1st Camp Shouldn't be BackPacking

I was introduced to primitive camping about six years ago. I was taken to Ocala National Forest in the middle of November. We camped on a lake, went fishing, watch dear swim with alligators, collected fire wood, hiked around the lake. We were about a half a mile away from our car and the next nearest campers. It was a perfect first camping trip. I fell in love with the outdoors, the peace and quiet, mother nature, the rustic feeling I get when I look down and I am covered in dirt, ash, or sap. It is probably the only time in my life that I can handle being dirty for an extended period of time. I can't seem to get enough of the outdoors.

Since my first camping trip I have slowly (and I do mean slowly) grown fond of backpacking. Camping and backpacking are two totally different animals. With camping, I break out the grill the condo sized tent, a cooler full of adult beverages, enough food to make a three course meal for the army and things to occupy myself. It is great if there are a bunch of people to camp, drink, and play games. It is a nice mixture of the friends and wilderness...However, as I get older and wiser I have grown to love the quiet peaceful sounds of the wind blowing in the trees, watching the sunset as I start a fire, and listening to my own thoughts.

About a year and half ago I went on my first backpacking trip. I was in heaven. I have since gone out and bought all the necessities to be a true backpacker. I have even worked on keeping my pack to being under 30 pounds. That is a true accomplishment for someone who can still count how many times they have used their pack on one hand. I took Swallow for her first ever camping experience, which also happened to be her first ever backpacking experience. I thought taking her to a class would help her appreciate packing and carrying her pack. I couldn't have been more wrong. I woke up Saturday morning, packed the few last minute essentials and went to go wake up Swallow. I walk into her room to find her packing a stereo into her pack, my first thought is "Oh lord, please help us!" I take a deep breath and remember that its her pack and she has to carry it so she can pack as much or as little as she wants. I didn't actually weigh her pack, but I am willing to be it was 50+ pounds. As we are walking out the door, she grabs my pack and says something to the effect of "how is your pack so much lighter than mine?" I just chuckle and tell her to keep walking, we have a big day ahead of us.

We finally hit the road around 10 am. We make it up to James Peak around 11ish give or take 15 minutes. We pay to park, put on our packs (Camden had a pack too) and then take off up the trail. We couldn't have been walking more than 5 minutes when Swallow says "my pack is too heavy, it hurts my back, I don't think I can make it, can we switch packs?" You better believe that all of that came out of her mouth. We took a short rest and then proceeded. What took most people about 30-45 minutes to hike to heart lake (where we ended up setting up camp, but it wasn't our orginial destination) took us a little over an hour an half. Our base was just under 10,000 feet and our final destinationi was about 12,400 feet. We ended up camping at what I would guess was about 11,900. I gotta give Swallow credit, she did in fact make it...at least she had her IPOD to keep her motivated and entertained, her IPOD also gave me the opportunity to enjoy my hike in peace.

The higher up we got the more and more snow we came too. My first thought, "rut rhoe, this could be ugly, I bet Swallow didn't pack the correct clothes." I wasn't going to talk about the snow or the dropping temperature until she brought it up...the last thing I needed to do was to give her something else to worry about. We stumble upon a stream that although it was truly unexpected was one of the more beautiful pieces of mother nature I had ever witnessed. The water was crystal clear as it was melting snow, certain parts of the stream were deep enough to be above my head but other parts were shallow enough to walk across and not get the tops of my hiking shoes wet. Maybe it was more beautiful because I wasn't expecting it or maybe it was the way the sun was making the rocks glisten. Either way it brought a smile to my face and sense of ease. A sense that no matter how bad things might get with Swallow this site is absolutely beautiful and I want to enjoy it. I decided it was a good idea to camp right next to the stream. We would have a place to get water, wash dishes and anything else that Swallow might come up with. When I told Swallow we were setting up camp right there, she responded with "THANK GOD, I didn't think I could walk any further!"

We set up camp and then Swallow asked why, we didn't have any beer? An ice cold beer sounded so good. We still had a lot of day light left, so I offered to take her back into town to get some beer, as long as it didn't take us an hour and half to hike back up to camp. She promised me if she could leave her pack up at camp she could do it in 30 minutes...DEAL! We hike the 20 minutes back to car, and head into town, grab 18 pack of beer and head back up to camp. I emptied my pack at camp so I could put the beer in my pack and hike with it. Lucky for me I got the pleasure of making that hike up hill with weight both times. Funny how, when Swallow doesn't have a pack she makes the trip in 28 minutes, you better believe I timed her! As soon as we get back to camp, Swallow cracks open a beer, while Camden and I head off into the woods to collect firewood.

It amazes me that Camden will run away as soon as the front door opens but in the woods she walks right next to me without a leash. I call her if she gets to far in front of me, but she always comes back. It just made me think that Camden will be going on more and more hikes in the woods, especially with her pack on...she was the topic of conversation with what little hikers we came across. Some even stopped and took pictures of her, rather amusing I must admit. We gathered our fire wood and came back to camp to crack open a beer. Oh that corona in a can tasted better than any beer I had ever had! I was pretty proud of the first fire that I ever built, I think I even had Swallow take a picture of it. Shortly, after that I began to make dinner, the dinner was edible, but by no means gourmet! I need to perfect my backpacking menu for future trips. Swallow on the other hand just chilled while listening to her IPOD. It sounds very one sided but we were both extremely happy. I got to play in the woods, analyze life, listen to my thoughts and enjoy mother nature...Swallow got to be outdoors and listen to her music.

Our trip was cut a little short. I woke her up before dawn this morning to take a hike so that we could see the sunrise. We saw the sun rise and I could tell Swallow was a little unhappy (after all her IPOD batteries died at about 8:30 last night), so I knew better than to make her spend an entire rest of the day in the wilderness without any music. Besides its Red's birthday today, so we came back to Denver to shower up and head over to the birthday party. Swallow said it best, "I have never been so happy to see Denver."

We have pictures of our trip, so as soon as I get them from Swallow I'll be sure to post them! :) I am sure everyone could use a good laugh.