Camping. It's a word that is applied to a range of activities. For some, camping means taking the RV to a park, hooking up to the electricity and turning on the television. For others, camping is all about living rough: backpacking with minimum gear to a remote lake and sleeping beneath the stars. I like it somewhere in between those disparities. I'm happy with 'car camping.' That is, pack as much stuff into the car as it will hold, drive to a nice campground, put up the tent and relax by the bonfire. Stiff back from sleeping on a bumpy surface and misty breath in the early morning air are part of the thrill, but there is the handy car, ready for retreat if the weather turns nasty or the neighbors get much too loud.

 Because of those neighbors, I sometimes wish for more of a get-away. Although people surely camp for a variety of reasons, one if the most common must be communion with nature. This is not an easy feeling to experience in a campground packed with a few hundred other families. You end up being at very close range with more strangers than you would ever tolerate at home. That's expected in a campground, but you can find ways to increase your chances of camping solitude.

 For starters, if you do prefer to stay in campgrounds and to have your car handy, try staying in the more primitive grounds. The ones with outhouses instead of bath-houses and no electricity are a lot less populated, not surprisingly. Also, they generally don't use the reservation system, so part of the adventure is to show up and see what's available.

 Now, if you are willing to camp outside designated camping grounds, you can do this in most U.S. National Forests. This way, you can still car-camp, and have a bit of privacy. Make it part of the camping trip experience to use forest service maps and locate your excellent spot. Once you've found it, you can return many times, so it's worth investing the time to search for just the right place. Leave the area like it was when you found it. Pack out your trash, have no fire when prohibited, etc. Aside from being the right thing to do, when you leave the place like it was when you found it, other people might never notice it, and it will be waiting for you next time.

 Canoe camping is one of my preferred ways to achieve camping solitude. Canoe camping works a few different ways, depending on the water situation. If you're at a lake, it is often a matter of simply paddling to the opposite shore from the designated campground. On a river, you'll need at least one companion for a shuttle. Choose your put-in and pull-out using the excellent maps you'll be carrying with you. The maps will also help you locate camping spots along the way of your river run. For this remote get-away method to be fun and safely carried out, I advise good advance planning, including some pre-event scouting.

 Once you've identified places to have these sorts of camping trips, with part of the thrill being to scout and explore various possibilities, campgrounds never have quite the same appeal. Speaking figuratively, you've carved out your own little niche, and by taking good care in how you use them, the places will remain your own private camping grounds.

 Samantha Jaden is a contributing author to News About Camping the leading resource for camping information. Visit Samantha's archive of articles at http://www.acamping.com.

 My next in a series of unfortunate hunts took me to Oklahoma in the middle of October 2004. For those who are new to this story, you need to go read the first installment in the December 2004 issue of The Bullet. It begins the story of my 2004 deer hunting and how bad luck seemed to latch onto to me like a hungry tick. This story continues that failed effort. Call it bad luck, a curse, bad mojo or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, my hunting trips have met with little success. Anyway, on with the story.

  The drive to southeast Oklahoma started off in the pouring rain. Was this a bad omen? As I think back, it might have been but at the time my spirits were high with the anticipation of hunting somewhere new and exciting. And of course to making new friends. My high spirits still didn't wane even after getting delayed in two traffic jams due to car accidents.

 Eight hours later I found myself checking into a motel in Stigler, Oklahoma about forty five minutes from my final destination, McCurtain. McCurtain is close to the Robert Kerr Reservoir southwest of Muskogee. Needless to say I had that old Merle Haggard song stuck in my head for quite awhile. You know the one, Okee From Muskogee. " I'm proud to be an Okee form Musskogee"... damn it! Get out of there!

 The next morning I met up with my host for the week, David Falconer and another fellow hunter, Barry Long. Barry, who traveled over from Georgia is a scout for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. I enjoyed talking baseball with him later on that evening at camp.

 David's ranch it turned out was nearly 1200 acres of prime deer habitat. Mountains covered with red and white oaks, river bottoms covered with oaks and open pasture land. Placed in strategic locations around the property were food plots and automatic feeders. Unfortunately the food plots had just about dried up from the high temperatures and the lack of rain but the feeders were in full use. There also were several treestands already in place that we could use if we desired.

 After setting up camp, we fired up the ATV'S and David showed us around the ranch. David knows his property well and pointed out many fine places to set up and hunt. After several hours of riding around, my head has swimming with all of the things David had shown us and I'd have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed. A couple of places really stuck in my head and one of them was the location of a big rattlesnake den. Though the thought crossed my mind for a split second about getting one to eat, I made sure to avoid the area.

