Shakedown Trip #5: Day 2

Day 2: Saturday, November 16th, 2014

A Huge Surprise Visit and an Out-and-Back Day Hike (4.1 Miles)

Throughout the night, I had been awakened by several different noises. This has been the case on most of my outings this year. The rustling of leaves is largely responsible for this – rustling leaves can sound like a lot of different things, including an animal. To date, however, statistics have shown that rustling leaves are just that – rustling leaves. But there was a different sound this night I hadn’t heard before. It was very low frequency, and followed a mostly constant rhythm. During my short awakening periods, I would ponder what it was… perhaps a snarling animal nearby our tents? Careful analysis revealed the correct answer – this mystery noise was, in fact, the sound of Ryan snoring from his tent. Now I have a first-hand understanding of why some thru hikers employee ear plugs.

At 7:00 am, my bladder alarm finally went off. In stark contrast to my last trip, this particular alarm required an immediate egress of the tent. I got out of my sleeping bag, popped on my camp shoes, and headed outside to enjoy some much needed relief. While outside, I heard no signs of life from my companions. So I proclaimed, “Alright boys! Time to get up and get out of here! Let’s move!”

With no immediate feedback to my call, I got back in my tent to get dressed for the day’s outing. While I was in my tent adjusting clothing, I could hear movement in the distance. It certainly wasn’t Ryan because the sound was too distant. Also, Ryan is not an early bird. So the idea of him being mobile at 7:00am-ish was sheer lunacy. The movement I was hearing was from Jason’s tent. After I’d re-dressed for the day, I grabbed all the required gear to make coffee and breakfast.

Leaving my tent, I passed by Ryan’s tent and made another attempt to rouse Ryan. “C’mon dude, time to get up!” I think I got a somewhat primal growl in return. The translation for that is, “I’m not getting up yet.” I headed over to the fire ring to assess the coal bed. I found the coal bed to still be active and hot… All that was needed for a fire was to stir the coals up, add some wood and blow some air. But coffee was my immediate goal, not a fire. Shortly after, Jason came out of his tent asking, “So, where’s the coffee?” I replied, “Funny you should ask, I’m just getting ready to make it.”

We still had enough water to get started with the coffee. With the stove fired up and water boiling, Ryan emerged from his tent. “Ready for coffee?” I asked. “Yeah,” was the reply. Because I drink my coffee directly from my cook pot, and since they both have dedicated coffee cups, I had to make theirs first. Ah… the burden of being the cook master.

With Jason’s coffee served up, he was most proud of his first cup of coffee on the trail/at camp. Photos were in order – both on his phone and mine! Here he is getting his phone ready for me to take photos.

He settled into a pose, sitting on a log, for the photo-shoot of him sipping his coffee.

Shortly after that little photo-shoot, Ryan was heading off to the privy to take care of business. It’s funny – the previous night they’d spent some amount of time trying to locate some potential “cat holes” a ways away from camp. I tried to tell them to just use the privy! In the end that’s exactly what they did.

So that meant I had to wait on my coffee until he got back. Delays, delays, delays! But no matter, the call of nature trumps coffee every time. I guess. So, as Ryan headed off, Jason and I thought it would be funny to catch a short video of Ryan hiking up to the privy. As the following said video shows, Ryan was not amused. He was not even close to being amused. He gave us some snarky remark, “Really??? I guy going to the privy is that exciting?” We’ve included the video here anyway – just to capture the flavor of the moment. He’s a little hard to see way in the distance. It’s another one of those “Where’s Waldo?” moments.

Sometime after all that mess, Ryan returned. I was finally able to make his coffee, which meant I could finally make mine as well. As Ryan and I enjoyed our coffee, it was now Jason’s turn to take care of his business. While he was up that way, he took a photo of the privy itself which is present here, in all its glory and courtesy of his camera.

Jason had been gone for some time, so I went to investigate. He’d been preoccupied all morning with obtaining cell phone signal, so I reckoned that after his privy visit he’d climbed up the hill trying to get signal. My suspicions were confirmed when I arrived at the shelter site. He said he got a signal and was able to receive some messages and sent out a few. I headed back down to camp and Jason followed shortly after.

Here’s a cool random shot of Jason perched atop a rock up on the hillside.

With my coffee now fully consumed, my own system was “moving things along.” In other words, it was time for my privy visit. On my hike up the trail, I took a cool photo of our campsite from across the creek. It is also another cool “Where’s Waldo?” shot – Jason is visible in the frame.

