Finding Friends in the Woods (Zaleski Take Two)

After our May and June backpacking adventures, I had a really hard time putting all our gear away. So I didn’t. While I kept looking for a weekend I could head out again, our gear “lived” in our living room, sprawled out yet loosely organized on the floor and the furniture. This was pretty helpful at the end of July when Navigator had to pack for Scout Camp!

I, however, just couldn’t find a good time to get back to Zaleski here in Ohio, despite trying. Work, dogs, home, kid stuff, Scout stuff… I finally eked out time for an overnight in August, packed up, headed out and maybe a mile in, dripping with sweat and overrun by mosquitoes and gnats, high-tailed it out of the woods and came home.

I still refused to put all my gear away. I left it all out in the living room until, finally, in September the weather and schedules cooperated and I was able to have a little adventure of my own.

I left home in time to hit the trail head at 8 a.m. Saturday. I was by myself, which was strange, yet the woods were quiet and welcoming. I hiked a fairly easy 5 or so miles to the camp Nav and I initially headed to back in May, took a lunch break, aired out my feet, and then headed around the north loop—another 7 miles. I found the north loop to be the most challenging part of Zaleski’s trail, and the most beautiful.

Coming back into camp where I’d had lunch, there were now tents everywhere. “Scouts?” I wondered. I found a small tent site on the outskirts of the camp area and as I set up my tent, realized there were several adults around the camp fire area. After my enjoyable yet solitary day of hiking, I headed over to say hello. Turns out the group was a backpacking Meetup from Cincinnati, some of whom are members of the Columbus group I had joined earlier in the year—which apparently never goes backpacking! I spent the entire evening hanging out with this new group of friends (I promptly joined their Meetup upon getting home!). What a great time!

This overnight was my first taste of what backpacking is really like: the solitary challenge of hiking all day alone, keeping yourself company, enjoying the beauty of the forest, hiking some 12 miles with 30 pounds on your back… and coming into camp to enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded folks.

Sunday, wanting to enjoy the early morning on the trail by myself, I quietly broke camp and hiked on. It was a pretty easy hike about 5 miles back to the trailhead, despite the blisters the north loop had given me the prior afternoon. Blisters and all, this was an amazing experience and the biggest lesson learned: I LOVE backpacking. My gear worked pretty well, my legs worked pretty well, I still can’t sleep well, but heard more owls!

 

 

 

A (Revised) Appalachian Adventure

On my way home from the hike that wouldn't happen, I called my son to let him know I was on the way back. What he said next was so shocking to me that I momentarily forgot the migraine pounding in my head with each turn of the wheels.

"Yay, now I can go with you!" he exclaimed.

What? The Scout who hated every step of his first backpacking trip earlier in spring? Wants to hike on the AT?

I'm adding this post way, way post, post script so I'll keep it short: Two weeks later we went on the BEST vacation we have ever had...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaEMUf3VE3I&feature=youtu.be

(Bear with me while I figure out how to embed the video. Getting back to this blog after a serious hiatus.)

Springer has Sprung

I camped on top of Springer Mountain, Georgia. And with months of planning and preparation behind me and 9 days of hiking on the Appalachian Trail ahead of me, the wheels fell off the bus atop Springer Mountain…


At 3,780 feet, I camped—but I did not sleep. I popped my Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2, blew up my air mattress, crawled into my 23-degree down bag and listened to the wind, the airplanes approaching the Atlanta airport, drips from the earlier rain off the leaves, and at 3 a.m. a pair of barred owls. All while the headache that started before even reaching the mountain gradually got worse.


I was cozy and actually fairly comfortable: on my air mattress, in my bag, in my tent, under a pine tree, on the mountain. Not one bear poked its head in, not even to munch on my head, which was covered with the beanie hat I used as a coozie for my chicken dinner. As I lay awake, head throbbing, I imagined I must have smelled like a chicken and dumpling burrito…

And as I lay awake, I wondered what the hell I was going to do after a night of no sleep with what appeared to be a worsening migraine. How was I going to hike 10 or more miles Saturday? How was I going to function? I had a lot of ibuprofen in my pack. A lot. Vitamin-I, backpackers call it. But no amount of Vitamin-I would get rid of a migraine.


I listened to the wind in the trees on Springer Mountain and lamented about my head. Damn, damn head. Backpacking on no sleep with a migraine wasn’t the great adventure I had been planning. Should I commit to three days and call for a shuttle at Neels Gap if things got worse? Should I go back to town? Should I go home? Should I try to hike, and ruin my adventure as well as the other three women’s?


