Backpacking trip #2

Mission successful!

I did the route of our 3-day backpacking expedition coming up by myself yesterday after work and today before driving down to Baltimore. It was my second backpacking trip (I know, just an overnight, big deal), and my first time camping by myself.

A lot of my gear was borrowed, what was mine was used for the first time outdoors, and I'm happy to say my planning was solid, the practice with trekking poles added a lot to my stamina.

The first day, 2.4 miles with 400 ft gain at the intro was not bad, a lot of ridgeline. 4:20 PM to 5:55 PM to do that mileage. 2.4 miles in less than an hour and 45 minutes. The weather held out and it was beautiful, shorts and tank-top hiking (I longed to have brought my hiking skirt!).
I hit Catfish Tower before I even realized it.

Bear-bagged in a decent number of throws, found a good tree, ate a solid dinner, and woke up a couple times just from getting chilly despite my Lafuma Yellowstone 30F/-1C. Did some crunches and wiggled around to generate heat, then went back to sleep.

This morning I shoved off at a leisurely pace, 9:10 AM (break-down took me about 2 hours at a leisurely pace), stopped at the bottom of the hill before crossing Millbrook Road to get water and treat it with iodine (very boggy down there, lots of mosquitos even early in the season.) I carried 4 liters yesterday, killed 3 between 4PM and 10:15 AM this morning. Once again, happened upon my end-point before I knew it, rocking out 4.6 miles in 4 hours and finding my way safely to the Matrix, where my supervisor left me a short congratulatory note in a plastic bag.

I compared this trip to my last one when I drove down to Baltimore. The last trip I went on, a training trip, I wanted to end the trip at a closer mile-marker. We were winter hiking, packs were heavy, weather sucked, and it was a lot of new-ness. I wanted to be on that trip, and I knew it was important for me to train for expedition. But at the end of that trip, I wasn't proud that we made it a mileage I felt was impossible.

I felt like probably a lot of the city kids I work with feel like when we bring them out into the woods. I felt overwhelmed, didn't have trekking poles, felt in over my head. And for a facilitator, that's not a common place to be. Usually I know where I am going, what I'm doing, or have some inkling. Or at least am pretty sure it will come to me.

On that winter trip, I was out of my comfort zone.

This trip was outside of my comfort zone, but I was also in control. And now I know that I'm going to be able to handle the physical aspects of the trip in 12 days. Now to study up on my expedition soft skills and protocol.

NEXT TIME:Put on all the layers, especially long underwear and flannel before hitting the hay, and ditch the leggings for zip-off pants before heading off, even if it's cold. Also would have liked my fingerless gloves in the morning and could have rocked a hat and turtle-neck all night, even though it was not that cold. I packed the right amount of clothing, I just need to do a better job thermoregulating.