Part of the reason for the start of “the whole backpacking
thing” was an REI trip that never happened Memorial Day weekend. REI had
botched things up, and we had spent a lot of effort both gearing up and educating
ourselves, so we embarked upon our own backpacking overnight a bit closer to
home.
We hit the trail at Zaleski State Forest Saturday of
Memorial Day Weekend. The weather was actually perfect, cool and comfortable,
but not cold, and not buggy! We started at the trail head and headed for Camp
H. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked, and snacked, and hiked and hiked… We enjoyed
the scenery and cool rock formations, but the more we hiked the less we
realized we were farther from camp than we thought. Navigator grew impatient, understandably
so, and took to complaining and stopping every couple hundred yards! After a snack break in the middle of a portion
of very overgrown trail, we turned back and decided to head for a different
campsite.
And we hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more, learning
perhaps the most important lesson in backpacking: You’ve never hiked as far as
you think you have!
Finally reaching camp at just about dinner time, we met some
nice folks and shared a campfire. Navigator slept great (which he never admits
about camping), and I slept some between listening to the owls and a relentless
(but still pretty cool) whip-poor-will.
Sunday we had oatmeal for breakfast, broke camp and headed
back to the trailhead. It was a nice morning—I think I’ve quickly learned this
is my favorite time of day to hike. It was cool, and quiet and the sun was out with
lots of birds singing. We hiked on a ridge, then down along a lake. We stretched
out on our sleeping pads for a PB&J lunch in the sun.
We learned a LOT on this short trip: you hike slower than
you think with a load of stuff on your back; we packed too much stuff; freeze
dried food sucks; Zaleski is really pretty but he trails have some very
confusing markings; other backpackers are really nice folks… And the most
important—bring the marshmallows next time because when you’re 10, it’s way
more about the camping than the hiking!
