One does not simply walk into The Wild. Its woods are guarded by more than just wild boar. There are campers there that do not sleep. The great eyes are ever watchful.

I like that Boromir was a planner.

After weeks of planning, it was finally time to set out on my adventure. The goal was to camp for three days and two nights. My fellowship of the moms (three brave friends) were counting on me to have packed the essentials and have some sort of plan. Read, have good food, drink cocktails by a roaring fire and stay dry. Somewhere along the way, we would hike. The weather forecast showed rain coming in at the end of the second day. Yes!  Time to test all the new camping skills that I had learned from… YouTube. I had practiced setting up the tent in the backyard, learned three basic knots, made homemade fire starters, and most importantly, figured out how to make coffee with my new camp stove. I was ready to leave my Shire.

The tents went up quickly and we decided to go ahead and hang the tarps. It looked so easy on YouTube. Tie some cord between two trees and throw a tarp over it. A few lines and some stakes. We had everything but the trees. Well, we had trees but not where we needed them. This is where my fellowship saved the day. While we all came from different professional backgrounds, we all had the same midlife-mom thing in common. We’d had years of dealing with challenges. Grocery shopping with toddlers, getting teenagers out the door for school, and helping with college applications. Tarps?  No trees nearby?  We’ve got this. And we figured it out. We pulled together and got both large tarps up over our cooking and seating areas without any stress or injury. There was a lot of laughing, and I think I peed my pants. But we did it. And it was awesome.

As we hiked through silent woods, I kept thinking how the landscape reminded me of a particular movie. The setting was spectacular. Leaves of red, yellow, orange and brown fell from the trees and littered the trail. The surface of the lake along the path glittered in the sun. We could not have asked for a more perfect day. I kept thinking about how lovely it is to walk through the woods with friends.

Several miles into our hike, we happened upon our first encounter.

He was portly with a round belly and swishing tail. Too busy eating acorns, he didn’t pay us much attention. It almost seemed like he had been planted there by some set director to add authenticity to the scene. When he’d eaten enough (and we gave given him plenty of time and space since he was literally on the trail), he looked up, turned around, and waddled back into the woods. I followed at a distance and watched him disappear into the colors of the forest.

Day 2 and we had just returned from our hike when the rain came. It poured. But we were dry as we sat proudly under our canopy of tarps. I quietly thanked all the YouTube posters for recommending getting the tarps up when first setting up the campsite. And I threw thanks to whomever invented bungee cords and duct tape… and later bourbon, as we drank and played cards while seated around our warm fire.

There is something magical about sitting around a fire. The flames moving in different shapes. Dancing and swaying with the air currents. Burning down to warm embers that glitter and seem to move. It’s great for pondering life and thinking about where you’re going. Am I on the right path? Am I happy? Am I brave enough to keep walking further into The Wild? Mostly yes. Like Boromir, I’ve always been a planner. But it’s hard to be a planner when life is so unpredictable right now. And don’t forget my midlife-mom crisis. I need to keep walking. Sometimes on my own and sometimes with my fellowship of friends. If I don’t, I’m worried that I’ll succumb to memories of what was (not just being a mom to young children, but my professional life as well) and not was is and still can be. I’m 56. A midlife mom. I say, “Yes!”

It was our last night camping. As we sat and watched the dying embers turn to ash, several sets of yellow eyes stared back at us from the trees. It seemed fitting that the herd of deer from the previous day had come to say goodbye. A little unnerving, but thoughtful all the same. I lay on my camp mattress and said one last silent thank you to Thermarest. A light rain was still coming down, and I fell asleep to the sounds of non-sleepy campers laughing in the next campsite.

I laid out the tents and tarps to dry. Washed the sleeping bags and stored the mattresses. Cleaned all the kitchen gear and packed up the bins. I can faintly catch the scent of a campfire on my hair even after several showers. I also found myself looking for available campsites over the next few months. Three days and two nights seemed too short. It’s getting cooler outside. While putting things away, I noticed that one sleeping bag from my closet cleanout is made for cold weather camping. Just a thought.