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Upper Buffalo Wilderness AreaOvernight backpacking with bluff action in Boen Gulf, Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area
3/22/19
Let's say you're a man. You're a man with a need...I dare say...a desire...to get out out...out in the shrubbery. Let's say you need it it bad, man. What do you do, dammit? Well, you get out there. If you're a woman I know not what the hell you need...you're a woman, dammit! How would I know. A man needs what he needs and nothing more. Well, that's not true...he needs plenty more, but let's not speak of other such crap at this particular time. Friday after work I quenched my desire but taking to the highway with great rapidity and moved in a northwesterly direction. This fantastic speed combined with my superior driving skills had me placed just on the edge of the woods by 3:15, where I was poised to enter said woods within just a moment...maybe two. By 4:30, a broad view looking out over a wide and broad valley with the depth and breadth of incomprehensible wideness and scope, lay before my ass. I set up camp in three to four minutes and began piddling around the area. The skies were mostly clear with 69°.
It was not long thereafter that the scent of smoke was on the wind. It slowly swept up the valley from the direction of the Buffalo. "Odd" I thought but paid it no heed. It blew to the south and was gone with the hour. Around sunset a meal of exquisite magnitude was prepared and eaten while seated at the bluff's edge. I sat there long into the dark...with no fire. The sky was without a moon and the stars used this to their advantage. The 95% waning gibbous of moon action did arrive about 9:30. It was orange as it shown through the distant smoke. The stars displayed their dismay by shrinking from sight. At 9:30 the hammock called me in. Sleep was decent, but with many waking intervals. At 5:23 I was up and packing. By darkness the return hike was carried out without difficulty. An intermittent light rain did fall, but my laughter pushed it aside. Right on 7:00 a.m. with 52° my vehicular unit was in view and I climbed aboard. Some time after 8:00 the town of Dover welcomed me in. Dewayne's saved my seat by the window. Breakfast was delightful and so was the service. The locals here always provide an interesting background conversation that adds to the homey atmosphere. By 10:00 home was made. This total hike was near 3.6 miles.