I knew what I had to do, I knew what the right thing was to do. And it wasn’t easy. I had to take my migraine off the mountain. Early in the morning some birds started to sing, and listening to them start their day gave me something to do while I waited to call our shuttlers, Joyce and Sally. At 7:15 I called, embarrassed, defeated, sad, head pounding. Joyce and Sally were great. Sally was soon running some hikers out to the trailhead and would pick me up. (She dropped off three nice looking backpackers. Figures.)


I broke the news to my new friends, broke up a pop tart and ate it, and broke camp—broken hearted. I started the mile hike back to the trailhead. “I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry…” I told my jackhammering head. I didn’t, really, just whimpered and cursed, maybe I shed a tear or two, cursed some more, and wiped my nose on my fleece. I heard a wood thrush and a pewee. The trail is beautiful really, and I took my time and enjoyed what little of it I was going to see. The woods were cool and moist, the flora lush and varied and interesting. The trail was smattered with rocks, but in a good way: a platform here, natural steps there. Should I go back? Should I stick it out? Having plenty of experience with migraine, although not much recently, I knew there was no way.


Something fluttered into a small sapling a foot in front of me. I stopped. He paused, watching me but not afraid. The little chestnut-sided warbler hopped along the branch, crossed the trail, hopped along another branch, then he flew. Now that’s got to be an omen for a birdnerd, I thought. Knowing I couldn’t stay for this adventure today and it couldn’t be an omen to turn back, I decided it was an invitation to come back. As I continued along, I began to think about what lessons I had learned in my short time on Springer Mountain and how I could soon use them to carry out my adventure:


1.      Do not drive all day by yourself and sleep on the ground that night.

2.      Do not drive all day, not drink enough water, and sleep on the ground that night.

3.      Do not drive all day, get to camp at dark, and expect to SLEEP at all at night.

4.      Do not attempt do items 1-3 before your prednisone has worn off.

5.      Do not get poison ivy from your son’s scout gear two weeks before your big backpacking trip so you don’t have to take prednisone.

6.      There is far less poison ivy on Springer Mountain than in Zaleski State Park (in Ohio).

7.      AT Shelter privies are generally much nicer than Scout Camp privies.

8.      Springer Mountain shelter and camp are much nicer than I expected.

9.      Packit Gourmet chicken and dumplins smell a lot better than they are.

10.  The privy is not a bad place to dump your Packit Gourmet chicken and dumplins.

11.  It really does take 1-1/2 hours to get to the trailhead from Hiawassee.

12.  Bear cables are great, easy to use, and you should use them.

13.  You can’t take a flash photo on top of a mountain at dark with the fog rolling in.

14.  Joyce and Sally rock, and 1-1/2 hours go by really fast with great conversation, even when your head is about to explode.

15.  People who come up to you on the Appalachian Trail and ask where the nearest restroom is will never stop seeming really stupid and making you laugh no matter how bad you feel.

16.  The trail will still be there when your head is fine.



I’m not gonna lie, my drive home sucked: head pounding, sun blazing… Like the knight storming the castle in Monty Python’s “The Holy Grail,” in each shot running but in in the next shot actually farther and farther away from the castle until, finally, he’s standing at the castle wall.


Just before I reached the castle, I called my son at his dad’s to let him know I’d be home. Originally, this was supposed to be our adventure, but then a conflicting Scout trip hit the calendar. Last week he told me he didn’t like backpacking. Yet, as I loaded my car the other day to head to Georgia, he said, “I want to go!” The first thing he said to me when I told him I was almost home: “Yay, now I can go with you!” I can’t wait to hear what he has to say. My one night on Springer Mountain, there was a mom at the shelter with her about 9 year old son. Saturday morning they excitedly headed north on the trail. I’m skeptically hopeful.


I spent the day in my castle, nursed my head, popped the tent to dry, and unloaded my pack onto the living room floor hoping my gear will be back in the pack soon and headed back to Hiawassee to set out on my adventure.


All I can think of to say in closing: To Be Continued.

Zaleski State Forest--Take One

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!

 

 

Good Hair and a Great Hike

Today was a paradox for me: 2-1/2 hours at the salon getting my hair seriously chopped, followed by a 5-mile, pack-on training hike at Blendon Woods. The new hair worked fine, the pack worked well, the clothes worked well--and the jury is still (ugh!) out on the shoes. After 5 miles carrying 15 lbs. total pack weight, I wasn't tired and the rest of me was feeling just fine, but my feet were bugging me in my new Merrells. Dang. (My pack in June will be 26-30 lbs. including food and water. This is not a bad weight for a noob.)

