February, 3-4, 2012
Friday afternoon, and the view of the mountains from the 710 North made me think that I should head for the hills! The day was warm, clear, and I was about 80-percent sure I wanted to hit the hills for the night. I called Amber to see if she was ok with me leaving; her foot is still tender and is resting it, so I would be solo with Andy.
It took me less than 15 minutes to pack; I pulled gear from the go box, mixed chili mac and freeze-dried beans into a freezer bag and weighed my pack. Thirteen pounds base weight. This time I was carrying Andy’s fleece, leash, and an extra water bottle for the dog. Minutes before leaving, I mixed two liters-worth of Aqua Mira (14 drops of “A” and “B”) into a small dropper and put it in my hip belt pocket for later.
The parking lot at Chantry was about half-full. I parked the 4Runner, put up the Adventure Pass, took a photo of my pack in back of the car (left) and started walking down the road to Robert’s Camp. I tried to not walk too fast to help save my shins from the `splints. The hike up to Spruce was nice and peaceful. I only saw a couple people along the way, including a couple backpackers with huge packs, heading to Spruce as well. It was fun to float past the guys hauling their 40-plus pound packs, leaning on their hiking sticks, catching their breath, while my pack ended up at 15 pounds pack weight.
During the hike to Spruce, I made a couple videos using our new StickPic on the trekking pole. It worked great but I later noticed that the volume on the video and all but disappeared.
Once, near Cascade, I looked over my shoulder and stumbled on a rock. I couldn’t catch my step and nearly went down. I tuned my right ankle but luckily, on the advice of others, I had my laces loose, allowing the shoe to slide enough on my foot that it absorbed the torque and my ankle was not affected.
Once I got to Spruce Grove, the sun had set and was getting dark. I saw only one other backpacker, sitting by his blazing fire. The backpacker had his eyes fixed on me while waving. I sensed he looked lonely and wanted company. Although I do enjoy meeting people on the trail, part of this excursion was going to be a field test of camping “stealth.” I waved back and continued up the trail. The other well-used campsites at Spruce looked tempting but I knew it would only be a matter of time before we would be sharing stories around his fire.
Back in the 80s, I used to camp stealth quite often. I learned about it out of necessity. Much like this trip, I would leave late in the afternoon and by the time I arrived at camp, there would be no sites left. I was forced to get creative, finding small yet level clearings ten to 20 yards or more from the trail. I quickly learned that these sites were more preferred since there was no liter, no large fire ring lined with trash, the ground wasn’t packed down into cement, and there were virtually no people. I used to love to cook and eat my meal while watching unsuspecting hikers walk past, without a clue of my presents.
I walked past the campground, across the stream and began looking for places to pitch the tarp. Before I got to Sturtevant, I found a clearing next to the stream. I peeled off into the dark and down to the stream. With my red light shining the way, I stumbled down into the stream running into sticks, twigs and downed trees. The wind storm had wreaked havoc in the canyon (not as much as the Arroyo), leaving thousands of branches from nearby alder, maples and pines on the ground. With each step, I sunk a few inches from the massive amount of bio-litter. The soil was rich, but very hard to negotiate, especially at night.
The stream was moving fairly well as I crossed it and climbed up to the clearing next to a downed tree. Although I was using the red light on my headlamp, I still managed to run into twigs stretching out from downed trees and branches. I walked down to a fairly flat clearing under a tree with enough space to lay the ground cloth and pitch a tarp. The only reason I felt like I needed the tarp is that there was a consistent breeze, and the temperate was already 55 degrees.
Andy was already cold, it was dark and pitching the tarp quickly became a frustrating task. The soil was so thick with leave litter; the 6-inch stakes did not reach firm ground and never did bite into the dirt, giving me a sound pitch. There were no trees or branches to set a ridgeline with, so I decided to let it be limp. I used the simple A-frame with about 20 inches of head room—which, ended up being a problem all night.
Once the tarp and bedding were set, I told Andy to stay on the bag to stay warm while I went looking for a good bear bag limb. The challenge this time is that there were hundreds of limbs, but there twisting twigs surrounding the limbs like barbed wire. Eventually I found a good limb near the trail and hung the bag. During this time I had started the Super Cat and was boiling water. Once I got back, the water was boiling and I ate hardily.
Dinner went quick, and since there was no cleanup, I rinsed the spoon, place all the smellables in a bag and hung it up for the night. I put away the cook kit and got into the bed. It was 7:30PM.
An owl started hooting, which was a little spooky. Andy was cold as he shivered in the breeze. The moon was about ½ but didn’t shine on us until late night. I tried to read but my eyes were tired and each time I sat up a few inches, I pulled a stake out from the ground. I pulled the tarp taught and pulled the other stake out. Crap! Andy was trying his best to get in my bag, which a later gave in and let him.
By 8:00PM, it was lights-out. Andy was sleeping well inside my red, WM Summerlight bag. I had my puffy on as well as my pants and hat. I was warm and ready for the cool night.
Eventually, after a couple visits to the trees to relieve myself, I kicked Andy out, removing my puffy and giving it to him to get into. He was fine, as was I. Checking the thermometer; it read 35 degrees at 6:30am. The breeze made it worse, especially when getting out of bed!
I decided to get out of camp as soon as possible. I gathered all my things, tore down the tarp, sleeping system but left the sleeping bag for Andy to stay warm. It took me about 30 minutes to get ready, including making multiple adjustments.
I was on the trail and heading toward Zion by 7:45am, with puffy, hat and gloves. Once I got to the Zion trail head, I removed all the cold weather gear and stuffed it in the pack. I also grabbed a Pop Tart to hold me over.
The hike up and over Zion was nice. My New Balance 101s worked like a charm. I wore thin—I mean real thin—ankle socks along with the shoes and I was comfortable, cool and my feet were happy! I do notice that my ankles get a little sore after each day, but I think that’s a good thing; I think that is my ankles getting in shape, rather than a high-top boot doing all the work!
I could hear people as I was coming into Hoegees. As soon as I rounded the last turn before dropping into the stream, there were dozens of people. I decided to continue to the campground to get a good look at the camp, in preparation for next weekend with the Gordodos. From Hoegees I headed back up to Upper Winter Creek and finished the ten miles tour. Safe, sound and renewed!