Not all those who wander are lost. — J. R. R. Tolkien
Hey guys, thanks for joining in!
Recently, I have been wanting to get back into backpacking again as I went on a month long trip in Alaska in the July of 2013 and really enjoyed it. We spent the first two weeks hiking up mountain ridges and down glacial valleys the Chuchach range and covered over 50 miles and hiked up 150,000 ft of combined elevation. For the second part of our journey, we traded or hiking boots for rubber ones and our packs for paddles. We kayaked 150 miles across the Prince William Sound, starting in Valdez (where the huge oil spill occurred in 1989) and ending in Whittier, a rough fishing town full of stern men. It was an incredible adventure and a life changing experience. Living outdoors like that created a strong appreciation of nature in me and made me realize how boring our normal lives are. I showed up there out of shape and ignorant, but I returned strong and skilled. The only problem was when I got back to the “real world” (In my opinion nature is the real world and society is a construct), I asked my self “what now?”.
I returned home and knew that it was important for my growth to keep this momentum going. I knew that if I didn’t continue to explore the outdoors that I would fall back into my bad old habits and the changes in me that Alaska created would fade away. So I started researching Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), a great backpacking area that is basically in our backyard. However, the weather in RMNP during our winter semester is not conducive to backpacking, great thunder and rain storms in the afternoons in the fall and heavy snows in the winter. So, unhappily I had to hold off any aspirations of getting back out there until the spring semester .
When the next semester rolls around, the 6 pack I gained in Alaska may have become fat but I still had my drive. I plan a trip with my buddies and it falls apart as she of them had to back out. Not wanting to go solo, I become a couch potato as I fail again and again to get a trip together. Discouraged and becoming more and more lazy lazy, I stoped actively trying to plan trips thinking that eventual a chance will come up naturally. Of course it never did.
It truly pains me to say this but I have not gone on a legitimate backpacking trip since that month in Alaska 5 years ago. I know that getting out of shape and becoming a couch potato are completely my fault, waiting on others is just an excuse. I think the reason why I wasn’t just hiking around boulder was after experiencing the majesty of ciaciarlly carved mountains and valleys of the Chugach range, the hike up Chuataqua just seemed lesser.
I know that 19 year old me would be ashamed that I never got deep into the bush again, I know that current me is a little ashamed too. With that being said, it is my goal to go out on at least a 5-7 day trip somewhere remote. The reason I am writing this blog about getting back into backpacking is to provide basic knowledge, tips and checklists for any beginners who want to try backpacking. It may even be entertaining because while I think that I still have all the skills I learned there, some will have faded away and the rest are undoubtably rusty. This will definitely lead to me experiencing failures of some kind or another on my first attempt back in the bush.
Anyways, thank you for checking out my blog. I hope you enjoy it!
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