A room with a view....
I needed to do a shakedown overnight backpack and I was looking at an app called “Hiking Project” not long ago and I noticed there was a trailhead less than ten miles from our cabin. The trail was a sustained yet rolling climb of eleven miles to an alpine meadow. I wanted a something that would be enough of a test to prove out a few pieces of gear as well as testing my ever aging body. Both my son and I are trying not to be the weak link for our August hike and this was a chance to do some conditioning as well.
Timing is everything and a slot presented itself and it was a go! Since this was kind of a last minute idea I didn’t have all of my usual stuff at hand which made it all the more interesting. When it is time to go, you go with what you got. On a warm Wednesday afternoon I tossed my pack in the back of the war wagon and made the quick drive to the trailhead.
I’m a crack of early kind of guy, so leaving the trailhead at three in the afternoon was new to me. I’ll spare you the boring parts of the trail description and jump to my perceptions and reactions to the hike. I had to deal with fallen trees across the trail. The first two were unique. I started counting them and I hit thirty before the day was done. Some were easy, others required climbing or ducking and crawling. My collection of leg scrapes was impressive.
As I neared my destination I was reminded how choosing a campsite when you are solo is always interesting. With a companion or two you can spread out and find the best spot to spend the night. Nearly always I am thankful for that because the spots I find are quickly discarded for better ones. With nobody else to look, my tired legs and the fading sunlight made a flattish area look good enough.
Dropping my pack I pulled out my water bottles and water filter. I put on a long sleeved shirt in case the bugs found me. I guzzled what water I had left and went to the river to reload the bottles.
One of the coolest things about multiday trips is getting your routines dialed in so you are more efficient in your many activities. I was very pleased that right off the bat I didn’t seem to waste any time. The stove was out and dinner was cooking while I set up my tent. By the time camp was set, I had a couple of minutes to read before my tortellini was perfecto. The air was cooling and I was in my jacket and long pants by now.
Dinner tasted unusually good in the fading light. After brushing my teeth, my sleeping bag called me and I promptly answered.
From inside my tent I could see the snow on the peaks playing with the vanishing light. A waxing crescent moon was slowly arching toward those same peaks. I could have watched that scene for hours except I was exhausted and I fell asleep in seconds, not minutes.
An hour later I was soon awakened by a roar that I could not place. Coming from my deep sleep it took a while before I realized it was two fighter jets ripping over the canyon I was in. Their tail lights rocked back and forth to the right of the crescent of the moon just above the snowy crags. The view of the timeless night sky in this alpine setting being interrupted by modern jet planes was both cool and sacrilege.
Over the course of my hiking life the routine that has changed the most is the sequence from waking up to the first hour of hiking. In the seventies I’d make (hot and typically messy) breakfast, eat it, clean it up, pack up my gear and get going. The goal was an hour, the reality was often twice that.
Now I put some water in a pot and go to the stream and fill my bottles with water. Then I light my stove and pack my gear and tent trying to be done before the water boils. When the water is ready I make my coffee and let it cool a bit while I pack the stove and pot. Then I start hiking with hot coffee in hand (insulated mug) and this takes about thirty minutes from opening my eyes to walking away. Thirty minutes to an hour down the trail the coffee is gone I put a mix of muesli and powdered milk into my mug and add some cold water. I’ve got my spoon in my fanny pack and I can eat as I hike. Did I say fanny pack? Oh yeah, I F’ing ROCK the fanny pack when hiking.
I was wearing different clothing head to toe on the way out. You know the drill, compare and contrast. I learned what I wanted to learn. I liked some pieces of gear and wasn’t thrilled about others. My body seemed okay on the hikes in and out. The day after my muscles let me know that backpacking is not cycling. That makes a good data point for future reference.
I was stunned that my hiking times were almost identical going in and coming out despite the fact that going in was a rolling three thousand foot climb and heading out was a rolling descent with only a few hundred feet of up. I can only assume the rough trail and tree crossings dictated the pace more than the climbing. We used to say the trails in the Sierra were built by displaced Egyptians. The stonework and switchbacks are engineering marvels. An eleven mile rocky trail with a single switchback means you are either in Washington or Colorado. I guess there were not Egyptians to go around.
The hike was long enough to adequately test my gear under real loads and real distances. I need to improve the venting of my hat and add a loop to keep the tongues of my shoes from wandering. There were other winners and losers and a few lessons about gear and some planning changes on the horizon.
Mission accomplished.
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