Skunked By Grouse: Motorcycle Trip: Part 2: Campsite Mechanic

I found myself installing a new headlight at Unremarkable State Park. Whenever I leave my homestead, an almost laughable cascade of events will inevitably delay my departure. In the week prior I’d had a fencing issue lead to “pigtastrophies”, an appliance failure, a truck maintenance problem, and I sustained an injury. That’s just a sample of the drama.

But I had a new headlight and was dying to test it out. I packed more or less randomly… and fled.

I wanted to install my new motorcycle part from the convenient location of my shop; like a sane person in a rational world. Instead, I literally hurled my tool box onto the passenger seat and ran. I was gone before my house dealt me another dramatic reason why I should stay home.

This dumb idea worked surprisingly well. I learned that I can do a headlight swap with just my “emergency tools”. Nice to know. Especially since I’d forgotten my tool box is the world’s shittiest tool box. It seems to attract water like a sponge. All my “handy to have but not on the bike itself” tools were wet… again! In a massive stroke of irony (and good luck), I’d already purchased a replacement tool box. I’d left it in my truck bed during a flurry of medical activity earlier in the week. In the hubub I’d forgotten about it. It was still in the truck bed when I arrived at camp. I didn’t do a wise transfer of equipment, I just dumped shit from one box to the other and wiped down some stuff with an old t-shirt to keep rust at bay.

The old tool box was “Craftsman”. Don’t give me shit about how grandpappy had a great Craftsman tool box back in the day… their stuff is shit now. I replaced it with an Action Packer.

I guess my official camping “kit” for a motorcycle campout includes two Action Packers. (I regularly throw my camping shit in an Action Packer and leave it in my truck bed for days at a time.) One for my camping kitchen stuff and dry food. The other for “Yamaha support” for when I break stuff.

Incidentally I recommend Action Packers for car (truck) camping. They’re expensive but worth it. The lid never blows off and stuff inside stays dry. Regular totes pale in comparison. So far no forest critter has chewed into one. (They’re obviously not bear proof.)

The new headlight was great. Very beefy and plug and play… money well spent! That said, those things ‘ain’t cheap! I’m wondering if I should get armor to protect it?

As always, I was a day late and a dollar short. I got the headlight installed literally minutes before dark. That’s good because I was afraid I’d drop a screw or something. Try finding a lost screw in a pine needle forest floor!

Lucky for me, I now have “instant camp” down to a science. My wonderful “super tent” was up with the cot installed, the mattress rolled out, the sleeping bag laid on the mattress in just under 15 minutes. I’m definitely pleased with my tent/cot! (Note: if the weather is dry, roll out your sleeping bag far in advance and it’ll have more time to “loft”. Loft is the word pretentious backpackers use to describe the process by which your sleeping bag “fluffs up”. I also love having a big rectangular bag instead of the coffin like mummy bags I formerly used out of necessity.)

Despite the dark (the dang moon didn’t rise until much later!), I had plenty of time to start a pallet wood fire in my firebox and roast a few brats. I also had beer… which makes everything better.

I use a little LED area light for camping and it does the job well, but I started thinking about my antique Coleman lantern. If I’m going to get into a groove (rut?) of State Park camping, maybe a brighter light emanating from a delicate device is appropriate? Electronics are super handy and lantern mantles break. But an antique would fit my attitude, not a small concession.

(Update, I’ve done some checking. It’s a Coleman single mantle from 1971. 50 years young. Now I gotta’ see if I can use it!)

More to come.