I just love those context shots. For those who know me well, they know that I’m all about context. So I guess my affinity for these context photos is a natural expression of myself. Another natural expression of myself was due, considering I was on my way to the privy. With my morning deposit completed, I headed back down to camp. I had no idea what was about to happen next…

After getting all dressed up, I hiked back down to the trail and on to the foot bridge leading to our campsite. Walking off the foot bridge, I headed towards the fire ring in the campsite where I could see Ryan and Jason sitting. As I approached my tent, which I had to pass towards the fire ring, Ryan called out to me: “Dude, we heard something moving around in your tent. We don’t know what it is – you need to check it out.”

My reaction to this was along the lines of, “Yeah. Whatever.” I had assumed, incorrectly as the case may be, that Ryan and Jason were just trying to mess with me. As such, I simply hiked right past my tent without paying it a moment’s notice and proceeded to the fire ring. Right after passing my tent, Ryan called out: “Dude!!! We really did hear something in your tent – you really need to check on it.”

So, I stopped in my tracks. Quick mental thinking ensued – could it really be an animal? I guess so, but if my hiking companions had really heard noises in my tent, then certainly they would’ve investigated it right? – and the current situation wouldn’t be happening at all. Besides that, why would an animal even invade my tent? My tent was sealed up and there were no food/odor sources in my tent at all. All of my food and trash were at the fire ring and were concealed in odor proof bags. Rationally, I gathered, there was no way there was an animal in my tent.

As I approached my tent, I could only gather that I was the butt of a joke from my companions and that somebody was in my tent. But who??? I mean, I’d only been gone for 20 minutes. It seemed very unlikely that they’d made friends with an unknown hiker in 20 minutes and then sent them into my tent for a practical joke??? Something just didn’t add up.

Despite my analysis, I continued to approach my tent. Upon the ground, in front of the tent, was a knife that I didn’t recognize. It was literally just laid on the ground in front of my tent. I was still baffled, but not scared or deterred. I proceeded to peel back the unzipped rain-fly part of my tent. As I did so, I heard Ryan yell, “Watch it!” A fraction of a second later at a much higher volume he yelled, “Watch it!!!”

What I found was our good friend Dave Norman lounging on top of my new bad-ass Western Mountaineering Alpinelite Sleeping Bag which was on top of my bad-ass Therma-Rest Neo-Air XLITE sleeping pad. The first immediate thought I had was, “Shit!!! How much weight is my sleeping pad designed to take???” Dave’s a big guy, and I have no idea what the pad is designed to support! After processing that, I yelled out to him, “What the hell??? You hiked your ass all the way in here???”

So, in all it’s glory, here is the video of me approaching the tent. The video was shot by Dave while lounging on my sleep system, looking outside the tent. In the background, you can here Ryan and Jason talking at the fire ring, and you can here them tell me about something being in my tent. Classic stuff here folks, enjoy! And yeah, it’s proudly Rated I for immature language.

After the initial shock, we all hung out around the fire ring and chatted up a storm. Everybody was especially curious as to how the hell Dave managed to find us. He told us that the previous night, he’d called his mom – also known as my housemate Brenda – and asked where the three of us were. She wasn’t able to provide specific information, but she referred him to my Shakedown Trip #5 announcement blog post. Using the information I had posted, and cross referencing that with Google Maps, he was able to determine where we planned on camping!

So Dave, who lives in Springfield, VA outside of the D.C. area, got up at 3:00am Sunday and started driving towards our location. Along the way, knowing it was hunting season, he stopped at a Walmart and purchased some blaze-orange garments. He also purchased breakfast food with the intent on cooking us, in his words, “A kick-ass trail breakfast.”

During Dave’s mapping studies, he saw that there is a questionably-called-a-road known as Swamping Camp Road which leads to a point only a half mile from Brown Mountain Creek Shelter. He was banking on being able to find that road, follow it to it’s end, and hike the short distance to where we were camped. He reckoned with such a short hike, he’d be able to lug in food, water, charcoal – everything he needed for the kick-ass-trail-breakfast.

But it was not to be. Although Dave was able to find the questionably-called-a-road Swamping Camp Road, it quickly became apparent this was no road meant for a sedan class vehicle. So Dave drove back to the same parking area from which we three started. From the map, he knew it would be close to a two mile hike and involve an 800 foot descent. As such, he had to abandon the “kick-ass trail breakfast” and just decided to hike in to hang out with us.

