#tbt Outdoor Life Before Coronavirus
#tbt camping trip last fall with friends to one of California’s state parks. I woke up before everyone else (not on purpose) as the sun started rising above part of the Angeles National Forest mountain line in the distance. I gathered a bunch of pine needles and pine cones to get the fire going. It was a quiet and beautiful morning breathing in the fresh mountain air. I put a couple logs on the fire and it roared to life. I boiled water, made a cup of coffee, and sat next to the fire looking at the trees and mountains surrounding me, taking it all in. I hope to replicate this morning again soon (maybe not the waking up super early part but that’ll probably happen).
California is closing all beaches and parks this weekend. It really sucks and I wish that wasn’t the case. There are so many wonderful trails, beautiful beaches, striking mountains, and seemingly endless deserts to explore. But we can’t go to them in the near future and I understand why. Sadly.
We are not capable of policing our selves or worrying about the common good. We think that’s in our DNA but we, as Americans, are inherently selfish. I’ve heard many times since quarantines and shut downs started how people are happy that we’re trying to isolate the virus and slow the spreading as much as possible, BUT these individuals think that certain elements of shut down don’t apply to them. These people say that they would be able to go hiking or to the beach and maintain good physical distancing from others.
I think most of these people are right and that they would be safe. Hell, I’ve even thought about that. Last night I walked to the beach in Hermosa (which has been closed to the public for multiple weeks) to see the bioluminescence in the water that has been making the rounds on social media. When I got down there I did not go onto the beach and stopped right in front of the boardwalk. I knew I wasn’t supposed to go on the beach but the allure of the bioluminescence brought me there.
I could only see a couple people on the entirety of the beach so I wasn’t worried about physical distancing (I’ve been really good at pushing people away and keeping them away from me the majority of my life). I was slightly worried about the possibility of getting a citation. But I was also thinking about running should police try and cite me. I wore my trail running shoes instead of my Tom’s for this reason.
And this thought process, selfishness, is a large part of the problem and why beaches and trails are closed in California as well as many other places. I knew what I was doing was wrong but I also wanted to see glowing water in person and thought highly enough of myself to stay far enough away from other people who were also there. This would’ve been very easy to do since it’s probably 300–400 yards from the boardwalk/bike path to the water and this section of beach runs from the Redondo Harbor all the way up to Marina Del Rey. For you non-LA people (and probably some LA people who don’t know the geography of the city well) this is an 8 mile stretch of beach.
Like most other people in this time period I’ve been talking a lot with friends and family about their experiences and how they’re handling quarantine. My parents and older sister are in West Michigan and my younger sister is in Washington DC. My parents live on 4ish acres on the outskirts of Grand Rapids and it’s a wooded area which means fallen trees (and lots of Russian Olive). We’ve been doing burn piles on our property for over 20 years to help keep the property from becoming too unruly and allowing for walking paths through the woods.
During quarantine in the state of Michigan you are not supposed to burn on private property. The reasoning as it was explained to me is to keep firefighters from having to respond to unnecessary calls so they’re available for actual emergencies. My family has always been good about mitigating the risks whenever we would do a burn: positioning a hose near the pile, keeping the ground around the pile clear to minimize possibility of the fire spreading, always burn with at least two people so one of them is always watching/feeding/tending to the fire, and burn on cooler days.
Knowing these safety precautions (let’s be honest, they’re common sense) we take of our own volition and that there’s a temporary hold on private burnings like this my father still wants to burn some of the fallen trees and Russian Olive. He is a very smart, thoughtful, pragmatic person; a rule follower and enforcer (he’s a Naval Academy graduate). And yet he wanted to, knowingly, defy a temporary safety order (which again, he understands why this order is in place).
And I understand why he has this thought process. Again, we’ve been doing burn piles for over 20 years in the same damn spot every single time. I have high confidence he would do the burn in as safe of a manner as possible (possibly even more so knowing he’s technically violating the order). But he, the rule-following Navy officer (retired), wanted to defy the rules.
Is there a correlation between my dad wanting to burn a bunch of fallen trees in Michigan and people wanting to go to the beach or parks or trails in California? Yes (albeit probably a loose connection). We all see ourselves as rule-abiding citizens and think we will maintain good physical distancing if we go to any of these public spaces. But we cannot account for other people’s actions or something unexpected happening to maintain our own safety. There are a lot of people who don’t know what six feet is or they don’t care. And both types of people are dangerous. As the crowds get larger we get dumber. What could be even more dangerous is we might feel normal at a crowded beach or busy hiking trail. And this can lead to complacency at a time when we cannot be complacent.
The beaches and parks are not closed permanently. There’s no way that could happen in this current iteration of our country. With these kinds of temporary closures and bans we need to stop thinking in the short-term and how we are impacted right now. We will inevitably continue the spread of Coronavirus if beaches and parks are open. We will not maintain proper physical distancing and even some people who wear masks will catch Coronavirus (because we’re not great at wearing masks/face coverings properly). We all need to reframe our thinking about Quarantine. It’s a weird mind-f*ck no one has ever really dealt with before. We’re scared about what’s happening and these temporary losses. Let’s admit we’re feeling scared and uncertain. It’s ok to be. I know I am. But we will get through this. And we will get back to the beaches and mountains.
P.S. Dad, sorry for using you as an example in this story. You’re one of the good boomers who listens to the younger generations and considers our view points on most issues (usually). Also, sorry for calling you a boomer (it seemed funny and levity is important). But you helped me prove my position!
