More Songs About Gear and Sand

Coyotes tiptoe in the snow after dark,
 at home with the ghosts in the national parks…

What can I say? Spring is hard upon us and it’s time to hit the road again in earnest with camera and backpack and iPod. I spent last weekend in one the most beautiful parts of Oregon (among some stiff competition). I know I’ve said that I’ve got a thing for canyons, but I suppose I’ve got a thing for the desert too. Not too many years ago, I had a blast trekking into the Sahara…

 

Morocco has Merzhouga, Oregon has the Umpqua Dunes. Similar; not an entirely exchangeable experience, but knock-your-socks-off beautiful nonetheless. A short 2.5 mile (if you don’t wander, which is impossible) “trail” leads from forest to dunes to scrub (and in this instance, swamp), to the ocean.

Did they poison my food? Is it cause I’m a girl?
If I puked up some sonnets, would you call me a miracle?

You better make your face up in your favorite disguise.
With your button down lips and your roller blind eyes…

 

Out here, the strong wind carves patterns into bizarre shapes and patterns (and incidentally makes shooting interesting as you simultaneously attempt to protect your skin, eyes, and camera from getting sandblasted)…

Cause when tomorrow’s blown away seems like tonight is here to stay
so she just close her eyes and stumble forward whistling in the dark…

Trees break the sidewalk and the sidewalk skins my knees,
there’s glass in my thermos and blood on my jeans…

Drivin’ that train high on cocaine,
Casey Jones you better watch your speed…

Hey hey hey,
You got my heart in your pocket…

No use dragging down to the wire,
same blue devils leap from the fire,
there’s no easy come, easy go…

God sends his spaceships to America, the beautiful
they land at six o’clock and there we are, the dutiful…

I’m an absolute beginner, but I’m absolutely sane,
As long as we’re together the rest can go to hell…

 

I did mention a swamp. Normally, this would be a standard trail, but heavy rains turned it into a happy slog through sometimes thigh-deep water. Good thing too. It was damned pretty…

After nine days I let the horse run free
’cause the desert had turned to sea…

 

Eventually, you tumble out of the sand and scrub onto an overlook over the Pacific…

It’s was a beautiful, tiring hike and good shooting. Bringing the images back home to the lab, I created a new frankenimage for Bodhairim…

I also wrote most of the poem that goes with this image, but it’s not quite done yet.

 

I did mention gear, right? People ask what gear I pack on hiking and backpacking trips. While I’ve been doing this for a number of years now, I’m not sure I’m gearhead photographer enough to recommend gear and not gearhead hiker enough to recommend supplies. So here are eleven things that I think are handy (my primary recommendation is to get outside and have adventures):

1. Camera? Whatever you like to use. I will say having a solid metal body camera is awesome. I have a workhorse Nikon D200 which is a bit long in the tooth, but I can confidently dropkick it off the side of a mountain and know it will survive (I don’t recommend doing this). It is however, heavy. If I’m backpacking in, I use my very lightweight D3200. If it’s a short hike and/or weight isn’t an issue, I sometimes take both, plus a Lumix underwater camera (never know when you’re going to be wading through a swamp). And my camera phone (Windows Phone 10). Honestly, I’ll skimp on clothing and toiletries for another camera, but after hiking all day, just the extra pound or two can feel like ten. Gravity frequently sucks.
2. Speaking of wading through things. I take along a waterproof bag or the cheap equivalent, a couple of Ziplocs. Ziplocs won’t protect your gear if you are underwater, but if you fall over crossing a stream or get caught in a rainstorm, they provide a bit more protection and have a zillion other uses.
3. Big thick socks and lots of them. Good wool or synthetic socks are a hiking “no shit”. But I also use them to stabilize my camera and protect lenses from bumps and scrapes.
4. Why do I need to stabilize my camera? No tripod. I’ll bring a GorillaPod (which is fantastic) with me on day hikes, but when I’m trying to pare down weight in my pack, it gets left behind.
5. The Luci inflatable solar lantern is my new favorite camping toy. It deflates down to nothing, hangs off my backpack charging all day, does its duty as a lantern after dark, and has a flash feature if you get into trouble. And it acts as a bit of filler light if are not carrying a flash.
6. Of course if you are trying to do a lightweight flash, the tiny remote flashes off my Nikon ring light set are great. Remote anything is pretty cool. Don’t forget the camera remote. It works perfectly when your camera is propped up on your socks.
7. Camera diaper! I don’t know who makes this, but it is a soft protective square of neoprene that wraps around your camera like a diaper and fastens with Velcro. After finding this at my camera store, I ditched my camera bag for all but professional shoots and storage.
8. Don’t forget something to clean your lenses with. Others will cringe when I say I’ve wiped down a wet lens in a rainstorm with the driest bit of my t-shirt. I try to be a bit better prepared and generally carry one of those pens with a brush on one end and a soft scrubby thing on the other.
9. Those lenses. I generally don’t bring them. If I’m doing super lightweight, I make do with a 18-55mm variable lens. If I can afford a little more weight, I’ll add a 55-200mm lens. If weight isn’t an issue, there’s lots of choice, but usually, it’s a straight 55mm lens (better clarity than a variable lens) and a Lensbaby Scout (cheap light super wide angle lens for fun effects).
10. Canned roast beef hash. I know, strictly a car camping thing. But it is a delicious bundle of protein and carbohydrates that feels wonderful at the end of a long day of hiking and lugging camera gear. It has the added benefit of being not horrible if you have no fire and have to eat it cold (full disclosure, cold, it is not at all dissimilar to canned cat food). Its high fat content seems to make it burn well, so in a pinch, I bet you could use it to get your fire started.
11. Lifestraw. Water is of course, rather important. The Lifestraw bottle allows you to dip your water bottle into the stream and filters as you drink. Less filters, pumps, and gadgets means more room for cameras and lenses. It’s a nice added bonus that buying a Lifestraw helps the company fund clean water efforts in developing nations.

 

On the iPod: Coyotes, Modest Mouse; Night Still Comes, Neko Case; Run Like Hell, Pink Floyd; Whistling In the Dark, Firewater; Star Witness, Neko Case; Casey Jones, Grateful Dead; In Your Arms Awhile, Josh Ritter; Same Blue Devil, Grant Lee Phillips; Lawyers in Love, Jackson Browne; Absolute Beginners, David Bowie; Horse With No Name, America