Successful first-time backpacking!
I had signed up for a Beginner's Backpacking trip with the Trail Dames, an Atlanta-based group of women hikers of varying experience levels. I figured, hell, if I'm going to go do this, I'd rather be with people who have done this a lot, so I can learn things.
The plan was to leave the house at 8 am so I could be at the Mistletoe State Park Visitor's Center by 11. It's a 2:20 drive, so I wanted to give myself ample time. However, as these things usually go, I didn't get out of the house until almost 9 am. But I had downloaded a map of the park and knew where the backcountry sites were, so I figured that, worst case scenario, I could meet up with them there. I headed out.
Not five miles away, I looked down at my dashboard and saw the "check oil" light on. NOOOOO!! What the hell, Colossus [my car's name]? Why now?? I pulled off the road and called Randy, who strongly encouraged me to take my car to the Subaru dealership. When I started up the car again, the light wasn't on, but I figured, yeah, he's right; I'd better take it in. Lucky for me there was a Subaru dealership less than a mile from where I'd pulled off. I drove it in there and a very nice lady named Wendy got my car checked out immediately.
Fifteen minutes later, the mechanic came in and said that the oil was a quart low, and something about the oil filter not being a Subaru filter. There are a few other things I want to get checked out on the car in the near future, but I figured, now's not the time; if I could just get on the road, I could still hike out to the site. Wendy sent me on my way (free of charge!).
I texted Kellye, the hike leader, to let her know that it's now well after 10 am and I'm running very late. She texted back to let me know that this was fine, and I should pick up a map at the visitor center and meet them at Backcountry Site #1. Great! Now I know where I'm going. I headed down I-285 to I-20...
...and 11 miles out, there's this HUGE backup because they are resurfacing I-20. The backup was four miles long, and the 3-lane highway narrowed to one lane. I knew that I couldn't be the ONLY Trail Dame stuck in this mess, so I just went with it, drank my Propel water and ate my breakfast.
Finally it all freed up and I drove the other 90 miles out to Appling, GA. Found the park and the visitor center with no problem. As I pulled in, I saw two ladies getting their packs on over by the trail head, so I figured, They must be with my group. Maybe I'll catch up with them. Got my overnight parking pass; got the map; hit the head one more time and threw my pack on my back. As I did this, I saw my first wildlife -- a tiny toad. Of course I got its photo. By now it was just before 1 pm.
As I got right up to the Cliatt Creek trailhead (which is off the secondary parking lot), a woman in a different vehicle asked me if I was with the Trail Dames. I said yes, and she gave me some specific instructions about where to take a turn and how to get down to the stream crossing. (Found out later that she was friends with some of the Dames but wasn't actually doing the hike herself; she just came out to greet us.) So I hit the Cliatt Creek Trail with the plan to take the Rock Dam Trail once I got to the crossing, and the Rock Dam Trail would take me right by my campground.
I have never hiked with 35 extra lbs on my back. The first 100 feet were a wake-up call. Moreso, the pack was top-heavy, and if I looked up, the back of my head hit the top of the pack. So it was a little awkward, and I had to force myself to stand up straight and balance properly. Thank goodness I had the hiking poles. They REALLY came in handy for taking some of the load and for stabilizing me. After a quarter mile or so, though, I got used to it, and sort of shimmied things around and pulled on some straps so I could balance the pack better.
About a mile in, there's a small stream crossing. Here's where I caught up with Ann and Carrie. The two sisters had crossed the stream and were putting their packs back on. They showed me how to get down into the ravine via a hidden walkway. The stream was a little deeper than ankle-deep, so my shoes and socks would have gotten soaked. There was a log across the water, but it didn't look sturdy enough to hold my weight, so I put my bag down, took off my shoes and socks, waded through the water, put my shoes back on and slung my bag back on. We hiked together the rest of the way.
The trail was not difficult. There were occasional dips and climbs through small ravines, and some slow inclines/declines, but nothing really difficult. In fact, it was a little bit boring, except for the plethora of fungi -- mushrooms and toadstools and shelf fungi of all different shapes and sizes. Redcaps. Tiny flaming orange buttons. Black trumpet shapes. Bright dazzling white. Lacy yellow things and fuzzy white things. Shiny gold caps. Even blueish-gray caps. All over the place! There had just been a significant rainstorm on Friday, so that must've brought up all these amazing shrooms. All I could think about was, "Dang, I wish Mara was here to see these! She'd flip out!"
