Heading out with some non-UL folks…..gulp…..

[Diane Pinkers]

Jen is alive and well, says she’s been super busy, she is setting up her own clinic and has had her head filled with marketing.  She should be along later today.

[Jennifer Mitol]

First of all – I guess I should be super happy that so many people missed me!

As Diane mentioned, I’m in the process of starting my own clinic and, well, holy crap that takes up a ton of time!  Particularly as I’m doing it while still working full time in my day job.  BUT!!!  I wrote up a trip report fo you guys…It was, um, interesting to say the least.  Pix to come….

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Backpacking in Big Bend with a seriously heavyweight hiker – who happens to be a know-it-all….

 

It started pretty much as I expected: mine and my friend’s teeny little packs, both in the shadow of the 90L monstrosity taking over more than half the back of the 4Runner.

She needed help to lift it into the back of the truck. She is a cross fit coach. A good one, actually. She can do 10 turkish get ups. Who even knew what that was?  For this story, let’s call her Stacey.

On the 8-hr drive out to Big Bend, me trying to sleep in the back seat (it was 4am), Stacey started to talk about her gear list.  A saw (for the desert, mind you). A 4lb first aid kit. She was proud of her “accessories bag” that was only 3 pounds: “so that’s pretty light!”  No, she hadn’t gone through it before we left, it’s what she always takes. Rather than accept my offer of a 1-man tarptent Moment to borrow, she’d gone to Academy to buy a solo tent – she was sure it was “really light!”

Since she brought it up, I started to talk about HOW one goes UL, and what that means. I only mentioned the idea of simply not bringing things you don’t need.  Like the saw. It’s a desert.  There are no fires allowed, there are no trees. I SUPPOSE you could make the argument that if you got yourself tangled in an ocotillo a saw might be helpful…but first rule of hiking in the desert: don’t tangle with an ocotillo.

I mentioned toilet paper – why bring a whole role for 4 days? how much pooping do you intend to do? duct tape – do you REALLY need the whole roll of that?

She was quite proud of her cookset: quesadilla pan, frying pan, pot, jet boil, jet boil supports, jet boil adapters (for the quesadilla and frying pans), large canister of fuel.  My cookset? 550mL pot, mini caldera cone, and 4 oz of alcohol.  She was not impressed.

After getting our permits and caching water, we would start up the climb of Pinnacles trail to our first campsite: about 1500’ elevation that first day, maybe 3.5 miles. It was 3p, sunset about 6, so we had plenty of time.  We got the last of our gear together and filled up water for day one before starting up the mountain. The rangers told us there was plenty of water in all the tinajas on the rim, and all of the springs were flowing strong; this meant we’d need to carry about 24 hrs of water at each fill up.  I brought 3L, Stacey brought 7.

I convinced the group that we honestly would not need a 4lb first aid kit, and that the radios were not necessary – so thankfully they remained in the car.  We hefted up our packs – i was sad that I was carrying so much water weight! – and started up the trail. My UL companion is the guy who always brings up the rear of any group, and he hung back. My two noob friends, carrying much of my borrowed gear, had decently light packs. The cross fit coach was literally bent in half, her single trekking pole so low she looked like a sherpa under a tumpline inching her way up the mountainside.

I’m a pretty slow starter – I like to call it “first gear” – particularly when starting a climb. I’m slow, but steady and persistent, and I don’t like to stop on a climb (because then you just have to start again….).  The Pinnacles trail is pretty steep and rocky, and it’s mostly a stair-case type of climb.  So we’d walk about 10 feet, then stop and rest.  10 more feet, more stopping and resting.

There were excuses (reasons?): apparently there are tons of medical things going on here as well, with chronic ankle sprains, thyroid troubles, some sort of gluten something or other, the list was rather extensive. So instead of simply admitting that schlepping a 60# pack up a mountainside is freaking hard, it was the thyroid, or the ankle, or whatever.  That’s fine, it was a beautiful evening, the weather was literally perfect, the scenery breathtaking. I’ve made that climb dozens of times and it never gets dull and never gets old.  So I stopped.  I took a lot of photos. I peed a lot.

We finally made it to our camp at about 630 and had to set up in the shadow of the mountain above, with rapidly fading sunlight.  I enjoyed my dinner, explained to my friends why I love hiking and why I (weirdly?) think of the trail as a friend…it was a lovely evening, I slept under the stars and bright moon and was happy.

The next morning I spent talking to my UL friend (I’ll call him Bob) – I love his philosophy on life – and we spoke of internal vs external happiness, and of the outdoors, and our shared hiking experiences. Our companions eventually made it to breakfast – it was now about 9a – and started cooking some rather large feasts.  I retreated to my happy place – we only had 8 miles to cover today, so no need to rush – I enjoyed a second cup of coffee, and we shared adventure stories.  It was nice.

