Fatigue

     In the Army, fatigue is the time of day for cleaning, making sure everything is in working order and doing repairs if something isn't.  As to camping equipment, that's the job for today.  It'd be a lot easier if I wasn't so fatigued myself.  The old bones feel a little older than they did six days ago, my brain is numb, bitchy is my middle name and my muscles are sore.  Ten hours sleep last night was a step in the right direction but only a step.  All is about what I expected when the Boundary Waters trip was planned and that's good.  I'm not dead, only tired ( and not very creative).
     Seriously, the cleanup is every bit as important as the preparation.  Takes nearly as long and is nowhere near as much fun.  The trip's over and the next one, if there is one, is months away.  At the moment most everything is clean and packed away.  The deflation I used to experience after the big trips from a decade ago isn't there this time.  Maybe it's maturity?  Could be it was an unexpected stolen few days from normalcy?  Or that I'm simply too tired.  What did I expect?  I'm sixty-seven.