Steve and I were backpackers once not so long ago.... we took a 6 day backpacking trip in the summer of 2005, and another long trip in 2006 before I gained my weight back. I was actually my smallest in 2005. Anyway, I was digging around this morning, and I found my trail journal!!! OMG I had forgotten the feeling I had when hiking... I'm actually getting tears thinking about it. What has happened to my fit body since then? I want it back!! Maybe this will be my motivation -- I WANT TO HIKE AGAIN!
I'm going to share highlights of my trail journal here -- don't feel bad if you're not interested! LOL But here it is for your reading pleasure, if you are interested:
June 12, 05
.... hiked on the Cranberry River road for 4 miles and made real good time. Weather was nice and our packs felt pretty good. We were going about 20 min miles and in good spirits. Then we turned up through the woods on Rough Run... and it was hell! Oh man what a change! ... up hill.. sweating. We really slowed down. I got blisters and my back started hurting like my pack wasn't fitting right. I ended up taking off my boots and putting on my Tevas. Camped in an area where no one else had been in a while ... fire ring was old w/ leaves all over it. Had trouble finding a good tree for our bear bag - believe me if a bear really wanted our food, he could have had it! But no bears day one. We have seen no people since we started up the wooded trail. Our site is less than ideal, but beside a small stream and has cliffs and caves on one side -- very deep woods - lots of huge pines and moss covered rocks. Sat by the fire and roasted marshmallows and read from Thoreau's Walden to each other.
June 13
This day started off rough. This morning I had to put mole skin on my blister and double up my socks. Steve sacrificed a pair of his socks for me and then laced my boots extra tight. ... .lower back felt like it was being pounded by a hammer with every step. I didn't want to complain, but it was hard to think about anything else.....finally got my pack settled lower on my hips so it didn't push on my back so much. Then I felt like the straps were carving permanent notches in my collarbone. Was just getting the hang of it, and started to enjoy the scenery when I looked away for a sec and caught my boot on a branch and fell. Falling down is never fun, but it's got to be worse with a 35 pound pack on. Got a cut above my kneecap... ...We were within a mile of where we ended up staying the night when Steve stopped -- he had been several yards ahead of me and I had been trudging along, looking at the ground, trying to ignore biting pain in my shoulder and thinking happy thoughts of therma-rest chairs and a campfire when Steve said, "BEAR! BEAR!" I had no idea where to look, so I missed it :(. But Steve said it was scrambling pretty fast to get away from us. ..... Well, now we are relaxed by the fire. Supper was lasagna soup, which was supposed to be lasagna, but it never set up right... oh well... the joys of dehydrated food. We bathed in the shallow river the best we could and put on clean clothes. My bones ache and Steve keeps talking to me as I'm trying to write... but all in all, I'm good as new... peaceful, happy, and in love.
June 14
The bugs and gnats swarming around our faces as we walked consumed our thoughts and were the topic of several conversations. I wondered long and hard about the compexities and mysteries of nature -- namely the common gnat. Did you know that one gnat can travel 6 miles trying to get itself into a human ear? .... .... At our camp, during supper we heard rumbles of thunder. We stopped eating, and quickly covered our packs and hung our food. We barely had time to finish our BBQ chicken with rice (not bad!) when the storm hit. We were warm and safe inside our tent. We ate Snickers and listened to the rain and I read aloud from a mystery novel I've been reading. It didn't rain much, but we stayed inside the tent for the duration of the evening.