The four-mile hike was generally uneventful, except when we got off-trail at one point (because it made no sense that the trail would continue through a ravine instead of up and over the next hill! Who puts a trail in a ravine?!) and then found our way back. We also got a little off-trail as we came up to the campground, but by then we'd heard voices and knew we were very close.
We got into camp around 2:30 or so. I went for my iPhone to take photos...and it wasn't in my pocket. Hm. Okay, well, maybe it's in my bag. Or somewhere...I was too tired to backtrack, so I just let it go.
We made our introductions around. Carrie was an experienced Trail Dame, but Ann and I were new to the group. There were seven women there already and one more coming. The group ranged in the 30s-to-50 age range; not all white nor straight; and the majority of us were in the plus-sized category. About half of the women were longtime TD regulars with a LOT of camping and hiking experience (and a LOT of cool tricks and gadgets). So we had some great experience to go around. Those of us who were inexperienced definitely made up for it by being overprepared and overpacked. :)
The first thing I did was sit down for a while, then I went ahead and found a spot for my tent. It was between two trees and next to some ferns, between Ann and Carrie's tent and hike co-leader Catrina's hammock. The ground was dug up a little, probably by squirrels or something, so it was softened but not super damp. I found out later that I was on a slight incline. More on that later.
Note: That giant broken branch is NOT over my tent. It's well behind it. :) Once my tent was up, I helped the girls gather firewood. Quite a lot of the groundfall was damp from the previous day's rain, so we had to search out kinda far to find decent burnable wood. The campground was huge, though; it could have supported 15+ tents.
The campsite was right next to the aptly-named Rock Dam (hence the Rock Dam Creek Trail). Sure enough, a natural granite dam crossed the stream right above our campsite, so Ann, Carrie, Chasity, Kristal and I went and climbed around on the rocks and took many photos. I was up on the higher part of the dam when I found a crawfish hanging out inside a crevice. I had much fun watching him and poking at him with a stick so he would get out into a clearer part of the water, so I could take photos. When Chasity and Kristal came to see what I was doing, we wreaked havoc on some nearby flora (basically, I knocked down a rotten tree, and Chasity got hung up on something brambley), and had many laughs about it. Kristal was not impressed with the crawfish. Again, I missed Mara and our cooing over every living thing in the forest.
We headed back to camp. A few of the girls went exploring down through the other end of the camp; I decided to try to take a nap, so I crawled into my tent and zipped up the flaps and lay down. That's when I figured out that I'm lying on that incline, with my head lower than my feet. I had to flip my sleeping bag around, which became very awkward, since the zipper orientation did not match the tent orientation. Oh well, I survived. I napped very little because of all the laughing and talking going on outside.
Eventually, the other girls came back, and hike leader Kellye started doing a lesson on hanging a bear bag. I jumped out of my tent to go see what this was all about. It was really interesting and very effective. I'm glad I saw the process. Here's a video on how it's done in a forest like this, with good branches. (Note: I had neither bear bag nor rope, so I did not hang my bag. I did, however, have a military-grade bio bag for my food; it completely blocks scents, water, biohazards, everything. So I felt okay keeping that in my tent. Kellye assured us that this wasn't really bear country anyway. I will get a proper bear bag for my next overnight.)
After the lesson, I just hung out on a log in the campsite and looked up at the sky.
Meanwhile, Chasity got the fire going, and soon it was dinnertime. There was a picnic bench at the site, but not enough room for 11 women, so we took shifts. Eventually I found a spot to set up my wee tiny stove and cook my little bag of freeze-dried lasagna. I wish I'd brought a teabag or something I could drink hot, because the temperature started to drop around 5 pm. I did have a packet of hot chocolate, but I was saving that for the morning. Anyway, I learned how to turn on my stove and boiled up my water. I also got to see a lot of alternative stoves, fuel sources, etc. Other girls brought stuff like dehydrated beef stew, taco fixings, noodle packs, etc. We had a lot of laughs over our varied dinners.
Once our dinner stuff was cleared away and packed up safe for the night, the sun was setting, and it was darker than normal under the thick canopy of trees.
