So there I was, stepping on a log I knew I shouldn't... Let's rewind a few weeks.
I am not new to camping but I am a newbie when it comes to hammock camping. My good friend KSC got me started on this hammock camping this last winter. So I have been buying as much of the recommended equipment as the budget will allow. I have spent several nights out in the backyard strung up between couple of tripods. These little trial runs just don't have the ambiance of the fresh air and wild elements I love so much. So I have been looking for someplace relatively close by but remote enough that I might get lucky enough to avoid too many people. I started looking at satellite photos of the mountains I found a nice little lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness area, west of Leadville, CO.
The weather finally cooperated this weekend so I made my getaway to the mountains. As I am driving up there I wonder what I have forgotten. Food, Water, Hammock plunder. Should be enough. I know I will find out what I could really use but I know I have the basics anyway.
Even though it is a short hike and not too terribly steep I know that it will not be a walk in the park. The trailhead starts at about 10,000' elevation and ends about 800 feet higher. The air gets pretty thin and for an out of shape fat guy like me it will be a good enough challenge.
The trail starts off crossing a nice little wooden bridge and quickly intersects the Colorado Trail. I continue on the trail to the lake and sign in at the Wilderness Boundary. It is a nice wide trail easy to follow.
I can tell by the tracks in the mud and occasional snow drift that there is a party ahead of me. Wow! the air is thin, I have to stop and catch my breath more than I want to admit. But one reason I wanted to go alone on this hike is I wanted to "Hike my own hike" and if that means stopping and resting quite a bit, so be it. I have all day to get there. I am getting used to my new equipment along the way. My new ULA Circuit pack is nice and comfortable. I know I can cut down on some of the weight of some items in my pack but it isn't too heavy at this point. I have never used trekking poles before. I always thought that they were for skiing. But once you get used to them they do make it much easier to play hop-scotch from rock to rock in the trail that has become more water than trail. Hmmm, maybe I should have brought some better hiking shoes...
After about a mile or so I meet the party ahead of me. They are coming back down. The next creek crossing does not have a bridge and the water is flowing too fast for their young children to safely cross. He says it is probably knee deep. So I press on. I see what he means when I get there. My shoes are a little wet but I don't want to have them completely soaked for the rest of the hike so I decide to go bare foot through the crossing. Oh ya, did I also mention that the out of shape fat guy is also VERY tender footed when it comes to walking bare foot across rocks. Well, this is where my new trekking poles really shine. Normally I would be hopping around and falling down from the sharp rocks on my delicate tootsies, but with the poles I was able to keep my balance. The COLD water definitely has a numbing effect also. It was a snow drift about 12 seconds ago so it hasn't warmed up much.
After successfully navigating the ice cold crossing I stopped to put my shoes on. I found that I could really use a small towel to dry my feet off... I'll put that on the list. Being pleased with my trekking poles I experiment with holding them different ways. In one of Shug's videos, he says that he doesn't use the loops on them, so I figure if he can master the poles without the safety straps, I can too. It works well to hold them on top of their handles. I can push off of objects with more force and going down hill it helps a lot. Unfortunately there have not been many down hill parts to this trail. Walk... Huff and Puff... Stop and catch my breath, so the hike goes.
As I climb there are more and more snow drifts blocking the trail. I am able to circle around some of them but others I have to cross. The snow is sort of soft but it will hold your weight sometimes. Just enough to get your confidence up and then suddenly it gives way and you are up to your thigh struggling to get through. The trail gets steeper and I come to another creek crossing. this one isn't nearly as wide but the water is flowing much faster. I really don't want to take my shoes and socks off again and wade through because I know the water is even closer to where it melted from and I am relatively sure that it is not any warmer here than it was down stream. So I climb up the hill along side of the stream to find a better crossing that I may not have to wade through.
Ah, at last, I find a spot where there are a couple of boulders in the stream... or at this point it is getting to be more of a water fall than a stream. All I have to do is hop from boulder to boulder to get across. The only problem is the last jump is a bit further than it looked to begin with... but... there is a log wedged up against it. All I have to do is use my new Super Trekking poles and I am home free. Bad Idea.... This brings us back to the start of the story with our hero stepping on the log. With the forward momentum from the boulder hopping, there was no stopping. When I stepped on the log it became dislodged from the boulder I was aiming for and down I went. Luckily my forward momentum kept me going and I face planted on the other side of the stream. However, when I started with this great idea, I did not have the loops of my new Super poles around my wrists and now they think they are kayaks negotiating class 5 rapids or something. I get up from my log dismount... take a quick look around to see if any one saw my awesome landing... and start chasing my wayward poles down stream.
