Marsh Slogging!

And finally, despite it seeming like it would never happen, spring has officially graced us… and what a nice week of spring we enjoyed, this year, as the summer weather feels as though it’s already coming on.

It was a pretty fun week, particularly because of one big day. This weekend, the wife and I decided to take a little weekend getaway to a nice mountain lake not too far away, and just spend time to ourselves. We ended up inviting a few others with us, as the lodging space was more than accommodating for it. On Friday, it was great- we did nothing, and just had a nice, simple day. Then Saturday came.

Initially, it was a nice, slow morning, and even a slow noon, as we just woke up late, and I made burgers for everyone on a grill for lunch. Then, we decided to embark on an adventure. Our first stop was to try to drive to a nearby cave… which almost worked, until we had to stop three miles shy, due to snowpacked roads. After a brief and unsuccessful hike through it and back, we went back towards the lake. We expected it to be far too cold to dip into… and we soon discovered we were happily wrong! After we enjoyed some splashing and swimming, we then decided to spend some time going offroading, towards the other side of the lake. With no destination in mind at first, I noticed we were exceptionally close to the tri-state marker, and we then decided to make for it.

The way there was… impressive. We followed typical dirt roads, which turned into slightly overgrown dirt roads, which turned into very narrow one-way lanes surrounded tightly by sagebrush, and hardly any designation that it was even a road, save for just enough evidence. We also crossed a few puddles, too- in fact, as we were in two vehicles (I was in the front one), my brother was driving behind us and we went around the bend, after going through a couple of these puddles. We then waited for him to catch up, but noticed he didn’t. We reversed back through the puddles to find he tried to play it a little safe by going around the puddles… and instead discovered a well-disguised marsh, which he sank halfway into. We managed to pull him out, but I have to say, it was one soggy, impressive marsh for being in a dry desert area!

We kept on heading towards our goal, occasionally taking alternate routes, just due to the condition of the “road” that was “recommended”. At last, we arrived at the “parking lot”, and we had but a couple of short hundred feet until we got to it. The only thing separating us was a steep, gravely dirt incline. Despite half of us still just wearing sandals and swimwear, we made it up- though it took some good effort from some of us- and honestly, it felt pretty cool. There we were, walking, stepping and running between three states all in a matter of seconds, and in the middle of nowhere, too! And we made it into town just in time to catch our favorite restaurant. Other than that, it was just a nice trip.

…Of course, there was that… tick… turns out the marshes weren’t such an innocent place to go slogging through, after all. But I shan’t recount that account.

In my personal life, between work this week, I went through my collections of computer parts and realized there were a lot of… old things I was hanging onto, that had long past since become useful- and some were just downright borderline broken. As I saw this, and began to realize I was becoming a bit of a hoarder, I went through my collection and got rid of all the old things I knew I’d never use. I managed to know out a whole box’s worth of stuff, and it felt really nice to get rid of it all! Was some of it a little nostalgic and held some memories that were slightly hard to part with? ...a little, maybe, but all in all, it was a sure-fired success for me, as I fought the inner hoarder in myself.

And that’s really all there is to say this week. I guess your takeaway can be… don’t be a hoarder. Until next week, see ya!

Marsh Slogging!

Adminisk8or

05/21/2023