Because you’re supposed to get back on a horse after you’ve fallen off, the very day after returning from my bank robber/camping trip fiasco I left to go backpacking with my friend Megan in Mount Rainier National Park. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit this—what with having lived in Colorado’s Front Range for four years—but it was my first ever backpacking trip. And, unlike my recent camping endeavors, it was 100% successful.
I feel like I need to make up some sort of bear attack or mountain lion chase or something after the debacles of my last post, but really, the trip was fairly uneventful in the blog sense of the word. It was wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but other than forgetting to pack the granola for breakfast and following a trail from a guidebook with back-assward directions, it actually went as planned.
Sure, it had its moments. Like when, in my half-awake grogginess, I became absolutely convinced that a mountain lion was breathing into the tent door in the middle of the night, and despite having a bladder on the brink of explosion I had to lie absolutely still in order to save our lives. There was nothing out there, by the way. Don’t blame me; I’m from New York City—I’m still sometimes scared of the woods.
Or when we found ourselves hiking through a bumble-bee infested meadow and I spent the entire hour thinking about the scene in My Girl where Macauley Culkin’s character dies of bee stings. By the way, how do you know if you have a bee allergy like that? The last time I got stung I was 14 and a bee got my forearm while I was standing outside of Yankee Stadium. By the seventh inning stretch, my arm had swollen to the size of a small airplane and I could no longer bend it. Since allergies get worse every time your exposed, does that mean that the next time a yellowjacket decides to suicide bomb me I will swell to the size of a mid-sized country?
I hope not.
Anyway, there is nothing more ridiculously beautiful than trekking through blankets of wildflowers in subalpine meadows with nothing but mountain views (and an intense incline) to take your breath away. Our hike brought us passed three and a half mountain lakes (one was really more of a glorified puddle so it only gets a .5 rating), through beautiful old growth forest and to the top of Gobbler’s Knob, from where we had an OMNIMAX-sized view of Mount Rainier to the east, a iPod-sized view of Mount St. Helens to the south, and, just barely, a glimpse of the Olympics to the northwest. We camped out at Lake George, a pristine and perfectly cooling lake with a crazy blue-green hue I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Only one other group of campers slept nearby.
There was no bank robber and certainly no obnoxiously loud freight train. The only thing noise I could hear that night was the trickling of a nearby creek and the furious buzzing of insects.
And, of course, the slow, calculated breathing of a mountain lion stalking our tent.
8 responses so far ↓
1 TimsHead // Aug 17, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Damn Yankees. And I bet it was A-Rod’s fault too, even though he was probably still in high school.
You could have said you were about to be attacked by a mountain lion, but then a bear scared it off. The bear, in turn, was scuttled by Godzilla. Really, with the possible exception of that last bit, we wouldn’t know any better.
I spent last night camping in a state park, with no serial murderers or ebola viruses or prowling gangs of Mothras. What it did have were people who don’t know what the @#$% quiet hours mean. That will be a rant in a future entry.
2 Chicagoartgirl23 // Aug 18, 2006 at 5:40 am
I’ve been craving a hike for sometime now and now I’m dying to go! I’m pouring over my Scottland guides, already plotting out my first week of hikes. Colodrado’s Rocky Mountian National Park will always have a special place in my heart–my family hiked those trails every single summer of my youth when we went to visit my mountin-living grandparents. I am completely spooked by the woods. Once, when I was twelve or so I was climbing the steep boulders perched atop the mountin that my grandparents live on. I pulled myself over a particuarly steep rock and found myself face to face with an enourmous male deer with the hugest rack of all time. The deer was munching on the plateu I was pulling myself up on. After a moment of mutual startle, the boy deer raised his head, glared down at me, snorted, and turned away. Yikes!
RCY: I love that you cats read aloud to eachother! We are all about that. Plays mostly. Most recently it was Dr. Faustus, which was fun. Thank God Shaun is hip to archaic words–most of our read was me asking, “what’s that mean?” But very fun. I loved V! Both the movie and the graphic novel. Good stuff.
3 thinlizzy17 // Aug 18, 2006 at 5:49 am
I’ve had a couple of unpleasant bee experiences but I don’t think I’m allergic. One bit me inside my ear (the upper part with the cartilige) and that made my face go numb for an hour or so. That was mostly just weird. Then once I stepped in a ground nest and ended up with a foot covered with bees. And that hurt and swelled up a little, but didn’t kill me.
This is not to say that I’d like to repeat either experience, though.
4 fern // Aug 18, 2006 at 11:27 am
no idea…i’ve not been stung by a bee…and yes, i am an environmental scientist who works outdoors regularly and an avid backpacker. i dunno how i’ve escaped it, but it’s a curse more than a blessing b/c i am somewhat terrified of the bee sting for the macauley culkin reason posted above.
i have not seen a mountain lion but would LOVE to. not breathing on my toes, though
currently i hit the freshwater springs in northern florida to get away from modern civilization. one could argue that the majority of florida, itself, constitutes “away from modern civilization” but i digress
So glad your first ever backpacking trip was a success. Maybe someday you’ll hike the AT with me, eh?
5 Boo // Aug 18, 2006 at 12:05 pm
I allergic to bee stings. I found out the way you did, I swelled huge, but that isn’t the dangerous allergic reaction, it is when your breathing changes. And mine did. Luckily I was at a fire station when it happened and they had the shot deal right there. You have to plunge that thing into muscle and it works pretty quickly. Oh it was so embarrassing. I was wearing a short skirt and I was stung as I went to sit down on a bench. You can imagine my dismay as five or six firefighters all sought to diagnose my every growing bum. And I almost cried when they began to haggle over who would give me the injection. And yeah, I still blush about it.
This camping trip sounds beautiful except for that bastard lion.
Hey are the championship games over? If so, hope you had a blast and that your knee is unscathed.
6 Natalie // Aug 18, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I’m not allergic to bees, but I hate being stung by them! It happened to me for the first time in many years last year and it hurt so much!!
As for mountain lions (or cougars as we call them here in Victoria), we kindof always have to be on the look out for them here. Usually they only come into more populated areas if they are young and confused (and by young I don’t mean cute and cuddly). Where my parents live (and hence where I lived growing up) you’re more likely to see one, though I never have. We had a lot of neighbours that had though. I just remember mom’s rule about being home before dark, and not going too far in the forest by yourself, and singing really loudly if you were walking home from a friend’s house alone. How’s that for some tips! I guess the main idea is, don’t make yourself look like an easy meal!
As for going away to less populated areas, there are a lot of places to day hike around Victoria. I personally like the beach! Max and I are going up to Parksville (home of the sandcastle building contest) this weekend to do a little R&R. Very much looking forward to that!!
7 Lynn // Aug 21, 2006 at 7:14 pm
I’m a city girl, too, and I’m allergic to just about anything that grows. So that puts backpacking and camping out for me.
I’ve never been stung by a bee, so I have no idea what would happen. I stress about this. I keep thinking I’d be one of the ones who dies from a bee sting while everyone stares helplessly.
Lynn
8 Uncle Joe // Aug 26, 2006 at 4:08 am
God you take the girl out of the city but you can’t take the city out of the girl.