 David also told us that the ranch was crawling with ferral hogs and to shot any we saw. I told him I didn't buy any tags or license to kill hogs and that I'd have to pass. He then informed us that there is no season on them and therefore we could take as many as we were willing to butcher. David promised my a steak dinner if I killed five of them. "Only five?" I replied. He wasn't asking for much was he. Turns out I didn't see any the whole time I was there.

 That evening I chose one of David's treestands to hunt from. It was set up at the edge of a clearing off a cleared pipeline right-of-way running through a valley. It was a great spot. There were several persimmon trees growing in the middle of the clearing and they were full. I saw several deer that evening but no shots were taken. Did take one shot with my camera of a nice little buck with twelve inch spikes. As luck would have it, it didn't turn out. Should have known.

 Up until now things were going pretty good. I went to bed that night full of anticipation. I fell asleep with visions of big racked bucks playing in my head.

 The sound of rain and blowing wind woke me around one. I wasn't discouraged though. I thought to myself, "Its going to blow through before morning". With that thought, I rolled over and went back to sleep.

 The alarm rang a little after five. Listening to the wind blowing like mad and the rain still falling, I elected to reset the alarm for six. I should have just gotten up then and there because I never went back to sleep. Finally around 5:40 I decided I had better get up and go check on things outside. Lucky I did too. My portable sun shade shelter I had set up was slightly damaged. The metal side supports were starting to give at the pivot points. Needing a way to strengthen the bad places, I taped some dinner forks to the areas. Thank God for duct tape and to my wife for packing a lot of forks. Not sure how many people she thought was going to be eating with me but she guessed a lot.

 Anyway, since the weather was bad and I didn't want to get blown out of a tree, David's friend Kevin Thomas and I headed to town for a hot breakfast. Kevin was there too for a bit of hunting. Barry decided that since he had driven all that way and being the hunter he is, he forgo the hot breakfast and went hunting. What dedication!

 Arriving back from town we found Barry packing things up. He said that he had just gotten into his treestand when his wife called him to say that he had the chance to hunt the Wade Plantation, (I believe that was the name) that weekend. Barry said that this plantation was a great place to hunt and that he had been on the waiting list for several years trying to get in. If he missed this opportunity it might take several more years before he got his chance again. He said goodbye to David, Kevin and I and headed for home. I never heard how he made out but I'm sure it was better than me.

 I hunted later that morning and that afternoon. Saw two deer right at dark. I had climbed out of my stand and eased up to a fence I had to cross. I looked to my left and about fifty yards down, there were two deer standing by the fence. It was too dark to count points but they were two nice bucks. I had high hopes for the next day.

 The next morning I went back to the stand I was in the previous evening ready for some serious hunting. Not long after daybreak the deer started showing up. Unfortunately they were all over a hundred yards away and heading across the field away from me. Total count that morning was fifteen deer. Out of that number, five came to within 45 - 50 yards of my stand. One was a buck that would have been a fork horn if he hadn't have been missing his right antler. No shots taken with the bow but I took a few with the camera. They didn't turn out either. Huh.

 That afternoon David and I moved a pop-up blind to the corner of this one field where the deer had been feeding in the evenings. It was a great spot where the field made an 'L' shape and we set the blind up at the crook of the 'L' just at the edge of the woods. I arrived early and got comfortable. I waited and waited and waited. At times like this all sorts of things start going running through head. "I'm not going to see any deer up here", "I should be back in the valley by the pond", "I wish the top of this blind would stay up!" and "It sure is hot in here! I hope I don't run out of water."

 Finally around 6:40 I saw some deer way down the fence row in front of me. Alright! I reached for my binoculars. No binoculars! I had forgot to bring them along. "Rats! Oh wait, my range finder magnifies some." I couldn't see to good out of it so I put it away and waited for them to come closer. After ten minutes or so, four does had made their way to within 20 yards of my hiding spot. I drew back and stuck a nice doe.

 As I tried to watch her as she ran off to my right, the rest of them scattered to the left. It was getting dark fast and I was going to wait as long as I could in the blind before venturing out. The top of the blind kept collasping down on me so I after ten minutes I got out to find my arrow. As I approached the edge of the field, I looked to my right and saw a doe standing 50 -60 yards down the other fence looking my direction. I dropped down behind some branches to wait her out. It didn't take long. After about a minute or so she blew at me and ran into the woods. Was that the doe I had stuck? I tried to remember every detail of her escape so I could track her later.

