[at-l] Re: Going Solo---

[lwbooher@halifax.com (Leslie Booher)]

>I want to know about your first solo backpacking trips, or overnighters

Last spring, I hiked alone for the first time, but I never stayed alone on
that trip.  One night, I stayed at Overmountain Shelter, though, and I was
the only female with something like 12 guys of all ages.  That was an
interesting phenomenon.

Finally, Labor Day night, I stayed alone for the first time after 12 years
of backpacking.  I started out at Rockfish Gap in the late afternoon going
into Shenandoah, so I didn't get but 3 miles or so along.  There was
absolutely no place to put up a tent.  It was rocky, rocky, rocky.  There
are all these rules about not sleeping near a road, not near the trail, etc.
The truth is, you put up your tent where you can.  I got down into McCormick
Gap, and there was a nice meadow with a fence and brush blocking a good bit
of the view of the road.  I put my tent behind the thickest part of the
foliage.  I had a wonderful night.  I even had a good limb to hang my bear
bag.  Then, in the early morning, just before light, some hiker hopped out
of a car on the parkway, zipped over the stile, and was gone up the hill in
a flash.  It was still so dark that I couldn't even see him, just his
outline.  I wonder what he thought?  But it was a good night, and I'll do it
again.

anklebear


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