After packing up, Stacey asked for help to don her pack. She literally could not lift it to put it on her back.  Not a good sign….

We eventually made it back on the trail by 1030, Stacey leading the way with a blistering pace. I hung back in my first gear with Bob, and we continued our private conversation from the morning.  Eventually my tortoise-self caught up with the heavyweight hare, and I took the lead again – slow and steady plodding up the last 800’ of climbing. Stopping every few minutes to make sure Stacey was OK.

The rest of the day was a lot of ups/downs, nothing major, and the hiking was relatively easy. We stopped at some tinajas to filter water – and Stacey still had more than 5L left.  My noobie friends took stock of how much water they had used, and how much they would then need to get to the next water source 24 hrs from now.  Stacey? I’m good.  But could someone please help me put on my pack?

I consider myself a pretty darned slow hiker – my trail name sometimes is Mosey – so for me to feel like we are going slow means we must be going pretty damned slow.  More ankle problems. More thyroid issues. Maybe something about gluten, not sure. But lots of stopping, lots of resting, a fair amount of discussing medical problems. No mention of the fact that carrying 60#s is ridiculously tough.  We made it to camp after sunset, again. Nearly 10 hours to walk 8 miles. And none of that time was spent napping.

This went on for the next few days, but the 2nd to last day Stacey actually commented that this wasn’t nearly as hard as she thought, the hiking was EASY! But instead of making our destination 13 miles away, the group (without Stacey’s input) decided that she really couldn’t go any further, that we needed to find camp ASAP.  We had 2 more pretty tough climbs ahead – even though Stacey INSISTED they were easy as pie! – but the second we crossed a dry wash at the bottom of one of the tougher climbs we had left, Stacey declared this as a great spot to set up camp! It was actually a bit unsafe, right in a wind tunnel, and rain/storms threatened. The loose gravel of a wash is not a great place to stake a shelter in a wind tunnel, and the washes are there for a reason when storms threaten. Stacey swore she was fine and we could continue! but the consensus was that she was quite finished for the day.  So against my better judgement we set up in the wash.

It was a rough night, my duomid came down on me several times and Bob actually set up his zpacks duplex as a bivy roll (it was brilliant!). But thankfully we stayed dry regardless, and we were not flooded out.  The next morning it was painfully obvious that we were NOT going to make our final destination, that we would just hike to the road and hitch back to the basin. Instead of having only 6 miles to go on the last day as planned, we now had more than 11 – and then still have to drive the 8 hours back to Austin. So the road it was – only 4 miles away.

We helped Stacey don her pack – STILL painfully heavy despite her having eaten much of her food, and hit the trail. The rest of us smiled as we put ours on, enjoying that feeling of donning a backpack with a fully depleted food bag and barely 1L of water for drinking on the hike out.  Stacey commented that her pack was literally no lighter than it was the day she started.

As we made our way along the rest of the Dodson Trail Stacey was barely able to keep up, Bob hanging back with her for safety (thanks Bob!), and Stacey continuing to insist this was Such An Easy Hike!

I was glad we had the bail out of the road near the Homer Ranch, and I did design our itinerary with that in mind. There was absolutely no way Stacey was going to make it up that last 4k climb. And on the drive home, she did seem to realize that her gear was not appropriate for a trip like this. In the end, I was still able to (mostly) hike my own hike, to introduce my noob friends to (comfortable!) backpacking, to show my dear friend Bob the amazingness of Big Bend, and to -just maybe!- demonstrate to someone that pack weight really DOES matter.  There was only the 1 time when I thought her inability to continue put the group at risk (the night in the wash), and cutting the mileage short wasn’t really a big deal at all.

Will I do this again? Absolutely not. I thought I was done with this kind of stuff a few years ago, but I guess I don’t really learn my own lessons enough. PMags was totally correct in his assessment, and hopefully this trip and the stresses associated with it will last long enough that I will never. Ever. do it again.

Hopefully……

[Jennifer Mitol]

By the way – the email I sent out earlier reminding everyone of how hard this hike actually is???  she thought that was meant for the other two.

[John Rowan]

Great trip report- I was definitely curious about this one (especially since I’m dealing with a similar set of interactions with a co-worker at the moment). I think the outcome struck a nice balance between you getting some pretty dramatic validation, but with no one actually being hurt.

That said, I think I speak for all of BPL when I say that I was hoping there’d be more cannibalism here.

(Might be worth reading the preceding pages if you haven’t already…this thread kinda took up a life of its own for a few weeks.)

[James Marco]

Thanks, Jen….well, at least there was no inappropriate meals involved.

[Jerry Adams]

Nice story, thanks.  This must be why I almost always go solo : )

[d k]

My first impression: you are a saint!

Second impression: Wow, I feel so much better about MY accessories bag now!

