Finally all of our gear has been purchased, so we decided to go for a backpacking trip to test it all out.  We decided to look for a hike that where we could enjoy the fall colors.  I found a 42-mile loop trail just north of Williamsport, Pennsylvania that looked interesting.  After mapping out campsites, water sources, noticing the terrain was a bunch of ups and downs, and taking into account that Tim and I are not in prime shape, we figured we should plan on doing 6-8 miles a day.

Day 1: Wednesday, 16 October 2013

We left Ohio on Tuesday morning with plans to get to a hotel right near the trailhead of the Black Forest Trail in Slate Run, PA. We called the hotel on the way and they didn't have a room available for that night. We were quite surprised since it was a Tuesday night. So we made the quick decision to park at the trailhead and camp at a campsite just 0.28 miles from the car. Looking back it was a great idea since we got to test run a night on the trail knowing that we were going to the car the next morning with the ability to fix whatever didn't work. Needless to say, we had a list of things we forgot in the car includes Chapstick, vitamins, and extra ibuprofen. The tent set up great and most of our gear worked out except for my sleeping pad kept deflating. Hopefully it was just not closed properly. I will see tonight.

The hike started the next day pretty easy. Notice how happy we are on the trail. Then it starting climbing and climbing and climbing. Did I mention that we aren't in the best shape to be doing this...but we have to test all out gear and a 6-day backpacking trip is what is needed since that is the longest we plan on being on the PCT without a resupply.  Today we did just about 7 miles in 7.5 hours...doesn't seen very good. We definitely have to work in it although there were steep parts and we did stop for lunch for about 1 hour. Oh well...I planned on the hike having at most 8 miles in 1 day and tomorrow's hike is just under 6 miles. 

What is the worst part of the day?  I am chilling out on these cool makeshift chairs at out campsite for Wednesday night after a yummy dinner of Spanish rice with tuna. As I'm tapping away on this blog I hear something and it winds up being a freaking mouse, which by the way I hate rodents. Joy!  Jump up and decide to finish today's blog in the tent. Tim however is still hanging out with the mice and all. I just can't do that. 

Bedtime now and looking forward to tomorrow's hike that is supposed to start straight up. I'll let you know how it goes.

Day 2: Thursday, 17 October 2013

We woke up at 7:40 after a restless night. All night long there were sounds of animals around the tent. Thanks to my mother-in-law and others out there asking about bears, the thought was in my head. I started counting deer in my head, hoping that that was what the noise was and I was able to fall asleep. Of course, when I kept waking up in the night the noises continued and I thought the mice were chewing through the tent. Finally woke up at 7:40, got out of the tent, and went to dig a hole for...well...to be blunt...to poop in. Anyway, as I was searching for a good place to dig a hole I saw something and yelled, and Tim said what, and I said there is something out here, and Tim said what, and I said I have no idea what it is. It looked like a beaver and a porcupine mixed. It moved slow and didn't seem to mind us being here. Here is a picture. We actually think it is a sloth, but we don't know if they live in Pennsylvania. It then climbed a tree to close to the very top just as sloths do...don't they?!? (NOTE:  After the hike I researched this creature and it wound up being a porcupine...not a sloth.  I never knew that porcupines climb trees!)

Anyway, it took us over 2 hours to break camp and eat breakfast and get on the trail. We need to do better and try to get out faster.

The hike today was pretty good. Lots of vistas, a really nice greener area with ferns and stuff, and the sky was actually blue for a few hours which has haven't seen since we started. We came across a road and had to walk it for about 1/2 mile. I thought that if we hiked this road yesterday it would have seemed boring, but today it was a nice break from the ups and downs and leaf covered trails. When we turned off the road, We came across a nice vista just in time for lunch. 

After lunch we went down down down. My knee started screaming and the bottom of both our feet started yelling. Finally after 1.5 miles of down we arrived at a beautiful stream and a nice old road to walk on for 15 minutes to our campsite for the night. 

