m*******a
发帖数: 363 | 1 Everything became a routine after 3 times. The sandwiches, apples, water,
sleeping bag/pad/liner. with my backpack still unpacked from last weekend’s
trip, i spent a much shorter time on packing this time. just added in food
and water. i brought J’s foldable saw and strapped the i-am-not-a-bear-or-
deer orange cap on the back of my pack.
I studied the segments trail maps of Ouachita national forest. On a very
informative website http://www.ouachitamaps.com/index.html i learned that there are 6 backpacking trail loops. Considering how inexperienced i am and for two girls, i picked the shortest one, thoughtfully, 18 mil loop, Talimena-Bahannon Loop. According to the website, there will be a spacious one tent campsite at mile 10. Perfect, i thought to myself. I sent the link and map to Sophie, who would be hiking with me that weekend.
Sophie showed me her backpack on Thursday. J insisted her using his instead,
considering how oversized and off balanced hers was. Thanks to J, Sophie
got a lighter and well balanced external frame backpack for this trip, which
saved her strength by about 10% .
Sophie said, leave the stove and pot out, we dont need to cook for dinner.
just one night, we can tough it out. we can live on sandwiches and energy
bars. i thought about it, agreed. which also meant i did not need to carry
that much water for cooking. I felt cheating a little without having to
carry a complete set of backpacking gears. But less weight was so tempting.
so i left those out.
We agreed that i would go pick her up at her house at 5:30 am on Saturday.
Part of the backpacking trip has slowly become a morning sunrise show. i
got used to getting up before the sun and driving my way into the light,
watching hundreds folds of pink, orange, lavender and yellow displaying in
front of my eyes, watching water mists rising from lakes into the cool
morning air, watching cows strolling on the open prairie by freeways,
watching everything returned back to life again under the rising sun.
We stopped at McDonald’s for Sophie’s life-awakening coffee and 1 gallon
of water which would be filled into her water reservoir.
My heart raced up when we were approaching Ouachita national forest. The
outline of the mountains, (not tall, but a somewhat comfort for me), made me
feel alive again. At 8:32 am we arrived at the Talihena Winding star state
park station. I got off the car and went to get a decent map of our hiking
trail. The hours on door says open at 8:30 am , wow, perfect. We walked in,
i asked for the map. I printed out a topographical map online but not in
high resolution. Some of the names of the roads were hard to read. But They
did not have the map for that particular loop but other maps for other trail
loops. Nor did they have any topographical maps for any trail loops. The
rangers looked at my map said, thats a very good map. but they did know much
about the trail we were planning on hiking. The lady pulled out a magnifier
glass and looked at the trails over and over again, pointing to one of the
essential trail which made the whole loop, said, “i dont think i have ever
heard of that trail.” that was a little disturbing to me. Then she looked
at us said “If you cannot find that trail on your hike, stop there and hike
the same way back, OK?”.
“You girls are hiking that loop? you going to camp out?” “Yes, we are
doing backpacking”. “For all these years i have been working in here, i
dont see many Asians come out, not alone backpacking.” ” we are the
atypical asian girls.” i said, feeling a little proud of ourselves. ”do
you have cellphones?” “yes”.”well, if you got into trouble, call”. “
this number?” i pointed at the office number printed at their brochure, “
No, call 911″. Oh. 911. that sounded really serious. ”is there going to
be severe thunder storm tonight?” i asked, considering the lastest weather
report. the change of rain had increased from 60% to 80% percent and a
severe thunder storm with damaging wind and would start around 8:30 pm. “
yes, thats what the weather channel said, so be careful out there. “
while we were parking by trailhead, a guy came over and after learned that
we were going to do backpacking, he pointed to the campsites by trailhead ,
saying that there was a group of people were about to do the same thing. ”
really?!” i was thrilled at the news. we thanked him and ran down to the
campsite, afraid that they might have left already. There was a young
couple just putting on their huge backpacks and ready to leave. “hello,
hello. Morning! Are you guys going backpacking?” “yes” “We too” They
were going on another loop 23 mil long. “do you mind if we hike together?”
“not at all”. but later learned they were doing it in 3 days, 7 mile each
day. so we let them go, thinking should we change our plan to that 23 mil
Old military loop or not. Then we saw another group preparing to leave as
well. hohoho. (to be continued)
| A******x
发帖数: 811 | 2 When I heard others say that they don't see many Asian, I always reply: "You
'll see more.". | m*******a
发帖数: 363 | 3 Good point!
You
【在 A******x 的大作中提到】
: When I heard others say that they don't see many Asian, I always reply: "You
: 'll see more.".
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