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rejuvenation
Posted on | February 4, 2008 | 24 Comments
I feel like a new person today. I always do after spending the weekend in the woods, but it’s been so long since we went backpacking that I am feeling doubly refreshed today.
Darlene told me to take lots of pictures, but the colors of wintertime are a combination of brown and gray, with an occasional shock of moss green. Since photo ops are limited, I decided to photograph how we backpack, as the phrases “going to the woods” and “we’re going camping” can mean different things to different people. Some people have RVs, some pop-up campers, and some pitch a tent in a campground. This is what I mean when I say those words.
Our Saturday sky. Gorgeous, huh? It felt so good to feel the sun on my face after it being so cold and rainy earlier this week. I get so jealous of all the fabulous snow pictures of bloggers up north, but I know you’d have traded places with me in a heartbeat for this sky.
This is where I was laying – the Choccolocco Creek Watershed. The hike Saturday was easy for the most part, without any huge increases or decreases in elevation. We came across an enormous blowdown – a tree which had fallen due to storms and was laying across two sections of the trail. We skirted around it on Saturday and met some trail maintainers a little further up the trail who were looking for that very blowdown. They cleared it out with axes and chainsaws, and this is what it looked like on Sunday:
Thank you, trail maintainers!
There was one really bad section of trail where the footing was horrible. The maintainers said that people had been riding horses on the trail, which quickly erodes the footing, as you can imagine.
SB makes it look easy, but I assure you, it wasn’t! See how his foot is kinda tilted? When I hiked through this section, I was hugging the hillside and hiking inchworm-style, hoping the squishy dirt wouldn’t fail me!
This is what most of the hiking was like, which was very pleasant. We hiked for six miles, reached the campsite and set up camp.
I put the tent up and gathered smaller pieces of firewood, and SB took the folding saw and brought back big pieces of wood.
We had more than we needed and left a stack for the next hikers to use. Who knows, it may even be us!
Another one of SB’s campsite jobs is to filter water. We try to camp near a water source if possible because it reduces the amount of water we have to bring with us and therefore the weight of our packs. Some hikers use idodine tablets but SB has a top of the line water filter so we don’t catch any one of a number of horrendous parasites from the water. It’s sad that you can’t drink directly from the steam, it looks so pure.
While SB filtered water, I had time to finish a little project – a neck wrap out of double-stranded Manos which has since been frogged – it was waaayy too big – but I wore it that night anyway because once the sun set behind the trees, it was cold!
Man, I love a good fire. The crackles, the sputters of moisture coming out of the damp wood, the smokey smell – it’s heaven to me. The fire is my domain and responsibility although I occasionally let SB put a big log on it. It makes him happy.
We had dinner (Cashew Rice Curry – packed at home the previous night), marveled at the bright stars, and enjoyed a few cocktails before turning in. A wise hiker said once that you can hike in comfort, or you can camp in comfort, but you can’t do both. There are a lot of comfortable things we’ve given up over the years in order to make our hike more pleasant, but one thing we always have room for is a pint of whiskey! You only have to carry the weight one way.
This is what the tent looks like on the inside. The camera lens fogged up almost immediately because of the moisture from our breath. In the South where we have so much humidity, we wake up to a lot of condensation on the tent fly.
This is our cooking apparatus. It’s an Esbit stove, which is a hair larger than a pack of cards when folded and weighs 3.75 ounces.
We boil water in the pot
and pour the water into the ziploc with our food. For breakfast we had oats with wheat germ, dehydrated milk, currants and slivered almonds. The ziploc is inside an insulated pouch we made. It’s lightweight and works great! The only thing we use our pot for is to boil water so we don’t even have a messy pot to clean.
A good way to start the day (and better than what I normally eat!).
Here’s my backpack, ready for the return trip. This time I only carried my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, clothes, water and bag-o-crap I hope I never have to use (mostly first aid stuff), but I usually carry the tent too.
On the way back, we pick up trash other people have left behind. We torture each other with whatever annoying song is stuck in our head at the moment. We talk about things we’ve done in the past or plans for the future, and a lot of the time we don’t talk at all. We just enjoy who we’re with and where we are, the sound of birds and of leaves falling and water flowing in the creeks and the clean fresh smell of the woods.
If you’ve read to the end of this – THANK YOU! I know not everyone is interested in backpacking but I thought I’d explain a little about what we do and how we do it. I hope you enjoyed it a little bit!
Comments
24 Responses to “rejuvenation”
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February 4th, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
I’ve liked backpacking in my life, but probably not in February.
BTW, you make my day. See my blog for more info ;-)
February 4th, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
GREAT post and thanks for the pictures!!! Despite the lack of color it is still nice to be out with nature isn’t it?!! And you are right about folks idea of camping, etc!!! My in-laws idea of “camping” is their larger than bus motorhome…completely with all the amenities of home!! LOL!!
I haven’t camped in years but have SOO many great memories of camping with large groups of friends!!!!
