I just came back from a week in the Scottish Highlands. For one afternoon of this week long, wife-and-I vacation, we were able to meet up with a few members of The Kearvaig Pipe Club on their Annual General Meeting. Their club meets not monthly for a couple hours in tobacconists or smoke-friendly pubs (niether exist up there), but for 3-4 days of pipe smoking, drinking, and tomfoolery in remote, hike-in wildness huts set up along long distance walking trails throughout the wild country.
Now, I only intersected with the meeting for a few hours on their second day, so I couldn't tell you how badly they ultimately smelled or how hard they walked between huts, but I can tell you that they were well provisioned, friendly, and in great spirits for the effort they were undertaking. Especially considering how much liquid weight they were packing in.
In the time we were able to spend with them, I became absolutely inspired by this idea of a pipe smoking wilderness adventure club. Surely there is a remote, hike-in only cabin or lodge in the Smokies, the North Woods, the Cascades, the Rockies, or the Desert Southwest at the end of a few miles of rugged trail where 5-10 reasonably fit persons could smoke pipes and sip from packed-in hooch before settling into bags or bunks for the night.
Before I start really digging around for one, though - a quick survey: how many folks here are of a mind and in such a shape as could undertake this? Could a half dozen of us get to the same part of the country for 4-6 days in the fall (after tourists and bugs have died down)? If a plurality of those interested are in one region, logistics might get easier, but I don't really know. I could get away with a long weekend almost any time of year and own gear to camp between about 30-90°f. Connecting flights to small airports and rental car drives push on that time, of course, but I am willing to make it work.
I will remind you all, tho I doubt I need to, that Earnest Shackleton and nearly all our favorite explorers and naturalists were pipe smokers. Let's strap some boots on and have a bowl somewhere daring in their tradition.
Now, I only intersected with the meeting for a few hours on their second day, so I couldn't tell you how badly they ultimately smelled or how hard they walked between huts, but I can tell you that they were well provisioned, friendly, and in great spirits for the effort they were undertaking. Especially considering how much liquid weight they were packing in.
In the time we were able to spend with them, I became absolutely inspired by this idea of a pipe smoking wilderness adventure club. Surely there is a remote, hike-in only cabin or lodge in the Smokies, the North Woods, the Cascades, the Rockies, or the Desert Southwest at the end of a few miles of rugged trail where 5-10 reasonably fit persons could smoke pipes and sip from packed-in hooch before settling into bags or bunks for the night.
Before I start really digging around for one, though - a quick survey: how many folks here are of a mind and in such a shape as could undertake this? Could a half dozen of us get to the same part of the country for 4-6 days in the fall (after tourists and bugs have died down)? If a plurality of those interested are in one region, logistics might get easier, but I don't really know. I could get away with a long weekend almost any time of year and own gear to camp between about 30-90°f. Connecting flights to small airports and rental car drives push on that time, of course, but I am willing to make it work.
I will remind you all, tho I doubt I need to, that Earnest Shackleton and nearly all our favorite explorers and naturalists were pipe smokers. Let's strap some boots on and have a bowl somewhere daring in their tradition.
: :clap: