GO BACKPACKING MORE

My solo trip turned out to be a nice weekend. Its main purpose was for me to spend some time alone, letting go of some past hurts, and reevaluating my goals and desires for the future. Doing it alone, out in the woods, happens to fit some aspects of my personality and allows me to feel closer to God and His creation as I think about the big picture of my life.

The plan was to hike 2 miles into the Orange trail in the Thunderswamp trailsystem on Friday night, camp near a creek, do my reflection time on Saturday, spend another night in the same spot, and then hike out on Sunday. Doing it this way meant I had to hike in and setup in the dark, but the advantage (compared to hiking in on Saturday morning) was that I could wake up refreshed on Saturday and not feel stressed out from the usual craziness of traveling to the area. It gave me one full day in the woods to wake up, do what I needed to do without any traveling worries, and go to sleep at night.

It turned out that getting there was the hardest part of the entire trip. It seemed as though at the last minute, everything possible started going wrong. Because the purpose of this trip was a spiritual one that would bring me closer to God, I viewed these problems as tests of my willingness to follow through. By the end of the night it was almost comical just how much crazy stuff seemed to be happening. I may post a separate entry on that.

Here’s the menu for the weekend if anyone is curious:

around 2.75 liters of water total for the weekend

Saturday breakfast: tang, granola bars, beef jerky

Saturday lunch: tang, multi-grain crackers, peanut butter, deviled ham, apple

Saturday dinner: hot chocolate, ramen noodles, blueberries, carrots, Hershey’s Extra Dark chocolate bar

Sunday breakfast: tang, granola bars, beef jerky

Since the forecast was for rain on Friday night and possibly most of Saturday, the only meal that needed cooking was Saturday night to boil water for the noodles. And I brought enough extra food that I could have skipped even that if I wanted. I rarely eat breakfast anyway, so breakfasts were spartan. :)

I found out there is some new peanut butter on the market. I call it “supernatural”, because it’s better than regular natural peanut butter. It’s loaded with omega-3 (good) fats, has no trans-fats, and still the oils do not separate so it doesn’t require stirring. I had never tried a Hershey’s Extra Dark bar before, and it was basically my treat for completing my self-reflection goals for the day.

Saturday went pretty well. There was some rain before noon but otherwise it was great. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day when I packed up and hiked out. I tried to use my GPS on Sunday but for some reason it was having difficulty acquiring the satellites. When I got back to my car it decided to work.

All in all it was a refreshing weekend and I came back with some better understanding of myself and some new long- and short-term goals to work on.

My permit came in the mail. That’s good considering the one I requested for my earlier date never came.

I got my equipment out and am ready to inspect it. I stopped at REI and it looks like they no longer carry the correct fuel canister for my stove, so if I don’t have enough left I may need to buy another stove. Fires aren’t permitted so it’s a stove or cold food. Speaking of food, I need to plan that for the trip.

Yup. I’ve been watching the forecast for the Poconos
where I was planning to do my mini solo trip this coming
weekend. I decided that Tuesday was my “go/no go” decision
day to have enough time to get my things ready, or to
plan for something else. And Tuesday they were forecasting
temperatures in the mid teens at night, and only around 33F
in the day. The purpose of my trip was not to be a cold-weather
hero, but rather to spend time alone with my maker and His
creation, contemplating my life. I once tented in -15F
weather, and even sat my bare heiney on the frigid wood
of a door-less outhouse in -10F weather, but I wasn’t alone
and that’s important for safety. Even if I convince
myself that I’m not taking on too much additional risk
with the cold weather, I still think that I’m
just going to be bundled up sitting behind a tree to stay
out of the wind and really not able to enjoy
my thinking as much. Since there’s not
much downside to deferring a month, and a nice
upside of enjoying the trip much
more, that’s what I’m doing. To help keep me from
out-of-sight-out-of-mind slipping on this goal,
I’ve set a new date in early April.

I spent some time trying to figure out where to go backpacking
for 1 or 2 nights in Southern NJ or Southeast PA.
My main requirement for this trip is to completely get away.
I want it to be me, God, and nature. Nobody else.
I just want to hike in, do some low-impact tenting a little
ways off the trail, and hike out. Since I’ll be going
by myself, I don’t even plan to hike in very far.

I can’t find anything like that in Southern NJ or Southeast PA.
I’m stunned. The NJ Pinelands are 1.1 million acres, and
a lot of it would be wonderful for this kind of outing,
but they will only let me stay in
approved campsites with latrines and running water.
And then they mention “Oh yeah, and it gets pretty crowded
in the Spring and Fall.” They said everyone has to
camp in a small area like that because the area is prone
to forest fires and that way they can pull us out. Gimme a break.

Next I checked Southeast PA. At least PA doesn’t want
to babysit me in case of forest fires, but I still
haven’t found anything for overnight no-trace
camping near Philly.

It looks like the closest thing is the Appalachian Trail
in Northwest NJ or Northeast PA. And if I have to go
that far anyway (a 2 hour drive or so), I might as well
go to a little spot in the Thunderswamp trailsystem (in PA)
which I know is pretty deserted and enjoyable. And
who can pass up a chance to go to someplace called
Thunderswamp anyway? :)

Anybody have any other (legal) ideas?

I wonder if I can make the time for a backpacking weekend
in the spring?