The conversation then turned to how he was able to approach the camp without being noticed. As for myself, I had a total pass being that I was in the privy at the time. My friends will even provide an alibi if necessary. Ryan was a little more questionable, but understandable – he was in his tent adjusting clothing layers for our ensuing day hike. Jason, however, has no excuse. That man was out in the open around the fire ring. From that vantage point, there is no legitimate reason to not see someone approaching the camp.

From our campsite, the trail itself was completely visible. It was not hidden behind brush, nor hills, nor anything. With Dave hiking down the trail, someone should’ve seen him. That someone should’ve been Jason. He failed in his mission! Little did we know, however, that this shortcoming would be rendered unimportant during our day hike. (A little fore-shadowing!)

Oh, how I wish I could experience Dave’s approach to our campsite… What I wouldn’t give to see the campsite from afar as Dave approached, to see Jason in the camp – totally unaware someone was present, to see Ryan’s reaction to Dave’s sudden presence. It would be so cool if such a video existed.

Fortunately, such a video does exist and it is right here, below! Dave shot this video as he approached our campsite.

SPOILER ALERT – For those that won’t watch the video, I have to provide a summary of the video. As Dave hikes along the trail towards the campsite, you can clearly see Jason around the fire ring and our tents. Eventually, Dave crosses the footbridge and descends upon our camp. Jason is completely oblivious to all of this! Dave hikes past my tent and on towards Ryan’s. Stopping in front of his tent, Dave says in a nonchalant tone, “What’s up, bubba?” Ryan returned an expression I’ve never quite seen before. (And still haven’t, since I wasn’t there) He shows one hell of a surprised look and says, “What… the… f*ck???” The look on Ryan’s face is absolutely priceless. I mean, no actor in history could’ve pulled this off. Finally Jason realizes what is going on, walks over and asks, “What the hell???”

For myself, I’m in the privy at this point with no idea what is taking place. The three of them exchange several words which are audible in the video. (Might need to turn it up) Some highlights: Ryan asks Dave,” Did Kelly know about this?” Dave replied, “No.” Jason asks, “How the hell did you find us?” Dave replied, “Cuz I’m f’ing good, yo!” Dave asks, “Where’s Kelly?” Ryan says, “He’s in the sh*tter! Dude, he’s gonna sh*t a brick!” Dave then asks which tent is mine. Ryan obliges with, “It’s right there!” So in a very few short minutes, they were able to fabricate a complete “Fool Kelly” sort of a plan! (Which you already know about)

So here is Dave’s approach video. Obviously it’s rated “I” – for  Immature Language. But don’t let that deter you, because it’s really good. But I do wish my companions would shoot video in landscape mode!

Here’s a great photo of Dave with the group, sans me – since I was taking the picture.

Now that Dave was here, we decided to take advantage of the fire coal bed that still existed from last night’s fire. We retrieved some additional wood from the forest, some kindling and, with the assistance of “Ragin Cajun,” we soon had a fire going once again!

In lieu of Dave’s “kick-ass trail breakfast” – we proceeded with our originally-planned breakfasts. Ryan had a dehydrated scrambled egg breakfast which he planned to make breakfast burritos with – using tortilla wraps. He cooked those eggs using a camp stove I’d loaned him. He and Dave cooked the tortilla wraps directly on the fire using an appropriately shaped stick. All said and done, they thoroughly enjoyed them! On the other hand, Jason and I both had a dehydrated Cheddar Potatoes with Bacon breakfast. That dish was really good, but it required a little assistance from my spice rack. As delivered, the dish was a little bit bland. Rescue came with a few additions of salt, pepper and creole seasoning from my spice rack. 🙂

While we all ate, we were still talking about Dave’s surprise visit. It really was quite a surprise to all of us. But it was not completely out of character – Dave loves a good day hike in the woods. He’s just not really into the whole camping experience. So, the fact that our campsite was so close to a road crossing provided an ideal choice for him to mount a surprise meet-up plan.

The conversation led to the topic of their “Fool Kelly” plans. Although the plan they executed was quite good, I learned that there was another idea that Ryan had hatched. It would’ve been even better than the one they pulled off. Whether or not it would’ve actually worked, I have no idea. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

The “alternate plan” revolved around the fact that it was presently hunting season. By and large, people out in the woods realize that there are also others out in the woods that have different goals. It’s called a “multi-use environment.” For the most part, everyone is generally cool with, and respectful of, each other. There are rare occasions, however, where a member of one group feels that the presence another group is a hindrance. In our situation, it would be a case of a clash-of-the-cultures between hikers and hunters.