So it turns out if you hike every trail in Blendon Woods it totals about 5 miles. That is, not including the paved trail to the pond--I was not going to hit that with my pack on. I looked goofy enough as it is!

What I would have liked to see on those trails was a little bit 'o green. It was still very much brown today. In one area, a little bit of spring beauty sprouts were just peeking above the leave litter. Maybe there is hope!

There have been some new developments with the AT trip in June this week. On WhiteBlaze.net I've been lucky to stumble upon three other folks hiking the same section in June and we're working on plans to meet up. Should be fun! It'll be unlikely the group will can stick together all the time, and that's not necessarily the spirit of a hike on the AT anyway, but it will be great to start together, make some new friends, and know there are people you know out there with you.

Well, thank you, Thomas Edison for your wisdom about failure not being failure at all: Tonight I found one way that doesn't work to make a freezer bag meal! I know those guys on the trail are freezer bagging Knorr sides, but my experiment today didn't work. I'll have to get on my favorite hiking forum and see who can tell me a way that DOES work. :)

Finally, a Gear List!

After much reading, research, forum trolling, questions, answers and shopping, I finally have a gear list that I'm happy with for the June trip. See the Gear List page here on the blog to take a look, and feel free to comment. All the best gear lists are a work in progress!

Our Main Squeeze and Other Stories of Success and Error

In Ohio, sure, it may be 30 today and was snowing yesterday, but 5 days ago it was sunny and 50-something. So we packed up some of our new gear and headed out to start breaking it in. And by breaking it in, yes, I mean figuring out how to use it:

We Drank: The biggest success of the day was the Sawyer Squeeze water filter. Coming in at about 50 bucks and just 7 ounces with all its accessories, this thing is a winner. It has water bags with a screw top, to which the filter attaches. At the other end of the filter is a pull-out nozzle like an athletic water bottle. You gently squeeze the “dirty” water bag and pour clean water directly into your vessel—or even your mouth. Some complain the bags are hard to fill, and at first the new bags were a bit of a challenge, but once we figured out how to get them to fill in the barely running water and they loosened up, it was fast easy. This is a popular set up among backpackers, along with chemical treatments (yuck) and pump filters (ugh). Even Snoopy said the water tasted better then the Brita water at home. Four thumbs up!

We Ate: We have never cooked on a camp stove before. And I always wondered why it’s called a “Pocket Rocket.” Now I know: You light that tiny little sucker up and YES, it does sound like a rocket. Problem was, it did not boil our water at rocket speed. Matter of fact, it took forever and we used almost an entire fuel canister. I assumed this was user error and went straight to my favorite hiking forum (www.whiteblaze.net), gathering a wealth of handy tips. Things to try: Start with warmer water, turn the Rocket all the way up, use a wind screen, don’t bring the water to a full boil, don’t actually “cook” on the stove, and of course, carry more fuel just in case. Regardless, we had cocoa and Ramen, GORP, dried fruit and Oatmeal Cream Pies—it was a perfect hiker meal.

We Slogged: After lunch it was off on a short trek, er, slog. It’s March, in Ohio, and that means mud. We don’t mind mud so it was all good, although once again those trekking poles came in handy. Snoopy cut back to one, which I get, but I like the symmetry of both. The trail was pretty, even without any leaves on the trees.

We Tangled: We thought we better try our hand at bear bagging. This is a good skill to have, especially as a Scout, because raccoons can be an even bigger problem than bears and Scout camp has no shortage of the masked bandits. Really, I already knew paracord wasn’t the best bear bag line, but it’s what we had. It didn’t help that Snoopy pulled it all apart and got tangled in it. We eventually succeeded in hanging the bag, admitting we need more practice, but if that doesn’t work out we’ll just use the line to set a booby trap around the tent because I’m pretty sure Snoopy knows how to get that done…

We’re Packin’: We love our packs. Since we didn’t have our shelter and sleeping gear along for the day hike, we both filled the bottoms of our packs with jeans and other clothes. I was amazed at how easy mine was to carry; it feels really heavy when you pick it up by hand off the ground, but once strapped on (and properly fitted) it felt like nothing. Till next time, see you on the trail!