Tim was itching to build a fire so he started collecting sticks and lo and behold it started raining. Quick get the tent up and get inside. So now my stomach is growling and we can't cook our dinner. We have about 1 1/2 hours till sunset, so hopefully it stops raining.

Well, it never did stop raining so I ate a cold tuna packet and Tim ate a cold chicken packet and we filled up on gorp that was left over from the day. Sleeping was not the bestest since we have been having trouble finding flat places to pitch the tent so we kept sliding down and having to push ourselves up. I set an alarm to wake us up at 6:30 because we had over 8 miles to hike today. The alarm went off, but it was still dark so I just shut it off and went back to sleep. We finally got up after 7 and started our slow morning ritual of digging holes for...well you know...and heating water for oatmeal. I think we did pretty good breaking camp and getting moving for time, until we couldn't find the trail to continue on. We thought we had it, but we didn't see any orange blazes so we turned back around, pulled out the map, and walked. Then we turned around again, pulled out the map and walked. We finally found the trail after 45 minutes of wasting time. 

Today's hike started with a 1.5 mile climb up. I think this is pretty much how this area is. You hike some ups and downs all day and then hike down to the stream for the night then climb back out in the morning. There was a nice vista at the top of the climb, so we had a snack and started off since it was getting quite chilly. We then got to this sign:

There is a saying among thru-hikers...HIke Your Own Hike (HYOH). For instance...if someone by-passes a hard climb on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and walks along a road to get past it, did they complete the PCT?  Hardcore hikers would say no, but others would say HOYH. If to you, you completed the PCT, then you did. So...using the late start as an excuse we took the cutoff trail and bypassed about 3.5 miles. We did go 2 further miles then we planned on and camped at a further spot. 

So here we are at camp, and finally...Tim got to build a fire which I am sitting in front of as I type this out. The only downside of the night is that the tent is again not on a flat surface, so another night of sliding down and pulling ourselves up all night long.

Last nights sleep was not so good. I woke up in a ball at the bottom of the tent thanks to a significant slope where we pitched the tent. It was the best tent spot at the site and it didn't look too bad, but once we were in it, it was that bad. I slept on and off at 1 hour intervals and had to keep climbing back up the slope. All I could think is just get through the night.

We finally woke up at 7:20 to temperatures in the 40's...BURR. The good part about it was that we got to try out our cool new puffy down jackets. They seem pretty wonderful.  Got us nice and warm for a hot oatmeal breakfast. 

We left camp around 10:30...what the heck did we do for 3 hours?!?  We really, really need to figure out how to get out of camp faster. We actually saw some people on the trail today for the first time since we hit the trail. A group of about 15 horses passed and then a group of about 8 day hikers.  Lots of nice easy abandoned roads and nice level terrain for most of the day. We did have one significant down with some fun bouldering. 

At the bottom of the hill was the most significant stream we have come across and the trail crossed it. It was a pretty hard crossing to make, but we made it over dry. And then the trail crossed it again, and again, and again. There must have been at least 16 times we were forced to cross this stream. Needless to say, one of us didn't quite make it over 16 crossings without getting wet.  I won't tell you which of us got a bit wet, but he complained for a good 20 minutes before the next crossing made him forget about it. 

All and all, it wound up being the easiest day so far. We did a record 7.5 miles. Oh...it rained on us some, so we got to try out our spiffy new rain jackets and backpack covers. So far they seem great. Actually,  so far all our gear has been working out good. 

Oh, and the best part of the day...although it is raining a bit right now, We are sitting in the tent on the nicest, levelest tent spot on the entire trail. Finally we should get a great nights sleep.

Day 5: Sunday, 20 October 2013

Ah...the best night sleep yet. Nice flat ground covered with pine needles and no animal noises at all. We slept till 7:20 and woke to another chilly morning of temps around 40 degrees. I was determined to get us out of camp in less than 3 hours, so the plan was to eat the cold protein bar for breakfast, hike a couple of miles, and then stop and cook some oatmeal. We wound up leaving in 2 hours 15 minutes so it did save us 45 minutes, but of course the stop for oatmeal took 45 minutes, so it was a wash. However, there is something to be said about breaking camp and setting off for the day...it just seems like one task behind you. 