So the alternate plan involved casting Dave as a pissed-off hunter! My friendly companions would’ve had Dave sitting upon a log, in the distance, facing away from the direction from which I would be approaching. Ryan would then intercept me as I came back from the privy… He would’ve told me, “Hey man… This hunter came into our camp… He said that we have no business being out here and that we need to leave immediately. He said he wants to talk to the man in charge.”

Ryan was going to say, to me, “I’m not looking to throw you under the bus dude, but you are the reason we’re out here! Don’t worry – I’ll have your back while you talk to him. But you really need to deal with this right now!”

They all had illusions of how this plan would’ve played out, as did I! Like I said, we’ll never know. I’m sure the results would’ve been noteworthy, whatever they were. My biggest concern was whether or not Jason could’ve kept his cool as Ryan told me about the pissed-off hunter. I mean, even in the video above, you can here Jason giggling when Ryan tells me about something being in my tent. So, I don’t know if it would’ve worked or not. At any rate, it was great conversation around the fire.

With as much fun as we were having, it was now time to part ways. Dave was not equipped for, nor interested in, camping overnight with us. I call mistake on his part, but those are his preferences. At the end of the day, we have to respect that. So Dave packed up his little bit of supplies he had. In the process, he off-loaded some bottled water on us. That saved us having to filter water for our upcoming day hike. We then bid Dave a farewell and he hiked back to the road crossing where he’d parked. Haha… in hindsite, he had quite a hike out – a relatively simple 1 mile flat hike followed by an 800 foot climb over the last mile. Good stuff.

For Ryan, Jason and myself, it was time to head out on our day hike. Even though it was a simple out-and-back day hike, we’d agreed to hike with our packs fully loaded – except our tents and sleeping systems. We made this arrangement to approximate what it would feel like to hike to another campsite. As such, we packed up all of our gear except tents and sleeping systems. We donned our packs and headed off around noon time.

Our plan was to head out for about 2 miles, then turn around and head back. We also constrained our hike by time – we were leaving at noon and wanted to be back at camp by 3:00opm so we could get out fire thing going. Also, rain was in the forecast. One forecast showed rain arriving at 4:00pm and the other forecast had a 7:0pm prediction. Whenever it hit – we wanted to be back at camp and have options.

Immediately after setting out on our hike, we encountered another hiker who was hiking northbound. We exchanged a short “hello” with him and nothing else. This guy was on a mission and was not interested in socializing. No matter, though – we continued our southbound hike and shortly came across an awesome overview of the creek below. The trail had been following this creek since leaving the campsite, but we didn’t have many decent views. With this view, we shot a video:

The dialog in the video requires some explanation. We make reference to Victor clearing the leaves out of the creek bed. Back in January 2012, my brother Victor and I took a car camping trip to Crabtree Meadows. We had brought all kinds of implements of destruction (also known as tools) with us for the purpose of fire building and campsite clearing – if necessary. Our campsite was located along a stream. Seeing as how the creek was clogged up with leaves, following the fall, Victor took it upon himself to clear out the creek bed. He took our rakes and pitchforks down to the creek and spent hours clearing out the creek bed so that the creek “flowed properly” – in his words. I guess he wasn’t thinking of the big picture – that nature would simply replace those leaves. Anyway, the whole story made for a great reference in the video above.

So we continued hiking. Some time later, we came across a fork in the trail. The official A.T. was clearly marked as following close to the creek. The other fork looked to be an abandoned section of a previous routing of the A.T. I’d conjectured that this fork probably would rejoin the A.T. a short distance further. Ryan decided to hike the unofficial trail, while Jason and I stuck to the official path. A little ways after the split, Jason displayed skills that were previously unknown. I don’t know if the man tapped into some experience that had been gained in a previous life, or if the guy had just been holding out on us.

I was a short distance ahead of Jason when I hear him call out, “Hey Kelly – come look at this!” I was initially annoyed because it meant hiking back to where I’d already been. But I was curious as to what Jason had found so I hiked back to his location. What he had found was a blood trail – crossing right over the A.T. Jason said, “Look at this… Blood on the trail. Looks like an animal crossed over the trail while bleeding and then died down there.” He pointed downhill towards the creek and only about 20 feet away, there was a carcass!

