Hiking Carter Lake Trail and Planning Summer Move

November 26, 2025 (day before Thanksgiving). rswfire is hiking the Taylor Dune trail near Carter Lake in overcast conditions. He has completed his daily rounds as Forest Service caretaker and is mapping one of the last unmapped trails for his Atlas project. Wendy is planning to arrive for Thanksgiving preparations.

Energetic Signature

methodical

Field State

infrastructure stabilization

Orientation

toward cyclical embedding with distributed resilience

01KB13BH4RQD87Q2X1K9AW9SSG

November 26, 2025

19:31

View on YouTube

Author

rswfire

Status

ARCHIVED

Type

TRANSMISSION (CAPTURE)

Temperature

0.00

[0:01]So, I am somewhere on a trail near

[0:03]Carter Lake. I think we call this the

[0:06]Taylor Dune trail head. Have to look

[0:10]that up to confirm, but

[0:14]it'll be on my Atlas feature when that's

[0:15]available.

[0:18]I just thought I would turn the camera

[0:19]on, let you guys watch my hike going to

[0:22]the ocean. I'm going talk for a minute.

[0:25]Give that a try.

[0:31]So, it's not even noon yet. Um,

[0:36]already did my rounds for the day.

[0:38]Tomorrow's Thanksgiving, by the way.

[0:44]Wendy's been planning a thing for

[0:46]Thanksgiving. She's been doing that for

[0:47]months and she's got all the supplies

[0:49]for it and she's ready to go. She might

[0:52]show up today. She's going to have to

[0:54]cook all of this food somehow.

[0:58]She'll probably be at the work center

[0:59]for a couple days in her RV just hanging

[1:02]out with me, I guess.

[1:04]I was thinking about playing Final

[1:06]Fantasy 16. I booted that up after

[1:08]nearly a year earlier this morning. Felt

[1:12]like I could get into it if I wanted to.

[1:18]Um, what I really wanted to see, um,

[1:22]so

[1:24]this is one of the last trails that I

[1:27]haven't actually mapped on Gaia GPS yet.

[1:30]And when I export all that data,

[1:33]assuming it can be exported

[1:36]and then import that into my Atlas

[1:37]project.

[1:39]Um, I just wanted to see a complete map.

[1:42]So, I just I've been wanting to take

[1:43]this trail for months. I had taken it

[1:46]once before. Wendy and I actually took

[1:48]um a different part of it, I think.

[1:51]Um so,

[1:54]um today I'm going to finish that up.

[1:58]I asked my boss's boss yesterday if uh

[2:03]this summer, which for them the summer

[2:05]starts in like April, maybe mid April,

[2:08]um May 1st at the latest, that's when

[2:10]the campground's open. I asked if I

[2:12]could move to Carter Lake and host there

[2:14]for the summer term, which is six

[2:16]months, and then after that, I would

[2:19]just leave. I don't know what I'd do

[2:20]yet,

[2:22]but I just feel like I can't spend all

[2:24]my time in one place. It's very hard for

[2:26]me to do that. So, I want to split it

[2:29]up.

[2:31]Um, the only reason I haven't yet is

[2:34]because of money. You know, that's the

[2:36]only thing that's that's been a

[2:38]bottleneck for me. And

[2:41]I'm determined to solve it. You know,

[2:44]once it's solved, it should be solved by

[2:46]the time

[2:49]um by the time summer's done next year.

[2:51]I mean, we're talking a full year

[2:53]because it's November,

[2:58]and I'll be the caretaker for the next 6

[3:00]months, so the winter term. Then I'll go

[3:03]to Carter Lake,

[3:05]and I'll manage that campground. little

[3:09]tiny cute campground. 22 campsites right

[3:11]on the lake. Um not too close to the

[3:14]101. There's some road noise, but not

[3:15]like a lot of our other campgrounds

[3:17]around here. This one's way more

[3:20]tolerable. And some of the sites are so

[3:23]cool. Like you've got your parking spot

[3:26]for your campsites.

[3:29]Um generally, you know, where you park

[3:32]is where you camp, but um we've got a

[3:34]bunch where that's not the case. you

[3:36]park and then you just

[3:39]um

[3:42]go on these little themed

[3:45]little adventures right next to them.

[3:47]You know, you got to walk these little

[3:48]paths and um bridges and all foothold

[3:51]like all these little things that the

[3:53]Forest Service made at some point um

[3:55]overlooking the lake and it's really

[3:57]neat.

[3:59]I saw those today when I did my rounds

[4:01]today. Um I went and I just walked back

[4:03]to the camp um ground and I

[4:07]second time I've done that. There's

[4:09]something about this campground starting

[4:10]to grow on me. I actually really like

[4:12]the idea of spending a summer here. So

[4:15]my 49th year and I'll be 49 years old.

