The Zen of dinner and sleep

You aptly describe in detail backpacking life—whether it’s in the Sierras or Appalachians.  It’s all part of the routine of hiking and camping and carrying weight.

Your first and last sentences bring up some thoughts—For me, the first day of a long trip—the first step away from the vehicle—is the best feeling of all.  I know I have all I need for the next 20+ days and I have to hump the weight but the weight feels great, i.e. it’s the Price of Freedom etc.  I move like a ballerina and I’m frisky like a puppy.

What’s really odd is putting on the pack on Day 1 feels great—excited and adrenaline-fueled—but putting on the pack on Day 2 is different cuz now the pack feels really heavy—even tho it’s a few ounces lighter than yesterday.  This phenom I chalk up to first day excitement and adrenaline.

And then there’s the decision to pull a zero day in my tent during an all-day rainstorm, especially one that starts during breakfast.  It’s something I do more and more as I get older.  On my last 27 day trip I had 4 zero days—a couple due to Hurricane Laure and a couple due to R&R.

Yeah Walter, pulling a zero day is something I’ve done on group backpacks when one of the days is a side trip to some place I don’t have a burning interest to see. So I just hang out and “guard the camp”. (That’s my story and I’m sticking’ to it.)

But you and I are believers of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry who said “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” But we don’t have to accept our growing limitations without a struggle.

I like camp life as much as I like hiking, especially in a group. I tend to camp early, because my food needs at least 2-3 hours to settle before I can even consider lying down. I won’t sleep a wink with food in my belly. If I get into camp late, I skip eating altogether. If i get in early, I eat fairly quickly after setting up camp, so that i have a while to digest before sleeping. I use that time to do “little wanders” – exploring the immediate vicinity off trail. Looking for flowers or small critters, scoping the nearby hills for wildlife (I always have binoculars), finding a good spot for the sunset. While there is light there is always plenty to do. That is my “zen” time I guess, although I’m not a fan of religion so to me it’s just about relaxing.

A rainy morning? I almost never have the option of a zero. I think those are the luxury of the retired! Work awaits me no matter how long the trip and there are a mandatory number of miles each day, so I put on my wet hiking clothes, eat a hearty breakfast and hit the trail no matter the weather. (Only exception being dangerous weather, like thick fog.)  Spending a warm, rainy zero in a tent, reading, sounds great! Most of my hikes in the rain are in the cold though, so moving is better for staying warm than even lying in a down bag. Get up and go!

Yeah Karen, Walter an I are retired. Zero days are our friends. Eat your heart out. ;o)

But naturally dwindling food stores can limit zero days too.

I get lazier as I get older.  Shorter mileage per day.  Sometimes I’ll camp the same place two nights, especially if it’s raining, and just walk around.

Eric – I had to smile when I read this post.  I was out with two friends over the weekend and we had planned a 12-mile day on Friday.  The first 6 miles were exceptionally “Pennsylvania Rocky” and we were all pretty exhausted (not to mention our knees were reminding us with each downhill step that we were overdoing it) and we were only halfway to our campsite.  Luckily, this began the “easy” part of our day, but I was inclined to stop after the 6 miles because we had water here and wouldn’t see water again until we reached our campsite.

Fast forward a couple of hours and we hit the 12-mile mark in the middle of a trail re-route due to logging – No campsite or water in sight!  No choice but to plod (which is what our footfalls had become) on.

At about mile 13 we passed a hunting cabin where the people had just arrived for the weekend.  They asked if we were sleeping in the woods and we replied “Yes – as soon as we find water and a place to camp.”  At this point we were next to a small run with just a trickle, but the guy I was talking to said that there’s no “real” water anywhere nearby.  We continued following the trail and in a half-mile we hit a spot where the water was flowing enough and there were some flat spots where my trailmates could pitch their tents (I hammock).  It was 5:45 pm.

We got our shelters set up, enjoyed our dinners, and at 7:00 pm we hit “Hiker Midnight” and all retired to go to sleep.  I slept 13 glorious hours!

Kevin—your story reminds me of pulling a 21 day backpacking trip in the TN/NC mountains during the terrible drought of Oct/November 2016 when all area springs dried up and I was challenged to find water.  This drought resulted in the terrible wildfires in Gatlinburg and the fires that closed Slickrock/Kilmer wilderness and Cohutta wilderness in Georgia.

I was desperate for water as I hiked along Seven Mile Ridge as my usual springs were all gone.  Finally at one source I dumped my pack and followed the dry springhead down a couple hundred feet and dug out this trickle where I was dang thankful to have a suction pump filter and not have to dip a cup to get muddy water for a gravity fed filter—

I rarely eat supper at camp anymore. Have settled into a habit of eating around 6-ish on the trail, always with a view in mind.

The sit down break is physically and mentally a huge boon. Ditto on a big calorie dump. The added advantage of not cooking in camp in grizzly country.

I’ll generally hike another two to four hours (sometimes even longer) before making camp. My supper is well digested and a light snack is all that is needed to make it through the night.

@TipiWalter – It can get scary when you have no water and none is in sight.  When I said the “water was flowing” it was only about 1/2″ deep and we had to use a scoop that one of my buddies had to get our water (did you know that a scoop from a 1-liter SmartWater bottle fits perfectly over a .75 SmartWater bottle)?

@Mike – Your daily mileage, from what I’ve seen in your posts, far exceeds anything I could ever imagine doing.  My friends and I are more in the “let’s get to camp and relax for the night”.  I have, when I’ve stayed at a dry site overnight, packed up and enjoyed breakfast at the next water source.

This is just a nice post. Nothing to argue or dispute.. at all.  I , like others, am usually on a time schedule, unless i make my trip such as to “camp” and not hike as many miles.. but usually i like to bang some miles.. so my “camp” time will be less. Whichever i chose to do, i enjoy to the fullest.

Indeed, Jerry. Many of my best mushroom finds have been on rainy day nature hikes from an impromptu base camp. And I have something to cook up once back to camp!

As they say on the AT: “no pain, no rain, no Maine!”

All depends when it gets dark

Fall to early spring……dark may be early….days short

I eat dinner early ….with light…..maybe 3pm if needed….then hike on.  Just snack before bed when finally stop….possibly after dark.

Summer……long days……plenty of time to get mileage in before stopping usually.  In spite of that it’s still tempting to eat early and then knock out another 5 mi before finally stopping for the night.  The problem is once you eat, there’s nothing to do but sit around doing nothing unless it’s time to go to bed.  I’d rather be walking.

Im usually mileage focused….so dinner time is limited to soaking/eating.   No fancy meal prep. And dinner is only  prepped meal.  I wish i could lollygag and cook breakfast sometimes……

Rain, got to walk. Unless it’s downpouring. Then I have spent 24 hours under my small tarp before. Sleeping 22 of it actually….

“Sleeping 22 of it actually…” Hee, hee

Reminds me of a rainy night and a day spent in my solo TT Moment DW when hunting in western Nevada at 8,500 ft. in October. Yep, I too likely spent 2o  hours sleeping. :o)

By 4 PM I heard a strange sound on my tent fly. Looking outside I saw it snowing. That meant I could get our and cook a REAL dinner. But at least I was snug and dry the whole time.