The wife and kids took off to see her mom and their Mama Ree while I had to work. I had New Year's Day off as a holiday though so I decided to go on a camp-out by myself. I had always gone with the family or my son through the Scouts or as a family and this would be my first time out alone. It was definitely different.
It was quiet and peaceful. I did what I wanted to when I wanted to. There wasn't anyone else to think about, care for or be mindful of what they wanted. However there also wasn't anyone there to help me out should I have needed help. That will make you be a lot more careful and aware of what you are doing.
I parked at the gate to the Boy Scout camping area sometime around 8pm that night and backpacked up to the camping area. It is only about a quarter mile but it was nice to try out my backpack again. I found a nice rock to serve as a table and a close flat spot for my tent. There weren't any rocks around but there was some cut firewood so I used that to build a fire ring after clearing off the leaves. I soon had a fire going and it felt good as it was supposed to get below freezing that night.
I set up the tent and was soon fixing dinner. It was a dehydrated meal of my wife's that I had dehydrated back home. It was just like home cooking once it was re-hydrated. After cleaning up dinner I was ready to hit the hay and call it a night. However the cows in the nearby pasture felt like they needed to carry on a conversation for a few more hours.
Sometime around 4am I woke up cold. A flashlight revealed that the condensation inside the tent had turned to ice. That's when I knew it was cold. I had put on my thick layer of underwear thinking that would be enough. I had another thinner layer that I could put under that. However I was at the point in my awareness that I couldn't wake up enough to pull off the thick layer, put on the thin layer and then put the thick layer back on. So I just lay there and was cold until the sun and the crows finally roused me outta bed.
So I learned to always start with the thin layer first and then it is easy to just add the thick layer later in the night should it get colder. I also learned that I should double check and make sure I have hot hands in my backpack and not assume that they were left there from the last backpacking trip. I later remembered the last backpacking trip was in the summer and I had taken them out for weight savings. This was definitely a good test of what would work and what would not work and what I could do better next time.
After I got up and got a fire going I was hungry. After a nice bowl of oatmeal, some coffee and a few pictures of the camp site I was feeling human again. Time to pack up, clean up and follow Leave No Trace (LNT) principles. As you can see from the pictures there was no sign that I had been there once I was through. I have used that picture to show my Boy Scouts how it should be done.
After hiking back to my Jeep I went across the park and hiked the local trail on the other side. I also checked on the Pack 220 Geocache that we had left there back in October. It was still in good condition. I moseyed on back to my Jeep later for a quick lunch and then drove over to the camp site at the end of the park to check on a cache I had left there earlier in the year. I added some SWAG to it and then decided to hide a cache to commemorate the camp out.
I just happened to have one in the Jeep that I had picked up earlier in the week because a subdivision was about to be built over it. I changed the name on it and went deep into the end of the park and hid it. It was very nice and peaceful back there. I found me a nice rock to have a quiet time on. A gray squirrel came scampering right on past me as he searched for his late lunch. It was definitely nice and relaxing.
Afterwards I hiked back to the Jeep and headed on out. It was time to get back to the daily grind of the real world. However I was now in a better mood to handle it and looking forward to the next time I could take a backpacking trip on my own.