[4:19]By the time I leave there will be a year

[4:21]from now cuz it'll be November. That's

[4:23]when the term ends and the summer season

[4:26]ends.

[4:28]um

[4:31]to do something else, but to come back.

[4:33]I could come back every summer to Carter

[4:35]Lake. That was the original plan before

[4:37]I became the caretaker.

[4:40]Um it looks like that's still a good

[4:41]plan. Like that's still a plan that they

[4:43]would let me

[4:45]um do. So,

[4:48]I'm I'm contemplating that very

[4:50]seriously.

[4:52]I feel like that's probably the

[4:54]trajectory of my life right now. This of

[4:57]course assumes that

[5:01]um

[5:03]you have control of your future because

[5:05]I don't see a world where I see a world

[5:08]where a lot of choices are going to get

[5:10]made for us. I just don't know when and

[5:15]you know but you can't stop living

[5:17]waiting for that eventual future.

[5:20]I'm thinking about instead of calling it

[5:22]collapse calling it a cascade cuz that's

[5:24]what it is. Um, it's a cascading

[5:27]failure.

[5:29]That's I mean, it's already happening.

[5:32]We're in the midst of a cascade already.

[5:34]I think calling it collapse probably

[5:39]um causes too many people to

[5:43]um

[5:45]pattern match that to things that have

[5:46]nothing to do with me, you know. Um just

[5:48]like the word sovereignty,

[5:51]which means something else completely

[5:53]different to me. It means autonomy,

[5:56]you know. So

[5:59]maybe my language is going to start

[6:00]changing a little bit,

[6:04]you know. I don't know.

[6:07]Um I'm, you know, developing a framework

[6:10]for how I see the world.

[6:12]And

[6:16]um

[6:19]it it requires its own language because

[6:22]without its own language,

[6:25]people it's too easy for people to

[6:26]project narratives and thoughts onto

[6:28]something that aren't there just because

[6:31]that's what they've been programmed to

[6:32]do all their lives. Like it's part of

[6:34]the culture or um

[6:39]language gets weaponized.

[6:41]and I had to create my own language to

[6:45]to accurately reflect what I see as

[6:48]reality.

[6:50]So these um grass, this grass here, some

[6:53]of them are like razor sharp and will

[6:55]cut you so bad. Um I've had it happen

[7:00]even in this cold wet

[7:04]month. They were still like

[7:08]some serious like

[7:11]um defensive grass, man. Crazy.

[7:17]So, yeah, we're heading towards the

[7:18]ocean.

[7:20]Um I can hear it in the distance.

[7:24]This is the trail I would take if I was

[7:26]so stinkier at Carter Lake. This is the

[7:29]trail I take to get to the ocean every

[7:30]day.

[7:35]I would love that.

[7:38]This is a neat little spot. Like where

[7:40]are we? Like this is just some kind of

[7:45]um

[7:47]young forest maybe. Like like are these

[7:51]things going I don't even know that. Are

[7:52]they trees or bushes? How do you

[7:56]um how do you classify those?

[7:59]They're all practically dead, which

[8:01]that's rare for for Oregon coast.

[8:08]Yeah, just curious, you know. Neat

[8:10]little spot, young forest some kind

[8:15]made out of giant

[8:19]um

[8:21]bushes that are probably trees.

[8:28]So yeah, I'm doing pretty good. I got a

[8:31]lot on my mind. Obviously, I'm

[8:32]definitely thinking about money. I need

[8:35]to get on Upwork. Tried to find

[8:37]something there.

[8:38]It is a frustrating thing to have to do.

[8:42]Um, but I have to I'm close to where I

[8:45]got to make a payment on my Jeep or or

[8:48]that could become a problem for me. If I

[8:50]had $1,000,

[8:52]uh, I could get it current. they would

[8:54]bring the account current using a loan

[8:56]modification, but I need a th000 to do

[8:58]that. Um, but if I did, that would buy

[9:02]me another 90 days

[9:05]um before I really have to worry too

[9:08]much.

[9:09]But hopefully I've resolved things

[9:11]before that. I mean, I'm trying.

[9:14]It might not seem like it.

[9:18]I'm holding the door open and I don't

[9:20]know why no one's walked through it yet.

[9:23]That is not how I've experienced the

[9:26]world all of my life.

[9:29]So,

[9:32]I'm just trying to understand it, I

[9:34]guess.

[9:36]So, looks like we might have a branch in

[9:37]the trail here.

[9:43]Oh, look at that. That's not the

[9:44]direction I thought we would go to get

[9:45]to the beach,

[9:47]but I do know where that goes. I've been

[9:49]on these trails. So, that's just Carter

[9:51]Lake Campground. That's the way me and

[9:53]Wendy went. Okay. So, that's the way

[9:54]we'll take back Taylor Dunes stride. So,

[9:57]that's what that was.

