One of the clear problems with my mode of transportation is that I’m completely reliant upon finding a person who is not only willing to pick me up, but is going from where I am to where I want to go. It’s especially tricky when you need to take multiple roads to your destination because more than likely you’ll have to look for a new ride once each road intersects.  On day one I had a place to stay in Frederick, MD but my friend was unable to come pick me up.  My ride was kind enough to go out of his way to drop me off at a decent location on the intersecting road I was going onto that he wasn’t.  Sadly it was getting late and no one seemed to be going where I was going.  I was only 30 minutes from a nice place to stay and the chance to see an old friend, but that’s the nature of hitchhiking, you’ll not always get where you want to go in the time frame you want.

I spent the next few hours hanging out in a McDonalds enjoying the AC and Wi-Fi while putting out couch requests and contacting other people I knew in the vicinity. Sadly, none of it panned out so it was time for my backup to all other backup plans: find a place to set up camp for the night. I took a look at Google Maps and found a nice patch of woods a block away from where I was that seemed to be a no man’s land between some businesses and a residential area. I packed up my stuff then headed towards it around 11 PM.  I wandered into the wooded area and found that it was full of these large bushy things that I didn’t really know anything about.  It seemed like a pretty good place to set up camp though, so I went in far enough that I wasn’t (too) visible to the outside world and knocked down a few plants to clear a spot for my tent.  The plants were rather tall so they somewhat camouflaged me from the outside world.  I set up my tent which took no time at all, threw my gear inside and called it a night.

I remembered when I walked into the patch that I smelled the hint of a skunk nearby, but I figured my presence in the area would have it move off.  What I never considered was that there was no skunk, and that the large bushy things were the source of the odor.  In the morning when I woke up to the sound of my neighbor working on their car and a guy mowing the lawn in front of his business, the scent still lingered and I noticed my tent smelled a little strange as I was packing it up.  I sent my dad a picture of my location that night and he responded back, “Interesting terrain.  Sort of looks like skunk cabbage plants.”  Oops.  As it turned out this was indeed a skunk cabbage patch and that odor often lingers on stuff it comes in contact with.  Luckily it only seemed to cling to my tent, so I’m hoping whenever I use it next that it will air out.

It’s funny how you can figure out much more complicated matters and completely overlook something as obvious as “that’s a strange smell, maybe it’s coming from the things you’re completely surrounded by.”  The learning curve has definitely begun.