by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 27, 2007   Last Updated: May 01, 2007

The sun began to rise slowly over Flaming Gorge. The first flickers of light hung high over the canyon, bathing the mist in an ethereal pink light. The chilly, damp October air pulled at me through the opening in the top of my sleeping bag. Despite the subzero rating, the northern Utah morning jolted my weary bones back to life. I sat up, taking care to remain protected for a little longer against the elements. Without a tent, I slept on a hard wooden platform overhanging the gorge a thousand feet above the river. My buddy Zeke and his dog Wiley were curled up on the other side of the platform in their own bag. I called out through the fog.

Our bicycles sat dusty in some bushes, laden with all the provisions that had not been digested in the past week. Poaching this campsite on the cliff edge in the offseason, Zeke and I had come to this point after seven hard days of riding. Beginning in Grand Teton National Park, where we had been the chefs of the restaurant at Colter Bay Village, we rode south through Wyoming. We had left on the third day of October, as soon as our contracts were completed, praying for an Indian summer; we instead came head-to-head with traditional Wyoming autumn. Cold but surprisingly dry, we had camped out on the roadsides of the various U.S. highways snaking south through western Wyoming. We had observed our maps, attempting to discern where the next place to filter water might appear. Stops at convenience stores were undertaken to supplement our protein powders, Clif Bars and beef jerky whenever they might appear on the sparsely-populated route.

Either inside or outside of a tent, camping is far more than simply sleeping outside. Going to sleep sweaty and sated from the physical and emotional kaleidoscope of the day and awakening with the most beautiful sunrise vista of a lifetime is the real joy of camping. Whether camping over Flaming Gorge or, in my current locale, on the Oregon coastline, camping demands a reversion away from technological thought. Camping is not about "roughing it"; rather, it is about simplifying life and dealing with nature and the elements in a natural and elemental way.

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