First backpacking trip and some painful honesty
At some point in your life, you will probably have to admit that you don’t really know anything.This is me, standing up and admitting, I don’t really know anything about backpacking.
For years I have loved the thought of backpacking. I have dreamed of doing the Appalachian trail as a thru-hike. I have talked about how much I love hiking, but I have never been on a backpacking trip.
I always thought that a backpacking trip had to be at least a week long. I tried to plan such a trip but always ended up overwhelmed by the thought. I didn’t have the “right gear.” I wanted to buy one more thing to lighten my pack. Heck, until last November, I didn’t even have a pack!
Last winter we bought backpacks thinking we would be able to do winter camping. More honesty in the post–that was a dumb idea. Mercifully, everytime we planned that first camping trip, something else came up to keep us at home. With a little more experience I think that newbies on a budget should not try winter camping for a while. In our defense, we were planning on doing it as car camping so if things got too rough we could ditch.
This summer we had great plans to do some weekenders on the Idaho Centennial trail. B and I dream of hiking that one in sections while we are living in North Idaho.
This spring, April 3 to be exact, we discovered that there was a huge bend in the road ahead of us and all our plans changed. The baby is due November 26. We still had high hopes of spending time kayaking and backpacking, and I had no idea that morning sickness would last all the way until week 24. Our few summer outings (on days I felt good) always resulted in 2 days of nausea and sleeping just to recover. Our plans continued to change.
This past week, B and I talked and decided that we couldn’t really consider ourselves backpackers until we had at least done an overnight trip. We also decided that we didn’t have to plan a big expedition trip to really be backpacking. Just going and doing is enough. That was Wednesday.
Friday I bought a few extras while I was out grocery shopping. I hoped that Saturday would take us to the trail for our first backpacking trip. I had to wait until Sunday, but I was not disappointed.
At 6 months pregnant and probably in the worst shape of my life, I can honestly say that I have done an overnight backpacking trip. One trip taught us a lot of stuff. I wrote most of it down in the field so I could remember and blog about it. The hike was 2.5 miles one way, and I almost didn’t make it back to the trail head. Anyone who has ever been pregnant will understand when I say that I never knew my calf muscles could cramp that way before.
Today I am tired and sore but satisfied beyond measure. I will probably require a week to recover from the trip, but we did it! What’s more, I would do it again–even at 6 months pregnant.
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September 10th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Ow….I remember those painful leg cramps! They are so not fun.
But you did it! You backpacked!
I am of the camp of “it doesn’t matter if you walk 1/2 a mile or a 100 miles, one night or 6 months”. You got out!
September 15th, 2008 at 6:39 am
I had to free myself to the short trips are enough mentality. Quite frankly, it’s probably better to start out with short trips rather than trying a 100 miler on the first time out.