Building Basecamp, One Slow Step at a Time

By Tom Neal
Bigfoot Trails Basecamp | Independent Adventure Media

We've always wanted a place in the woods where friends and family could gather and enjoy each other's company. For a long time, I wanted to build a "biker campground," and we've thought about doing it with this property.

We finally got the property. Of course, that's when things got complicated.

Because of my physical issues, things were basically halted for a while. Now, progress is at a snail's pace at best. If I'm lucky, I can work on the mini excavator for two or three hours, but I usually pay for it with a day or two of downtime afterward.

Physical work with my hands is about the same. Maybe two hours in a day, and definitely not two days in a row. Again, I pay for it dearly for the next day or two.

If that's not one of those "two steps forward and one step back" situations, or one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" clichés, I don't know what is.

But I'm lucky in another way.

My son now owns a dump truck business, and when he bought the business, it came with a skid steer and a road grader. We already had the basics of our driveway punched in, but he pretty much finished it off for me.

That was a hell of a help.

We've also been able to work on little spots and trails here and there. Nothing happens quickly anymore, but things are still happening.

Clearing the area for a house has been put on hold because of this "illness," I guess you can call it. But we've started looking at the property a little differently. If we can't build a house, we're going to make this place a fun little campground.

We finally got our gathering spot opened up and semi-set up.

There's still more to do, but at least we have a bench, a swing, a couple of tables, and some plants in there now. It's a cozy little spot, and it's starting to feel like what we've always imagined.

Eventually, we'd like to build a patio area with a table and chairs and a barbecue. Again, that's going to happen at snail pace.

Hell, maybe sloth pace.

The opening for a fire pit is roughed in, but that's not in any big hurry. We'll get to it when we get to it.

We still have plans for a greenhouse, too, so eventually we'll be able to grow some vegetables here. And with two awesome grandkids now, we want to build a cool play area for them.

None of this is happening the way I imagined it would.

I pictured getting the property, getting to work, building things, clearing trails, making gathering areas, and eventually building our house. Instead, everything has slowed down to a crawl, and sometimes even that feels optimistic.

But I have to say, if I'm going to be down and not able to do the things I want to do, at least I'm "stuck" in a peaceful place.

That's something.

If we still lived in town, I wouldn't have the need for all these projects, and I'd still be living in a real house. But you know what?

Homelessness isn't really all that bad here.

I've been homeless before, and I've been in a hell of a lot worse situation than this.

So I ain't gonna bitch about it.

I've got twenty acres, a bunch of projects that aren't going anywhere, and a place where friends and family can eventually come hang out.

We'll get there.

It'll just take a while.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Neal is the founder of Bigfoot Trails Basecamp, an independent adventure media project built around real experiences. He’s spent most of his life around vehicles, motorcycles, racing, travel, and projects that tend to take longer and cost more than originally planned.

After decades of doing all that stuff, he’s learned that the best stories usually aren’t the ones you planned. They’re the people you meet, the places you stumble across, the things that go wrong, and the moments you never expected.

That’s what he wants to capture with BTB.

He doesn’t want to write about adventure from the outside. He wants to go experience it, then tell you what happened.

Bigfoot Trails Basecamp | Independent Adventure Media