Stan Birch ‘22
News Editor
In these times of social distancing, staying away from other people while not going insane in your apartment has become an artform. More and more I feel like Jack in The Shining. I’m living in a really nice place, but I feel like I’ve always been there. So then I had the same “great idea” to get away from my apartment that anyone who owns a tent has had: camping. I eagerly hopped online to see the restrictions on the East Coast’s few National Parks, only to find that too many people thought of this option across the country. A select group of people have acted so poorly that they has ruined Parks access for all of us.
Then I had another “great idea:” Let’s try and camp around the Law School. The Law Weekly touched base with the Dean of Students to see if I could make use of the part of my tuition that goes towards facilities access and upkeep. Unfortunately, setting up a tent would be “erecting a structure on [G]round[s]” that would be “prohibited without a special permit.” I didn’t think quick enough to reply that I would just hang a hammock, as many students do around Grounds, in Spies Garden. Ah, the missed opportunities. Well, with the National Parks closed and Grounds being off-limits, I had to find my own space. I learned about adverse possession in Property, so I thought I would give Land Piracy a shot.[1], [2]
Armed with my old backpacking rig, I sought to find a spot to relax and unwind in the wild. I grew up camping, and my backpack has always been packed to go… or so I thought. Turns out that my mother, still a Scoutmaster to this day, had “borrowed” a few things from my bag when I left it at home for a month before Law School. The “borrowed” items included my sleeping bag, larger sleeping mat, and camp pillow. Some people would have called it a day and gone back to bed, but I agreed to write an article for your entertainment, so I laid on the cold floor of my tent, wrapped in a picnic blanket from my car, and pushed through the night.
Pictured: Reviewing Property for my final and investigating the requirements of staking my new land claim. Photo Courtesy of Stan Birch ‘22.
My thoughts included the following: “Why am I here? Will this even be that funny of an article? It won’t. I should go home. That sounded like a deer. I hope that was a deer. Why did it get cold the day after I agreed to do this? Ok, that was definitely a deer. At least I’m not listening to lectures at 1.5x speed.” The night was mostly quiet, with a few sounds of civilization here and there. The biggest stir was the sound of a few deer trotting by, wondering what the hell this little gray and yellow dome was in the middle of their path. Besides some tossing and turning, it was a wonderful and peaceful night.
I woke up with a smile to start my day with the birds chirping as nature’s alarm was getting me going early. I rolled over and checked my phone: 4 a.m. The birds decided I needed to get out of their space and were having none of me sticking around for a few more hours. Have you ever tried sleeping through thirty different alarms going off at different times, all to different tunes? It’s not what I would call a restful sleep. I tossed and turned until I found an angle that blocked out most of the noise. An hour later, I woke up to my alarm and suspiciously little sound from the birds.[3]
As I packed up my gear for the night, loaded up my car, and moved my tent somewhere a little more public to enjoy a cup of tea and some light reading, I was glad I had spent the night away from home. It might not have gone perfectly, but I know I’m going to ask my mom to mail my gear back to me for my birthday. Take time to plan your trip a little more than I did, and I guarantee you’ll have a nice time getting out of your home while keeping distanced from others. If isolation continues past exams and you spot a tent out in the wilds around Charlottesville, give a yell. It might just be me.
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sfb9yu@virginia.edu