Date: 2004-11-24
To: First Overnighter
Miles today: 0.0

We made it back from Zaleski State Forest!!! Wow, what a trip! We arrived and got on the trail around 8:15 A.M. on the 19th (Friday). Plans were to hike 10 miles to the campsite, set up camp, fix a great meal, sleep, and head back out the next day taking in an additional 5 miles. We wanted it to be challenging and were even hoping for inclement weather so we could test ourselves and equipment. Boy, did we ever get our wish!!!Raining, in fact pouring, when we arrived. We put on our rain suits, covered our packs with the rain cover and headed out to find the trailhead which was supposed to be .3 mile from where we parked. Approximately 3 miles later we stumbled across the trail along the highway where the trail crossed. Yep, we missed the trailhead! Upon finding the trail, within 50 or so yards we had to cross a stream that was raging pretty good from all the rain. With boots off, rain suit rolled up, and careful probing with our trekking poles we waded across to the other side. Boy was that water cold!!! We crossed that same stream one other time, only this time we walked across a very slick 12 inch wide log. Hadn't done that for a long time, but all went well and we made it safely across. Trail was extremely muddy in places and always slick and up and down! Very, very challenging! We made camp around 5:15 P.M., just before dark and had intended to cook a nice meal on our little alcohol stove. Diana's words were, "I am just too tired", and into the sleeping bag she went. My "nice" meal consisted of a Pop-Tart and water. (Yep, I was pretty exhausted also). Soon after we got into the tent it started raining again, (good test for the Europa II tent by Six Moon Designs ).The tent (two person) was just too small. We had all our equipment inside with us to try and keep things dry. We had intended to bring trashbags to put things in and leave them outside. We just forgot! Lesson learned. We have since received a vestibule to attach to our tent that would give us a little more room.Diana also learned a valuable lesson in putting her glasses somewhere safe after taking them off. She was so tired when she took them off that she could not remember what she had done with them. We looked everywhere and lo and behold she found them, after much floundering, inside her sleeping bag! They were about as bent up as anything I have seen! Lenses one way and ear pieces another way! Unusable on the way out. A trip to Wal-Mart vision center and they were bent back into shape well enough to be worn!Oh, yes, they had an outside privy at the campsite! Diana went to use the facility (about 50 yards away) and couldn't find it!!! I noticed the light going in several different directions, didn't say anything to her about it when she got back, but she admitted in the morning that she had to seek alternative facilities, cause she couldn't find the main privy!! We had a good laugh at that one!Our stove worked wonderfully. Took around 4 minutes to boil water using 1 ounce of denatured alcohol. Very satisfied with this. Rainsuits were super! Kept us very dry in super wet weather. In fact every thing went super well! It was an incredible hike. We even went through a Larch stand that was planted in 1908! Beautiful! We saw deer, grouse, and heard several coyotes! We would sure recommend this hike to all!