Sept. 15-16: Waking up in the Wilderness

I started the morning at Wilson Valley Lean-To by doing a food inventory after breakfast [Cheerios and coffee] and hiking out late, at 11. Before dawn, though, I did wake up and look over at the shelter to see three French-speaking hikers getting a big fire going.

A sample of the food inventory in my 60-pound pack:

Drinks:

- 10 Carnation instant breakfasts
- 1 baggie of powdered milk
- 23 Folgers singles packets
- 7 Gatorade packets
- 9 Crystal Light packets
- 13 tea bags

It turned out that I had dinners for 8 days - 2 too many - and a pound and a half of cheese. Yum!

The day's hike took me over Barren Mountain [elev. 2,660] which gave me a workout with my very heavy pack, and I ended up looking for a place to set up my tent after dark, tramping along the trail with my headlamp on.

I found a place near three other tents next to West Chairback Pond, off a side trail. There was no moon, so the stars and planets reflected brightly off the pond's surface when I pulled some water out of it to cook with.

In the morning I got up, stood up outside and saw gray skies and my breath frosting in the air and got back in my sleeping back. Did some journaling, made a fire next to the pond and started hiking after 1 p.m. [!]

Which meant it was inevitable that, 6 hours and 11.6 miles later I'd be looking for a flat spot for my tent with my headlamp again, near the Carl Newhall Lean-To.