Chapter 670

Backpacking

Six weeks earlier continued.

... Dessie grinned at her husband. “I vote for another handful of trail mix and to keep moving. That will give us more time to look for a good campsite as we start getting into those mountains there in the distance,” she said while pointing with her pole.

“Sounds like a winner,” Phillip said, his voice jovial, much to Dessie’s pleasure.

There had been a trail of sorts before they stopped for water, but it veered to the East at that point. After consulting their maps, they continued on cross-country toward the Northwest as the wide areas of scrub forest they had been passing through changed to older trees even as the ground began to ascend. At first, the slope was gentle, but as the forest thickened about them, there were more hills to negotiate.

They had been hiking several hours, only stopping for a few minutes to consult their GPS or for a short rest break when Phillip said, “My calves are going to be sore tomorrow.”

Dessie grimaced. “I can feel mine as well. You would think all the running on the various tracks and treadmills we have over the years would have left us in good shape for what we’re doing.”

“I suppose it’s the uneven ground that stresses our ankles, calves and knees. We aren’t in any hurry to get anywhere, so why don’t we start looking for our camping spot for the night? It’s only a couple of hours before sundown, anyway.”

“Sounds good,” Phillip agreed.

Later, after making their way up the first really steep hill that they had encountered today, they stopped at the crest to search for the best way down the other side.

Before starting up the hill, they had discussed trying to find a way around, but the hill and resulting depression went on as far as they could see in either direction in the thick forest. “My best guess is it will take us at least thirty minutes to navigate down the hill and up the other side — maybe longer. But there is no telling how far we will have to go should we decide to bypass the area. What do you think?” he asked.

“I can hear the faint sound of water running, and with the occasional sound of thunder in the distance, I think we should be seriously searching for a place to make camp, perhaps somewhere along this hillside.”

“Well, I don’t want to dry camp, and I know you don’t want to try to cook without water near, so I guess that means we work our way down.”

“I agree,” she quickly returned.

This side was too steep for walking down comfortably, making them thankful for their poles. “Over there,” Phillip said while pointing with a pole to an area that seemed to be the safest way down. The forest was much thicker here, consisting primarily of tall spruce, pine and oak trees. With the evening sun highlighting the intense green of the spruce, the hillside in the deep forest was breathtaking. The pines were pretty, but their needles covered the ground in many areas, and the spruce added their leaves/needles too, which made the way down highly slippery in places. Phillip found one of those places the hard way. With a grunt, his feet went out from under him, and he landed on his ass to slide another ten feet before coming to rest entwined in a couple of thick bushes.

“Are you hurt?” Dessie called out at the muffled cursing as Phillip untangled himself.

“Only my dignity,” he grumbled as he grabbed a nearby pine limb and hauled himself to his feet. “Watch it. That little gully is deep enough in pine needles to make it slippery as hell.”

Now that she knew he wasn’t hurt, she couldn’t hold back a giggle.

“What are you laughing at?” he groused.

“The funny sound you made when your feet went out from under you.”

“Well, it might be funny tomorrow, but it darn sure isn’t just now. My ass hurts. At least I didn’t land on my pack and break something — I hope.”

Dessie made sure not to step in the small, leaf-filled depression/gully he had found the hard way. In moments, she had caught up to him. As they stood to assess their route, hoping to find an easy way down, Dessie called his attention to the ever-increasing sound of rushing water and the now partially visible stream below. “The slope lessens in a couple of hundred feet or so, and there seems to be an overhang over there,” she said, pointing. “Want to check it out?”

The slope of the hill did flatten out to their right, but the overhang was situated in such manner as to make it useless to them. “I was hoping the overhang would have an area under it large enough to give us some shelter, but the ground is too steep for a campsite,” Phillip said. After glancing around for a moment, he pointed. “Looks as though there’s a somewhat flat place over there.”

Dessie tried to assess the spot in the distance. “Do you think it’s far enough above the stream to be safe when that thunderstorm gets here?” she asked.

“I darn sure hope so. We certainly won’t have enough time to get the rest of the way down, cross the stream and up the other side, let alone find another place to camp before those clouds get here,” Phillip returned.

They made their way along the hillside until they came to the place that they had barely been able to see through the thick bushes and trees. Here, near the bottom of the steep hill, the ridge above blocked the direct view of the setting sun, which left the area in deep shadow, although the sun hadn’t technically set yet.

Finally, when they were to the flat area, they stood looking down at the rushing stream thirty feet or so below them, and Dessie asked, “Do you think we’re above the high-water mark? If there is a flash flood, I would hate to be washed away in my sleep.”

