Friday, April 25, 2008

MEADOW MOUNTAIN


It's a trail, and it has white blazes, and I'm pretending it's the AT.


Actually it's Meadow Mountain Trail, one of many hiking trails (8 miles' worth) at Deep Creek Lake State Park in Garrett County, MD.
What I'm doing is.... I loaded up my backpack with all my gear (27 pounds including the pack, and food for overnight) and went hiking. I've pitched my tent in an empty campsite in the park (most of them, this time of year), cooked Ramen noodles in my fruit-can pot on my soda-can stove, took a bird bath inside my tent, and I'm going to spend the night out there. I'm inside our camper (where we live full-time) for awhile b/c I have a couple hours to spend before sleeping-bag time. I didn't hike all day long so I wasn't ready for bed at sundown. I'm going to fold laundry :-)
I need practice getting myself organized, that's for sure. Stuff is all over the place inside my tent. Maybe that's normal. And I couldn't find the nylon cord I swore I'd packed to rig up a bear bag (yup, bear country here as on the AT.) Luckily I could just come into the camper and get more. Beats me where that went.
Anyway, I'm not hiking the AT, because Grandbaby Sarah is due any time now (although she could be another 3 or 4 weeks.) It was worth it to re-plan. The other day while biking, I thought of holding her in my arms for the first time, and I started bawling right there on my bike. I wouldn't be able to stand not being close by when she arrives.
So I'm not on the AT but I'm pretending I am (yeah, typing on the computer) and practicing packing and using my gear. And rigging the bear bag.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wise way to ease back into the realities of tent camping/backpacking!

Downhillnut said...

The nice thing about pretending is that you can take a keyboard break from the experience and share it with us :)

Have a great sleep out there tonight.

Jade Lady said...

Good idea to practice all that stuff before the trip - eek...bears? As you guess from this comment, I'm not exactly a hard-core camper!

Ellie Hamilton said...

Yes, it's good to practice all this when I can take refuge in the camper if push comes to shove. Bears? Heck, yeah. They don't scare me. You just have to hang your food up high for the night, and don't take it into your tent for safekeeping!