[at-l] lessons learned and great moments

[AHuthmaker@aol.com (AHuthmaker@aol.com)]

Hey ya'll!!
       Well, I survived my first official backpacking trip and I am in one 
piece!!  I had a great time and all I want to do is get back out there!!!  
       Due to a late start, all of the original plans were shot so the 
weekend ended up being sort of piecemeal.  Swallowtail came up for the first 
evening and we had an uneventful hike up the Byron Reese (at Neels Gap), to 
the AT and then north over Mt. Levelland and on a bit.  We had a great time, 
and I really enjoyed her company! The next day, we hiked back out and after 
dropping ST at her car, with the advice of a lot of really wonderful people, 
I went on to Hog Pen Gap where I hiked in and ended up camping for the night. 
 
       I really wanted to write down every single detail, but in all it would 
have been about 32 pages long, so I thought I would just make do with a list 
of all the things I learned this weekend!  And Lord knows that I learned a 
lot this weekend!!
Things that I learned:
       1. I love to backpack!  I knew that I loved to hike, and I knew that I 
loved the idea of backpacking, but now I can say that I absolutely LOVE 
backpacking!!  The sweat....the uphills....the downhills (although, not as 
much! *G*), ...the mosquitos...
I love it all!
       2.  When bearbagging ones food, you should take a huge swing, heave 
the rope and stuff sack with rock as high as you can into the tree.  Oh, and 
you should hold on to the other end of the rope!  *G*  North of Swaims Gap, 
there is an evil, evil tree with two yellow stuff sacks hanging high in the 
branches....one being mine, the other being Swallowtails.  (I will let her 
tell you about that!! *BG*).  When all was said and done, I was weak with 
laughter (ST did not think the whole thing was quite as funny as I did!!) and 
my food was hanging about five feet off of the ground!  I had to duck to get 
under it!!  I just prayed for short bears!!!  As I explained to ST, I knew 
that if a bear got all of my food, at least I would have a good story to tell 
in the future!  It was really the best I could do!  We were out of rope!!
       3.  The owners and staff at Walasi-Y-Gap, (Mountain Crossings) are the 
most wonderful people in the world!!  Kind, friendly, beyond knowledgeable, 
and willing to do anything to help hikers!  Winton gave me so much great 
advice and told me he would help me with anything I needed regarding my 2003 
thru.  I just adore these people!!!
       4.  Food is heavy!!!  How come none of you people ever told me 
that!?!?!?  And of course, being a rookie, I took way too much food!!!  After 
all that exertion, I wasn't even that hungry!    In any case, now I know why 
the freeze dried people are still in business!!
       5.  Thunderstorms at 7 pm, make for a long boring tent stay!  I really 
did think of  you Shane, and while I did not dance around naked in the rain, 
I did hike in it with my arms outstretched loving every single drop of it!!!  
There is nothing like a warm rain!!!   
       6. Hoot owls in the tree next to your tent at 1:30 in the morning can 
scare the bejeebers out of you!!!  Once I realized what it was, though, I sat 
up and listened to three of them call back and forth for the next twenty 
minutes.  It ranks up there as one of the coolest things I have ever heard!  
It narrowly beat out the coyotes I heard the night before!
       7. For everything that I knew about backpacking, this weekend, I 
discovered that there are fifty things I don't know!!!  For once in my life, 
I felt completely excited at the prospect of all I didn't know.  I just want 
to get out there and learn more!
       8.  Speaking of all I don't know..............I once read that there 
is a direct correlation between pack weight, and inexperience/fear.  It 
occurred to me early in the weekend that I was the poster child for that 
statement!  *S*  When I purchased a new pack from Mountain Crossings, put all 
of my stuff in it, and hoisted it onto my back, I could clearly feel my fear 
weighing me down.  It was a very interesting feeling!  Now,...... it didn't 
move me to take anything out of my pack!!  At least that first 
night.......but on the second afternoon, I dumped half the clothing and half 
the food.  By that time I felt a little braver!  *G*
        9.  Finally, the last thing I learned.    Oh god is it beautiful out 
there on that trail.  Now I really,really get it.   (Something tells me that 
I don't need to explain that. *S*)

       For those of you that are interested, I bought a Dana Designs Bridger 
Pack and I am madly in love with it!  As for my stove, first of all thank all 
of you for all of your helpful hints in dealing with exploding problems I 
had!!  I managed to make it work my second day out (how is that for silly!  I 
took a piece of equipment I didn't even know how to use on the trail!!!!) and 
each time I use it it gets a little easier.  It is a Whisperlite and I would 
like to find a way to make it work.  I know that it is heavy, but I am way to 
scared of burning fuel-type stuff to even think about something like a Pepsi 
can stove!  That is a growth that hopefully will come in the future! *G*
       If any one is interested in a complete trip report, I will gladly post 
it, but for now I just felt so proud of the things that I learned that I  
wanted to share it with you all.  Last but not least, the greatest moments of 
my trip:
       High on a ridge, the sun going down, lights coming up in the 
valley....and a big orange moon coming up through the 
trees.............sigh............
       Waking up Monday morning in my tent and realizing that I had spent my 
first night in the woods all by myself, and had been just fine.  *G*         
       Coming down into Neels Gap the second day, Winton told me that I could 
go inside and weigh my pack.  Walking through the store, it occurred to me 
that after years of coming into this place as a day hiker, I had finally 
become the thing that I always wanted to be...............a backpacker.
       Anna