Ukulele Tonya

Witty tagline

Of blisters and ukuleles…

Filed under: Personal, Ukuleles of Paradise — Tonya at 2:05 pm on Sunday, July 30, 2006
barefoot day

I just returned from a week-long, 45-mile backpacking trek with the coed BSA Venturing Crew we volunteer with and wanted to report on ukuleles in the “wilds” of the Trinity Alps (Northern California). Yes–we spotted ukuleles on the trail; two of them were from our group (Tate, one of the hiking Venturers is in “Ukuleles of Paradise”) and the other was spotted more than 20 miles from the nearest trailhead, perched on the back of a hiker who hailed from Ohio. I was certainly more excited to see another ukulele in the wilds than I was to meet up with the three Western Rattlesnakes we saw later that day!

Our evening campfires featured ukulele singalongs and music from Jumpin’ Jim’s “Camp Ukulele” book as well as Joyce Flaugher’s PDF of campfire songs. Both feature a range of traditional and fun tunes that beg to be sung while relaxing after a long day on the trail.

2 Comments »

9

Comment by Dave

September 6, 2006 @ 4:28 pm

Nice blog! I have to agree with you that the ukulele is the best instrument (aside from a harmonica) for backpacking in the wilds. I used to take my Martin Backpacker (compact guitar), but even that was a bit cumbersome. Now I take my tiny little soprano ukulele. It’s gotten a little banged up, but it’s worth having at the campsite come twighlight.

Btw, which trail in the Trinity Alps? I’ve only been there once but I loved it. I was totally empty and the lake we travelled up to was so gorgeous, set up against the mountains (water was amazingly cold).

Aloha.

282

Comment by Jeff W.

March 25, 2007 @ 10:54 am

Thanks for sharing the ookalele tales. I had just cut and pasted your IZ strum diagram to some of my uke-friends from the Royal Hawaiian Ukulele Band in Berkeley (California) as well as in Portland, Boston, Hawaii, Germany and Sweden. I recommended that they your blog. My son is 17 and in a Venturing Crew down here too. I am new to playing music and I\\\’m having fun. Thanks for all the fun and educational stories.

Jeff

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