In our thundering herd, we feel a lot like cattle...

Backpacking: Part ONE


Oh man, what a trip! There is so much to tell but I will just start at the beginning and keep going. (that was basically the way the trip went to! So far to go but "how do you climb a mountain? - one step at a time!")

So we set out on Sunday afternoon and it was all rather unorganized and frustrating. A friend and I both had the same pack and it was brutal because it hurt us SO bad and there was like no way to fix it. We were pretty much at the back of the line, trying to figure out how to actually survive with this thing on. I felt like such a wimp because I wasn't carrying much - just my stuff - and yet I could hardly make it. My back hurt so bad I couldn't take in a deep breath! It was NOT fun. Luckily we only went like 2 miles in that day and then set up camp.

It was so different than how we normally camp (no duh!). We had a little tent city going on there. We had this nifty fire dealio where there was like two fire rings and then they were connected in the middle for cooking. We would have fires going in both pits then drag coals into the middle to cook over. We heated water in old giant metal cans and had hot drinks and everything. It was pretty great. That night I slept pretty well, my sleeping bag was awesome but the ground was pretty hard.

The next morning was the big hike. I was not looking forward to like 5 miles of switchbacks up this mountain to our next campsite with the demon backpack on. However it's not like I was gonna stay behind! We had oatmeal that morning and it was actually REALLY good! WAY better than the summer sausage they made us eat. I mean seriously, the stuff was disgusting. It was bad enough raw but then they cooked it over the fire and it got all greasy and nasty and the grease would run down your fingers and like harden on your skin...ew. Suffice to say, I almost puked.

So we started out (after scraping grease from our fingers and oats from our cups) and after about an hour, had a quick rest, then started up the switch backs. At first they were really fun because we would all like, yell hello to each other as we turned the corners and it was so funny. People would yell out stuff like "rock", "tree", "creek", as they crossed over...supposedly warning those behind them, but really I think it was just entertaining. We tried singing songs and such but only got so far with that. Actually it as amazing how we didn't actually get that tired. Mr. Pellerin, our guide, perfectly paced us according to energy output so that we rarely were even winded. If not for the monster pack on my back, it'd have been great!

The rest will have to wait, I'm off to brunch!