From the evidence at hand, it appeared that a small mammal had been attacked uphill and managed its way towards the creek, never arriving. Before reaching the creek, the original attacker apparently “came in for the kill.” The carcass we saw seemed to be that of a squirrel. It was splain open with its innards completely consumed. The whole affair is a reminder that, although it’s pretty out there, life itself is not necessarily pretty. What we’d witnessed was probably the aftermath of either a bobcat or a coyote’s recent meal.

Jason and I eventually rendezvoused with Ryan – Ryan had to do a little bush whacking to reach us. As stated above, I thought the other trail Ryan took would eventually intersect the official A.T. but it never did. Rather than head back to the junction, Ryan elected to practice his dead reckoning skills and find his way back to the trail. I was most impressed. Cue another Star Wars reference… “Impressive… Most impressive.”

A short distance further, we came across a footbridge crossing the stream we’d been following. Being quite the picturesque setting, we took some photos which are below. The first one – what a great little pool. Next year, I plan on taking a dip in this little pool to cool off and get refreshed.

 

 

 

 

 

So back to the hike. We hiked away from the creek on a gentle climb of about 200 feet over the next mile. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t too demanding but any climbing out here is a workout. Along the way, Jason demonstrated his tracking skills once again. He managed to locate another blood trail crossing the A.T. There was no carcass to be found, however. A short distance further, he found yet another blood trail. Ryan and I started to refer to Jason as “CSI” – in reference to the popular TV show. So – in a few short 24 hours, Jason and Ryan both managed to earn himself themselves viable trail names. Jason’s is “CSI” and Ryan’s is “Ragin Cajun.” I don’t have a single candidate yet for my trail name. Boo-Hoo!!! That’s okay. I’ve heard that good things come to those who wait.

At about 1:30pm, we’d come about 2 miles from camp. We were at the point where we needed to turn back so that we’d reach camp by 3:00pm as planned. We reached a point where the trail crosses an abandoned forest service road. Due to vegetation growth, we could tell the thing hadn’t been used in several years. While there, we took a short break. We had some snacks, drank some water, and managed to obtain a signal on our phones. While we had signal, Ryan and Jason made calls home. I took a quick glance at the weather forecast. It indicated dry conditions until about 7pm, followed by 80% chance of rain through the night and into morning.

Following the break, we started back towards camp. As we left, Ryan started a cool phrase which would get repeated way too many times for the duration of the trip. Ryan said, “Let’s go! We got ground to cover, boys! Yah!!!” Throughout the hike back, every now and again, we’d all hear “got ground to cover! Yah!!!” Good stuff.

The previous night’s fire and this morning’s fire had used most of the wood in the immediate vicinity of camp, so we’d planned on hauling some wood back to camp as we got close. On the hike out, we’d located a good source for firewood only a few hundred yards from camp. We made mental note of a couple features so that we could locate the stash of wood on the hike back.

We must’ve made great time, because we made it back to camp at 2:30pm – 30 minutes ahead of schedule! Along the way, we located the previously mentioned stash of wood and carried a bunch of that back to camp. We probably made 5 or 6 trips back and forth between camp and the wood stash. During the wood gathering exercise, I believe there were several, “got ground to cover! yah!!!” phrases that were exchanged among us.

With no time to spare, and plenty to spend, (huh?!?) we got our evening fire going. Just as with the previous night’s fire, Ragin Cajun had no trouble starting the fire. The man definitely redeemed himself following the November 2011 fiasco. (That’s a story for another time) Here are some photos of Ryan and Jason in the campsite.

 

Not long after starting the fire, the rain started to roll in – much earlier than expected. It was not an unbearable rain at all – just a very light sprinkle. In fact, the water droplets evaporated faster than they collected, particularly around the fire. The rain would come and go in waves – we’d have a steady light sprinkle for 5 minutes, then 5 minutes of nothing. Being that we were not getting especially wet, and certainly not soaked, the rain was actually kind of nice. The sound of rain drops both near and far simply added to the ambiance.

During these episodes of rain, we made our game plan for the evening. If the rain continued at present pace, we’d stay put for the duration of the evening. However, if the rain were to pick up significantly, we would abandon the campsite and head to the shelter for the remainder of the evening. Then, at bed time, we’d then hike back down to the campsite and retire to our tents.

