On my first day of duty, I found out they wanted me in the backcountry every day! I thought I would be stationed in the visitor center some days to give trail information to visitors. But the trails were not very busy, and my time would be better utilized with my eyes on the backcountry. I was told to plan whatever route I wanted for my first trip and check in the next morning on my way out. I got super into it and made my own Caltopo map. (For others who love maps, here’s the LINK to my creation!).
The first day in the backcountry commenced at a leisurely pace, my eyes scanning the landscape in search of elusive cliff dwellings rumored to be present in the area here.
A majestic encounter awaited. My first two bears – on my first day! A chance diversion into a campsite led me to inadvertently share space with these furry companions. With my pack off for a brief break, rustling branches up the trail caught my attention. A friendly attempt to announce my presence evolved into a one-sided conversation with unseen bears. Cautiously, I continued, voicing my thoughts aloud toensure no surprises lay ahead. I calledout nicely but pretty loud, “Hello, who’s there?” to make myself known. There was more wrestling in the trees. So, I kept making conversation with my friends I still could not see. “This is such a nice neighborhood. I’m just stopping by and will be on my way soon.” Then I see two bear heads bopping by as they scramble out of there. I could not see where they went except ahead of me on the trail. Not knowing if I would run into them again, I kept talking to myself, saying whatever popped into my head in a loud and friendly voice. “Thank you for coming to my party!” “I’ll be on my way now.” “Hope you are having a good day!”. “Housekeeping!!” and so on…
After about 20 minutes and several water crossings, I figured I was safe. The trail was getting hard to follow again and my constant need for wayfinding distracted me from bear thoughts. Finally, I found the flat landscape near Hells Hole where I was planning to camp.
I ate, set up my tent, and hung my food, all in different locations. I searched for the best-looking tree for hanging food. Happy with my work, I turned to walk away and almost stepped in a huge pile of bear scat. Oh well. It was a pretty good hang and the best tree, so I left it. I did not think to bring camp shoes, and I am walking around barefoot to let my feet and shoes dry out from the day’s river hiking. And ouch!! I get stabbed by some kind of thorn or something. I tried to remove it with my tweezers, but it broke, leaving a piece embedded deep. I crossed my fingers and hoped for it to work its way out.
I was still unsure about how I was going to feel sleeping out there by myself. I have backpacked with only my dog, but never all alone … in the middle of the wilderness … during fire season … without a human in sight all day … and a big pile of bear poop a few hundred feet away. The weather forecast was clear for the night, so I left my rain fly off the tent and did not use any white lights, so I could keep an eye on camp.
I felt surprisingly comfortable as far as animals, but I did get cold without the rain fly and ended up pulling an emergency blanket out to warm me up. That would be my first and last time sleeping without the rain fly that summer. The next morning, I was slow at camp, soaking in my feels, being way out in the wilderness by myself. I also knew I had a big climb out of Hells Hole coming up and was mentally preparing for the day.
After the climb, it was easy walking and navigation for the rest of the day. But a plan to explore off-trail water sources was thwarted by an unexpected thunderstorm, leading to an impromptu refuge on the porch of an old, locked cabin. Monsoon season was here.
afternoon storm
After the storm went through, I decided it would be better to go for guaranteed water instead of exploring off-trail water sources since I was running low, and I was now behind on my planned route. So, I headed towards my next camp which would be on the water. The trail was exposed and hot after the storm, so I was happy with this decision.
My feet were sore after walking in water all day the previous day and I felt the splinter poking around in my foot too. I was too weary and sore to explore once I got to my stopping location for the day and picked a hidden campsite up a hill in the Meadows.
The next day started awesome. I was walking along a water source again so did not worry about carrying extra water, lightening my pack immensely, and the morning was cool and comfortable. I was hiking at a good pace and feeling much better than I had at the end of the day yesterday. Just before I got to Jordan Springs, I found a pile of trash. There was quite a bit. My instructions were to pack out what trash I could, and if I found a lot, just bag it up and send coordinates. Someone on a horse could come back and pick it up. But it was my last day, my pack was light, and I was feeling good. So, I decided to hike it out. The trash included one of those net bags that comes on store-bought firewood, plainly marked “Leave no Trace” on the label. A notice that was clearly not heeded. As I was putting the trash in my garbage bag, I noticed the trash pile was filled with bugs! Already mentally prepared to carry it out, I tied it on the outside of my pack and went on my way. I knew I was coming up on Jordan Springs and I would be on familiar trail soon.
However, I had walked through the unofficial campsite trails looking for more trash and had gotten turned around. I walked the wrong way and got off trail once or twice. I felt like I was in the twilight zone walking in circles for a bit, all with a bag of buggy trash tied to me. I finally found the river crossing I missed and was back on the right path, then it was smooth hiking after that. I was able to get all the way to the last water crossing before needing to stop and filter water again. I knew that the trail ahead was very exposed, and I needed full water bottles to comfortably finish in the heat the afternoon had brought. I took my backpack off to get ready to filter water and realized that after all my bopping around on trail with the bag swinging around, it was now filled with holes and the bugs were escaping onto my pack! I hiked the remaining four miles holding the bag at arm’s length and shaking the escaping bugs off every few minutes. I had blisters under my toenails, a splinter in my foot, and I was doing my best to hinder a full-on bug attack. But I still had a huge smile on my face, proud of all the trash I collected and a successful trip in the wilderness by myself.
When I got back to the trailhead where I was parked, I closed the tied end of the trash bag in my door with the bag hanging on the outside of the car to keep the bugs out. I had to wait until I was back by the dorms to throw it away because there was no public trash in the wilderness. Pack it in pack it out!
After cleaning up, I repacked to go car camp in Silver City to have better service for work the next day. As I was settling in to sleep in the trusty Buick, I noticed that pus was forming around my foot splinter. I tried to get it out again, but it was too deep. So, I enjoyed a 3 ½ hour visit at urgent care the next day.
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