Going heavy in Big Bend

[Stephen Parks]

These poor kids.  I had just completed the outer mountain loop in Big Bend NP and saw these two about to head up the mountain.  They spent at least a half hour in the parking lot rearranging and exchanging gear.  it looked like the guy literally couldn’t find the way out of the parking lot without help.  Maybe I could have offered some suggestions, but it looked to me that an adult had already ‘helped’ plenty.  And hey, they are young, weren’t going to die (probably), and no doubt learned a lot on their own.

She was kicking that stick along in front of her, as it apparently needed to go up the mountain with them.

Yes, two battery-powered lanterns.

Ouch.

[Alex H]

Holy cr@p!  They were probably only going up to Boulder Meadows campsites too.

[John Mc]

Love it!  They’ll be extremely comfortable in camp.

[Jennifer Mitol]

The rangers at Big Bend always talk about the huge failure rate of people trying to do backpacking trips anywhere in the park, let alone the Outer Mountain Loop.

Now I see why….

[Ken Thompson]

Always killed me to see hikers on the Lost Coast Trail hauling gallon jugs of water. There’s a stream every ten minutes or so.  I bet those kids complete set ups cost less than a Duplex.

[Monte Masterson]

Looks like the girl is goose stepping in the second pic.

 

[Katherine .]

I think it’s a good concept for a TV show: we intercept the overpacked and slim them down.

Really wanted to do that with a group of teenage boys w/in 2 miles of the trailhead this summer. But I don’t think it would have gone over so well with the two fathers.

[Jennifer Mitol]

the problem with Big Bend is that there really is no water in the park – you have to carry all of it with you.  Another reason to keep everything else as light as possible!

[John DeMorris]

My back hurts just looking at those pics.  I hope the end to this story isn’t something like “And they never went backpacking again.”

[Stephen Parks]

I expect they were also quite cold overnight, unless they had some nice inflatable mattresses hiding in those packs. It was 32F down in the basin that night.  I still had ice in my water bottle when I got off the trail at noon.

Still, I give them credit for embarking on an adventure.

[Author]

Posts