As darkness descended, we made our dinners. On tonight’s menu… Pad Thai Noodles for Ryan, Bacon and Eggs for Jason. Ryan enjoyed his noodles, very flavorful. However, it had the same problem as his first night’s dinner. They needed a little longer cooking time than the package directions indicate. It was also a very large serving portion. Try as he may, Ryan eventually declared defeat and dumped the few remaining bites onto the fire. It was funny – the dumping hindered the fire at first. But with the nice hot coal bed, it didn’t take long at all for the fire to return. While Ryan was pleased with his dinner, Jason was not pleased with his at all. He said it was bland and way too watery. The blandness issue can be somewhat fixed with salt, pepper and creole seasoning while the watery texture was probably another case of the food needing additional cook time. In any case, this specific item is permanently off of Jason’s menu.

Kelly had Beef Stroganoff and Noodles for his dinner, currently his second favorite meal for dinner. However, he was lolly gagging around too much to eat while Jason and Ryan did. Part of the lolly gagging involved snapping a few pictures and shooting a video:

 

It’s tough taking night photos. I should probably figure out how to use my computer phone’s flash feature but I’ve been too lazy to do so as yet. Videos, on the other hand, seem to turn out much better in darkness – especially around a fire.

Not long after the video above, the rain started to pick up. It had already picked up enough such that we had our rain jackets on. I also had placed my new portable stereo inside a ziplock bag to prevent it from getting soaked and ruined. When it became clear the rain wasn’t going to let up anytime soon, we decided to abandon camp and head to the shelter. We let the last bit of wood burn down to coals, then gave the coals a little stir to make sure flame wouldn’t return. We didn’t want to completely kill the coal bed in case conditions warranted a return – we’d be able to get fire going again fairly quick. But we wanted to make sure flame wouldn’t spontaneously erupt.

So with that handled, we were off for a short little night hike! We made our way up the trail to Brown Mountain Creek Shelter. Remember in Day 1, I mentioned that we had no idea how useful the shelter would turn out to be? Well, this was usage number 1. There would be a second use for it as well, which we had no idea about presently.

Now in the shelter and out of the rain, we dried ourselves off as best as possible. A little foot maintenance was in order as well. Normally at the end of a day, I will switch out of my shoes and socks, and into dry socks and my crocs – basically my camp socks/shoes. Since it had been raining this day, I never had the chance to do so until now. Even though it was a balmy 35F outside, it felt great to let my feet air out a bit and then put on clean dry socks.

All comfortable and dry and with some tunes playing, I finally cooked my own dinner. While my meal was re-hydrating, we noticed that the rain had ceased. We were enjoying our stay in the shelter but we really did miss the mood and ambiance of a campfire. Rather than retreat back to camp, Ryan and Jason took it upon themselves to start a fire right here at the shelter site! The site already had a fire ring built, and there was already some wood present. All that was needed was some starting material and some small twigs to use as kindling.

It took a little while, but Ragin Cajun finally pulled off his usual magic, with CSI’s assistance. RC and CSI eventually had a good blaze blazing – right on par with the fire we’d already had earlier at the campsite. The odds were definitely stacked against them: Wet fire ring, wet kindling, wet wood – everything wet. But all that was no match for RC’s skills. I think the man could probably get a fire going in Antarctica if it were necessary.

After I finished eating, I went out on a wood hunt with Ryan. On the outing, it became very apparent that my headlamp’s batteries were on the way out. Normally, the beam of light projects a great distance. Presently, however, I was only able to see maybe 10 feet in front of me. As such, I conserved what little life the batteries had so I could make it back to camp later. I then relied on Ryan’s headlamp for the wood gathering. The whole area had been picked pretty clean. This often happens at shelter sites, owing to their heavy use.

With not much wood left to burn, and with the three of us feeling the tiredness set in, it was time to retire for the evening. As with the campsite fire, we let the present fire burn itself down to coals. We then stirred them up to make sure nothing would catch fire.

We then hiked the short distance back to camp. The hike was a little treacherous because the trail was a bit muddy and slippery in some places. Because I didn’t have my trekking poles, seeing as how my trekking poles were in use for my tent, very careful footing was called for! We made it back without incident and retired to our tents for the evening.

As it has been with every night on the trail for me, it is so relaxing to finally lay back inside my sleeping bag for the night. All the activity of the day has ceased, and there’s nothing left to do but sleep…

Coming up next, Day 3 – our final day on the trail.

 

Wandering On…

Kelly