This is a guest post series on Must Hike Must Eat. To learn more and submit your first time story, read You Never Forget Your First Time.
Website: http://KarenGoesOutside.com
One Sentence Bio About You: I’m a 50-something grandma who is finally making a decades long dream of hiking the PCT a reality.
Your “First” Story: I started blogging about my PCT section hiking 6 months ago. One of the posts that resonates with me most is the one I wrote about my first solo backpacking trip. Here’s the link http://karengoesoutside.com/
Excerpts from:
My First Solo Backpacking Trip Was Rainy and Cold and Amazing
“Continuing chronologically with my PCT hikes, the next post is about my first solo backpacking trip, done in the fall of 2015.
Miller Trailhead at Clackamas Lake to Timberline Lodge
September 4-6, 2015
24.3 Miles 169.4 Total PCT Miles
Somehow it felt right to be hiking to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood for my first solo backpacking trip. If you buy a postcard of Portland it is likely to have this chocolate chip-shaped mountain on the skyline. Mt. Hood is Portland’s home mountain and had been the wild backyard playground of my youth. It was there that my parents took us on camping trips. Later, after my boys were born, I would take my own family camping at the lakes nestled in at the base of the peak. I learned to ski on her slopes and spent the winters in my teen years at the ski areas on her shoulders. The hikes I went on with my high school hiking club and friends were often within the shadow of this dormant volcano…
…My 20-year-old 15 degree synthetic bag wasn’t cutting it. I was cold. After a couple of hours I had every item of clothing on including 2 pair of socks, base layer, hiking pants, lightweight fleece, down sweater, fleece hat and gloves, and rain gear. It was tolerable. Then I remembered I had brought some Hot Hands chemical hand warmers along. I ripped open both packages and shook them until they began to radiate warmth…
…I hadn’t realized it until it was done, but this trip was a kind of self-administered test. Desperately, I wanted to be competent. Would I be able to take care of myself in the forest for days? Did I have everything I needed? Did I have too much? Would I be scared?
Head over to Karen’s blog to read the rest of her “first” story!
This is a guest post series on Must Hike Must Eat. To learn more and submit your first time story, read You Never Forget Your First Time. You do not have to have a blog to participate and any topic is welcome!
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