type II fun
One of the best things about moving to Central Oregon is that the mountains are in our back yard. Just 30 minutes from home and we can be hiking on a trail and backpacking.
I keep telling people that I like to go backpacking, but I've come the realization that maybe I don't. I much prefer the hiking aspect of it, not the camping part. Sometimes people confuse backpacking with camping. Sure you camp, but backpacking isn't the same as camping. Camping means a warm fire, good food, nice tent, real bathrooms, chairs, and other good stuff.
Backpacking for us is packing as light as possible with as little as possible. It means hiking all day, eating simple and usually not very tasty food (I'm picky like that), no bathrooms, and "sleeping" under our tarp (not a tent). I usually don't sleep very well. I think my problem is that I really like my bed at home. We have one of those memory foam beds and I love it. Ahhhh!
For our trips we usually plan for three nights out and usually come home in two, sometimes one night. Why? Because we miss our bed? No. Sometimes it's the weather and sometimes the hike just wasn't what we thought it would be and decide to head home. Looking back I wish we would've stuck it out a few times. For this trip we were determined to stay out for three nights.
My husband had the trip planned out for 40 miles in 4 days. It was going to push us, but we thought we could do it. It was a loop. We thought a loop would be good because it would force us to finish it. It seemed like a solid plan at the time.....
The weather was gorgeous with no rain in sight. It was really ideal. We had a little bit of worry in our minds since we hadn't really been hiking lately, just mountain biking. We wondered if our feet could handle it.
The first day we hiked 15 miles and were pretty tired by the time we got to the campsite, but felt good about our progress. The hike to the site was amazing. I couldn't believe the beautiful flowers and lakes that we saw. The miles went fast and weren't difficult.
We even ate "dinner" before we got to the site so we could just set up the tarp and go to bed. For this trip we brought the net tent for under the tarp in case there were mosquitoes. The camping area was a little disappointing. We could tell it was heavily used and sandy. We prefer to camp where it hasn't been impacted, but the sun was setting and we didn't have much time. Of course, hubby was still smiling.
We were in bed by sunset and sleepy. I was warm and cozy and was looking forward to a good night's sleep. But before I could sleep I asked hubby to show me where we hiked and how many miles we had left. As I looked at the map I realized we had a lot more to do, like more than we should. So I added up the miles and the trip was going to be 49 miles!!! It literally was not something we could do. I was so disappointed. I even said "Shame on you!" to him over and over. Jokingly of course! He didn't actually add up the miles from the map, he got the information from the internet. I said "You know you can't believe what's on the internet!!!" We studied the map some more and there were no other loops to do and we decided we would either head home or camp out at a lake the next night.
But that wasn't the end of the night. We were woken up by a little visitor trying to get into our net tent! First of all we had no food in the tent or anything that smelled. We had everything hung in odor proof bags in a tree. Hubby said he saw a little mouse crawling above him. I kept thinking all night he'd chew his way in. But I manged to get back to sleep. In the middle of the night I woke up to the mouse landing on my forehead, but luckily he was still outside.
Morning came and we decided to hike back to the car. It was pretty painful and our motivation was gone. There wasn't anywhere that we wanted to camp that wasn't already occupied.
Believe it or not it was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. More like type II fun (not really fun at the time, but fun when you look back on it). It made us realize that we should probably just suck it up and carry a heavier tent, go out for one night, hike fewer miles, go fishing, and bring yummy food. I'll report back IF (I mean when) we go backpacking again!
I keep telling people that I like to go backpacking, but I've come the realization that maybe I don't. I much prefer the hiking aspect of it, not the camping part. Sometimes people confuse backpacking with camping. Sure you camp, but backpacking isn't the same as camping. Camping means a warm fire, good food, nice tent, real bathrooms, chairs, and other good stuff.
Backpacking for us is packing as light as possible with as little as possible. It means hiking all day, eating simple and usually not very tasty food (I'm picky like that), no bathrooms, and "sleeping" under our tarp (not a tent). I usually don't sleep very well. I think my problem is that I really like my bed at home. We have one of those memory foam beds and I love it. Ahhhh!
For our trips we usually plan for three nights out and usually come home in two, sometimes one night. Why? Because we miss our bed? No. Sometimes it's the weather and sometimes the hike just wasn't what we thought it would be and decide to head home. Looking back I wish we would've stuck it out a few times. For this trip we were determined to stay out for three nights.
My husband had the trip planned out for 40 miles in 4 days. It was going to push us, but we thought we could do it. It was a loop. We thought a loop would be good because it would force us to finish it. It seemed like a solid plan at the time.....
The weather was gorgeous with no rain in sight. It was really ideal. We had a little bit of worry in our minds since we hadn't really been hiking lately, just mountain biking. We wondered if our feet could handle it.
The first day we hiked 15 miles and were pretty tired by the time we got to the campsite, but felt good about our progress. The hike to the site was amazing. I couldn't believe the beautiful flowers and lakes that we saw. The miles went fast and weren't difficult.
We even ate "dinner" before we got to the site so we could just set up the tarp and go to bed. For this trip we brought the net tent for under the tarp in case there were mosquitoes. The camping area was a little disappointing. We could tell it was heavily used and sandy. We prefer to camp where it hasn't been impacted, but the sun was setting and we didn't have much time. Of course, hubby was still smiling.
We were in bed by sunset and sleepy. I was warm and cozy and was looking forward to a good night's sleep. But before I could sleep I asked hubby to show me where we hiked and how many miles we had left. As I looked at the map I realized we had a lot more to do, like more than we should. So I added up the miles and the trip was going to be 49 miles!!! It literally was not something we could do. I was so disappointed. I even said "Shame on you!" to him over and over. Jokingly of course! He didn't actually add up the miles from the map, he got the information from the internet. I said "You know you can't believe what's on the internet!!!" We studied the map some more and there were no other loops to do and we decided we would either head home or camp out at a lake the next night.
But that wasn't the end of the night. We were woken up by a little visitor trying to get into our net tent! First of all we had no food in the tent or anything that smelled. We had everything hung in odor proof bags in a tree. Hubby said he saw a little mouse crawling above him. I kept thinking all night he'd chew his way in. But I manged to get back to sleep. In the middle of the night I woke up to the mouse landing on my forehead, but luckily he was still outside.
 |
| The little mouse even chewed on my hiking pole handles!!! |
Believe it or not it was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. More like type II fun (not really fun at the time, but fun when you look back on it). It made us realize that we should probably just suck it up and carry a heavier tent, go out for one night, hike fewer miles, go fishing, and bring yummy food. I'll report back IF (I mean when) we go backpacking again!
Wow, what gorgeous pictures! It makes me miss that corner of the country. I go camping regularly and go hiking just about as often, but I've never done "real" backpacking, in spite of my many plans...but maybe that's OK?! ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL! Don't let me discourage you!
DeleteWhat a beautiful place you live!!!! Wow!!! Xo Jen
ReplyDeleteThank you! I love it here!
Delete