June 15
We got up earlier this morning, knowing we had to try and find the missing trail which we somehow walked past yesterday.... backtracked an hour... probably close to 2 miles before we found it. .... after finding the proper trail, we walked 3.5 miles up an old railroad grade to the top of a mountain... trail was pretty good, and mostly the grade was gradual. At the top of the mountain, we took another trail -- about a mile -- and followed it 3 miles to Cranberry fireroad. This Birchlog trail was completely wooded and some of it was not in the best condition... several fallen trees to cross and much of it was downhill and rocky. .... After reaching the main fireroad, we walked another mile to a nice campsite along the river with a picnic table!! After sitting on the ground and eating from flat rocks for 3 days, the table was luxury! ..... We washed in the river and washed our hair and some of our clothes, and hung them up to dry. It ws cool and windy, and the clothes dried quickly. .... We figured we walked about 10 miles today, adn we both agreed that it was our longest day yet, but also our easiest. This is our 4th day walking, so the way I have it figured, it takes a few days for your body to get used to doing this. It's like you're not even giving your body a chance when you merely take a weekend backpacking trip! .... after a while, my pack began to actually feel like an extension to my body, and the weight of it became almost pleasurable..... The gnats were gone today...... sometimes while I walk, I pretend I'm writing a book -- my hiking journal or trail memoirs -- today's chapter would be entitled "Lessons learned from my experience on the trail." Important lessons I've learned:
1) never walk under low-branched pine trees while wearing a pack. The needles will remain inside your shirt, glued to your sweaty back until you make camp!
2) God make the nettle plant's leafy edges to resemble saw teeth for a reason!
3) Never hang your clean wet clothes directly over your campfire to dry unless you want them brown and smelling like ash trays.
4) It's impossible to fix your own wedgies with a backpack on -- your arms just won't reach!!
5) You get wedgies from crossing large fallen trees across the path.
6) A trickle of sweat running slowly down your back eventually down your butt crack feels very much like a bug tip-toeing and drives you pretty much crazy... because you can't possibly reach this spot while wearing a pack! If you count to 100 three times, the drop of sweat either evaporates or your forget about it.
7) Never underestimate the value of a great boyfriend! A great boyfriend
a) comes back across the river to carry your pack for you
b) trades his blueberry yogurt covered granola bars for your plain one
c) tells you where the squishiest mud is so you can avoid it
d) actually has no trouble at all admitting that he was wrong and missed a trail head, and has no probem asking you to backtrack 3 miles!
e) always recognizes the best opportunity for a picture -- when you're wading acorss a river up to your knees in icewater, screaming becasue you feel the pain penetrating into your very bones -- that's when he'll not only ask you to stop, but to say "cheese."!!
June 16
... left our gear at our campsite and walked the 9 miles down to the Cranberry Glades visitor area. It was a long walk, but they have REAL bathrooms -- running water -- toilets that flush!! We drank hot brewed coffee in the lobby and browsed the books..... ..
We ate our lunch outside the center in the cold drizzle (which wasn't a bid deal since we had on our raingear). ...... We walked 18 miles today! I'm holding up really well ... I do have an injury to my left knee that became painful with every step. Hopefull rest is all I need... Getting ready to eat supper of Red Beans and Rice and Beef Stroganof. We're bundled up by the fire .. well at least I am.... Steve is wearing fleece and shorts, while I'm freezing in long underwear, 2 shirts, and my rain coat!
June 17
Today we walked the 10 miles out to our car.... to our best estimation we figured we walked about 63 miles from the time we left our car on Sunday. We discussed all the wildlife we were fortunate enough to see -- 4 deer, 5 baby fawns, one bear, 2 grouse and 2 baby grouse, one turkey, 5 snakes, and numerous orange salamanders, and a few chipmunks.
Steve apparantly thinks I have complained unnecessarily about the injures I have acquired over the course of the past week, but I think I've held up pretty well. I just have a feeling that if HE had fallen and had struck his skinny, bony kneecap on a rock, he would have complained significanly more than I did. He did give me a little sympathy today when I noted that it was now bruised in 2 places. He took a picture of it. I'm not sure if he was mocking me or not, but I guess if the picture turns out, he can always look at it and feel bad for making fun of me. He also wanted me to point out that on 2 occasions, he walked across the river, dropped his pack on the other side, and came back to get mine, which was very nice.... I'll admit that.
Can't wait til camping season!
Stef
I'm in a rut, that's for sure.... I'm going backwards lately. I started eating and I can't stop. I don't want to admit here that I've been eating mindlessly ....
Once you start slacking it gets easier and easier to do it! Kind of like lying or cheating or stealing (not that I've ever done much of any of those, but bear with me here!) .... Once you start doing something wrong, and you realize how EASY it was, and you realize that no one knows, that you didn't get caught ... OH HOW MUCH EASIER IT GETS!!!
