So this weekend, I went backpacking! I love backpacking- trekking out into the wilderness with nothing but what you can carry on your own back, heading out into beautiful parts of the country that can't be reached by car. Fresh air and excercise, beef jerky and trail mix- it's one of my favorite summer pastimes.
However, usually what I have in mind is a 3-4 mile hike, nice and pleasant, slightly tiring but it feels good to get a little work out. This weekend, we did 14 miles round trip! (Uphill both ways, in the blazing sunshine, over rocky terrain, of course!) I managed to come out alive, with no more injury than a sprained knee, very sore muscles and a few dozen bug bites. We were attacked on the trail by these little ankle-biting flies. Quite unpleasant!
We started out our trip at 7am Saturday, drove two hours up to Marblemount, WA and met more friends there. We then drove up a long, really long, dirt and gravel road that created a vibrating massage type feeling if I drove over the bumps too fast. Delores nearly had a heart attack (that's my car). Her steering column was shaking quite violently. We made it to the top and began our ascent.
I began wheezing after about ten steps, which I took as a potentially bad sign. I whipped out the inhaler, and trudged on. By the time we made it to the top of the pass, I was actually doing okay. It was a strange feeling, but I had to push through the pain and that made it much easier. The second half of our trip out was almost all downhill, which made it a little easier on the breathing. We finally reached our destination at about 5pm.
What we had reached was a dry river bed. Yep, that was our campsite! Luckily, there were somewhat sandy spots designed for tenting, otherwise we would have been in a sorry state in the morning! We set up camp, made our dinner and sat around talking and chilaxing. We also had the near outbreak of a mini-Hezbollah war right in our camp! There was much flinging of small rocks, and when Jenny pleaded "I'm Canada!" rocks flew at her from all directions!
We slept that night, and awoke to a beautiful sunrise. Once the sun made it over the mountains (which were on all sides, beautiful!) our camp grew quite warm, and we ate, packed up and headed out. The trip back up out of the valley was really, really warm, and difficultly uphill. My knee had begun to hurt the night before and it grew increasingly worse the more rocky terrain we trudged up.
We finally made it to the waterfall we had stopped at the day before on the way down (about halfway to the pass from our campsite). We took off our packs, shoes and socks and got wet! I actually stuck my head in a part of the waterfall, which says something, because first of all, I'm not a huge fan of cold water on my head, and second, I'm not a huge fan of weirdly curly hair that results from strange water, sweat and heat and no blow dryer. But I was hot!!! And I must say, it felt quite nice!
We continued our trudging, past many switchbacks, and up the side of a mountain. After quite some time, my troup caught up to Jenny and Oscar, who had opted for a head start. We heard a "thunk, thunk, thunk" just up ahead. Bruce called out, "What's falling?" And Jenny yelled back, "My sleeping bag!!!" Apparently Oscar had tried to lighten her load, and the bag decided to run away. On the up side, her pack was considerably lighter for the rest of the trip!
We trudged and trudged, and the sun grew hotter, and the hill steeper. This was the hardest part of the trip. After much wheezing and many breaks to lower the heart rate (of which mine was through the roof! I thought my neck was going to explode because my arteries were pounding so hard) We finally made it to the pass, where we stopped for lunch.
I can honestly say that the rest of the trip was not too bad, but perhaps that was the three ibuprofin that I had with lunch talking... It certainly helped the trip down. The only remaining struggle was my knee, which had decided it was done somewhere back in the switchbacks. I found that if I kept going, it was ok, but if I stopped for any length of time, it would start to cramp up and hurt really bad if I moved again. So, for the last two miles or so, I just kept walking!
We made it to the bottom, drove out, stopped for pizza and headed home!
The End. If you made it this far, I congratulate you. : )
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P.S. I forgot to mention that the picture is the real deal! Bruce took it with his new camera. : ) I would have posted more pictures, but I ran out of time at the library.
It's doing a little better today. I walked to work rather than drive like I did yesterday. I think as my muscles calm down, it will get better.
Looks like a beautiful hike from the picture Lyd! I hope you managed to have a good time, despite your sore knee. Sounds like you had some good company at least:) Hey, I think we get to hang out this Saturday, right?
This is a long shot--BUT, do you know of anyone looking for a roommate or someone with something to rent fairly near The Art Institute of Seattle? My brother doesn't have a place to live! He probably won't have a car either--still deciding to get a car or use public trans. He is staying with a friend on his couch for the first month while he looks for a job and housing.
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