I will refrain from discussing in detail the experience of relieving myself in the woods, but let's just say that I did, several times, and it's not that difficult, but I REALLY need to work on those squatting muscles! I did, however, give myself a nasty pinch with my metal trowel as I was trying to dig a cat-hole. So when I got back to camp, I had to clean out the wound, administer a squirt of antibiotic and put on a band-aid. My little toilet pack is a thing of wonder; I'm quite proud of the setup I made, and yes, it contained another of those military bio-bags. What a great find those were.
The rest of the evening was spent sitting around poking at the fire, telling stories, telling jokes, getting progressively colder as the temps dropped more, and just patiently waiting for 9 pm (a.k.a., Camper's Midnight). The moon came up and washed the forest in blues. I had hung a small LED light inside my tent, but with it being so dark out there, it looked like my tent was a giant bioluminescent bug squatting on the ground, compared to the rest of the shadowy campsite. I was like, "I am NOT going to lose my way in the dark, dammit!"
Finally, it was time to retire. I crawled into my tent, got into my leggings and my fleece shirt and my socks, climbed into my awkward mummy bag and realized I was way too hot in there. I fell asleep a few times, but it was definitely a bad night for sleeping. Even with the pad, my hips hit the ground and hurt after a while, or my tailbone hurt, or my camp pillow slid away from me, or I slid down in the tent until my feet were jammed up against the wall, or I woke up because I was breathing cold air and had gotten incredibly thirsty, or there was a weird sound...so many things woke me up.
At one point (no idea what time it was, since my phone was AWOL), i heard Catrina stirring around in her hammock. She was talking to herself and I could hear EVERYTHING. I lay there and listened to her get out, attend to her business, and get back in. I couldn't ignore the fact that I, too, had to pee, but I certainly didn't want to interrupt her, so I waited and listened to her and an owl hooting in the distance and to Carrie snoring softly in her tent. Eventually Katrina got herself all situated and back to bed, so I turned on my LED light and put on my camp shoes and my headlamp and ventured out into the VERY black forest to find a tree. Which I did, and I didn't fall down, and I didn't pee on myself or on anyone's tent, and I made it back to my bright tent -- see, the light was a good idea! -- and got my terribly confused sleeping bag re-oriented. Got myself into the RIGHT position with my camp pillow in the RIGHT spot and I fell right asleep.
Woke up when it was getting light. The other girls were rustling around. It was very chilly and very, very damp with dew. All my stuff was damp. It dawned on me that I should have left my clean shirt and undies in the backpack, or better yet, in a ziploc to protect them against the dew. Oh well; they would dry quickly with my body heat, I hoped. (They did.) I was wearing my pants and bra from the previous day. Let's just say that they were not very fresh. Whoooo-ee. Being stinky is part of camping, so I guess I'd better get used to the idea, or figure out a way to pack a whole set of clean clothes if it really bothers me.
I got up and the sun was just hitting the tops of the trees above us. Kellye got the fire going again; it was 45 degrees out, so we were all chilled. Dragged out my little stove again to make oatmeal and coffee. It was good. Again, we had quite the variety of breakfasts -- Vienna sausages; eggs and hashbrowns; oatmeal with PB2 and chocolate; pop-tarts. Once that was done, some of the girls went to get some water for purification. I decided I had enough to make it back to the visitor center, but I could have purified some water if I wanted to; I had my setup with me.
I had gone through every nook and cranny of my backpack and my stuff. Still no iPhone. I made the decision to let the hike leader know. The overall plan had been to take an alternate trail back to the visitor center -- this one was the other half of the Rock Dam loop -- but I thought it judicious to go back on the same trail so I could look for my phone along the way. Kellye (who has plantar fasciitis like I do) decided to join me, since this route was a mile shorter. Michelle, who had taken the alternate route into camp, joined us as well. Jamilla and her friend and April joined us also, so half of us went back the same way we came in, and the other half went the other way.
Before we took off, we got a group shot:
L-R: me, Ann, Carrie, Kellye, Chasity, Jamila, Kristal, April, Michelle, Catrina, and the last girl whose name I forgot
On the way back, Kellye managed to get a signal, so I texted Randy and told him about my missing phone. He figured out a way to reset the password from my home computer and used "Find my iPhone" to locate it. It was at the visitor center! Huzzah! Win!!
The hike back was MUCH faster than the hike in. I still can't wrap my brain around how much shorter it seemed. We were going at a fair clip, no doubt, and we weren't stopping to take photos of every mushroom. So maybe that was the difference.
