Originally posted elsewhere with the title Cartoon Magic Trick on 2013/03/02.
See the short, fat tree in front that kind of looks like a pineapple? We camped behind a tree of that species for a few months. My son scouted the area and told me there was one campable spot and brought us there. And I said "No way. There's no cover."
We decided to stay one night. It was late and getting cold and so on. But it turned out to be such a great spot, we stayed for several weeks, on two different occasions.
It was a really neat experience. It reminded us of cartoons where a character sticks their head out from behind a lamp post or twig of a tree. Or a tank hiding behind a mailbox. It was ridiculous to be hiding a tent behind a single tree, even if some of the leaves hung down and created more cover than the tree in the above photo provides.
We eventually realized it worked so well in part because it was ridiculous. It worked so well precisely because everyone thought what I thought: You cannot be serious. You cannot hide a tent behind a single tree.
So it was so stealthy in part because it looked so unstealthy. It felt like we were part of a magician's stage trick. We learned a lot about subtlety and stealth and human perception from that campsite.
See the short, fat tree in front that kind of looks like a pineapple? We camped behind a tree of that species for a few months. My son scouted the area and told me there was one campable spot and brought us there. And I said "No way. There's no cover."
We decided to stay one night. It was late and getting cold and so on. But it turned out to be such a great spot, we stayed for several weeks, on two different occasions.
It was a really neat experience. It reminded us of cartoons where a character sticks their head out from behind a lamp post or twig of a tree. Or a tank hiding behind a mailbox. It was ridiculous to be hiding a tent behind a single tree, even if some of the leaves hung down and created more cover than the tree in the above photo provides.
We eventually realized it worked so well in part because it was ridiculous. It worked so well precisely because everyone thought what I thought: You cannot be serious. You cannot hide a tent behind a single tree.
So it was so stealthy in part because it looked so unstealthy. It felt like we were part of a magician's stage trick. We learned a lot about subtlety and stealth and human perception from that campsite.