Date: 2006-01-04
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Miles today: 0.0

How this unassuming girl became a backpacker...It all started back in 2002, the year I got married (at least I think that's the year I got married). We decided to take a self-guided tour around France for our honeymoon, and I thought that more excitement and adventure might be had if we were atop bicycles. Once this gem of an idea was planted, it occurred to me that we would need some way to tote our clothing and valuables around. Now the first thought an experienced biker would probably have would be a bike trailer, but not being even in the least bit experienced, my first thought was, "We could carry our stuff in backpacks!" This led us to the local outfitter to choose our first piece of backpacking gear, albeit for the purpose of riding a bike. Since this was the only part of the trip that contributed to my becoming a backpacker, I'll cut the story short here and leave you with some of what I learned from the experience: 1) A 70 pound pack can turn a lovely afternoon bike ride in the foothills of the Alps into a 7 hour continuously uphill stroll, and 2) blending into French culture is difficult to do from atop zebra striped bikes with your entire wardrobe on your back.Obviously, this little trip did not make me a backpacker, really it was just a jumping off point. The year after our wedding found us in sunny Southern California. I was searching through the internet trying to find somewhere that we could explore, camp and hike with our dog (this is not as easy to find as you might expect), and I happened upon trail maps for the San Bernardino Mountains. I saw my favorite type of camping, what I called walk-in campgrounds, only instead of the usual 1/2 mile or so hike to the campsite, they were at distances of 7 miles and longer from the trailhead. Well let me just say that it didn't take long for me to put two and two together, and figure out that this seemed an optimal use of our "biking packs". Excitement for the new adventure mounting, I made arrangements to hike up to the top of San Gorgonio, otherwise known as "Old Greyback", and camp at the peak for the night.Two weeks later we stood at the trailhead, burdened with everything we would need to survive for a night in the wilderness. Even the dog had a little backpack for her own food and water. We had slimmed down our pack weight considerably since the biking trip, and were now in the vicinity of 55 to 60 pounds each. Robert, who always does an excellent job of making sure the back of the car is completely filled with food and gear before setting out on a camping trip, was concerned that we wouldn't have enough food or water, of which we had a couple gallons. And although we agreed that the two burner stove was enormous there was nothing else to be done, we had to eat, didn't we? So off we went, looking for the peak of the tallest mountain in Southern California, which one would think would not be very difficult to find.This was our first time hiking in a wilderness area, and we weren't sure how well the trails would be marked so we relied heavily on our map (sans compass) to figure out where we were and where to go. It didn't take long before I started asking questions like, "shouldn't we be walking uphill more", or "shouldn't there be some type of trail marker", and "doesn't it feel like we're going the wrong direction?" To all of which Robert would confidently point to the highest mountain directly in front of us and reassure me that our surroundings matched the map. So imagine his surprise about half a day later (with still no elevation gain), when we come across a junction and our first route marker. A route marker that tells us exactly where we are. A route marker that informs us that we have not come any closer to "Old Greyback" than we were when we left that morning. This was when our plans for the day changed dramatically - we were no longer going to hike to the peak of any mountain. We had already walked about 8 miles to our current position, and we found a path that would lead us 6 miles back down to an established campground a mere 1.5 miles from our car via the road. We dragged ourselves into the campground that night and baffled the camp host by our lack of car and ragged appearances. I went to bed that night grunmpy, dirty, and totally exhausted - but I woke up the next morning knowing that I would be doing a lot more backpacking in the future.Someday, when we're out in that area again, we will return to the San Bernardino Mountains, and we'll sit upon the peak of Old Greyback taking in the views of mountain, valley, and ocean - and we'll smile.