The view from the fire lookout
In case you were wondering, the 100th object of the BBC’s History of the World in 100 Objects podcast is a solar-powered lamp and charger. Loyal readers may remember the last time an object from the podcast appeared, which was a gold llama. Now, you don’t always get a chance to own an object featured in a podcast about the British Museum’s collection, but when I and some friends decided to go on a camping/road trip up north because guess what, I actually got like 2 whole weeks of not having to do anything, I found my perfect opportunity. We went to Target to buy some supplies, and part of me kinda wanted to buy one of those solar-powered lanterns that also had a port to plug in your phone. Was this necessary? Not really, because we were determined car campers but I thought it would be cool to have. So I bought it. And it was great! You could blow it up and then it folded down, and it had solar panels on top and a USB port to either charge the lantern or charge the phone. Which turned out to be completely unnecessary, because our campsite had running water and an actual electrical outlet, because it was designed to be an RV hook-up.
This trip happened last week, which I know is a little out of date but as we’ve discussed before, this blog is not always 100% timely in regards to breaking news. Plus, talking about my camping trip lets me talk about three of my favorite blog topics: stuff I bought, cooking, and travel!
Car camping is the best. We ended up in a campsite about a mile from the ocean in Gualala, up in Mendocino County. We packed chairs and an umbrella, and hung out by the river as it made its way down to the ocean. I brought my trusty sunhat and avoided being sunburned. I brought Into the Wild, which seemed appropriate for the outdoors. I finished Into the Wild, but haven’t gotten all the way through All the King’s Men. We also had a cooler and fire pit, which meant lots of s’mores and camp food and a good amount of beer. We actually succeeded in making baked potatoes in a campfire and they only got slightly charred. One of the best parts of camping at approximately 40 feet above sea level is that IT WAS NOT COLD. This was literally the first time I’ve ever gone camping and we could just crawl into our sleeping bags and go to bed not wearing a gazillion layers and not wake up in the middle of the night because it’s fucking freezing. Most of my camping experiences have entailed strenuous backpacking trips which we were forced to do in high school because I went to a weird high school. I actually do know a little bit about camping–as a senior in high school, we spent three weeks out in the Sierras and they also dropped us off alone for three days to contemplate existence or whatever. But guys, it’s so much better being able to camp somewhere and not have to get up at the crack of dawn and hike ten miles up a mountain carrying 40 lbs. Car-camping all the way.
One of the days, we went to Glass Beach, which was actually not as cool as I thought it was going to be, but still cool. (I guess anything that ends up being on a list of things to see in California before you die is not going to be cool, mostly because all the tourists are stealing the glass because people are terrible).
We ended our trip in a fire tower in Lassen National Forest. To get there, we drove about 6 hours due east, then hit Chico, drove about 40 miles north on 32, then turned off on an unmarked dirt road and drove up a mountain for about 20 miles. In a Prius. It was a somewhat harrowing journey, Just when we almost lost hope, we found the gate, which we were able to unlock. And there was a shed and an outhouse, and about 1000 feet walk was the cabin. And that was where we did pretty much all our hiking, was carrying our gear down from the car to the cabin (the shed was helpfully equipped with the rolly carts). The cabin was incredibly cool: there were propane lights, and a grill and running (non-potable) water, and these huge glass windows which looked out over a valley. We didn’t see another car or another person from the moment we turned off the highway.
We ended our trip with a pit stop in Chico, where my desire to visit the Sierra Nevada brewery was vetoed because god forbid we ever go to a brewery that actually sells beer you can buy in like a normal grocery store and not one located in a small unmarked warehouse that only sells gooseberry sours and quintuple IPAs and other hipster nonsense. And then we were back to Berkeley, where my friends dropped me off before heading back South to LA. And then it was Monday, and I started my (last!) first day of school, though in all honesty I think I would have rather stayed up in that fire tower.
In Case You Were Wondering. . . 
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