Day 2: Stuck in a tree (I love you Mom)

The following is a transcript of Episode 3 of the Hiking to Canada podcast recorded July 20, 2016. For the best experience, press the orange play button below.

Kelsey, Brian, and I’s campsite where we cowboy camped the night before.

Good morning! It’s 7:20 in the morning on Day 2. I’ve been up since about 6/6:30, and last night was great. It was so good to find people to sleep next to, Kelsey and Brian.

All three of us cowboy camped. I felt way safer being with people. And also the campsite itself was just super super pretty.

Sunrise at our campsite the following morning.

I feel much better now that all the animal stuffs behind me. I was trucking it because after seeing the mountain lion tail I then, later on — maybe 20 minutes later — heard a gigantic animal fleeing me. Pretty sure it was a bear. I’ve been having a little bit of bear phobia with the way I’m treating my food system — not hanging it every night. Just slept on it last night.

Waking up in the clouds. View full 360 photo here.

As far as my plan for today, I don’t know. I’m going to try to take it easy and just enjoy. I’m 5 miles ahead of schedule from yesterday and I had only planned to hike for 15 more miles today. But I’m just going to see how my body’s feeling and see where I end up wanting to hike.

Enjoying the views in the clouds after sunrise. View full 360 photo here.

There’s a really amazing seeming camp spot 4000 ft up in the air in a saddle, which would be amazing, But it’s 30 miles away and I think I’d rather enjoy than rush for one campsite.

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TLDR; I just had my first couple of falls. If you want to know a fun fact, rocks that are hanging out being glossed over by water in a creek are slippery.

I knew this! Which is why I took my gear off ahead of time before going in to get water. And of course, as soon as I attempted to move my leg and anchor myself on a slippery rock, I fell in up to probably about mid shin and bumped my knee.

Won’t be too big of a deal, I’m not injured or anything like that but I was just kind of waiting for it to happen. Ahh. Classic.

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Yay! Just found a couple of bars when I was looking at the Halfmile app to turn on the GPS. I got to talk to Duncan and my mom real quick, which was great. It made me really happy. And I’m almost 11 miles in I think.

Brian, Kelsey, and I walking through a meadow, ~5 miles outside of our initially planned campsite.

So we’re about 17 miles in on our second day, and I’m starting to feel sore. My right ankle’s a little twinged because it’s not used to getting this much activity. And my shoulder’s are a little sore. Things like that, nothing insurmountable. But you can tell that my body’s starting to slooowww down a little bit.

I think we’re going to go for a campsite that’s about 5 more miles away and call it a day. It is 4:32 in the afternoon right now and I’m a little behind schedule of my 2 miles per hour including breaks pace that I would like to try to keep. But that’s okay, I think it’s better to warm up my body and get it used to these ups and downs and ups and downs which felt like what today was.

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Just got to the potential camp to sleep tonight after 21 miles of walking. And I’m insatiable. It’s 6 o’clock right now and I’m going to try to haul ass and get to the next campsite, which is 1700 feet elevation gain, but I really want to go for it. So I’m going to say goodbye to my friends and maybe have my first night solo.

View on the way up. 7:25pm.

Oh nelly, this first switchback is a killer. What have I done?!

I’m on the last switchback, yay! That wasn’t so bad.

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So… I made it. And I’m proud of myself for what I have done, but a little disappointed at this campsite. It is just a regular campsite, and feels pretty meh. There will be no starsplosions tonight. Maybe through bits of trees but that’s about it. So I’m definitely going to camp in my tent and use this opportunity to figure out how to do a PCT bear hang if I can remember.

So I’ve got like 2 hours until sundown which is pretty awesome, so in that time I’m going to try to figure out how to do it, and it’s going to be great. Goodbye.

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Hi. I am struggling right now because it is lights out, basically it’s dark now. What time is it? It’s 9:17 and in the process of trying to pitch a bear bag, I got my shit stuck up there because I used the PCT method and now I don’t know how the fuck to get it down.

Basically, I lost a dry bag and a carabiner and a cord. But what sucks is I’m the only person sleeping here tonight and I’m concerned about keeping stuff in here with me. And it’s mosquito high hell season of course as well, up here. So bit of a fail on my part tonight. I’m feeling not awesome. But it is what it is. Good night.

Two screenshots I had saved on my phone from a PCT bear hang video. Unfortunately, I failed to anticipate needing screenshots of how to take the PCT bear hang down :(

So it’s 10:20 at night, it’s been pitch black for probably 30 minutes now and I made an executive decision to — because I couldn’t get the other shit down with the PCT method because I didn’t Google how to take it down beforehand — I decided to cut the cord and instead use it to hoist my food up which is in my backpack. And that’s my main concern is not the food itself but just the backpack and not having that if something goes wrong.

It seems like a silly thing in retrospect but being out here alone makes you more vulnerable to animals because you’re out here by yourself and you’re less of a threat for that reason. But I feel better knowing there’s nothing in my tent currently that a wild animal could want . And the bear bag thing was not my best job, but we’ll just see what happens in the morning and we’ll just see if I can get it down.

“I’m not feeling awesome.” View full 360 photo here.

Um that’s it. I’m happy to be alive. And I love you Mom, I love you Duncan, I love you John, I love you Dad, I love you Grandma, I love you June. Good night.

This was Episode 3 of the Hiking to Canada podcast. Enjoy what you read, heard, and saw? Subscribe on iTunes or hit the ♡ button below.