January 6&7, 2012

A last-minute trip, reminiscent of the old days when I took quick trip up Chantry with Willie, this time I had Andy. I got home from work about 4PM, told Amber that I wanted to go overnight to Henninger and that I would be back in time for Troop 4’s, Troop Leadership Training course in the morning, which Amber was leading.

I left the house at 4:45PM and arrived at Altadena Drive and Roosevelt in seven minutes. I left the keys to the 4Runner in the door pocket, grabbed the AAA plastic key, locked the door and headed toward the trail head into Eaton Canon.

I set my watch to start timing the hike up to the top; it was 4:57PM. With Andy’s yellow, beat-up polypropylene leash tied to my waist belt, we headed down the steep trail into the coolness of the canyon. This past week has been warm, in the 80s, and today was not much different. As I made my way down, I had a new spring to my step, as for the first time I was carrying a whopping 13 pounds as base weight plus 3 pounds for food and water. A few weeks earlier, I sprung for a new Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus backpack (23oz) , and for Christmas, Amber bought me a 19oz, Western Mountaineering 32-degree down bag (Summerlite). A couple days earlier, I bought a pair of New Balance MT101 Trail Runner shoes weighing in at 7.5oz each. Along with a nearly weightless stove (1.3oz), I was truly “lightweight,” but not quite “ultralight.” The official UL status begins at ten pounds base weight and under.

I crossed the dry river bed of Eaton Canyon and onto the road leading up to the Toll Road. My pace was swift and the load on my back and feet seemed effortless. Heck, I was carrying less weight on my back than what I used to carry for a simple hike to Echo Mtn.!

Andy did well staying near to me. The sun had already set and the trail was getting progressively dark. I pulled out my headlamp just in case I really needed to see something in the dark later, but the near-full moon was sufficient for hiking under. The only time I used the light during the hike up was to confirm what Andy was chasing were frogs on the road—big frogs.

I looked at my stop watch once reaching the top and stopped it at 1 hour 6 minutes. I continue in the dark past the bathrooms to Upper Camp at Henninger. I could not see anyone else there.

I choose a spot to set camp near where we did last time. I brought my poncho tarp and a strip on Tyvek. I made a low-profile “A” frame and then started boiling water for dinner.

I forgot Andy’s UL water dish, which was the bottom of a water bottle, as well as Andy’s new fleece jacket. I did bring his fleece sleeping bag, which I made out of a jacket we bought at the thrift shop. I had him sit on that while I prepared dinner; Chicken Noodle and dehydrated chicken.

After dinner, I cleaned up, brushed my teeth, hung the bear bag and got into bed and read for about 90 minutes, until I could no longer keep my eyes open. The night was relatively warm at approximately 45 degrees with a slight breeze.

I started out wearing my camp socks, long johns, long sleeve Capoline shirt, Patagonia puffy and hat. Within minutes, I was sweating! I removed the Patagonia jacket, zipped up the front, making a sleeping bag for Andy, who was shivering. Andy doesn’t fit in my new WM sleeping bag, so he had to sleep next to me. Once Andy was in the puffy, along with the fleece bag and my North Face rain shell over him, he was warm and happy. I reached up to the top on my trekking pole and turned off the light hanging pen light from the tip and called it a night at around 9PM.

Saturday Morning – 6:38a.m

I awoke to clear, cool weather. Below, in the Valley, a blanket of fog covered Pasadena and Los Angeles. I checked the thermometer to see that it was about 45 degrees, so I am guessing it got down to around the high 30s that night.

I got up, lit the alcohol Super Cat and boiled water for coffee. I decided to not fix my grits, as I wanted to get on the road.

It took me about 15 minutes to break camp, as I really didn’t bring much with me. I made a quick sweep of the grounds and headed down the hill. My pack was about 2 pounds lighter since I emptied all but a few ounces of water in my jug, and ate about ¾ pound of food (including Andy’s dinner).

With my body free of excess weight on my back, I felt like I could walk at least 30 miles that day, but unfortunately, the walk down was over in 45 minutes, where I set my pack down, opened the car door and drove off to Scouts.

A great one-nighter. The pack, bag and shelter worked great! I love my new shoes too. So light and comfortable, I didn’t need to bring camp shoes (Crocs).

As for what I didn’t use: I did not use my North Face jacket nor my running shorts. I did not bring extra underwear, I brought one T-shirt, which I took off to exchange for the long sleeve. One long sleeve shirt, puffy and wind jacket. One pair long underwear, extra socks and warm hat. That’s it.