I find this anti-homeless campaign utterly shameful and a huge waste of resources. Instead of helping families and individuals in extreme poverty, this city is ridiculing each and every homeless person. I am very surprised to find such a conservative and ill-informed advertising in modern day Europe (Nottingham, UK).
This blogger has some interesting thoughts regarding the homeless and recognizes that not everybody who lives off-grid can be labeled “homeless”. Nice read.
Living in Southern California where the weather is pretty nice nearly all year long, we have our issues with “homeless”. It’s an interesting dilemma as I think the homeless can be broken out into three major buckets: A) Mentally ill, B) Addicts/Alcoholics (probably a sub classification of “A”), and C) those that are down due to unemployment and genuinely can’t secure employment and somehow, even after years of contributing, seem to have fallen through the cracks. I’m no expert in this area, but have worked with the ‘alcoholic/addict’ variety quite a bit over the years and have seen many incredible transformations once the cycle of addiction is broken. Tonight, as the kids and I were driving home from their youth group, we passed by this ‘tent city’ under the 405 freeway overpass on Venice Blvd. What I found interesting was the couple that was sitting in front of their tent…
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![IMG_20160312_143326[1]](https://standalonehobo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/img_20160312_1433261.jpg)
I discovered this site a couple years back after reading a review about a cute, little camping area in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. Excitedly I packed my stuff, jotted down some directions and headed for the road. After passing through a narrow canyon and a small town, I continued my journey on a small mountain highway. The ride was most delightful and, as usual, I felt the weight of society lift off my shoulders.
“Well, this can´t be right”, I exclaimed as I entered a dead-end mountain neighborhood about an hour later. After verifying that the road in fact ended at a large barn, I decided to head back to the main road. Either I´d find the actual camp site or stay at a different one; it really didn´t matter to me. The area itself was beautiful; just a single lonely road curving around mountains and leading up and down the hills of an old pine forest. No cell phone reception for 20 miles either way and barely any houses around. Perfect! Now I only needed to find that darn camp site.
After another 30 minutes, I was slowly but surely loosing my nature induced cool. I decided to follow the directions one last time and see where I´d end up. Again, I found myself on the dirt road leading to the neighborhood. “Damnit”, I shouted when I saw a “No Forest Access” sign by the road , and angrily looked for a place to turn around. As I pulled over, I realized that the shoulder was unusually large. Then, it hit me: it wasn´t a shoulder at all, but a well camouflaged dirt road. The road was badly washed out, and I am pretty sure I heard ´are you out of your mind?´ coming from my SUV as I began making my way down that hill.
Deep trenches, randomly distributed mounds, and loose rocks made the descent difficult to say the least. Soon my car began making hollow distress sounds, which undoubtedly originated from the unevenly distributed pressure on the vehicle´s frame. We began tilting sideways and I could feel my hands beginning to sweat out of fear I might tip over. This, thankfully, did not happen and instead I gazed upon a gate as we turned the corner! This was it! I found it!
On my way back up the hill
This is about as good as that road gets
Although, I was glad to have reached the national forest in one piece, I was rather confused. The description online claimed RV´s could easily access the camp ground. After bouncing down that sad excuse of a road, I´d call bull on that. As I reached the gate, I realized what was going on. In big letters a sign stated “Entering burned area. Falling trees & rocks. Flash floods possible”. Unfortunately, I´ve seen many of these signs in Colorado in recent years due to the 2012 fires (read more here and here). The review regarding the camp ground must have been written before a fire devastated the area.
About half of the landscape was littered with dead trees, while the area further south remained untouched. The roads were mostly washed out and impossible to pass with any non four-wheel-drive vehicle. Lower areas were prone to flash flooding and mud slides, as trees no longer grew roots to stabilize the ground. This is great! I had found myself the perfect spot! Difficult to access and “ugly” enough for the mainstreamers to stay out of my hair, yet right next to a beautiful forest. I found myself a nice little bay right off the “road” and soon this spot became one of my favorite.
My last weekend there was a rainy one. I built myself a little rain shelter and covered my firewood with bark to keep it dry. I had explored everything within a 5 mile radius in the past and thus wasn´t particularly motivated to go hiking. Instead, I spent my weekend reading, staring at the fire, collecting firewood, cooking, and enjoying nature. What a life! Despite the beauty of the forest, there is also a darkness that lingers in the area. Surely, the massive fields of dead trees to the north contribute to the feeling, yet I am not sure that´s all there is to it. Especially at night, when all forests typically look the same, there is something slightly unsettling about the area. I have never seen the moon up there. Not once in over two years. Millions upon millions of stars, but the moon always seems to be hiding behind one of the mountains.
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The sun hiding behind the clouds
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I hadn’t been able to pick up my laundry from my storage unit and thus, for the first time in months, decided to head south Saturday morning instead of Friday night. I work south of town most Saturdays and my favorite laundromat is located in the same area, so I usually spent Friday night at a parking lot down there, go to work, and then do my laundry nearby.
I checked the local news yesterday and the first picture that popped up caught my eye. “Ha, that looks like one of my spots”, I thought. The realization hit me several seconds later. The picture that accompanied a report regarding a fatal shooting on Friday night was MY SPOT. No, I don’t mean it was close by or just in the same parking lot. The shooting happened exactly in the spot I would have been parked in, if I had followed my usual routine.
Naturally, hundreds of questions raced through my mind. Would I have noticed a disturbance prior to the shooting and left? Would the police have tracked me down as a witness? Would the person have parked somewhere else if I had been there? Could I have gotten hurt or killed that night?
My friends, I decided a few years ago to find a balance between nature and society, and have lived pretty well for the most part. However, everything comes with a price and the price I am paying to spend some of my time within society, sometimes seems too high to bear. Sometimes I want to simply leave all of it behind. Screw people, screw society, and most of all screw all this damn hate. I will be moving this summer and may be able to park on a friend’s property from then on. That would certainly be nice.
Take care and stay safe!
These can come in handy if you find yourself in a new place and need to figure out your surroundings quickly! Personally, I typically rely on my scouting skills to find good places to sleep, rest, and hide out from the cops, but I do pay attention to “Camp here” and “Cops active” signs.
Living the Dream 