Do bears Schmidt in the woods?

Jun 26

Jun 26 Do bears Schmidt in the woods?

I've met some pretty cool people though my gig at the plant shop, one of which invited me and my fellow ginger co-worker, Signe, to shoot some natural toiletry products for a local company.

For the shoot, we drove out to Lake Kachess, about an hour east of Seattle. After searching for a campsite at a secret spot Brandon, our photographer and driver, knew, gathering some firewood, and losing his knife in the process, he admitted the location didn't look as good as he'd remembered it, so we went to the actual campsite on the lake instead.

We decided on a numbered site only to learn that the car in front of us in line at the entrance hut had taken it when we went to pay, and so settling for our second favorite, there down a blanket while Brandon eagerly set up our little camp for the night. And tried to get a signal on his phone.

After the redheaded talent had applied enough sunscreen to allow ourselves to safely don bathing suits, we headed down to the water. Which was freezing. And while beautiful, was made slightly less so when Brandon's pooch, Lux, jumped in and began churning all the dirt into the water with her doggie paddling.

We scrubbed with soap, balancing on floating logs, and let Brandon white balance his shots off our obnoxiously pale bodies until he decided he'd taken enough pictures. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around the sunny campsite, taking photos of various soaps, deodorants, and toothpaste until we could rationalize starting the fire and getting dinner going.

Signe, an excellent and enthusiastic cook, had planned dinner, and though appropriately simple for a campsite, it was excellent. Believe it or not, she didn't just cook it — broccoli, sausage, and kimchi — for us to take photos of. We actually ate it too, uncorked some wine, and delicious it was.

We were only staying for a brief 24 hours, thankfully as I'm not a particularly outdoorsy person, but I really ruddy enjoyed laying out swatting mosquitoes off my legs while gazing up at the darkening night sky from the blanket we'd arranged under a tree and dubbed our "wine lounge".

I also made a smart decision in taking the car as my sleeping compartment, rather than the hammock or the tent which Brandon and Signe happily took respectively. Happily until it began raining in the middle of the night. I did offer to let them join me in the car when I woke up to the sound of water hitting the windows, but by that time I think they'd resolved to jump into the single person tent Signe was in — Brandon, Signe, and Lux. At least one of us got a good night's sleep, I suppose? Easy for me to say when it was me who got said good night's sleep.