Phillip motioned toward the high water mark some ten feet below them. “It looks to be safe here, but if it rains hard, we’ll be sure to keep track of where the water level is.”

As they checked out their chosen camping area that had seemed to catch all the rocks that had rolled down the steep hill above them, he continued sarcastically, “We certainly have plenty of rocks for a fire pit, with a few left over, not to mention the accumulation of various sized limbs. Cleaning them from the area is going to entail some work, although we certainly won’t have to go searching for firewood, nor rocks, but getting down to the water is going to be a bitch.”

“Maybe upstream there,” she said, pointing. “It’s still a couple of hundred feet away, but it looks as if the walking would be a lot easier with far less chance of winding up in the water.”

“I’ll give it a try after we get set up,” Phillip said as he took his pack off and put it against a tree, then helped with hers.

Dessie turned to her husband while rolling her shoulders to relax them. “If we’re going to have baked potatoes to go with our steaks, we need to get the fire going as soon as possible so it can burn down to coals.”

“Sounds good,” Phillip responded as he took his folding camp shovel from his pack and scooped out an area before they both ringed it with rocks. In the past, they had sometimes camped in places where it was almost impossible to find small enough stones for a fire circle, even though there were many boulders the size of cars all around. They didn’t have that problem this afternoon. With the fire pit done, he began stacking the scattered limbs in the immediate area into a pile while putting aside some of the smaller ones for kindling.

When the pit was to their liking, Dessie found the lint she had gotten from the laundry back at the hotel. With a double handful of the lint, she began working tiny sticks into her homemade fire starter. Gradually, she increased the size of the sticks until she had a lattice of wood ready to set ablaze.

When she took out her lighter, Phillip, who had continued to work on cleaning the area of rocks and debris, said with a grin, “You’re not going to use your striker?”

Dessie chuckled. “Maybe the next time when we aren’t in such a hurry. The sparks are hot and always work, but I want to get our fire started and burning as soon as possible,” she said as she applied the flame to several places in her pile of lint and sticks. The lint flared up and caught the sticks in several areas. In only minutes, she was adding much larger sticks before graduating to even thicker limbs.

Next, she sat on a log to wrap two big potatoes with aluminum foil. The fire was a long way from burning down enough to produce the coals she needed. It was also too soon to cut up the red and yellow bell peppers she would cook with asparagus and steaks, so she gave her husband a hand while the fire burned down to produce the coals she needed.

Together, they dragged a massive hardwood limb into a better position so that Phillip could saw it into smaller pieces. It would come in handy for longer-lasting wood later tonight. They wouldn’t need the fire for warmth, but it would look pretty and would give them some light.

Phillip found a small bush that had been pushed mostly out of the ground by the stream when it was running higher than it was now, and with a swipe of his hatchet, he had a decent broom to use to clean up their area where they would place their tent. From past experience, they knew that a gravel the size of a thumbnail under the sleeping pad would feel like a boulder before the next morning.

Dessie couldn’t help smiling as they had dropped into the routine once so familiar to both. Area clean, Dessie took out some of the cookware, and Phillip went to get water from the stream. Everything was new, of course, but they had thoroughly washed all the cookware before putting it into their backpacks.

After setting up his filtering system in an area where the stream wasn’t quite as fierce, Phillip filled one of their collapsible water jugs with filtered water.

“Nice fire,” he complimented when he returned, “even if you did start it with a lighter.”

She grinned back and teased, “You had better be nice to me if you want help setting up the tent while we’re waiting for the fire to burn down.” With a glance toward the darkening horizon, “I’m hungry, too, and that storm isn’t that far away. I would hate to have a steak half done when the rainstorm puts the fire out.”

“No arguments from me,” he said with a chuckle. “That energy bar and the trail mix just didn’t do it. I’ve been hungry half the afternoon.” Then after a slight pause and with a grin, “I’m really glad those steaks are big.”

“Yeah, me too,” she replied as she again cast a worried glance toward the darkening horizon, or what she could see of it through the trees.

After spending some time helping her husband clear out an area for their tent, Dessie said, “Let’s see if I can’t drag enough coals out from under the fire to bury our potatoes.” A couple of minutes later, she had a pile of glowing embers that she buried the foil-wrapped potatoes in.

They had never owned a tent made by this manufacturer, so they had read and reread the instructions back in the hotel, then, as far as possible, since they couldn’t drive tent pegs into the floor, had set the tent up.

“At least we know the quirks, so we won’t have to decipher the instructions this afternoon,” he said as he removed the tent from its carrier and laid it out.

The storm was a long way off when they had first noticed a darkening of the horizon, and it was quite a while before they could barely hear the thunder. Now though, the rumbling was much nearer, as were the flashes of lightning.