Day 80
I’m back from the weekend camping trip. It was a short stay. I got a little better at packing. The weather was warm, relatively speaking. It was a little bit above freezing through the trip and was quite comfortable. There were three of us. I had my fun. We arrived a little late, I think 8:30 or 9:00 pm. When things got settled, our tents were up, it was 10. We sat around and had our hot chocolate. We did not build a fire because it is too much effort to scavenger for woods. The woods would be wet any way and it would be difficult to lit. The trip was pretty uneventful.
I looked up how to hang my bear bag (of where I store my food and keep them from animals) PCT style but while on the trail, I forgot how to do the knot and my stick wouldn’t stay put. In brief the PCT method is to throw a rope over a tree branch, attached a carabiner on one end and loop the other end of the rope through the carabiner. The bear bag can be clip to the loop or the carabiner. Raise the bear bag up to near the branch and use a stick and tie to the rope and let go. The bear bag would fall but the stick would serve as a brake when it reaches the carabiner. The point is to tie the stick high enough so the bear bag wouldn’t fall too low where a bear can reach. I think doing it the PCT way is so cool. It is a pulley system or a balance system. Unfortunately I forgot how to do that simple knot, so I just tied the rope to a tree and keep my bear bag up over a branch. It is not the best because they say bears know how to cut the rope to drop the bear bag.
That’s mostly all. The next day we hiked for about 12 miles with our fully loaded pack on the Massanutta trail. It is a multipurpose trail. We saw ATV tire track and horse shoe track. It makes the trail hard to hike in because the ground is torn up from their usage. The rain did not really come while we were out. It was drizzling from time to time. We had our rain jacket/poncho on. The trail was muddy and many times were like a small creek or stream. Our water resistant/waterproof boots got wet eventually. Mine wasn’t soaked but in the end water got in too.
I think we all enjoyed it. We woke up with sore muscles the next day. I was too tired to do my running after getting back. If I wanted to, I could have, but I was tired and cold. I had to put on several layers of clothing and slept with them. I didn’t wear that much even while camping. It wasn’t until morning when I was warm again. It might have been near hypothermia condition. Now I am shirtless and can probably run shirtless outside 🙂
I loved the trail and being outdoor. I didn’t mind the water and puddles. They added an extra challenge and enjoyment to the hike. My phone died from being too cold (I forgot to put it inside the sleeping bag and the cold killed the battery). Unfortunately, there is no picture of the hike.
Another reason I wanted to go out here, was there is a local ultra being held on this trail every year (not during my time out there), and I wanted to see the trail condition. I want to run in it in the future.
I will try to put in a few miles today. If lucky, I might put in 10.
In awe 