Rough camp.

Some of the posts below on camping has me remembering. I started camping in the yard as a kid very young with my cousins. We had the little dome tents but slept on the ground without mattresses. Later I changed to a tarp and An old wool blanket was doubled and slept on for a Matt and keep some cold from the ground and I had a military issue arctic bag.

I was a socially awkward teenager and spent a lot of time alone camping in a local national park here in Louisiana. I thought it the strangest place I had ever seen in Louisiana. It had fairly clear creeks with large rocks in it. And sandy beaches in some areas. I loved it! I would go into the woods away from designated camping areas to camp alone and had never seen anyone else do so. If I remember correctly you were not supposed to.

My senior year I finally saw another person camping like I did. I had shot a couple of squirrels and was walking down the creek when I walked up on a horse tied up. Next to a bedroll like I had seen inn an old western a Coffee pot was on a small bed of coals and an ancient looking double barrel shotgun leaned against a tree, but nobody there. I felt uneasy and started backing out when I heard someone speak. Tuning around I saw a young woman coming up from the creek with wet hair and buttoning up her shirt. She looked wild as a rabbit. She camped every weekend alone from horseback. She hunted and fished and cooked over a fire. She slept on the ground using a bedroll with a canvas outer cover.

We didn’t talk much that morning but we met again a few times and formed a relationship. Not a romantic one but I would have surely been ok with it! If she had nice clothes and someone to do her makeup and hair, the boys in town would have thought she was beautiful. But I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever known, with her wild hair pulled back and tied with a handkerchief and wearing a faded old denim shirt and jeans or sometimes overalls. But brother she was all woman! She was a mulatto and 21 years old. She kept a an old browning auto .22 pistol on her hip and 2 pocket knives. One for working and the other for eating with. She was tough as leather and Never complained of cold or rain or a hard ground. She always smelled a little like a horse! But I didn’t care. Haha. Once she showed up with a black eye. I asked but she wouldn’t say what happened, but I bet she killed the other guy! She is still one of the most interesting people I have ever known.