Reflections

I’ve been working on a post using an anthropological view to understand outdoor gear. I haven’t quite put down everything I want to say, so here’s some reflections on recent doings.

Books

I finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell last month. Truthfully, I felt a bit conflicted about this book. Narratively, I found it to be a moving story. At the same time I couldn’t shake a nagging thought that I needed to reflect further over its depiction of Japan in the 19th century. In sum, the book uses third person to shift between the perspectives of multiple characters whose common denominator seems to be decency and how their local relationships intertwined with de Zoet’s experince. Purely from the standpoint of this narrative arc, the book moves quickly and competently. It reads with that kind of economy granted by action which suggests it was written with the intention to become a screen adaptation. This wasn’t a mark against the book though as Mitchell managed the pace by balancing it out with a fair bit of interiority into de Zoet and the other characters. For me, the ending was so successful that it was right up there with other really moving endings I’ve read recently (it reminded me of the totally unrelated ending of Zero K by Don DeLillo; another ending that just floored me as to the author’s skill in producing an ending that somehow was not valedictory and yet satisfying; both melancholy and yet conclusive). I admired Mitchell’s attempt to transport the reader to sites that were ostensibly private, like the scenes of domestic politics in elite Japanese households or extemporaneous negotiating in the warehouses of the trading port. Successful or not, it was a bold choice to try to inhabit such perspectives. An anthropological assessment of that attempt will have to wait for another time.

TV

Finished a rewatch of Halt and Catch Fire, which originally aired on AMC. Every bit as good as the first watch, and ranks among my favorite TV. For me this is one of those shows that you throw on just to get that feeling of being around people you care about. Differences this time around: I agreed with a lot of critics that the seasons are uneven and the show does find its footing once it decentered from the male-centric view of the first season. On that note, I also found I had far more sympathy for Donna’s character in the last season than I did the first time around. I might develop this line into a longer post.

Backpacking

Backpacking in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic adds a whole new layer of complication to contend with, especially in a popular backpacking area like the Cascades. It doesn’t help that I’m out of practice as a relatively new dad. The best way to describe my love of backpacking is as enthusiastic and well-read but with a dad’s responsibilities. I don’t get out as much as I’d like. Setting up camp for the night takes a little searching of my memory. All the knots and steps to get my hammock up or dinner on are there in my mind, it just isn’t second nature like putting dinner on at home. It takes some mental effort. Adding COVID-19 mitigation to that process is like creating grad seminar level complexity for your hike.

So this hike contained a number of such distinct experiences rolled into one. I headed out for a quick overnight to Island Lake on a Friday. My thinking was that by leaving in the early afternoon, I might have a leg up on the working crowd. The trail head accesses multiple different features and was located off exit 45 on I-90. For those that don’t know, that means its was pretty close to Seattle, and bound to be popular. Just getting to the trail head involved complications, as we’ve used the car so lightly that I had to stop to put air in a tire with a very slow leak. I had hoped to avoid stops altogether, and so this threw an immediate obstacle into my COVID-19 mitigation strategy. Add to that a rare episode of stop and go traffic in the Cascades, and I found myself in an instance of best laid plans. Traffic on the trail was about as expected, when I finally started, and I made it out to Island Lake, which was beautiful:

I suspected there would be folks on the trail, but this trip taught me that if you go backpacking in Seattle’s sun window the question isn’t “will there be people at the campsite?” but rather “how many people will be at the campsite?” I arrived to find a half dozen coeds already established and more groups followed me later, though I found a hardened site for my hammock. The following day I easily passed over 100 people on the way out. That density was probably among the most people I’ve every passed in a setting that wasn’t a national park. It was hard to be present while managing my social distancing; managing the unfamiliar setting up and breaking down of camp; and hoping my car would start. It was really nice to be outside anyway.

Bicycles

We received a generous gift from my mother of a Thule Ridealong children’s seat for my bike. It has been a fantastic addition to our household just as the (roughly) six week window of Seattle’s sunshine unfurls before us. It has also transformed our experience of improvised-dad-daycare at home. Because some city parks near us have temporarily closed parking facilities, and water adjacent routes have opened to strict pedestrian-only use, using the bike revolutionized our family’s range of play sites considerably. With the increased range on the bike visited a variety of spots and sites that have better access to nature. I also really appreciated being able to assess a location’s popularity before committing to toddler play. As many before me have noted, biking with a child generates a shared experience between you and your little one in a way that driving can’t touch. Biking to play somewhere, even if we have to abort for any reason, made the whole outing seem as though it was meaningful for us both, even if we didn’t meet the goal of playing outside. If, like me, you have overlooked revisiting your bicycle in these times, I highly recommend giving a try. Bike seat or no.