mistermocha

Back from the sticks

Thursday was the Actuary Exam, which was a freaky deaky crazy thing where I had to sit for four hours and crunch calculations. Glad it is over now.

However, right afterwards, my friend was waiting for me out front. He picked me up and we went straight into the woods for an overnight backpacking excursion. This time, we were a little wiser than last.

When it got really cold and windy, we didn't press on too hard. We packed really light, and left a lot of stuff at home that we didn't need. An extra layer of clothing would've been nice at night, as it got quite cold, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle.

Things we left behind:
Folding steel shovel (brought a small plastic one instead)
Extra food and water (brought just enough this time)
Stove (all food was ready-to-eat)
extra first aid kit (last time we each brought our own)
Half the stuff in my first aid kit (only need a few band-aids)
Almost left the tent behind, glad I didn't.

shaving all this stuff off probably lightened my pack by about fifteen to twenty pounds. We spent the night halfway up the mountain, so the next day we left behind all the sleeping gear. All I carried in my pack was water, first aid, a little food, and my jacket. (which I promptly wore when we got into the shade). We flew up the trail to Pallet Peak in half the time that it took last time.

Although a barbecue weenie roast would've been nice, there was no comparison to tomato-basil hummus with whole-wheat pita on the mountain top.

Oh, and next time, we pack more TP. I won't go into detail.