Hikes, Cakes, and How to Poop in the Woods….

I’d like to say that today I woke up…. But instead I just got up at 7:00am. Not quite sure I slept last night? I don’t feel tired, but I don’t ever recall sleeping. Heard noises, snoring from the tent next to us, and the person next to me…?  Anyways, it is now July 20th. This is the last morning with the toilet. After today it’s all nature.

This morning we ate cheesy bagels that Jared cooked for us and he taught us what food was what, how to cook it and especially how to use the stove and clean. Cleaning is interesting. Eat all your remnants, boil water… and drink it. Sounds gross, I’m sure, but in all honesty it was not that bad. Throughout my wilderness cooking, I have found that one of my favorite gray waters to drink is the drained pasta water…YUM! We also learned that we will not be eating lunch. Why bother, we’ll be busy hiking and eventually climbing. So in its place, we shall just snack! Makes sense after thinking about it. I’m interested to see if I will be hungry, or too busy focusing on other things that it won’t even bother me. We’ll see.

Our lesson today was on self-sufficient hiking groups and self-care. We learned what we needed to carry in our hiking group in order to be prepared in case we should not make it to our next campsite. Well I hope we make it! At this point I was still nervous… can’t say I was completely comfortable just yet. The people seemed great! I wasn’t scared about animals or any of that stuff.  But we hadn’t yet hiked. I still didn’t know just how difficult it would be to carry a pack almost half my weight up into the mountains. We also talked about how to put on your boots (right down to putting on socks! This was serious stuff). We also learned about foot care, wearing sunscreen and bug spray, how much lovely water to drink, etc.

Following the lesson we packed our bags. It wasn’t too long ago I did this…. And heck it still was not easy!!  This time it only took me one and half times to pack (just had to unpack half my pack to repack it). Big feat!! I was pretty proud. It still was not perfect, but the feel and the way the weight was dispersed was much better than yesterday.

We were then introduced to something I had VERY little experience with, which was map reading. We got into our hiking groups (Rich, me, Nate, Tyler and Jared). We estimated the distance to be traveled at about 3.8 miles, going from about 8,000ft to 9,100 feet of elevation. As we began our hike, I felt good. I tried out different walking styles, yes, I know, weird. On our journey we learned how to navigate through the wilderness using handrails and other markers to help guide us. We made decisions, took breaks, and ate snacks. Jared taught us about forest fires and how sometimes fire is good for trees so that they can pollenate (so not sure if that’s the best terminology here….) so that more trees will grow.

We hiked mostly on trail and finally made it to our destination. We were thirsty so Nate, Tyler, Rich and I decided to take a daring trek to get some water. Little did we know, there was a much easier way. We walked on fallen logs 4 feet in the air, went over, under, around, used trees to balance us and laughed at how tired we felt. Making it to a beautiful, cold, running creek made it worth it. It was simply gorgeous and exhilarating to know that no one was around except for us. On the way back, Nate and I decided to stop and have a pull up contest… he did 14 no kip and I did 12 no kip. I was close.

The lessons continued that evening. We learned Leave No Trace principles and performed hilarious skits about them. Jack and I did ours on “leave what you find” and “dispose of waste properly.”  Needless to say, we choose the “waste” that would be most fun for the audience. ;-)   We also had the best lesson with Adam on how to poop in the woods. Some main points were pretty hilarious. Just note there are many different positions, many different toilet paper substitutions, be sure the cat hole is deep, and be sure you can stomp it out. Let me assure you though, that going to the bathroom in the wilderness is probably one of the most peaceful things you could experience. Just saying.

For desert that evening, we celebrated Chase’s birthday with a cake!  Andrew attempted to bake a splendid cake, but cried when he burnt it. We all still thought it was pretty fantastic to be having cake in the woods.
That night when we went to bed, we joked from tent to tent, had a massage train to ease our sore muscles, and attempted to sleep. Yet again for me, it would not come. There was some thunder and lightning in the wee hours of the morning with little rain. I know this only because I’m sure I wasn’t sleeping.

The 21st of July also hosted a hike.  I “woke” (a.k.a got up) at 6:00am, packed once again (you’ll find we do this a lot…unpacking would seem to be useless, but unfortunately my sleeping bag was at the bottom and the food had to be removed and placed into the bear fence overnight anyways). I believe I was becoming pro at packing my pack though. We ate breakfast, packed our snacks, and reviewed the map with our hiking group. Today I would hike with Dalton, Jack, Lee and Jared.

We estimated a 6 mile hike today… much longer than yesterdays, AND we were sore. We would cross the continental divide (you’d think there was a line… but there was none, I tried to find it…. Maybe it was under some leaves…ha) and do a lot of off trailing. I was nervous and rightfully so. The hike was very much uphill, up steep inclines of rock and tree roots and dirt. We even learned how to cross water. With our feet soaked, we just carried on. I also give myself an “A+” for paying attention to my feet. My left heel decided to be angry with me and to help prevent a blister, Jared showed me (actually more like did it for me) how to take care of it.

I must say that today I started to believe that I would make it. I struggled on the hike today, but my group was supportive. They let me lead on the difficult terrain so that they wouldn’t use their long legs to leave me in the dust. I was giving it my all, and staying positive. To be honest, I was being very protective of my knees, and would probably continue this throughout the course. I still was very afraid that I would be the one to leave early if I wasn’t careful. And here I was hiking with 18-20 year old boys who probably don’t care and just want to speed on over to the next camping area. But I’m not a quitter, and I don’t like to show weakness, so I kept on and kept up. These little legs of mine, they were going to shine….. and get pretty toned.

We arrived at the next camping area, tired and ready to relax. The girls decided it was a good time to “shower.” We filled our drom, paced out our steps away from a water source, and did the best we could. Found out the hard way that it was a pretty pointless task. We were all going to smell, and get used to it, so needless to say… that was the first and last shower I would take on this trip.  Made some couscous with sausage and peppers for din din. The food is actually good, and I’m glad it’s hard to screw up. I swear that no matter what you do to the food, it’ll always still be tasty. Were we just really that hungry???? We got scolded by our instructors (Jared, Andrew and Adam) for not bomb proofing our tents, we had our nightly gathering where we got a lesson on Pine Beetles from Jared and then Kasey shared his life with us. Tired and sore, we got into our tents, and attempted sleep once again. Maybe I got some… up until Lillie decided she wanted my “pillow” (my jacket!). Just took it right out from under my head that girl did…. Should I take it back? Nah…she looked so peaceful. I think I’ll just suffer and let her enjoy my pillow and I’m sure I’ll get it back eventually. I mean… I’m not really sleeping anyways.