All this AND knitting…..couldn’t ask for a better weekend!!!
February 4th, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
Looks lovely! I love a good hike, but I love a soft hotel bed and room service at the end of said hike even more! I am one of those rv-with-generator-for-dvds-and-lattes camper types. LOL.
February 4th, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
What an awesome post – This is going over to Tad right this second and I’m barely suppressing the urge to call out for the next two days so we can get out ;) I love your insulated ziploc contraption – very smart!! What a wonderful weekend E – thanks so much for sharing, it sounds like heaven.
February 4th, 2008 @ 1:42 pm
A bit of nature is good for the soul! Your pics are lovely… i love the colors of winter with that small shock of bright green. I’m with Carrie – love the hike but love the comforts of home when sleeping :) Although, your little tent for two looks good and snuggly!
February 4th, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. I remember those days…..before kids and aching joints!
February 4th, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
I am so jealous! Sounds wonderful!
February 4th, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
I’m so envious I can hardly type!! Thank you for sharing your weekend…I need one JUST LIKE IT! ;-)
February 4th, 2008 @ 3:50 pm
I’ve camped but never backpacked. I’m impressed with your set up!
February 4th, 2008 @ 6:45 pm
I’ve only gone backpacking once. I do like camping, but the backpacking was not as relaxing to me. My husband is a big backpacker – he’s doing pieces of the Appalachian Trial around where we live and would love to do the entire thing. Thank you for sharing the elements of your trip – it really gives a great idea of what backpacking really is!
February 4th, 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Wow!
That is the best cyber camping trip I have ever been on! Thank you!
My favorite part was that stretch out in the sun– in front of the Choccolocco Creek Watershed. I could almost feel the sun on my face! ….oh, and the whiskey…the whiskey was good too!
February 4th, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
It’s been so long since I’ve been on a good backpacking trip. Might have to remedy that soon, this definitely brought up some nostalgia. :)
February 4th, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
“Man, I love a good fire. The crackles, the sputters of moisture coming out of the damp wood, the smokey smell – it’s heaven to me.”
Ditto. It is my favourite thing, next to waking up inside a tent, during camping season. Being outdoors like this is my ideal. Major hiking envy here!
Thanks you for sharing. It looks like such a peaceful time.
February 4th, 2008 @ 11:49 pm
awww man you have me lusting for the rains and cold temps to subside a bit. Our next camp/hike (tho “cushy” it will be as we’ll take advantage of an established base camp) isn’t planned until March. We’re headed into the a rain forest with a gaggle of 5th and 6th graders. Smart. =P~
February 5th, 2008 @ 2:56 am
My husband loves the hiking but he is definitely a shower at the end of the trail kind of guy. Funny to think how much he loves it outside, but creature comforts at the end. Loved the travelog! :)
February 5th, 2008 @ 7:44 am
What a wonderful weekend. You were right: I’m totally jealous of that blue sky. :-) It’s nasty and gray here in Michigan but that
will make the arrival of spring that much sweeter. It’s my favorite time of year.
February 5th, 2008 @ 8:20 am
Great pictorial essay! It fwelt like I was there with you.
February 5th, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Oh the jealousy! We used to camp a bunch when I was growing up (the comfortable kind of camping and then hike whatever trails are around) and my friends and I hiked a bunch in college (the no-camping kind – but we were up in the North GA mountains already so it wasn’t a long trip out for some pretty places). I have been ready to do the hiking to the camp site kind for ages! Michael has recently been converted to slightly outdoorsy (it’s the Magic of Alabama), so I think there might be hope! I am forwarding this post to him so he can see what we’re missing.
February 6th, 2008 @ 7:33 am
Are you kidding with the, “thank you for reading”? Thank you for posting all the pics & narrative! You took me with you, basically. And I didn’t even have to get overexerted. But I didn’t get any whiskey, either. Hmm.
February 6th, 2008 @ 8:26 am
Even though I was there, you have me ready to get back on the trail. Nice to see a post about the “trailing” part of “trailing yarn.” Good job summing up the trip.
February 6th, 2008 @ 12:37 pm
Wow. You are so hardcore! Camping in February?? Although it was probably pretty nice since it’s been in the 70s eh? I have never been camping and you make it look so fun. :)
February 13th, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
EB I love you! I love that you hike and camp out too and have all this gear. I’ve probably mentioned before that we used to vacation in the Smokies when I was a kid and hiked a lot. I haven’t gotten to do that in 20+ years and seeing your posts bring back such great memories for me. I SO want to do this with my kids. I need to just DO IT and let my husband stay home. The kids should get to enjoy that kind of experience. Thank you so much for sharing these pictures and your escape. :)
February 15th, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
What a great post! Thanks for all the pictures.
March 11th, 2008 @ 3:12 pm
Thank you for sharing. I jumped to your post from the link you left on the Ravelry camper’s group.
I think I may try to convince my husband that we should to camping this weekend. (The last minute-ness of it means it’ll be car camping, but that’s better than nothing, eh?)