| Phil Matchett, my college roommate and close friend, stopped in for a
4 day visit since a friend of his was getting married in the area.
On Friday, Sarah and I took him down to
Big Basin
to see all the big trees. This time we camped at Lane camp, which
was a good 6.5 mile hike. The Spiegel-Parsons departure time was in
effect, so the last 3 or 4 of those miles were in the dark. Since our
tent fits only two, we decided to sleep under the stars, which was very
pleasant until the mosquitoes woke us up in the morning. We had
anticipated there being a nearby stream to filter our water from, but since
the dry season has hit here, the expected stream had dried up. We therefor
departed early to find water. After hiking halfway back, we finally managed
to alleviate our thirst, and then turned our attention to the important project
of starting a fire by hand (or by bow, in this case). After the failed attempt
in Tahoe National Forest, I had hoped Phil would be able to point out where I
had gone wrong. My first mistake had been a failure to use 2 different hardnesses
of wood for the base and the drill. The second mistake was that a bow is really
necessary to achieve a high enough turning speed to start a fire. Phil made us
proud and had smoke in minutes. In the end, we were not able to achieve an ember to
actually make a flame, but the sight of smoke arising from our contraption nonetheless
brought tears to my eyes.
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