 Finding the arrow covered with blood I was confident she was stuck good. Since it was now dark, I marked the spot where I found the arrow and headed back to camp. I had to decide whether to wait a few hours and come back and track her down or wait until morning. It was going to be cold that night and I wasn't afraid of leaving her until morning if need be. I ran into David on my way back to camp and related the story to him. He said that he would go out first thing in the morning to get her and for me to go on and hunt since I still had a buck tag to fill.

 I went to bed that night listening to the approaching rain and watching the lightning light up the sky through the tent. I was hoping that David would find the deer quickly in the morning.

 The next morning most of my thoughts were on the doe. I was confident that David would find her and I would have work to do later that morning quartering her up. I just knew that I'd have to make a run to town for ice. But that was a good problem.

 I did see a couple of does that morning but I couldn't get a shot even if I wanted too. I only had a buck tag left to fill and didn't need to get in any trouble. That was okay because the highlight of the trip happened that morning.

 Here's what happened. I was standing in my treestand watching a trail that goes around a pond when I caught some movement under some limbs almost directly under my stand. "Its a deer! No wait, it's not tall enough to be a deer." Suddenly out from under a bush popped a hairy head. It turned and looked right up at me. I was looking face to face with a mountain lion! We looked at each other for awhile and then he turned and looked around the pond. I kept wishing I had my camera out of my pack. (Wouldn't have mattered anyway. The picture wouldn't have came out either.) He turned back to look at me again and then walked on out from under the bush. It was about three feet long with a tail about eighteen inches long. It walked to the edge of the pond and stood there looking around for about a minute and then ran off. Wow! What a cool sight! I'm usually the guy in camp that never sees anything like this. I couldn't wait to tell David.

 Coming out, David was waiting for me. I quickly asked him if he had found the doe and he replied, no he hadn't. He had searched for a couple of hours without finding her. My heart sank a bit. "Here I go again" I thought. David told me that he went out the night before just as it had started to rain to look for the deer. He was afraid that the rain would wash away the blood trail and we would lose our chance at recovering the deer. I told him the thought had never crossed my mind when I had heard the rain falling on my tent. For all his efforts, all he got was soaking wet. We decided to get together in an hour or so to take up the search again.

 Arriving at the field, I relayed the entire sequence of events to David and off we went to pick up the trail in the woods. We searched for over an hour without finding any sign of the deer. No blood, hair or deer. I had all but given up when David suggested we go through this one area one more time. I reluctantly agreed. After looking around awhile I was headed back to the field when I stepped right in a huge puddle of blood. While staying on the spot, David started tracking and picked up the trail. The hunt was on as our disappointment was quickly forgotten.

 Seems the doe had turned the opposite direction than the way we had thought she would go. Like a couple of bloodhounds we followed the trail further and further down the hill and into the woods. The further we went, the less of a trail we found and after an hour the trail died out. We had came this far and wasn't about to give up yet. We ventured in every direction from the last sign for 80 to 100 yards without finding hide nor head of the deer. We searched under every bush and brush pile and over every log and rock that we thought she could be laying behind. The gloom fell back upon us like a storm cloud as we sat down on a log to take a rest.

 What a bummer. We had searched for over 3 hours without finding the deer and that didn't count the time David had spent that morning or the time he had spent the night before. We came to a few conclusions on our loss. First of all the rain had not washed away the blood trail like we had thought it would. I blamed myself for not putting a better shot on her and David blamed himself on the loss for pushing her the night before. He said that if he hadn't of came out to look for her, she more than likely would have stayed where she had first laid down and died. I had to agree on that but also told him the idea of the rain washing away the trail made sense since we had no idea how far she had ran after being stuck.

 I finished my Oklahoma hunting trip that afternoon without seeing any deer. I stayed as long as I could in the treestand hoping for another chance but it was not to be. Darkness fell and I headed back to camp to have a drink, lick my wounds and wallow in self pity for the evening.

 Leaving for home the next morning, I promised myself that if there is anyway possible, I would be back next year for another chance.

 Let me wrap up this chapter in my series of unfortunate hunts by saying thanks to David and his wife Sheila for having me on their ranch and to David's in-laws Clifford and Glenda Treadway for letting me travel across their ranch while hunting. I extend a big thank you to everyone for your hospitality. I appreciated it very much. Hope to see you this fall with this monkey off by back. Until then, Jim Bob.