I get to a point where I am down stream of them. I can see one balancing on a rock just above a sweeper tree that has tipped over in the stream. The other is M.I.A....well if I can rescue the one that is about to be swept under the tree, at least I will have one. No telling how deep the hole is under the tree. I take my pack off, no need for all of my new down quilts getting wet if I go head first in. I use the tree as a support and stretch out just enough to catch my pole as it makes it's plunge off the rock it was teetering on. Success! Now the tree that I am leaning on starts to give way so I jump back and out pops the other pole that was trapped under the tree. I wield my rescued pole like a Gladiator and am able to hook the wrist loop before the pole disappears again. Now that we are all reunited I decide that wearing the wrist loops may not be a bad idea when crossing raging streams. Oh, and also... don't use questionable wet logs as stepping stones.
The last bit of the trail to the lake became more snow drifts than trail. I lost the trail several times but I knew the general direction I needed to go... UP... Huff and Puff and stop some more. I finally cleared the last rise before the lake and saw that it was still covered in ice and all the nice openings that may be great places to hang my hammock in that I had looked at on the satellite photos were covered in 4-5 feet of snow.
Not being prepared for winter style camping and not having snow shoes to get around on, I decided to look for a suitable site back down from the lake. I found a nice spot not too far away that had suitable trees and a small patch of dry ground. This would be home for the night. Ahh, what a wonderful aroma the forest has. So much better than the back yard in Aurora.
I had the rest of the day to relax and fiddle with my hammock. and figure out how to secure and adjust my new under-quilt protector. A couple hours later a couple of guys came huffing and puffing up the hill heading to the lake to go fishing. (they probably have been working out at the same gym..err couch I have been) By the drenched clothes they wore, it didn't look like they negotiated the creek crossings as masterfully as I had. Hey!, at least my shirt was still dry.I gave them the lake report and pointed them in the right direction. an hour or so later as I lay blissfully in my hammock checking for leaks in my eye lids, I heard them pass by again headed back down and it looked as though they had not had much luck fishing.
I had brought along a small transistor radio...I know, I know, you don't go to the wilderness to listen to the dang noise on the radio that they say passes for music, But I was able to tune in a NPR station that had Garrison Keeler and the Prairie Home Companion. I just had to listen to that.
Water was boiled on my new Trangia alcohol stove for the freeze dried Italian Pepper Steak for dinner. It was better than I thought it would be. (before I always looked down on those sissys that ate freeze dried food) Now I are one. Got to keep an open mind, even at my age.
I had planned to have a small camp fire for ambiance in the evening but a thunder storm came through and got all the wood I had gathered wet. I however stayed nice and dry under my new War Bonnet Super Fly Tarp. Bed time came early because the thunderstorm cooled the evening off and the warmest place was in my new Black Bird XLC hammock surrounded by my new hammock Gear Incubator 0 and Burro 0 Quilts. Doesn't get much better than this! I had stored my food in a bag up in a tree so I wasn't too worried about having any unwanted camp guests. About 2 am I woke up and as I lay there I shined my flashlight out through the trees. As I was doing so, a snowshoe rabbit came hopping in under the tarp. I thought he was going to hop in with me but he changed his mind and hopped away.
When dawn broke I had breakfast in bed Shug style. I can get use this Hammock camping stuff.
I wasn't in any big hurry to break camp knowing I had 2 cold, barefoot, creek crossings to make. Ya, I learned my lesson with the log stunt. Wow, I must have really gotten in shape over the last 24 hours because I didn't need to catch my breath nearly as much as yesterday... maybe it had something to do with it was all down hill now.
I made it back to the trailhead without any more excitement and decided the next thing on my "new list" will be a good pair of hiking boots. The wore out tennis shoes just aren't going to cut the mustard. The other thing I will bring next time will be some Crocks, so I don't have to wade barefoot across the streams and will double as a pair of camp shoes to wear. I do want to go back later in the summer when all the ice and snow has melted. It sure looks like some nice places to hang around the lake.
All in all the new hammock gear worked wonderfully. It did better than the out of shape, tender footed, fat guy. But hey, I'm not on the couch any more and now out there having fun in the forest again. Happy trails...
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Originally Posted by Dux
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