Backpacking Campout. A First For Me.

First we were doing thumbs up, and then Chris said, "Geez, look like you love each other. Stop trying to be cool."
I also wish I had a photo of Chris helping me adjust my backpack just right. Love when my boys help me out!

Remember when Dan bought Nick a new, lighter backpack for his overnighter to Dog Lake? That sparked the thought that I'd like to try an overnighter too. (Now that the backpack isn't so cumbersome and heavy, it seemed more doable.)


This week was the perfect time to go with Nick out of town, and Chris home to watch Kershaw. Although we realized that Nick has the backpack. So we bought two more -- one for Dan and one for me. Now we're committed.

Hiking to Lake Blanche with a 14 lb backpack (mine was only 14 lbs, Dan's was 24 lbs) was like a walk in the park compared to hiking Mt. Olympus. When we hit the first mile mark, I was sure my watch was off because it wasn't near as hard as I'd worried it might be. With the packs it took us 1:45 to reach the lake (vs. 1:30 unencumbered).

We had dinner with Chris at Greek City Grill (and Mitt Romney came in to pick up his fast food order -- a little gyro and fries while he watches the Primary results?!) and then Dan and I headed up the canyon at 6:30. 

It was about 9 when we got to the top with plenty of light left to search for a campsite and time to watch the sunset. 

I did not graffiti by etching my initials in this rock. But since somebody else did, I took a photo.

TerraShield works!

Unfortunately the mosquitos were completely swarming. Dan was freaking out a bit. (Sorry, just calling it like it was.) We finally pulled our packs off and doused ourselves with Terrashield (doTerra) that helped a lot. They were still swarming, but not landing. We walked all over the east side of the lake and then over to the west (and saw the other two lakes below) searching for a good spot. We decided on the west side just uphill from a moose who had come out at dusk to drink.

The fish were jumping (eat more mosquitos!), the moose was casually grazing and a deer came to join her too. The sunset was a vivid reddish-orange and there was only one other couple in the entire place. It was amazing to be in such a beautiful area with the whole place to ourselves!

Moose!

The 2nd lake (and third beyond that).

After we pitched our tent, we got ready for bed and ate our snack of fig bars and a fruit cup. I was sort of thinking we'd eat our snack as we played Skip-Bo in our tent, but Dan said we couldn't eat in our tent because of bears. I didn't think there were any bears there. But actually, I've only been up there twice before and the internet said there were black bears. So I guess I wasn't really a reliable source of information. I agreed to follow Dan's wisdom.








We opened the sleeping bags with one underneath and one on top. I was super comfortable, but Dan was a little cold. Sleeping on the ground isn't comfortable but I was comfortable for sleeping on the ground. (Side note: both times on Pioneer Trek the first night was the worst but by day 3 the ground was REALLY comfortable! So I guess it just takes 3 nights for the ground to feel soft. And a lot of hiking in between.)

In the morning we made our dehydrated eggs. Mostly because I wanted the fun of learning how to use the little stove and trying out the Mountain House dehydrated food. We actually weren't that hungry. But the experience was fun. Next time I'll either bring oatmeal or an apple and cheese. The eggs weren't bad. They were tasty in a "this is the only food in the whole world" kind of way. But you could tase the chemicals. I really could.

Then we packed up and headed down the mountain.  It took us 1:25 to get to the car. (1:10 last time without packs.) We packed: tent, pads, sleeping bags, camp pillows, bear canister, first aid kit, headlamps, pocket knife, clean garments, extra socks, sweatshirt, SkipBo, food, pot, spoons, mini stove, 64 oz. water, water filter, tissues, wipes, flip flops, personal kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, lotion, MagicOintment, Terrashield bug spray, contacts, Burt's Bees, deodorant).

Next time I'm going to add: pj bottoms, an extra sports bra (because mine was still wet with sweat and cold to put on the next morning), and an apple for breakfast in the morning. If we don't need to boil water for food, we would need the filter or the pot and stove.







Oh yeah, and Dan wants bug spray with DEET. I was going to remind him that DEET causes cancer and birth defects and everything else and the TerraShield was great, but I think I'd prefer him to be less bothered about the mosquitos! :-) They really were bad.