We got back to the stream, and Kellye showed us that yes, the log DOES hold people our size. So we each crossed the log in turn. April had a panic attack on the log; she was shaking so badly that we thought she would just shake herself into the water. But we talked her through it and she made the crossing without getting wet. Yay! Because she went through it, I knew I could do it, and I did. Again: thank goodness for my walking poles!
(Kellye took this photo)
Got back to the visitor center and there was my phone! I bought a bottle of Powerade and an ice cream and relished those (and my phone) with great joy. Unpacked some of my stuff in the back of my car, got myself situated, said goodbye to the girls who had hiked back with me (the other set of girls were still on their way), and headed home.
The drive back was uneventful except that I saw a dog on the highway and stopped to try to catch it. It ran off into the woods, so no doggie for me. Just as well; I had nothing to catch it with, nowhere to put it and no idea what to do with it once I got it. At least it was off the highway.
I ate an enormous Wendy's burger and guzzled a large iced tea on the way home. I knew I smelled REALLY bad, so when I got home, I stripped down, put my funky clothes in the laundry, and got myself into a bath with epsom salts. It was glorious.
Some things I learned:
- I need a bear bag and the rigging to get it hung in a tree
- I need a couple of dry bags, mostly to keep my clothes dry, but also to hang my food 'n stuff
- I need more of those bio bags to store EVERYTHING that has a scent, like baby wipes, deodorant, toothpaste
- I need to bring either just a little more water (I had roughly 100 oz of water with me; could have used another 12-20 oz to be on the safe side), or bring less water and get used to purification. If I purify water, then I DEFINITELY need to pack some water flavoring, because plain purified stream water tastes gross. All the girls had water flavors with them. Made sense.
- I should add a couple teabags in my food sack. (Done!)
- Instead of packing my lighter, knife and pills, I should have those within easy reach at all times. In a pocket. With a zipper. Which is also where my phone should be.
- I can make a firestarter using the wax shell of Babybel cheese, a cottonball or some dryer lint, and a dab of hand sanitizer. This will burn for 8 minutes. Sweet! babybel cheese, in fact, is good hiking food.
- I need to replace those terrible band-aids in my first aid pack.
So that was it. It was fun. My lips got chapped, my hips and legs are still sore, my pinchy finger is healing up now, and I learned so much. It was really, really fun.
The plan was to leave the house at 8 am so I could be at the Mistletoe State Park Visitor's Center by 11. It's a 2:20 drive, so I wanted to give myself ample time. However, as these things usually go, I didn't get out of the house until almost 9 am. But I had downloaded a map of the park and knew where the backcountry sites were, so I figured that, worst case scenario, I could meet up with them there. I headed out.
Not five miles away, I looked down at my dashboard and saw the "check oil" light on. NOOOOO!! What the hell, Colossus [my car's name]? Why now?? I pulled off the road and called Randy, who strongly encouraged me to take my car to the Subaru dealership. When I started up the car again, the light wasn't on, but I figured, yeah, he's right; I'd better take it in. Lucky for me there was a Subaru dealership less than a mile from where I'd pulled off. I drove it in there and a very nice lady named Wendy got my car checked out immediately.
Fifteen minutes later, the mechanic came in and said that the oil was a quart low, and something about the oil filter not being a Subaru filter. There are a few other things I want to get checked out on the car in the near future, but I figured, now's not the time; if I could just get on the road, I could still hike out to the site. Wendy sent me on my way (free of charge!).
I texted Kellye, the hike leader, to let her know that it's now well after 10 am and I'm running very late. She texted back to let me know that this was fine, and I should pick up a map at the visitor center and meet them at Backcountry Site #1. Great! Now I know where I'm going. I headed down I-285 to I-20...
...and 11 miles out, there's this HUGE backup because they are resurfacing I-20. The backup was four miles long, and the 3-lane highway narrowed to one lane. I knew that I couldn't be the ONLY Trail Dame stuck in this mess, so I just went with it, drank my Propel water and ate my breakfast.
Finally it all freed up and I drove the other 90 miles out to Appling, GA. Found the park and the visitor center with no problem. As I pulled in, I saw two ladies getting their packs on over by the trail head, so I figured, They must be with my group. Maybe I'll catch up with them. Got my overnight parking pass; got the map; hit the head one more time and threw my pack on my back. As I did this, I saw my first wildlife -- a tiny toad. Of course I got its photo. By now it was just before 1 pm.