That was a trip report well worth waiting for…I eagerly anticipate a picture of Stacey humping her pack.

It occurs to me that OCD can sometimes help with lightweight backpacking, but perhaps in some cases it can go the other way very badly.

[Kattt]

Sounds rough Jen. Hopefully she learned something even though some people never seem to. At least you had someone along that you shared a lot with ..

[Jennifer Mitol]

I frankly quite enjoyed the turn of the thread into a new type of backpacking meals. Sometimes I struggle with what to bring on my resupplies, and now I have some brand new ideas!

 

[Jeffs Eleven]

Its one of those things that you think about doing it again, except saying that everybody hike their own hike and meet at the campsite.  Since she is a crossfit person, and the trail is easy she’d be obliged to do it again.  Then when her trip fails and she has to be rescued in epic fashion everybody can chastise her and question her lifestyle and fitness.

But man! … what a PITA to do again.  …no way.  Peace out, lady!

Glad you are back and whole.

[John Rowan]

I frankly quite enjoyed the turn of the thread into a new type of backpacking meals. Sometimes I struggle with what to bring on my resupplies, and now I have some brand new ideas!

I think most of us seasoned UL’ers remember the first time we read Ray Jardine’s chilling “Meal Prep” chapter in Beyond Backpacking. I’ve never really been able to shake those images.

[Ken Thompson]

…still laughing. Thanks Jen.

[Bri W]

You’re a great story teller! Thanks for sharing!

I’m planning a fastpacking trip with a few of my running coworkers, but a few coworkers who do NOT run are interested and I haven’t found a way to tell them politely that this isn’t the trip for them.  We are hoping to do 20-mile days or close to it, and a few of these people aren’t in the best shape and have likely never gone backpacking. Fortunately, they aren’t adamant know-it-alls so I won’t have to deal with what you experienced. But I made a Facebook post on my work’s group page and must not have described well enough the trail and daily mileage, elevation changes, etc. :)

[Matthew / BPL]

Thanks for sharing the story. We have all been looking forward to it!

Good luck with setting up the new practice.

[Roger Caffin]

a new type of backpacking meals.

And the secret is … curry powder!

Thanks Jen. Good luck with the clinic.
Cheers

[Dena Kelley]

“By the way – the email I sent out earlier reminding everyone of how hard this hike actually is???  she thought that was meant for the other two.”

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It sounds like she’s a narcissist that finds it impossible to actually admit she made a mistake or that she might be doing anything wrong. I hope at least internally she learned something, even if she never admits it out loud.

Thanks for the followup! I enjoyed the way you focused on how everyone did and it sounds like 4 of you had a great time. It was good you had bailout points in mind- good planning. :)

[Roger Caffin]

It was good you had bailout points in mind- good planning. :)
That’s how you distinguish Leaders from the rest.

Cheers

[Paul Magnanti]

hopefully this trip and the stresses associated with it will last long enough that I will never. Ever. do it again.

Sorry, your trip did not go as planned Jen.

But you told a good yarn (thank you!) and seemed to have learned something as well.

Could be far worse!

[Larry De La Briandais]

I would have to say that you have the patients of a saint.  I remember all too well pushing an out of shape buddy of mine up the trail.  He wanted to stop every 30 seconds to a minute or so.  I pushed so hard that he started pushing hard up the trail so he could put some distance between us and stop until I caught up.  It was one of the last times he went.  :^(

I don’t like the idea of everyone for themselves and meet up at camp.  I am just not comfortable with leaving someone “behind” to fend for themselves.  If I am going on a group trip I want the companionship of others.  But that’s just me.

I would have pushed her to make the specified miles per day and to arrive at camp prior to sundown, or admit that she couldn’t.  But I have seen where that attitude gets you.  I would have ruined the trip for everyone.  In the end, you made it a nice trip for everyone (well, as nice as possible for Stacey).  Your planning the bail out point was obviously a great idea, and I like that you had someone as rear guard.  Sounds like he deserves a medal.

You’ve actually inspired me to take a look at how I handle situations like that.  Maybe I can turn a bad situation into a better one.  :^)

And, you have a moment for a loaner!?!  It seems I know all the wrong people.  ;^)

Thanks.  Waiting for the pictures with baited breath.

And good luck.  Starting your own business is always a huge effort with plenty of stress to go around.

 

 

[Lester Moore]

Thanks Jen for sharing your group’s entertaining and enlightening story, and for telling it so well. Definitely can’t wait to see the pictures. After reading your story, I feel much better about deciding to go solo on the BSL this August.

[EastCoastHiker]

I’m guessing Stacey is not a partner in your new business.

[Ben C]

To me, the trips seems to have gone better than I was expecting.  I think the anticipation made me expect the worst.  Certainly could have been worse.  I’m sure the bailout helped.  Thanks for sharing.

[Katherine .]

Great attitude Jen!

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