What I Learned on my Summer Vacation(s)

My first summer of backpacking is over. The snow has started to fall (already? Yikes!) and I now have commitments starting next week that'll keep me in civilization for longer periods of time.

I got to do three backpacking trips (Henry W. Coe State Park, and two in Jennie Lakes Wilderness) and one "pretend" backpacking trip (this past week near* Desolation Wilderness. 

So, here's what I've learned:

• My 20°F Sleeping bag is fine down to about 30. I had to put on my down jacket at about 4am to stay comfy. My feet got too warm and I had to take of my sleeping-socks. I'll have to figure out what to do about that; I'm afraid that opening the foot zipper will be too cold.
• The 60/40 down fill on my sleeping bag is obvious when used as a quilt and temperatures drop to (probably) the mid-30's. (Might try to attach one of those $20 Costco down throws on that side to make that better.)
• I can indeed hike 8.5 miles in a day with a 30 pound pack. Yay! I get really tired and my legs hurt and it was difficult to sleep because I was sore despite being exhausted, but I did it.
• I actually hate going downhill.  I hate it more than going uphill. But only very, very, very slightly. Why can't all trails just be flat and unpaved? (Downhill tends to aggravate my knee pain.)
• Speaking of knees; variety is the key.  All uphill or all downhill will kill 'em.
• Sometimes, I don't feel like boiling water for dehydrated dinner packs.
• My tent is, in fact, water proof.
• If I fuck up and put my tent in a water-collecting divot in the ground, the inside still stays dry! (In other words, my tent succeeded where I failed.)
• Mosquito nets aren't as silly as I once thought they were.
• Some trails on some maps, even if that map was made by the government agency managing the land, don't exist.
• Campfires make most any day near perfect.

For future equipment, here's what I think I need/want:

• Decide if my (one size too large) down jacket is better than a fleece jacket. (I did like the hood of the puffy when it was 30-ish degrees...) (And in the wind.)
• Two (or three) of these nice 2 liter water bladders I've seen.
• Base layer for my legs.
• Second(?) base layer for legs for sleeping.
• Backpack rain cover or compactor bag liner? (I'm leaning slightly to rain cover.)
• Rain pants? Or just treat my current pants for water repellent-ness? Or just deal with the base layer and moistened pants... And wind. Ooh, I forgot about the wind. Ugh. Need more thinking...

On to the next adventures which are, a four-or-five day trip somewhere in January or February. Somewhere like Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Henry W. Coe State Park. And, I'm expecting to start the PCT in March. (Yikes, that seems so close...)

(*Near Desolation Wilderness: I'd planned to go into the Wilderness for a two night trip but the weather was too cold and possibly too wet for what I was comfortable with. So, I car-camped in a USFS Campground in case my preparations were not good enough for the 30° F overnight lows.)

Abort! ABORT!

Ok, for my second solo backpacking trip, I was going to go to the backcountry wilderness of Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park. To Seville Lake. Not too far of a hike, not too difficult. And easy trails.

But, it didn't quite go as planned.

Of course.

So, I start off at the Rowell Trailhead. A bit of a bumpy ride, but still doable in the truck.

It was a sunny warm-to-hot climb up to the wilderness boundary where everything changed.

After this sign, the trail curves into shaded forest along a creek. It was beautiful if you could see through the damn thick clouds of nuclear-strength mosquitoes.

I had to stop and use the picaridin and zip on my pant legs and inhaled at least three mosquitoes in the process. I hiked faster. Hoping to out-run the cartoonish clouds. I was mostly successful.

Found a spot to camp and quickly, quickly set up my tent. It was the only place to escape the flying critters.

But, at least it was pretty.

I had to wait until it was long after dark to get out of the tent so I could boil water for my dinner. Even then, I was occasionally bugged (HA!) by the 'skeeters.

But, dinner was good, Mountain House Beef Stroganoff, I believe.

And I lay in my tent reading about how to forecast the weather in the backcountry by the light of my inflatable Luci light.

I went to bed.

Then I woke up.

That's me!

The campsite in the morning was mostly mosquito free. It wasn't until I had to, uh, "do my business" that the 'skeeters turned on me in places I'd really rather not talk about in polite company.

But, I packed up my stuff, trying not to scratch the mostly inappropriate places now sporting new 'skeeter bites. I envied the other backpackers and their bug net hats. Oh, how I envied their previously-scorned-by-me fashion choices...

But, I had a lake to get to.

I got to the border between the Forest and the Park and took a break. It was pleasantly mostly bug-free.

I'd made it. I was in the Wilderness of a National Park for the first time.

The lake! It was waiting for me!

After a rest, I shrugged and strained into my backpack again and headed down the hill. Down. The map said the trail forked; one trail directly to the lake and another down the canyon to a trail junction and then up a third trail to the lake.

I hiked.

I hiked some more. I passed a meadow. I thought, "I wonder if that's the meadow I've seen on the map." So I get out my GPS device and check.

It wasn't the meadow I'd seen on the map. I wasn't on the right trail. The right trail was west by a couple hundred feet.

So, after hemming and hawing and wondering if my bloodied corpse would be found by another wayward traveler years down the road, I traipsed off into the underbrush and debris-ridden forest floor to find the trail.

I followed the compass bearing. Checked the GPS device to see when I got close to where the maps (by the US Forest Service, mind you....) said the trail I wanted was.

It wasn't.

There was no trail.

I plopped back down in my camp chair and, with the bug and flies and 'skeeters pestering me, I decided to abort my trip.

I could get to the lake, sure, but it was not the trip I had prepared for. It was better for me to have a pretty hard day that day rather than a really too hard day the next.

I messaged my partner on the InReach I was coming home and why and headed back UP the steep trail to the Park/Forest boundary.

But not before I set a waypoint in the GPS where the maps said there was a fork in the trail but that I somehow missed.

The GPS alarm went off when I got the the "fork" and I looked around.

No trail. Only a run-off channel from the too-steep trail. Sure, it might have been a trail at some point; but not anymore.

That's allegedly a trail.

Still there was some beautiful scenery and nice, green forest stuff.

I ended up hiking about 8 miles from my campsite, to the border, to the "trail" to the meadow, back to the border, back past my campsite and then down to the truck. In the grand scheme, it's not a particularly long nor hard day.

And, in the end, I learned a few things:

1. I can hike 8 miles in a day going up and down hills with a 30 pound pack on my back and not hurt too much.
2. Check with the Forest Service (Or Park Service) to make sure the trails I see on a map--even if published by the Forest Service or Park Service--exist.

So, it was a good trip.