My First Backpacking Trip

I have big dreams of being a backpacker.  BIG DREAMS!

I dream of taking a sabbatical from work and hiking the Appalachian Trail.  I have spent hours researching exotic places like Thailand and Peru.  I envision Pack and I climbing up the Continental Divide and looking over the country in awe.  I dream of becoming one with nature in the most intimate way.  I picture myself loving life in “survival mode.”  

In theory, I would be an excellent backpacker.  I have a pack.  I have a sleeping bag and tent.  I have strong thighs.  And, I want it.  I want it bad.

Then....I went on my first backpacking trip.

Not only was I exhausted by the unbelievable amount of work it takes to carry 35 extra pounds on your back, but the maps lied about the mileage - and not in my favor.  Are maps allowed to lie?  Dang you National Park Service!!!  

Oh, and when you learn that water isn’t available, they aren’t lying about that. 

I’m the girl that drank (filtered) water from a mud puddle.

By the end of day one, I was exhausted and my fun limit had been hit.  I was excited to crawl into my tent, but sleeping under the stars isn’t as relaxing as it seems.  Nature had re-confirmed how much silence is important to my sleep.  Nature is really loud.  No, I’m not talking about the unfriendly rattlesnake I met along the trail.  I’m talking about mate-less birds who won’t shut up.  (Are you mate-less for a reason, bird???)  I’m talking about wind.  I’m talking about beautiful streams.  I’m talking about the imaginary animals you make yourself believe are roaming around outside your tent.  

Yes, I love nature, but I also love sleep.  And I can’t sleep when it’s loud.  

I also can’t sleep when it’s light outside.  After you have spent a whole day hiking with your belongings on your back, you go to bed around 7pm.  The sun, however, did not get the memo that I was exhausted and needed a restful night of sleep.  

By day 3, I mentally and physically beat by the 30+ miles of trail.  Then, the universe wanted to test me further.  Mother Nature opened up the sky, and rained on me.  Then it rained more.  It rained so much that my rain gear could not longer repel the thick drops.  My expensive, “rain repellant” clothing completely soiled my clothes and underwear.

And do you know what happens when you are soaking wet and continue to hike?  Yep, you get rashes all over your body from your clothes and your pack rubbing against you in the most private places.  It’s not pretty.  Two weeks later....it still isn’t pretty.  And now, I permanently smell like topical cream.

Looking back, I am thrilled that I survived the backpacking trip.  I feel like I accomplished something.  I also learned that backpacking might not be for me.  And that’s ok.  Just like I learned that winter mountaineering might not be for me when I climbed Mount Washington, there is a possibility that backpacking isn’t for me either.  

Maybe I’m more of a car camper and a day hiker.  

And, maybe I’m ok with this discovery!

Winter Adventure.....Part 2

You know that feeling when you are laying in bed, awake, and you know your alarm is about to go off.  You don’t want to look at your phone because you don’t really want to know what time it is.  And, you know that if you hit the button, the phone will light up and you’ll instantly be stimulated when you should be resting.  And it’s not just about looking at the time.  You have to read that one email that came in at 2:47am.  Once you have deleted that piece of junk mail, you might as well check FaceBook too.  Then, the second you put the phone down, the light fades, you finally close your eyes and you become fully relaxed.  

That’s the moment the alarm goes off.  

By the time, layered myself up with proper clothing, my friend and I went downstairs for the hotel’s (crappy) breakfast.  My hike leader and the rest of the group showed up, and we went over proper equipment, which of course I spent half a fortune to purchase.  The group packed the cars and we set out for our “acclimation hike.”  We drove a few exits down the highway and hiked Mounts Dickey and Welch.  It was a total of about 4 1/2 miles.  We got a slight idea of the snow we would face and learned how to use crampons.  Although this was called our “acclimation hike,”   

Mt. Washington was vastly different than these smaller mountains. We began our hike on the mountain at 7am on Sunday morning.

Mt. Washington was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  Everything I thought about snow and serenity was put to shame before I started on the Mt. Washington trail.  

Mt. Washington was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.  

Although the fog was a little thick, the snow-covered trees created the perfect motivation for me to keep hiking up the steep trail.  

The trail was not packed as well as the trails I had been on the previous two days.  I followed the trail leader’s steps almost exactly as I made my way up.  

We made it to a large hut, about 1.5 miles from the summit.  That was when my hike leader told us we would not make it.  It was almost noon, and it would take us about 2 more hours to make it the rest of the way.  That means that we would not have had enough time to get back down the mountain before sunset.  It would have been unsafe.  

Going down the mountain was my favorite part of the trip.  This was my chance to fully enjoy the environment around me.  I got to see the snow in it’s most true and pure form.  I got to slide on my butt down the steepest parts, which my knees and ankles really appreciated.  I now know that feeling of making a misstep and ending up waist deep in snow.

And I know the feeling of trying to get out of waist deep snow.

I also learned what it felt like to take hold of my fears and turn that energy into achieving something awesome.  

Maybe I didn’t make it to the top of Mount Washington, but I still accomplished something great.  I put myself out there to physically fail, and I succeeded.  

