Issue Eight · August 4, 2026
I Recommend · Latest Poem · Send Rob Things to Feature Here
I Recommend… Solo Camping (A Visual Story)
These are my feet on a mysterious canal in Baxter State Park. What follows is a story told in pics and videos. All to sell you on the idea of solo camping.
🤓 A smiling nerd emoji means I have a suggestion.
🤓 Suggestion #1: Do your solo camping in a big wilderness like Baxter State Park.
🤓 In Baxter, you can get a key from rangers at the cabins and campgrounds. They may send you down this trail. Bring the key, paddle, and life jacket.
Less than a mile in. The key fits. And…
🤓 Float
⇤ This is a video
Where are you taking me, canal? Warm raindrops make the softest sound on the water. A warbler cheeps, at home in this pure air.
Carnivorous plants, the first I’ve ever seen in the wild. Pitcher plants, filled with a fly’s last sip of nectar.
What the heck? Pineapples?
It takes me a while to figure it out. The yellow-cup flowers and floating leaves of lily pads have alien monster roots below.
A companion on misty Lost Pond.
Under the water at right is the trail…
Video ⇥
🤓 Make your reservation at Baxter the old-fashioned way: phone call. Have their web page of campsites open before you call. They’ll help you choose a site and give some essential info.
In the video, trees were so thick, I had to stick to the trail, wet boots in steep, rocky, shin-deep snow melt. AKA, why I suggest calling the park before you go! They’ll tell you about hikes that fit the season. I’m stubborn.
Further up the stream-covered trail, I find an ice pick
I put it in my pack and bring it to the ranger station. The ranger says he knows who it belongs to!
🤓 Schlep your chair to a pond’s edge in late afternoon.
Wow, there’s nothing at all going on! Woodland creatures must smell my b.o. a mile away…
Nothing but dragonflies riding the air and bullfrogs burping. Twilight sets in.
Honest truth, I look over my shoulder and think, why is there a horse in the pond?
It’s a moose, of course, with water pouring from the mud and weed sandwich in its mouth.
The first moose I’d seen after five trips to Baxter. This is why I suggest settling in pond-side with a chair.
🤓 Talk to yourself, act ridiculous, nobody’s watching.
🤓 My final pitch for solo camping: ponds so clear you can see every rock below the water. Voices fade away and your mind may settle. You might be feeling grateful.
If you want to mix it up, try solar-powered writing.
Latest Poem
My Mule
From behind the wicked fence,
Staring, my mule
would eat hay.
I would spend hay
to own a creature, and trade
stares. She would
watch me raking leaves, watch
them fall again tomorrow,
would take an offered carrot to crunch,
flipping up her lip to show big teeth.
A mule
in my yard. Our nephew
would put his arms around
her neck and press
his face there. My mule
would know
a little more about us crazy people.
I would shovel
the shit at her feet,
looking for my bewilderment
in her face.
Send Rob Things to Feature in the Forgiving Nature Post
Please send a story, essay or image that might fit in this newsletter. Pieces already on other websites/publications are fine (they’ll be credited). The concept of the newsletter is described here: Forgiving Nature.