i spent friday and some of saturday camping in the chilliwack river valley. it was very cold, but i had an awesome time. i have a couple of observations about camping that i thought i would share with ya'll

1. making a big fire is cool... i love making a fire. the sting of smoke in your eyes as you work to make sure that each piece of kindling is perfectly placed to recieve enough oxygen, and at the same time spread precious flame to the surrounding perfectly placed pieces. there is never enough wood, so you inevitably end up scouring the surrounding area for dead-fall that you can cut up. the challenge always is to make a no paper fire with one match... sitting around a fire is pure therapy. have you ever noticed though that every guy seems to know that absolute best way to build a fire, and everyone else doesn't? whether it is the tee pee, the cabin, or the lean-too each guy seems to feel like they know something that noone else does. and then if someone else is building the fire there are two natural responses... the first is to try to take over, or verbally abuse the fire builder until they build it your way... the other is to watch the fire hoping that it doesn't burn, so that you can sit in total satisfaction knowing that your fire would have worked way better. but once the fire is going, guys just seem to open up around the fire. things that we can't talk about in public we talk about around a fire... tough questions, insecurities, sex and relationships, cool fights we've been in these are the things that make sitting around a camp fire memorable.

2. it seems that no matter what, when i am camping, i always have to pee after we are all settled in the tent and it is pitch dark and very scary outside. i try to pee like a hundred times before going to bed, but without fail i always wake up with my bladder just killing, and i have to go. i always fight it for the first 45 minutes because i don't want to wake everyone up, and i don't want to go outside and get eaten by bears...which are sitting right outside my tent waiting for me to go pee. i always tell myself that it is almost morning, and that i should just wait till them when really it is only like 12:30. so finally i muster enough courage to go out of the tent and i usually fall over a few people on my way... now comes the ethical question of how far do i walk before finding my outdoor urinal. if i walk for a ways, there is a greater chance that i will get attacked by a bear and a cougar simultaneously, and noone will hear my screams as i am torn to shreds. but if i stay close to the safety of the tent chances are i will turn our campsite into a septic field. so i turn on my head lamp and frantically scan the trees for evil creatures lurking and try to find the closest yet farthest outpost to go. now it is never a short pee, it is always like the three minute marathon pee which gives the bears just enough time to notice the light and run down for the free meal. luckily before they get there i have ran back to the tent and am safely hiding in my sleeping bag, the one place they would never look.