him more harm than good.

As long as we had a fire going we didn’t have too much trouble with bugs. But it rained the first night and part of the second day so the bugs were out with a vengeance. For the record, Repel with 40% Deet does absolutely shit for gnats, flies, small moths and other non-mosquito type annoyances. And we seriously need to find a better way to light our site at night than two small lanterns sitting on the table we’re sitting at. The bugs that came out at night and swarmed our lanterns were so creepy. I’d never seen most of them before then. Some of the moths were really pretty though.

For the most part, we played cards, messed around with the fire and talked. When we got bored of sitting still, we went searching for more firewood. When we got bored of searching for firewood, we split the pile we’d gathered and organized it into like sizes. When we finished that or got bored of splitting the wood, we sat and talked or played cards. Even when it rained, we sat comfortably by the fire getting splattered with the occasional drop the tree cover couldn’t shelter us from.

The only sex act was a blow job in the rain. It was incredible. During one of the worse showers, I sucked Master off while perched on a rock and listened to Him comment on how awesome it was to be standing in the middle of no where in a rainstorm while His slave sat on a rock and got Him off. And immediately following, He ordered me to a chair with my fingers in my pussy to get myself off. The rain had mostly stopped by then but it was still exhilarating to be sitting outdoors.

I used to be so particular about getting dressed in the tent so if someone walked up they wouldn’t see me. This time around, I did everything outside. From simply changing my pants or shirt to bathing. I decided that if someone walked up on me while I was changing it was their own fault for hiking up a path marked “campsite”.

We cheated once and ate lunch at a small diner/pizzeria (Tony’s on Rte 149 in Queensbury, NY) on the way back from the convenience store. We also had dinner there on the way home. They have amazing prices and the best pepperoni pizza and chicken parm calzones I have ever tasted and Master loved their lasagna. So much so that He “forgot” to give me a bite. It looked really good though!

We realized, as we so often do when camping, that we are inextricably connected to nature. Whether this is because we’re pagan or simply because we’re human I do not know. But we’ve proven time and again that when we’re in need of reconnection, the best place for us to do it is in the outdoors. This realization led to a decision on both our parts to not allow things like work and money issues (so long as there is money) to get in the way of frequent trips back to nature. Our happiness is more important than anything else and work and money have definitely done nothing but foil our attempts to be happy.

Coming home was a little sad and a huge culture shock. We went from houses at least an acre apart (often more, rarely less) to right on top of each other in less than thirty minutes. It’s suffocating to come back from houses that aren’t much more than canvas tents and log cabins to metal and cement sky scrapers and malls.

We both had a slight bout of claustrophobia upon entering our “home” and, despite the cool comfort inside, threw open all the windows and pulled out the fans to simulate the gentle breeze we had on the mountain. And being so used to having nothing to do but work or spend time with each other, I immediately dove into putting things away and getting things washed.

We’ve found a lot of things we plan on doing differently next time. Packing lighter, slowly buying things that will make the experience much easier (a new sleeping bag – we only have one – no-scent laundry and bath soap, better bug spray, etc), etc. But we had a blast and can’t wait to get up there again. As much as I hate to say it, I did not miss civilization and would have loved to stay in the woods forever.