I’ve been suffering from olfactory blues lately, an odd affliction, really. It started with a yearning for the smell that greets you when you wake up in forest in the northeast on a summer morning, after a night of camping, with a tale or two told around the campfire. There is a fresh, dewy green smell from the foliage, combined with a damp smoky trace from the embers - the smell to me is happiness, excitement and contentment rolled into one.

I’ve been hinting pushing for a family camping trip, all summer, but I’m getting some resistance. The resistance is entirely realistic and grounded in a fairly correct assessment of our current situation, but that hasn’t dissuaded me. Rather than barreling over my family with bruit force, I am trying to be more subtle. We are starting with day trips to the local state parks.

I believe that there are two kinds of people in this world, river/ocean people and lake people. My father was a lake person, my husband is a lake person, my son is leaning towards being a lake person. If the water doesn’t move, I don’t really want to be around it, and I tell you this because it predisposes me to favor certain kinds of state parks, which will be come perfectly clear.

Several weeks ago, I thought I’d broach the camping subject very carefully by proposing that we go check out the camping sites at Savoy State Part. Savoy is the closest to our house (a mere 1.8 miles from our home, if we needed to break down camp and be home in 15 minutes.) DH summed up the trip nicely on his blog shortly after the event. Savoy may have rivers in the park, but this is a pond campground, so I wasn’t too eager to go back.

Two weeks ago, we strapped the bike, trailer and the wee ride seat on the car and headed downhill a bit to the Windsor State Forest. DH dropped the kids and I off at the top of the road leading to the campground, we rode our bikes downhill and met him at the point where they damn up the river to make a swimming hole. DH and the kids fished while I sat at a picnic table and knit. We then drove up and hiked around the Windsor Jambs, which were just incredible. The park had campgrounds, as well as a fairly small circuit of trails. Being a river park, this one rated much higher on my scale, and I was starting to put together more pieces of the camping puzzle.

Last weekend we met up with another couple we know from swimming lesson and their daughter and at Clarksburg State Park. We got there a little early and drove a lap around the campground, which was much more crowded than the previous two had been. As we drove around, I rolled down my window and stuck my head out like a puppy yearning for the breeze. The smell was dense, musty and green but it wasn’t quite the smell I needed, that I remembered. We met up at the beach on the opposite side of the pond from the campground and had a perfectly lovely day. I knit like a fiend on a sock I was trying to finish, the kids played, the men fished, the moms chatted. And it was a perfectly lovely park, for a pond park that is.

I think my next proposal may have some appeal. DH has consented to consider spending the night in a yurt, and I’ve found a state park with one that still has a few available nights left. October Mountain State Forest, south of here in Lee is the largest state park in the system. It has lakes, streams and more trails than I could hope to cover in one day.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll find a way to cure these olfactory blues before the season passes and I’ll have to wait till next year.

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*Up until a few minutes ago minute ago, when I searched, I could have sworn that the name of this song was Olfactory Blues. Turns out the name is actually Lawn Boy. Here are the actual lyrics:

Phish - Lawn Boy Lyrics

Throughout the night
when there’s no direct light
and a thin veil of clouds
keeps the stars out of sight

I can smell the colors
outside on my lawn
the moist green organic
that my feet tread upon

and the black oleander
surrounded by blues
I’m soon overwhelmed
by olfactory hues

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Related Links:
No Child Left Inside - a special initiative designed to encourage Massachusetts families and visitors to enjoy all the recreational resources and outdoor activities that Massachusetts state parks have to offer! From Cape Cod, to Boston to the Berkshire Hills, it’s time to discover the fresh air and fun of the great outdoors!

Department of Conservation and Recreation the state agency that oversees the state parks.

Berkshire Botanical Garden, where the above photo was taken of Alex’s fairee house.

Reserve America an online reservation system for campgrounds in North America.