As I got right up to the Cliatt Creek trailhead (which is off the secondary parking lot), a woman in a different vehicle asked me if I was with the Trail Dames. I said yes, and she gave me some specific instructions about where to take a turn and how to get down to the stream crossing. (Found out later that she was friends with some of the Dames but wasn't actually doing the hike herself; she just came out to greet us.) So I hit the Cliatt Creek Trail with the plan to take the Rock Dam Trail once I got to the crossing, and the Rock Dam Trail would take me right by my campground.
I have never hiked with 35 extra lbs on my back. The first 100 feet were a wake-up call. Moreso, the pack was top-heavy, and if I looked up, the back of my head hit the top of the pack. So it was a little awkward, and I had to force myself to stand up straight and balance properly. Thank goodness I had the hiking poles. They REALLY came in handy for taking some of the load and for stabilizing me. After a quarter mile or so, though, I got used to it, and sort of shimmied things around and pulled on some straps so I could balance the pack better.
About a mile in, there's a small stream crossing. Here's where I caught up with Ann and Carrie. The two sisters had crossed the stream and were putting their packs back on. They showed me how to get down into the ravine via a hidden walkway. The stream was a little deeper than ankle-deep, so my shoes and socks would have gotten soaked. There was a log across the water, but it didn't look sturdy enough to hold my weight, so I put my bag down, took off my shoes and socks, waded through the water, put my shoes back on and slung my bag back on. We hiked together the rest of the way.
The trail was not difficult. There were occasional dips and climbs through small ravines, and some slow inclines/declines, but nothing really difficult. In fact, it was a little bit boring, except for the plethora of fungi -- mushrooms and toadstools and shelf fungi of all different shapes and sizes. Redcaps. Tiny flaming orange buttons. Black trumpet shapes. Bright dazzling white. Lacy yellow things and fuzzy white things. Shiny gold caps. Even blueish-gray caps. All over the place! There had just been a significant rainstorm on Friday, so that must've brought up all these amazing shrooms. All I could think about was, "Dang, I wish Mara was here to see these! She'd flip out!"
The four-mile hike was generally uneventful, except when we got off-trail at one point (because it made no sense that the trail would continue through a ravine instead of up and over the next hill! Who puts a trail in a ravine?!) and then found our way back. We also got a little off-trail as we came up to the campground, but by then we'd heard voices and knew we were very close.
We got into camp around 2:30 or so. I went for my iPhone to take photos...and it wasn't in my pocket. Hm. Okay, well, maybe it's in my bag. Or somewhere...I was too tired to backtrack, so I just let it go.
We made our introductions around. Carrie was an experienced Trail Dame, but Ann and I were new to the group. There were seven women there already and one more coming. The group ranged in the 30s-to-50 age range; not all white nor straight; and the majority of us were in the plus-sized category. About half of the women were longtime TD regulars with a LOT of camping and hiking experience (and a LOT of cool tricks and gadgets). So we had some great experience to go around. Those of us who were inexperienced definitely made up for it by being overprepared and overpacked. :)
The first thing I did was sit down for a while, then I went ahead and found a spot for my tent. It was between two trees and next to some ferns, between Ann and Carrie's tent and hike co-leader Catrina's hammock. The ground was dug up a little, probably by squirrels or something, so it was softened but not super damp. I found out later that I was on a slight incline. More on that later.
Note: That giant broken branch is NOT over my tent. It's well behind it. :) Once my tent was up, I helped the girls gather firewood. Quite a lot of the groundfall was damp from the previous day's rain, so we had to search out kinda far to find decent burnable wood. The campground was huge, though; it could have supported 15+ tents.
The campsite was right next to the aptly-named Rock Dam (hence the Rock Dam Creek Trail). Sure enough, a natural granite dam crossed the stream right above our campsite, so Ann, Carrie, Chasity, Kristal and I went and climbed around on the rocks and took many photos. I was up on the higher part of the dam when I found a crawfish hanging out inside a crevice. I had much fun watching him and poking at him with a stick so he would get out into a clearer part of the water, so I could take photos. When Chasity and Kristal came to see what I was doing, we wreaked havoc on some nearby flora (basically, I knocked down a rotten tree, and Chasity got hung up on something brambley), and had many laughs about it. Kristal was not impressed with the crawfish. Again, I missed Mara and our cooing over every living thing in the forest.