Cold Mountain is Cool

How lucky were we: a puppy AND a short hike on the AT at Cold Mountain. Last weekend we met my sister a little over half way between Columbus, OH and Va. Beach, VA to pick up an orphaned puppy. So I’m looking at the atlas to see where half way is, and choose Covington, VA… but of course I have to look to see where the AT crosses through Virginia. Low and behold, only about an hour farther east.

Isn’t it great when the opportunity for an adventure just falls in your lap? It’s not like we could go there and NOT hit the trail. I found a better hotel in Lexington anyway (and some damn good pizza). So I jumped onto trusty WhiteBlaze.net and within minutes had a response to “Where is the closest trail head parking near Lexington, VA?” (Thanks, Mobius!)

We left Ohio at 7 a.m. Once reaching Lexington around 2:30 p.m., it’s off on US 60 through Buena Vista, left on Coffeytown Road, and right on Wiggins Spring Rd. Definitely more of a spring than a road, Wiggins is a dirt forest road and farther up was still snow, ice and slush over mud. The Journey handled it fine and once parked, we stretched out legs, adjusted our trekking poles, and we were hiking on the AT!

We didn’t have much time but hiked up to the top of Cold Mountain and enjoyed the 360-degree view of the Virginia mountains from the grassy bald. Snoopy only lost his iPod once, in the snow on the way up. But the top was beautiful, the sun was shining and there was little snow up there. Not so much like, as I found out, when my bro-in-law was hiking there with the guys just a couple weeks earlier!

I am very ready to see and experience more of the AT.

It Crept Up On Us Suddenly

I’ve just finished researching the best way to hang a bear bag. Seriously. That’s not anywhere near the beginning of the research, but let me start at the beginning of the story…

This is a lot like other beginnings, you know, the ones that slowly crept up on you—suddenly. Suddenly, you’re aware that you’re interested, involved, drawn in, obsessed. And to some degree, you have been for a long, long time.

“We’re going to start hiking the AT,” we’ll say. “Why?” They’ll say. And there is no one easy answer. I’ve always been a nature geek, from stomping around the lake we lived on in my bare feet catching crawdads at 12 years old, watching the wildlife in our then-rural yard, to becoming an avid birder, to camping and hiking. My first husband and I owned an enormous travel trailer with ducted air, a TV and a microwave, and I’d sit in the kitchen (yes, I said “kitchen”) looking out the window at the camper on the next site 10 feet away and yearn for the backwoods experience: peace, solitude, quiet and nature. My second husband had not even that to offer, but somehow he was the offspring of a man in his 60’s at the time who was actively section hiking the AT. I loved hearing his dad’s stories about his journey. In addition to moving in to the country, for both Snoopy and I, Cub Scouts became the next pivotal chapter of this story. As a leader with a scout, we camped a lot—in a tent now, as it should be.

This weekend, my Cub Scout will become a Boy Scout. Last fall, I began looking at some of the equipment he would need. I bought him a REAL backpack—an Osprey Ace 48. I’m not sure who was more excited about it, and within days we were talking about backpacking together. Before I knew it I was shopping for my own pack, and decent sleeping bags, and a camp stove, and sleeping mats, and hiking boots, and… everything else REI and other outfitters have to offer.

That’s how I stumbled across REI’s travel division and the Family Backpacking Trip I registered us for in May (we can’t wait!). How that turned into the AT adventure I can’t say, but soon we were watching AT videos and talking trail names and, despite not having read a whole book in at least a couple years, in the past month I have finished “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed and “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson, and started many others that have the “Buy Now” button on the Kindle screaming “Click me now!” Indeed, I will.

We have a tentative date for the start of our first hike: June 14. That’s the day we’ll start our quest: at Amicalola State Park, the site of the approach trail to the official southern point of the Appalachian Trail, Springer Mountain in Georgia. We’ll hike north 39.5 miles to Neels Gap. I’d love to and Cody wants to hike all of Georgia, but the jury is still out on that.

Even for all its adventure and possibilities, the great adventure we have built it up to be, we’re not delusional. We’re going into it with every ounce of excitement you might expect, and we’re going into it realistically, well planned and well prepared. (And with some really cool gear, too. List posted here soon.)

So I learned, I explored, I became obsessed and I’m committed. Suddenly, I find myself motivated for the darnedest things: filing piles of long overdue stacks in my office, making time for an exercise regimen that never happened before, and finally finding the courage to give up on someone who has done nothing but bring you down. And for Snoopy, finally finding an interest in something other than Legos, finally becoming a little bit responsible, finally engaging in school! For both of us, accepting that we will pee and poop in the woods… And in the end that will be a small part of this great adventure…