My eyes pop wide open. Snuggled deep in my down sleeping bag at 2:00 in the morning, I was working very hard to ignore the pleadings of my full bladder.
What was that?! I heard a strange snuffly snorting. There it was again. Crap, it sounded like it could be a bear.
I unzipped my tent door and rain fly thinking that if it were indeed a bear repeatedly snorting snuffly, I'd try to scare it off before it did any damage. I stuck my head out and looked around. Nothing - no bears to be seen. Standing up, intending to make my bladder happy again, I heard the noise once more. This time I identified its source: Wendy's tent. I managed not to guffaw loudly, but I did smile and shake my head as I wandered off to the bushes. It's a good thing we were sleeping in different tents!
After a five-hour drive, including 60 miles of rough gravel road made worse by road construction, we arrived at the Kennicott River bridge. Despite attempts to pack lightly, our backpacks were ridiculously huge as we trudged across the foot bridge. Luckily, there was a shuttle van that could give us a lift to the Wrangell Mountains Center in the little town of McCarthy a mile or so away. McCarthy is a former mining town associated with the Kennicott copper mine, and now exists as a private in-holding in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Kristen greeted us at the center and escorted us to the recommended camping area, essentially just a brushy area with small clearings appropriate for tents. No other amenities were available, not even outhouses (except the one about half a mile away). We set up our tents and wandered back to the center for an orientation, dinner, and discussion of the art materials we brought with us.
After the above activities, we wandered down to McCarthy Creek to do a bit of meditative drawing. The idea was to choose something complicated, but not too complex, to draw, and also jot down notes on our thoughts while we drew. After a time, however long we chose, we were to read our notes and write a paragraph based on them.
After a reasonably restful night (no grunting bears the first night), we were back at the WMC for breakfast. This organization seems to be run by wanna-be hippies, and serves only vegetarian food. With one exception, the food was pretty good. I loved rhubarb sauce over steel-cut oats the first morning, and over granola the second morning. "Fish head" soup made with a miso base, however, was disgusting. The main problem with the meals was that there seemed to be no consideration given to ensuring a balanced diet that contained complete protien combinations. Instead, it was heavy on carbohydrates and light on everything else, including vegetables. Sorry, but I'm just too much of a carnivore to settle for that diet for long!
Our first exercise on Saturday involved the freedom to wander around while making an event map. Not a map intended to give directions, an event map instead records what you see, hear, etc. that makes an impression. The idea came from A Trail Through Leaves: The Journal as a Path to Place by Hannah Hinchman. I really enjoyed this exercise and intend to do it again, hopefully repeatedly. It's a way to focus on the small things around you as you search for things to record.
While on our walk, we were to collect a leaf to paint on a small watercolor card. I chose a lupine leaf, and also painted the aspen leaf Wendy collected.
It seemed impossible to believe that we actually spent two hours painting these small things. Our concentration was so great that the time just flew by.
In the afternoon, the majority of the group walked up McCarthy Creek to make notes on and paint what they saw. Wendy wasn't feeling up to a hike, so we wandered back to our tents and painted what we saw there. I was particularly taken with the Dryas plants (aka mountain avens) that had gone to seed. The corkscrew seed heads were remarkably Suess-ish. I wasn't particularly happy with my sketches of them, or of the plentiful soapberry bushes and grasses with red seed heads, but playing with paint was a great way to spend a beautiful, sunny afternoon.
Despite being awoken by my bladder and the "bear," I slept well in my little tent. I woke up about 5:00 on Sunday to the pitter-patter of fat rain drops and gusts of wind flapping my rain fly. It sounded like a proper little storm, but was really just enough to get our tents wet before we packed them. We agreed that, given a bit of strong rope, we could have flown them like kites. It was a good thing we were there to help each other break camp.
The art topic of the day was landscapes. I managed to get one little sketch done of McCarthy Creek and a mountain before rain forced me back inside. Once back indoors, I tried to render my sketch as a monochromatic value study, but my skills weren't up to doing it very well. Kristin tried to give me some ideas for improving it, but while I intellectually understood what she was trying to tell me, I couldn't quite get how to put it down on paper. And honestly, I was too tired to care much.
I am disappointed in my artistic performance this weekend. It is unrealistic to expect to be adept at a skill when I never practice. I love painting, but don't do much of it because I want my first attempts to be wonderful. I took this workshop looking for a kick in the butt to get me painting more. I'm inspired. Hopefully I can morph inspiration into practice. McCarthy, however, was wonderful, and I hope to spend more time there hiking, writing, sketching, and painting.