We headed back to camp. A few of the girls went exploring down through the other end of the camp; I decided to try to take a nap, so I crawled into my tent and zipped up the flaps and lay down. That's when I figured out that I'm lying on that incline, with my head lower than my feet. I had to flip my sleeping bag around, which became very awkward, since the zipper orientation did not match the tent orientation. Oh well, I survived. I napped very little because of all the laughing and talking going on outside.
Eventually, the other girls came back, and hike leader Kellye started doing a lesson on hanging a bear bag. I jumped out of my tent to go see what this was all about. It was really interesting and very effective. I'm glad I saw the process. Here's a video on how it's done in a forest like this, with good branches. (Note: I had neither bear bag nor rope, so I did not hang my bag. I did, however, have a military-grade bio bag for my food; it completely blocks scents, water, biohazards, everything. So I felt okay keeping that in my tent. Kellye assured us that this wasn't really bear country anyway. I will get a proper bear bag for my next overnight.)
After the lesson, I just hung out on a log in the campsite and looked up at the sky.
Meanwhile, Chasity got the fire going, and soon it was dinnertime. There was a picnic bench at the site, but not enough room for 11 women, so we took shifts. Eventually I found a spot to set up my wee tiny stove and cook my little bag of freeze-dried lasagna. I wish I'd brought a teabag or something I could drink hot, because the temperature started to drop around 5 pm. I did have a packet of hot chocolate, but I was saving that for the morning. Anyway, I learned how to turn on my stove and boiled up my water. I also got to see a lot of alternative stoves, fuel sources, etc. Other girls brought stuff like dehydrated beef stew, taco fixings, noodle packs, etc. We had a lot of laughs over our varied dinners.
Once our dinner stuff was cleared away and packed up safe for the night, the sun was setting, and it was darker than normal under the thick canopy of trees.
I will refrain from discussing in detail the experience of relieving myself in the woods, but let's just say that I did, several times, and it's not that difficult, but I REALLY need to work on those squatting muscles! I did, however, give myself a nasty pinch with my metal trowel as I was trying to dig a cat-hole. So when I got back to camp, I had to clean out the wound, administer a squirt of antibiotic and put on a band-aid. My little toilet pack is a thing of wonder; I'm quite proud of the setup I made, and yes, it contained another of those military bio-bags. What a great find those were.
The rest of the evening was spent sitting around poking at the fire, telling stories, telling jokes, getting progressively colder as the temps dropped more, and just patiently waiting for 9 pm (a.k.a., Camper's Midnight). The moon came up and washed the forest in blues. I had hung a small LED light inside my tent, but with it being so dark out there, it looked like my tent was a giant bioluminescent bug squatting on the ground, compared to the rest of the shadowy campsite. I was like, "I am NOT going to lose my way in the dark, dammit!"
Finally, it was time to retire. I crawled into my tent, got into my leggings and my fleece shirt and my socks, climbed into my awkward mummy bag and realized I was way too hot in there. I fell asleep a few times, but it was definitely a bad night for sleeping. Even with the pad, my hips hit the ground and hurt after a while, or my tailbone hurt, or my camp pillow slid away from me, or I slid down in the tent until my feet were jammed up against the wall, or I woke up because I was breathing cold air and had gotten incredibly thirsty, or there was a weird sound...so many things woke me up.
At one point (no idea what time it was, since my phone was AWOL), i heard Catrina stirring around in her hammock. She was talking to herself and I could hear EVERYTHING. I lay there and listened to her get out, attend to her business, and get back in. I couldn't ignore the fact that I, too, had to pee, but I certainly didn't want to interrupt her, so I waited and listened to her and an owl hooting in the distance and to Carrie snoring softly in her tent. Eventually Katrina got herself all situated and back to bed, so I turned on my LED light and put on my camp shoes and my headlamp and ventured out into the VERY black forest to find a tree. Which I did, and I didn't fall down, and I didn't pee on myself or on anyone's tent, and I made it back to my bright tent -- see, the light was a good idea! -- and got my terribly confused sleeping bag re-oriented. Got myself into the RIGHT position with my camp pillow in the RIGHT spot and I fell right asleep.