This may be the most challenging adventure I’d ever been on.  The hike was equally mentally challenging as it was physically.  

I made it safely to the bottom with the greatest feeling of accomplishment that I have ever felt.  

I left New Hampshire the very next day, after a wonderful night’s sleep.  

And no, I never saw a moose.

95 goals left......962 days left.

Winter Adventure.....Part 1

Last week.....around this time....I was climbing Mt. Washington.

A few months ago, I came up with this crazy idea.  I would try to do get out of my box and try new things.  I wanted to challenge myself, mentally and physically.  Something was telling me that I needed to prove to myself that I can do things that are completely foreign to me.

Looking around online, I saw that REI had travel options.  They have a ton of options too - anything from African Safaris to bike rides across Asia.  I figured that I should I should probably stay in America, especially since I just got back from Italy.  So, I was looking at the options in North America, and saw that they had winter adventures.  Then I saw the Mt. Washington climb, and I was sold.  I convinced a friend to go with me, and we booked our trip.  I had three months to prepare.

Preparation (logistical preparation at least) comes pretty naturally to me.  I am innately organized.  I love planning and packing.  I spent hundreds of dollars buying gear to keep me warm.  I weighed down Pack and took him on a few hikes with me.

Physical preparation, on the other hand, does not come quite so naturally.  That's all I have to say about that.

When the time finally came, my friend and I trekked up to New Hampshire to begin this crazy adventure.  We drove 11 hours to Vermont and toured the Ben and Jerry's factory.   Hey, if I'm going to drive all that way, I'm going to do some fun stuff too!

The next day, we drove over to New Hampshire (goal #13).  We took the extra long route to maximize the possibility of seeing a moose.

We checked into the (crappy) hotel room and promptly left to find something fun to do.  We went to the Visitor Center and the nice woman told us where we could go snowshoeing on a nearby trail, Georgiana Falls.

We strapped on snowshoes (goal #35) and explored this little trail.  It was beautiful and snowy.  This was the first time in my life that I had ever saw this type of snow.  Now, I'm from the Midwest, so I grew up with snow.  But this was different.  This snow was pure and serene.  And there was so much of it.  The trail was pretty well packed, but the surrounding snow was probably about 6 inches deep.  We were out for about 2 hours, and decided to head back when we realized that we had no idea where we were....or how much longer the trail ran.  

After our snowshoeing trek, we had dinner and went back to the hotel to get ready for the next day.  We would meet our guides and group.

Anxiety was setting in pretty well by this point.  I couldn't believe that I was there, or that I had traveled all this way.  I was nervous that I couldn't do it, even after buying all the gear, taking time off work, and packing so well.  I hadn't slept well in days either.  I didn't know what to expect, which is always difficult.

I went to bed.  I didn't sleep.  I simply waited for alarm to ring.

A Chilly Hike

Yesterday’s hike was one of the most interesting for me!  I’ve only been hiking for about 9 months, but this was the most demanding - and not because the trail itself was (too) difficult.

Pack and I made the trip to the Gambrill State Park in northwestern Maryland.  We hiked the Catoctin Trail for about 6 miles.  (I accidentally hit the wrong button on my new, fancy GPS watch so I’m not sure about actual milage.  OOPS!)

Not only was it 18 degrees, but there were some challenging obstacles I was forced to deal with.  In preparation for my Mt. Washington climb, I knew that going on yesterday’s hike was important to acclimating.  We have had unusually wonderful weather this winter, but I need to get ready for my winter hike.

I did not, however, anticipate my camelback’s hose freezing.  (I’m such an amateur!!!) A frozen hose means NO water for the entirety of my hike.

We came across about a half-dozen streams on this trail.  They were so beautiful.  I love the sound of a creek in the distance as I hike through a snowy forest.  

Yep, I had to cross both of these streams!!!

One thing I don’t love about streams, though, is how easy it is to slip and submerge your left foot into the ice cold water.  Of course....that happened to me!  And yes, it happen pretty early on in the hike.

Pack and I are really starting to get along.  This was our second time out together.  I stuffed him full of boots, clothes, and books to make him heavy.  I put him on the scale and he weighed about 20 pounds.  Let me tell you, it is MUCH different (read: exhausting) hiking with a day pack and hiking with a huge, heavy pack.  After Mt. Washington, Pack is going on a diet.

And mayyyyybe I could have also used an extra layer of pants.  (I only wore two layers under my hiking pants.)  My bottom half was a little chilly.  But I kept going.  As you can tell from a few of the pictures, I’m almost always the last hiker.  But that’s ok.  I don’t go hiking to race.  I don’t go hiking to be a hike leader.  I hike because it’s serene.  I hike for me.  I hike because it’s wonderful to be outside and to embrace nature.   That’s it.  Who cares if I’m last.....just as long as the bus doesn’t leave me stranded in a random forest!

All-in-all, it was a beautiful snowy day.  So what if things didn’t go perfectly.  Who cares that my foot was wet for a few miles.  And I was able to fully hydrate once I got back on the bus when my camelback (FINALLY!) unfroze.  

It was an amazing day on the trail.