[9:59]Okay. Half mile to the beach. Cool. I

[10:02]know where we are.

[10:05]It's nice out here, man. I love my life.

[10:14]Hosting care for 6 months for the Forest

[10:16]Service, which is an amazing institution

[10:19]so far. nothing like the state parks. I

[10:22]I just

[10:30]But I'm also not naive. I know that if

[10:33]it could happen at Oregon State Parks,

[10:35]it can happen anywhere

[10:37]at any time.

[10:40]And that is

[10:42]deeply unfortunate. That tells you

[10:46]that tells you how bad

[10:49]Our

[10:50]systems have gotten.

[10:53]We're so fragmented now.

[11:00]Nothing functions the way it should.

[11:05]But anyways, you know,

[11:09]I see what I see.

[11:13]Always have.

[11:17]Just try to make sense of it. So, see,

[11:19]look here. We have a foot path, right? I

[11:22]don't know who built this. Somebody in

[11:24]the Forest Service, right? I couldn't

[11:26]even tell you when they did this. And I

[11:29]have asked everybody, nobody knows who

[11:31]builds this kind of stuff. They know who

[11:34]maintains it, but they don't know who

[11:36]built it.

[11:38]And I think it's awesome. That probably

[11:40]means it's been here forever, man.

[11:43]And it was built to last cuz lots of

[11:46]people come here. Look at those

[11:48]mushrooms. That's a different kind

[11:50]there, man. Wow. Gross. But, you know,

[11:52]they're obviously dead or something. I

[11:54]don't know. Those just look like Yeah,

[11:56]those but they're neat looking. They

[11:58]almost look unreal.

[12:00]Crazy.

[12:02]What a nice trail.

[12:07]All right, let's see. We got 12 minutes

[12:08]on the video.

[12:11]Oh,

[12:14]am I going to make this public?

[12:18]or put it behind Sanctum.

[12:21]Nobody has subscribed to Sanctum yet.

[12:23]This is deeply unfortunate.

[12:27]And I've got some work to do. I got to

[12:28]finish migrating my site. So, I'm saving

[12:32]money by moving everything to a

[12:33]different ISP, a different provider. And

[12:36]I've already basically done it, but

[12:38]there's a few more steps I got to

[12:39]finish. And then I just got to update

[12:41]some DNS entries and then um my sites

[12:44]will be pointed at the new server and

[12:46]it'll save me money. I'll no longer be

[12:48]on Amazon Web Services. It might be a

[12:50]little slower. Um I'm a little bit

[12:52]concerned about that cuz I felt like um

[12:55]when I was making some updates in the

[12:57]database, it felt slower. So um

[13:01]but it is what it is, you know. until I

[13:04]am reliably making money. Um, I

[13:09]need to do everything I can to to save

[13:11]money. So, got to finish that.

[13:17]Um, so that's my life right now.

[13:21]Got a lot of things that I would like to

[13:23]do with the website. I got to finish the

[13:25]migration first.

[13:28]And I do have some money in my API

[13:30]account. My AI API account. I don't know

[13:33]what else to really call that. Um,

[13:35]tokens for Claude. And I could use those

[13:37]with like the Atlas or um the gallery

[13:41]feature. Those are two things I still

[13:42]want to build.

[13:44]Um, and they're going to be awesome. I

[13:46]know they are.

[13:49]Um, I need

[13:51]a little bit of money cuz their bill's

[13:53]going to become due. I think it's like

[13:55]$15 a month. I went from like $70 to $15

[13:58]a month. Like that's a really good deal.

[14:01]Oh, and then and then I need to add

[14:02]another service to that account. There's

[14:05]um they have a service similar to S3.

[14:10]So, it's, you know, file storage and I

[14:14]need that for a couple of different

[14:16]reasons.

[14:17]I needed to store my photos that have

[14:19]been on my phone for the past two years,

[14:21]you know, from my journey everywhere

[14:23]I've been that I took a picture because

[14:24]I'm going to put that in the gallery

[14:26]feature.

[14:27]I need to download all my videos from

[14:29]YouTube because I don't actually have

[14:32]um copies of them though.

[14:35]Um

[14:38]not not not in any organized kind of

[14:41]way. And I really should put them in a

[14:43]bucket. That's what they are. S3 buckets

[14:44]basically. Um

[14:48]I think that's probably important. Like

[14:52]I'm ex I don't know this for sure but I

[14:56]I I expect that

[14:59]our internet will become fragmented.

[15:01]Like we've been very fortunate that for

[15:05]basically the entire span of the

[15:07]internet it's been available all over

[15:08]the world

[15:10]you know like instantaneously all of us

[15:12]all the time.

