So I went camping at Mohican State Park again during the summer.

I went with my friends Josh, Jess, Pawel, Nick, Stephen, and Logan.

The first thing we did when we got there was drive over to a fire tower and climb it. I hadn't done it during my spring visit to Hocking Hills with all my friends, so I had to do it this time. Well, we got to the top and for some reason decided to take our shirts off and take a picture of us dropping them over the ledge. Hilariously, all of our shirts landed on the rungs of the tower. Josh said, "man, it's a good thing our shirt didn't land on one of these things," pointing to a little notch that we wouldn't have been able to reach. I looked down and saw my shirt and Jess's on a rung right by the platform of the staircase... and on the rung just below it was Josh's shirt. Right where it was impossible to reach. We started laughing hysterically, and three army-dude backpackers were looking at us, perplexed.

Well, we drove down to a river and stood around a bit, and then drove to the park entrance and got our campsite and everything. We waited for Nick and Stephen to show up, and Logan was coming later. So finally Nick and Stephen showed, and we went and set our tents up.

(From left to right: Pawel, Jess, Josh, Nick, and me in the front)

Immediately it started raining, and most of us ditched our shirts. We were in the middle of setting up the tents when it rained. Luckily, Jess and I finished setting up ours pretty quickly, but Josh and the others were having some trouble.

Well, afterwards, we stood around wondering what we should do. We were all shirtless and soaking. Josh wanted to try to set up a little canopy thing he had, but that didn't really work out in the end.

Needless to say, when Logan showed up and saw all of us, he was a little perplexed:

Logan: "Uh, Guys?"

Well, we decided to go on a hike through the woods. We were starting on the opposite end of the first trail I had gone on in the winter. It was cool to see all those pine trees again, this time standing more subdued against the greenery of the rest of the vegetation.

We hiked for only a little bit when people wanted to turn around to eat. Most of the group was waiting up for Logan and I, who kept stopping to look at little plant or fungi specimens.

So everyone except for Logan, Stephen and I turned around to head back to camp and eat. We continued hiking along the trail, and then decided to go off of it, down a steep slope. We slid down and sat, propped up against trees, talking and gazing at the beauty of the forest, and looking at various rocks and plants and mushrooms.

I thinkI can say with some confidence that a simple forest to me will always be more breathtakingly beautiful than the grandest man-made palace.

Well, those shining leaves were beautiful, but we eventually made our way back to the crowded campsite.

It was a far cry from the winter, all right. Hoards of people gathered close together, with their spruced up RV's and their picnic tables and their satellite dishes...

Don't get me wrong - I appreciated it on some level. The idea of a bunch of people coming into one, more natural area is awesome. But the problem was that nobody talked to each other outside of their own groups. If they weren't busy being cooped up in their air-conditioned, satellite TV-equipped "campers," they were sitting around a fire with the rest of their family, simply talking amongst themselves.

Well, our group was at least big and diverse enough so as to not really feel the need to meet anyone else.

Nick on the far right with Pawel and Josh in the background.

Jess on the left, Logan on right

Back at the campsite, we cooked some hamburgers, veggie Italian sausage (mostly for me), had some chips, some granola bars (including a wonder called SoyJoy that Logan had brought), and water. It was a great meal. We all sat around talking and laughing about how much trouble Josh had cooking the burgers, and various other things. Oh yeah, I had a can of baked beans I was cooking for Stephen (he's a vegetarian that doesn't like tofu at all), and I had to use some fishing line I borrowed from some neighbors (I guess they were actually cool... Probably should have tried talking to more people) to make a grabbing device.

Well, nighttime came and we sat around the fire, just enjoying ourselves. Josh had the fantastic idea that we should wade around in the river at dark. So after a bit of digesting and relaxing, I took off my shorts and boots (I failed to mention that I had remained shirtless thus far, as had Jess), and Josh, Stephen and I all went into the river.

Stephen on the left, Josh on the right, me in the middle in the river.

Aside from Stephen flashing everyone his junk... it was really awesome to just stand there in the river. It was very peaceful - the water flowing, the crickets chirping, the dark sky above and the trees all around... It was a very peaceful, zen moment.

And it felt so freeing to just go barefoot in that river; to let the water and the mud embrace my body. To just give in to the enveloping peace of nature and be living right there in that moment. That is what nature is about.

After all that, we dried ourselves off and packed our things up. Nick, Josh, Pawel and I went walking around the campsite. It was a beautiful light show that we got; there were hundreds of lightning bugs in the trees, and

We got into our tents, and I wrote in my journal and joked around with everyone. It was Jess, Stephen, Logan and I in one tent, and Nick, Josh, and Pawel in the other. We kept talking from tent to tent about various things (like Josh's mom - an inside joke), and at one point Josh, Nick and Pawel all came into our tent.

Sadly, we, uh... were not drunk.

Anyhow, morning came, and we had some breakfast. I had the last veggie sausage, and we had donuts and juice and water and toasted up some pop tarts on the fire. So much junk food...

We went canoeing after packing up, which was fantastic. Though it wasn't the most wilderness area (mostly a river surrounded by farm), it still felt very nature-esque. The trees hanging down from the banks looked beautiful. I was paired with Nick in a canoe; Jess with Logan and Stephen; Josh was with Pawel.

We tipped a lot of times. At one point, Nick and I saw a little inlet and decided to paddle upstream till we got into it. It was awesome. There was a little creek and we got around, walking about. Judging by the beer cans, some farmers had sat on those muddy banks before. On the way back out, I saw someone peeing. It was really fun though, exploring the place.

Everybody tipped a bunch, and despite the fact that Stephen lost his shirt and glasses, it was cool to feel all the water around me and not be bothered by it.

After that, Logan, Nick and Stephen left. The rest of us went to a Pizza Hut or something to eat, which was quite satisfying. After that, we went to Pleasant Hill Dam and went on part of a precarious trail I had been on during the winter. Unfortunately, Jess and Josh weren't willing to go all the way to the point that had inspired me so much last time.

Jess up on a rock. We explored off the trail a bit, and it was reminiscent of Hocking Hills's landscape.

But it was still fun, and I was shirtless and barefoot the whole time. We even saw a snake!

Glad I didn't step on that with my bare feet...

Well, it felt great to be so naked in the wilderness. I really did feel more connected to the earth. Like I was part of the natural world. It's amazing how comfortable you can be without shoes or a shirt (permitting the weather is okay), and how little we really need out there.