Woke up when it was getting light. The other girls were rustling around. It was very chilly and very, very damp with dew. All my stuff was damp. It dawned on me that I should have left my clean shirt and undies in the backpack, or better yet, in a ziploc to protect them against the dew. Oh well; they would dry quickly with my body heat, I hoped. (They did.) I was wearing my pants and bra from the previous day. Let's just say that they were not very fresh. Whoooo-ee. Being stinky is part of camping, so I guess I'd better get used to the idea, or figure out a way to pack a whole set of clean clothes if it really bothers me.
I got up and the sun was just hitting the tops of the trees above us. Kellye got the fire going again; it was 45 degrees out, so we were all chilled. Dragged out my little stove again to make oatmeal and coffee. It was good. Again, we had quite the variety of breakfasts -- Vienna sausages; eggs and hashbrowns; oatmeal with PB2 and chocolate; pop-tarts. Once that was done, some of the girls went to get some water for purification. I decided I had enough to make it back to the visitor center, but I could have purified some water if I wanted to; I had my setup with me.
I had gone through every nook and cranny of my backpack and my stuff. Still no iPhone. I made the decision to let the hike leader know. The overall plan had been to take an alternate trail back to the visitor center -- this one was the other half of the Rock Dam loop -- but I thought it judicious to go back on the same trail so I could look for my phone along the way. Kellye (who has plantar fasciitis like I do) decided to join me, since this route was a mile shorter. Michelle, who had taken the alternate route into camp, joined us as well. Jamilla and her friend and April joined us also, so half of us went back the same way we came in, and the other half went the other way.
Before we took off, we got a group shot:
L-R: me, Ann, Carrie, Kellye, Chasity, Jamila, Kristal, April, Michelle, Catrina, and the last girl whose name I forgot
On the way back, Kellye managed to get a signal, so I texted Randy and told him about my missing phone. He figured out a way to reset the password from my home computer and used "Find my iPhone" to locate it. It was at the visitor center! Huzzah! Win!!
The hike back was MUCH faster than the hike in. I still can't wrap my brain around how much shorter it seemed. We were going at a fair clip, no doubt, and we weren't stopping to take photos of every mushroom. So maybe that was the difference.
We got back to the stream, and Kellye showed us that yes, the log DOES hold people our size. So we each crossed the log in turn. April had a panic attack on the log; she was shaking so badly that we thought she would just shake herself into the water. But we talked her through it and she made the crossing without getting wet. Yay! Because she went through it, I knew I could do it, and I did. Again: thank goodness for my walking poles!
(Kellye took this photo)
Got back to the visitor center and there was my phone! I bought a bottle of Powerade and an ice cream and relished those (and my phone) with great joy. Unpacked some of my stuff in the back of my car, got myself situated, said goodbye to the girls who had hiked back with me (the other set of girls were still on their way), and headed home.
The drive back was uneventful except that I saw a dog on the highway and stopped to try to catch it. It ran off into the woods, so no doggie for me. Just as well; I had nothing to catch it with, nowhere to put it and no idea what to do with it once I got it. At least it was off the highway.
I ate an enormous Wendy's burger and guzzled a large iced tea on the way home. I knew I smelled REALLY bad, so when I got home, I stripped down, put my funky clothes in the laundry, and got myself into a bath with epsom salts. It was glorious.
Some things I learned:
- I need a bear bag and the rigging to get it hung in a tree
- I need a couple of dry bags, mostly to keep my clothes dry, but also to hang my food 'n stuff
- I need more of those bio bags to store EVERYTHING that has a scent, like baby wipes, deodorant, toothpaste
- I need to bring either just a little more water (I had roughly 100 oz of water with me; could have used another 12-20 oz to be on the safe side), or bring less water and get used to purification. If I purify water, then I DEFINITELY need to pack some water flavoring, because plain purified stream water tastes gross. All the girls had water flavors with them. Made sense.
- I should add a couple teabags in my food sack. (Done!)
- Instead of packing my lighter, knife and pills, I should have those within easy reach at all times. In a pocket. With a zipper. Which is also where my phone should be.
- I can make a firestarter using the wax shell of Babybel cheese, a cottonball or some dryer lint, and a dab of hand sanitizer. This will burn for 8 minutes. Sweet! babybel cheese, in fact, is good hiking food.
- I need to replace those terrible band-aids in my first aid pack.
So that was it. It was fun. My lips got chapped, my hips and legs are still sore, my pinchy finger is healing up now, and I learned so much. It was really, really fun.