We had another pretty easy day of around 7 miles. This leaves around the same amount of miles for our final hike out tomorrow.  We did have a few river crossings including this one that Tim finally was able to negotiate without getting his shoes wet. 

Are any of you wondering about what we have been doing for food this week?  Well you know about the oatmeal and protein bar for breakfast. For lunch, I thought we would eat peanut butter, honey, and raisins on a tortilla everyday...sounds really yummy...doesn't it?  Well, after having it for 3 days straight it hasn't sounded good to us anymore. We wound up skipping lunch for the past 2 days. We found the most wonderful treat in the afternoon was string cheese. I packed enough for us to eat 1 per day. It was definitely something we looked forward to every day. We also had plenty of trail mix that we rarely touched and a granola bar or snickers bar each day.   I skipped it everyday and Tim ate his on hungry days. Lastly for snacks we had a few jolly rancher candies in our pockets. Whenever I felt like I was dragging I would pop one in my mouth and it would help me over the next climb. For dinner each night we has Knorr's pasta or rice with a salmon or tuna packet in it. It was pretty good and hit the spot each night. Finally, we ended each night with a yummy hot chocolate. The thought of it each day was great motivation to make it to camp.

Tonight is the last night we are spending on the trail and we found an awesome campsite. We are at a confluence of 2 streams, with 3 small waterfalls within sight that should help lull us to bed...in case the 7 miles we walked today isn't enough to make us tired.  Plus it seems that we were able to pitch the tent on a fairly flat spot, which I will let you know how flat it was tomorrow. And Tim is happy because we made it to camp pretty early so he had time to collect wood for another campfire. He just can't make it too much of a habit since there are no campfires allowed on the PCT. 

OK...time to enjoy the campfire and our last night out here.

Day 6: Monday, 21 October 2013

Today was the last day on the trail.  We are really enjoying ourselves, but we can both use a shower, a change of clothes, and most importantly...a toilet!  As usual, we had a long, uphill climb out of camp, but we were rewarded with a beautiful view of where we camped last night.  The other great thing about this climb was that it was our last significant one left.

After the climb we hiked along the crest and decided to have some breakfast on a beautiful vista.

We then came across a couple of old slate quarries.  Tim added to the slate path that others had put together.  We also came across other slate art.

Finally we get to the point that we have only 1/2 mile left of the trip, but not so fast. We get to this river and can't find a way across, so we had to forge it.  The water was freezing, the rocks were moss covered and slippery, and I really had to find that flushable toilet...but instead I am walking barefoot through an ice cold river.

But finally, only 20 minutes later, after 6 days and 40 miles...

And of course, our celebratory homebrew!  I think Tim is just ready to get out of here.

It is official...Tim and I are officially retired as of this past Friday (4 October).  Now the countdown has begun for the start of our thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. We have only 6 months till we take our first step away from the Mexican border  For the past 2 months I have been receiving 2-3 packages a week at the door filled with all kind of equipment we need for the journey.  Yesterday we stopped at 2 different REIs in Atlanta to pick up the last remaining items needed including a trowel to dig a hole to...well...relieve ourselves in.  Wow...six months of squatting over a hole...I just can't wait.  The funny thing is...I really CAN'T WAIT!

In about a week we will be setting off on a practice 5-day backpacking trip in Pennsylvania on the Black Forest Trail.  It is a 42 mile loop, so it shouldn't be too hard to get it done in 5 days even though we are far from in shape physically. This hike will allow us to test all of our gear, especially our footware.  Because we are able to keep our packs relatively light, we are going to try to go with trail running shoes instead of the traditional leather boots.  Tim is a bit worried about this, but I am feeling good about it...at least right now. I will let you know how it goes once we are walking 10 miles a day.

Also during this practice hike I will be trying out my new camera, a cool GPS tracker called SPOT, and trying to keep this blog going.  So, keep an eye out for some up to the minute goings on of Tim and my backpacking adventures.