well last weekend was our first ever uma girls backpacking trip led by yours truly and a new friend, hillary, who's recently hopped on the uma bandwagon. hillary is one of those people who i feel could do pretty much anything so i figured she would be pretty handy to have along. kidding! well it's true that i think she could do almost anything, but she's also super smart, i trust her judgement, and enjoy her company, so that's the real reason she got to come along!
well friday night rolled around and we had plans of meeting next morning at 11 to start preparing and packing our packs. i was trying to keep the best eye i could on the weather for that weekend and according to what i could see, it wasn't looking very good. rain was at about a 65% probability but my biggest issue was that it was calling for the wet stuff from 4pm (about the time we'd be setting up camp) through the entire night and next day with a possibility of storms. i don't love backpacking in the chilly rain but even worse than backpacking in it is backpacking in it, setting up camp in it, trying to start a fire and cook dinner in it, then being forced to dive into your tents to hide from it. not to mention waking up to rain, packing everything up, and hiking back down the mountain in rain again. all that to say, that's where my mind went when i saw the forecast and my warm bed was sounding super nice at that moment. i called james saturday morning to get his opinion and he suggested that we still give it a go, even if we took the girls up there and decided to turn right back around, we didn't want to waste the weekend on the chance that the weather app could be incorrect.
so the girls came over to pack (2 girls out of 3 invited, not bad). hillary gave them a little backpacking 101 while i made some sandwiches for lunch. the girls listened and nodded a lot and as they finished, i thought about quizzing them on if capilene was something you ate or slept in... but i figured i'd give them a break their first trip :). they packed their bags beautifully (we spoiled them and gave them all the light stuff for their first trip) and we headed out to drive the approx. 1 1/2 hrs to our hiking destination.
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| we made it to the top! |
we decided on this particular hike because there is a beautiful waterfall that can be seen or heard the entire way up which is a nice distraction sometimes from the discomfort or pain that might be experienced as a first-timer. it didn't take long for my lazy butt to be put in a place of humility. the girls went flying up that mountain as i reminded them that 'we can take a break at any time you're tired!'. we made it the 1.7 switch-backed miles up that waterfall to the popular overlook which was absolutely beautiful. i love the attitudes these girls have, they recognized this trip as a challenge and came at it with the mentality of conquering, and they did! they didn't complain a single time, they said it was hard but they felt good about themselves! i just love them. after a couple pictures, we walked a little past the overlook to where we knew a campsite was. we got there to find a small tent already set up in the small open area so after looking around a little more, we decided to cross past the tent and over a creek to get to a larger open area on the other side. as we passed the tent, hillary called out to them but no one responded, probably out hiking the a.t. and would be back later that evening. it was about 4pm when we started unpacking and setting up camp in the beautiful fall weather, not a rain cloud in sight. the girls were incredibly helpful and it wasn't long before the tents were all set up and ready to be slept in and we had a fire going with sticks we had gathered. we roasted some spiderdogs (a new uma camping staple) and made some backpackers mac and cheese with some water we'd boiled on the camp stove. it made for a delicious dinner that we enjoyed while hillary read us the beginning to a story.
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| spiderdogs over the fire |
afterwards, while the girls were cleaning up dinner, hillary questioned me as to my thoughts on the tent we had passed earlier. it was probably 50 feet from us on the other side of the creek and we could see enough of it to know that there had been no movement since we'd arrived at camp. i innocently hadn't suspected a thing until she said that it made her a little uneasy mainly because it just wasn't normal to have a tent with no activity. we decided to give it a little more time as we could still hear families walking on the trails a short distance away. after dinner was cleaned up, the girls then asked us about the tent which made her even more uneasy so we decided that if we were going to spend the night there, we had to go over and check it out. so we gathered together and said a little prayer for safety and wisdom and with as calm of faces as we were able to put on, hillary and i crossed the creek to check it out a little closer, pepper spray and backpacker saws in each pocket of course. she suggested we approach it as just wanting to 'meet the neighbors' as we didn't want to give off any indication of the small group of girls that we were. all of a sudden i felt extremely vulnerable; we were 4 small girls, 2 small tents, parked at the top of a mountain, right next to a loud creek. nervously, we called out to whoever may (or may not) be in the tent. still nothing. there was a huge part of me that was positive that no one was there and there was nothing to fear but there was also a small part that wanted to listen to hillary's instincts and question that there really might be something about this tent to fear. after a few minutes of indecision, we walked back over to the girls and again, as calmly as possible, discussed our options. we made it clear that we didn't really think we were in danger, but because we were feeling a little uneasy, we might want to pack up and camp somewhere else. we prayed again for wisdom and clarity in making a decision and because the light was almost entirely gone from the sky by this point, we decided to pack up as quickly as possible and head down.
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| night hike |
we both agree that we may have just spooked ourselves out that night but i think about how easy of a target we were if someone did have a mind to find us that night. plus, it wasn't just us, we had these 2 teenage girls, on their first backpacking/hiking/camping trip who were learning to trust us to make a decision that was best for everyone. by the time we made it back to the semi-empty parking lot, it was about 8:30pm. i asked the girls if they'd rather me just take them home, or else hillary offered that we could go to her parents' house and camp out on their farm. the girls shocked me and said they definitely wanted to camp so we were still able to have a really great camping trip with a sink to brush our teeth in! all in all, it was a great experience and i think we all learned a ton. the girls were challenged but they felt so good about themselves after that they said they are up for something a little more challenging next time! we have plans in 2 weekends to take them for a more challenging backpacking trip where we will end up meeting up with some guys from our group who plan to up camp a short ways away from us, just close enough to hear a call for help!
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