Saving Summer

Don’t let school get in the way of enjoying the last days of summer. Summer technically doesn’t end until the 23rd of September this year. Now I’m not condoning parents taking their kids on last-minute trips to Disneyland instead of sending their children off to school, or teenagers playing hooky to go fishing before the rivers freeze. What I want to encourage is using the last few weekends this summer to enjoy the outdoors. Weekends. You know, the parts of the week that most people aren’t working and children aren’t in school. The parts you sometimes don’t know what to do with because you’ve got so much to do and only two days to do it in.
Speaking of time management, summer seemed to get a late start this year with all the snow and rain that wouldn’t quit. Actually summer almost started right when it was supposed to, that is on the 21st of June, but most kids had already been out of school for a few weeks at that point. It feels like we were shorted one whole month because the weather was prohibitive of outside activities, like camping or hiking. Everything was either buried under 30 feet of snow, caked with mud, or being carried down a raging river.
I love to camp and hike, but I hate campgrounds and trails full of other humans. I’m okay with lots of deer and rabbits. Not bears and cougars, though. Anyway, nature appeals to me because of the solitude and peacefulness that it affords. The distant mountains seem to become a small town with all of the noise and activity going on in the summer. And the amount of precipitation we received this year in the late spring season forced everybody closer together into easily accessible camping areas and hiking trails and kept more remote places like the Mirror Lake area closed until mid-summer. There was no chance of real isolation without the risk of becoming stuck in the mud or snow or flooding river. The months of July and August have thankfully offered a bit of a reprieve from the negative elements, and things now are a bit less soggy and more conducive to a good night’s sleep in the forest or a meandering wander through the canyons.
Now is the time to go camping and hiking. It’s still relatively warm in the mountains, the snow isn’t prohibitive, the rivers have died down, and there will be fewer and fewer people crawling around the mountains as the weeks go by (except for the upcoming Labor Day weekend). Think about it: you really only get maybe 60 to 70 chances in your lifetime to truly enjoy the outdoors during the dying days of summer. That may seem like a lot, but talk to a 90-year-old and see if he or she doesn’t wish for a few more camping and hiking trips. Of course, make sure you’re talking to someone who actually enjoys the outdoors; otherwise you’ll probably just elicit a response containing the words “Fool darn” and a phrase beginning with “Back in my day…”
Help save summer and get in a couple more outdoor adventures before the sun heads south. Your kids will love you for it. And if you don’t have kids, I’m sure your neighbors will be just as thankful for the short break.