Backpacking

We woke up this morning to a bright blue sky and the sounds of buzzing insects and swift water. My neck is stiff from waking every half hour last night to stick my head out of the tent to see the stars. They were spectacular! Silver
Lining remarked that at one point she got up and saw two shooting stars, one right after the other.  She said, “You know it is a clear, beautiful night when there are so many stars that you cannot pick out the milky Way!”.

This is yet another pay-off for hiking far enough away from civilization that there is no man-made light whatsoever. I wish that I had had the energy to just lay out and look at
the sky all night long.
As we got up and started fixing breakfast, filtering water and packing up stuff, the humor turned somewhat scatalogical.  I don’t know what it is about backpacking, but it tends to turn all three of us into 10 year old boys,
laughing hysterically at every burp and tee-hee-ing at references to privy humor. It really is funny! HBB says we are like 10 year old boys with jobs and credit cards.  How scary is that?   As we giggled our way through the final
packing up, it got hotter and hotter.  We finished wrapping up my feet and SL’s ankles in duct tape, (we are both having boot issues), and hit the trail.  HBB kindly let me lead the way, and I took off.  At one point, the others stopped to
filter some water, but in Silver Linings words, I had found my groove.
I felt like I was sailing down the trail, pack and all, and I keep thinking about the Trail Dames. This trail is so perfect for them! Those women are experts at recognizing beauty and they would absolutely love this.
It is so interesting how a trail can look the same from one evening to the next morning, yet feel so different. Of course, all of the usual cliches apply….everything is clean, fresh and new. You would hope that I could come up with some better references than that, but there it is.  But at the risk of
sounding like a junior high English essay, the trail feels hopeful. Between the
sun beams, fresh dew on the ferns and smell of moss, I feel like I can accomplish anything. I can walk for miles, jump over rocks, grow more, live better and love better.

Have you ever felt so much promise that you could barely contain it?  As my vacation is drawing to a close, I want to bottle this feeling, and hold it close so that when the stresses of rental season and bow rehairs come a-calling, I will have a secret talisman. I will recall this moment and let it glow brightly, coloring my attitude as needed.

The end of our hike finds us passing more and more day hikers, each smelling like fabric softner and perfume.  As we walked through the parking lot, with it’s clean tourists holding giant cameras and scolding their children, I ask HBB if it is wrong to feel just a bit superior. 🙂 I am really smelly, quite sweaty and sporting a magnificant “tan” line made of dirt, where my socks meet my legs.
I feel like I have truly experienced the Hoh Rain Forest.
Tomorrow it looks like we are going to spend the day sailing on the Puget Sound with HBB’s friend, Barney. If something remarkable happens, I will let you know, otherwise, it looks like our hiking/backpacking is done for now.  I did learn a few lessons during this vacation……I learned that flexibility is a trait I need to keep working on   I am still bummed at the disintegration
of my Wonderland Trail Adventure, but am managing to get over myself.  It is
like Greg Mortenson says in “Three Cups of Tea”, ‘my spirit did not fail, my body did’.  I think I can live with that.   I also learned that losing a little bit of weight can really mess your feet
up! My beloved boots are chewing up my feet like crazy and I feel like they are
old friends that have greatly let me down. So, would someone please let Winton
know that the next time I am at Mountain Crossings, I need to request a little
bit of his time for a boot fitting. I guess I had better get that done before
his status as a famous author spreads far and wide!   I have to go sailing
now, but hope you all have a wonderful dayand thank you for sharing my Washinton adventures!!
Anna
www.traildames.com

Well, if you can’t do the Wonderland Trail, you might as well do the Hoh Rain Forest!

Today we backpacked into the Hoh Rain Forest and it was simply magical! We
are West of Seattle, in the Olympic National Park, and have found the absolute
most Tolkein-ish forest anywhere! After a beautiful drive, in which we exhausted
all possible tasteless jokes regarding the “ho” hike, we found the trailhead and
took off.  We are all four together again, as HBB decided that she could finish the WT another day and that she would rather hike with us.  That is a good friend for you……
These woods are dark and mysterious, with huge ferns that reach above my head. The trees are huge…some of them easily large enough to drive a car through.  I keep wondering if they have Redwoods in this part of the country.
The trail is fantastic and different from anything I have ever hiked.  Mostly it is smooth….which in itself makes it unlike most of what I have hiked. Every now and then, huge roots curve up through the ground like giant worms.  I pick my way up and around them, wondering if they are going to come to
life and grab me! You may laugh, but this forest is truly that fantas-tical.
For several miles, the trail curves up and down like a gentle roller coaster, and the sun shines through the thick trees in broken beams. It really is quite wonderful.
The only thing keeping this from being truly heavenly is the fact that it is 95
degrees.  Seriously.  This area of the country is under a heat warning and they are
predicting temps between 95 and 100 all week long!  The heat is oppressive and
the bugs are absolutely loving it.  However, thanks to my good friend Deet and a
mid-hike stop to cool down in a glacial river, the hike was still really
fabulous.
The best thing that happened to me, though, was completely egotistical.
We came upon a group of middle school girl scouts, with two women leading them, just as
we decided to stop and chill out in the river. They were very sweet, and after a
little conversation, they took off down the trail.  After 15-20 minutes, we took
off as well, with bandanas dripping cool water down our necks.  What happened
next was truly amazing.    No… it was astounding! I actually caught up to them!!
Me!! The slowest hiker around!  Well, I was also with Silver Lining and Little
Bit, but we all caught up to them. As they stepped aside to let us pass, I told
them, “You might not want to do that with me…I am pretty slow!”.  One of the
leaders turned and said, “But you caught up to us!”.  I realized that in all my
years of hiking, I had never caught up with other hikers, much less passed them.
Yes…. the girls were over-loaded with big packs, and they were tired….but I
couldn’t help but feeling like all my hard work in the gym was paying off a little.
Ok, ego trip done…. 🙂
 We finally reached camp and set up on the banks of a beautiful, lilting river. After eating a delicious dinner of tuna and beef jerky, (me) and Ramen, (everyone else), we stowed away our bear canisters, and are relaxing for the
evening.  We are laying back watching the sky go from light blue to a soft gray
as the sun sets behind the mountains.  A partial moon is rising right across
from us and it won’t be long before the stars start appearing.  I am typing to
the sounds of soft laughter as the other women joke lightly. You know, I always
say that to see this exact view, you have to actually be the one that walks to
it.  Tonight I would add that if you are lucky, sometimes that very same walk
can bring you to this peace and friendship as well.  And that is worth all the blisters and sore muscles in the world.
Good night……….