This weekend I signed up for a yoga camping adventure.
Yoga! Camping! And I took my bike, so biking!! Yes, yes, yes!
Since I had my own gear and didn’t specifically need any resources, Koko, the organizer of the event and owner of Urban Wilderness Yoga invited me to come up on Friday, a day earlier than the other folks. I got a late start, since I didn’t pack my stuff on Thursday. I had to take care of some bike maintenance stuff that evening. Then I had an interview Friday evening, so I couldn’t pack until I got home from that.
I arrived around 7:30, about 45 minutes before sunset. I was able to set up camp and cook some dinner before the rain came. Then I ate my sausages and cut up bell peppers in my tent after rescuing anything that shouldn’t stay out in the rain. I went to bed early-ish. It rained off-and-on all night. Around 1:30 I heard my neighbors complaining loudly about a light. That was frustrating. Then they woke up at 6:30 and started talking loudly again.
So much for sleeping in…
But the morning was rain free and glorious. I made coffee with my stove. I took my time getting up and about. I went on a couple of bike rides to pick up things I’d left in my car. The bike rode really smoothly. My racks were a little loose, but I tightened them
and the bike was nearly silent as I rode down the bike path. The air was cool and the breeze flowed through my hair.
Soon enough others started to arrive. Some were late, so things were staggered. Eventually, we achieved some sort of quorum, so we started getting to know each other and eventually went and had a nice, vegan lunch together, courtesy of Farmacy in Tampa. A jerk tempeh wrap and curried chickpeas for me. Yum!
Soon after lunch, we went kayaking, but dark clouds and the threat of thunder shortened our trip. It was peaceful. We saw a couple of gators on the trip, a turtle or two. The critters are cool, but I find the river itself to be amazing. It’s a perennial river that actually hits bedrock. I want to say this is rare in Florida, where the “bedrock” is largely calcium carbonate. It’s usually more like chalk than true rock. The old trees leaning over the river are majestic and enduring. Some look dead near the bottom, but when you look up they still host a canopy of green leaves.
We beat the rain with our short, but nice, kayak trip. We risked the weather again with a hike. It started raining, but there was no thunder. The rain was light as we hiked up the river this time, instead of down-river like during kayaking, towards the rapids. From above we saw a large gator, perhaps 8 or 9 feet long, lounging in the water. A baby gator, maybe 3 feet long, was on the shore basking in the sun.
The rapids were impressive. Apparently, they are a Class 2. It felt like fairies or elves might live there.
As cool as the rapids were, I was enthralled by the effects of erosion. Roots from the trees were visible, creating cool patterns and offering habitat for a host of other critters: mosses, ferns, spiders, mushrooms, ants… In some places, the wood was worn smooth by water and time.
We turned back and stopped at a huge cypress. The bottom looked dead and had a huge part that was rotted out. Big enough for a human to step inside! People stopped to get pictures there. I kept exploring along the river. Eventually, I got separated from the group and headed back camp. I took a nap. It was around 5:30, and I’d been up since 6:30. Kayaking and hiking wore me out!
After a while the group returned. I heard them and began to wake. Next on the docket was an asana practice (i.e. yoga practice). I haven’t been practicing regularly. I stopped teaching my Monday evening class due to lack of enrollment a few weeks back. My personal practice has been gone for quite awhile now. Ever since fatigue set in from the school year, so that was in October, perhaps.
The sound of the rain accompanying our practice was soothing and perfect. The practice itself gave my body just what it needed. My lower back and hips have been sore, as they often are. After the practice I felt lighter and those areas felt much better.
After yoga was dinner. I’m not sure of the names of the dishes, but everything was vegan, fresh, and delicious. Dinner was followed by S’mores fudge. It didn’t taste very S’mores-y, but it was still delicious.
After that I watched the bats come out over the river. There were dozens of them! It was amazing to watch them zip around in the air to catch their prey as they sky changed from overcast to a melding of pinks, oranges, and purples. I was very thankful to the bats for helping to keep the mosquito population down, and I even heard some of them squeaking in the air. Maybe they said, “You’re welcome”?
I worked to get a fire going after dinner. Nothing complements camping better than a campfire. Our wood was wet, as it had been sitting out all day while it rained. I helped out the process by using kerosene from my camp stove fuel bottle. Eventually the wood caught and burned on its own. I watched it until it burned out awhile later and went to bed.
Yoga was on the agenda first thing in the morning. It was still raining. Our practices took place in a covered common building with screened windows and a roof. So we stayed dry but we were surrounded by rain. The practice was a little more physical than I was looking for, so I concentrated on poses that stretched my back and hips while I also focused on my breathing. Sometimes I would resynch with the group, and then slow down and hold poses so I could get the maximum effect from them. Perhaps the style couple be labeled as “restorative flow.” The rain was a nice accompaniment to the entire practice.
Breakfast ran a little slow after the practice, so I went back to the tent to start packing up as much as I could. When I returned, delicious vegan breakfast breads were out, again courtesy of Farmacy Vegan Kitchen in Tampa. I’m not vegan, and some vegan sweets have left me skeptical about tasty vegan food. But these breads were sweet and rich, with no “weird” flavors lingering around. I tried two different types just to be sure.
It was still raining with no real end in sight, so I said my goodbyes and packed up the rest of my camp. I was home by noon. I took a nap before unpacking my bags.
Historically camping in the rain hasn’t been my favorite thing. It usually ends up with me getting a lot of reading done in my tent. Not bad in and of itself, but tiring with inactivity. So I’m glad to have gotten a different experience this time around. It was nice meeting new people, though admittedly I wasn’t in a super get-to-know-you sort of mood this weekend. Still, one of the women is from St. Pete, and we connected. She may end up coming to St. Pete Critical Mass sometime.
Too this trip gave me peace of mind about my gear for my bike tour. With all of the rain, my tent didn’t leak. My raincoat works.