By: Gary Akin
Sometimes, more often now, I enjoy taking a break from everything. To anyone who might see me, I may appear to be doing nothing at all. But that isn’t the case… I’m observing. I’ve always been an observer I guess. Now however, I seem to be spending more time doing what I enjoy. It’s interesting for me, anyway, to apply past observations to current ones. I’ve noticed the wind blowing through the branches on the oak ridge near deer camp, sounds different than the wind blowing through the lodgepole pine out in Colorado. I’ve noticed that there are more good spots to stop, sit, take a break for awhile, and observe, as I make that long steady climb to “Top of the World” for my deer watch.
I’ve never been very good at cataloging my observations. I save them and sort of throw them into a “junk drawer”. They’re there. Then when something new catches my attention it’s as if the drawer has been opened and there it is, right on top, a past observation that I hadn’t thought of in years! Why is it for example, that on a cold dry November afternoon when a sudden gust kicks up on an Adirondack ridgetop and creates a small cyclone of whirling oak leaves, they always seem to be spinning in a counterclockwise direction? Or…. when I’m sitting on a rock along the Ausable, late in the afternoon in fading light with trout beginning to rise all throughout the pool in front of me, maybe, just maybe, it would be easier to change flies if I would put a pair of reading glasses in one of the fourteen advertised pockets of this fishing vest!
Sometimes my keenest observations occur when my eyes are closed. I know outward appearances would lead one to believe that I’m napping. No, I’m almost napping. I’m perfectly aware that I’m nodding off! This is when I realize that maybe I shouldn’t have stayed up that extra hour to watch the end of that Monday Night Football game. The one where the score was 35-7 with 10 minutes left. The one where well, since I’m up, I might as well have one more Jack & Coke from the old tin cup…
I’ve observed that I’m less likely to get angry at myself if I remember to unplug my phone from its charging cord and put it in my pack at night… when I kill the generator. That way it is much more likely to be in my pack at noon, when I’m supposed to text Rich to see if we’re going to stay in, come out for lunch, or simply find out where he is… because I’m supposed to make a move in his direction about now!
I know more observations will be made. I know more will be remembered. I know one that I will never take for granted. There is nothing like an Adirondack Deer Camp.
Adirondack Camp Journal 