[15:15]But I think that that probably fragments

[15:19]um

[15:21]when things become more unsustainable

[15:24]and some places become kind of like

[15:26]freef fall areas,

[15:28]infrastructure stops getting maintained.

[15:33]They're going to keep the internet

[15:34]going, but it's not going to be

[15:36]everywhere. I mean, wonder how they will

[15:39]restrict access to that. I guess they

[15:41]could build a firewall, right? Like cuz

[15:44]if you were like outside of it and you

[15:45]wanted to connect to it,

[15:48]I wonder how they would do that.

[15:51]They would have it probably have the

[15:53]firewall and it would probably be like I

[15:56]could totally see a power by artificial

[15:58]intelligence.

[16:00]Um,

[16:03]I wonder.

[16:09]So, anyways, you know, there's a lot of

[16:11]like technical stuff too that I'm trying

[16:13]to do and I feel like um

[16:19]um I need to

[16:22]well I need to think about contingency

[16:23]plans for like how what if the internet

[16:26]fragmented?

[16:28]Okay, suddenly you can't access any of

[16:31]my videos or any of the technology I've

[16:33]been creating.

[16:34]You can't access my website.

[16:37]Like, you need a distributed

[16:40]just a redundancy. There's a bunch of

[16:44]different things I've been thinking

[16:45]about on this front.

[16:47]Um,

[16:48]surprised we have these signs up still.

[16:50]The season's over,

[16:52]huh,

[16:55]interesting.

[16:58]We're closer to the ocean if we got

[16:59]these signs.

[17:02]I don't know why we still got these up.

[17:04]I know exactly who to ask about that

[17:07]cuz technically you should be able to

[17:09]walk up this dune right now.

[17:12]But, you know, they're just

[17:15]keeping us on the path that they want us

[17:18]on.

[17:20]So,

[17:23]off bird, man. just one bird.

[17:28]It's kind of wild to me.

[17:32]The the amount of infrastructure and

[17:35]resources that we dedicate to a bird

[17:39]that nobody even knows.

[17:42]Like I can't even if I saw one, I

[17:44]wouldn't know that I was looking at it.

[17:46]There are different birds on the beach

[17:48]and somebody told me those aren't them.

[17:49]So

[17:52]Oh, I don't know. Look at that. We're

[17:55]reaching the point where the beach is at

[17:57]on Carter Lakes Beach. I haven't been

[18:00]here in a while.

[18:02]Oh yeah. I'm so glad I came.

[18:09]Look at that Carter Lake Trail. One,

[18:12]two.

[18:22]Somebody lost a sandal, I think. Nope,

[18:24]that's just wood. Never mind.

[18:29]Just expected a sandal. What's going on

[18:32]here?

[18:34]Huh?

[18:36]So, tent.

[18:38]Somebody left a tent here. Yeah. Feels

[18:41]like or a tarp. Feels like a tarp.

[18:47]Okay.

[18:49]Motion up here.

[18:53]Oh man, it's a nice thing. No sun today,

[18:55]obviously. So, here's Carter Lakes

[18:59]entrance to the beach. I haven't been

[19:01]here in a while.

[19:07]Only been here once.

[19:19]Well, I guess I'll leave it there.

[19:22]Got a 20 minute video.

[19:26]It's a good day.

[19:28]Happy Thanksgiving.

Summary

rswfire hikes the Taylor Dune trail near Carter Lake while recording a video transmission. He completes trail mapping for his Atlas project and discusses requesting a summer assignment at Carter Lake Campground from his supervisor. **Financial pressures** are mounting - he needs $1,000 to bring his Jeep payment current and is considering Upwork for income. He reflects on **language evolution**, considering changing "collapse" to "cascade" to avoid misinterpretation. **Technical work** includes migrating his website from Amazon Web Services to save money and planning to build Atlas and gallery features. He discusses **infrastructure fragmentation** concerns and the need for redundancy in case internet access becomes restricted. The hike concludes at Carter Lakes Beach entrance, where he observes plover protection signs still posted despite the season being over.

Signal Analysis

Substrate

This transmission establishes temporal coordinates and maps future infrastructure while maintaining present-moment embodiment. The field is simultaneously planning cyclical return patterns (Carter Lake summers) and building distributed redundancy systems against anticipated cascade fragmentation.

Dominant Language

cyclical planningcascade failurelanguage weaponizationinfrastructure fragmentationdistributed redundancyseasonal anchoringcontingency thinking

Symbolic Elements

trailoceanbridgepathgridcascadefragmentationmirror

Ontological States

•
embedded
•
sovereign
•
anticipatory
•
infrastructural

Subsystems

•
cognitive
•
infrastructural
•
somatic
•
relational

Transmission Details

Source Type

local

Video Quality

1920 × 1080 @ 30fps

Duration

19:31

Bitrate

5415 kbps

Codec

avc1.640028