July 15, 2012 All caught up!

We've been planning this weekend's hike all week.

Go to Hebo Lake Saturday night, get up Sunday and hike from Hebo Lake to South Lake and back in one day. It's about 16 miles round trip. The same trip we made in April and the snow only much warmer and dryer this time. Problem is...it wasn't dryer. I'm not sure why, but it always seems to rain on us when we hike. I sure hope the PCT is different!

Now that I'm caught up on our training hike blogs, maybe I will elaborate more and experiment with some other stuff. Brace yourselves, this could get weird.

When we got to Hebo Lake at about 6:30, the fog was settling in and it felt like it was going to rain. But the fog over the lake was really cool. All the people and noise at the campground made us quickly decide to hike up trail a mile or two for some privacy.

 

Pretty private huh?? You betcha! 

 

 We went about 1 1/2 miles when we found a good relativity level spot and made camp. I tied the bear bag for practice. It looks pretty good doesn't it! It works too. It was still there in the morning. I guess that might be because there wasn't any bear...

Our home away from home, from the outside and an inside shot.

We nestled into bed to the gentle patter of dew drops on the tent. I inhaled deeply of the sweet scent of some wild flower and the pungent spicy aroma of pitch. It was blissful. Just as we were drifting off to sleep, my cell phone goes off. Just Net10 telling me my days are numbered so we ignored it. Actually we ignored it because it was outside in my pack and we were in bed, but it's my story so I'll tell it like I want. Now that I'm caught up on my blogs I can elaborate and embellish my posts as I see fit...right?

Jeff almost immediately is asleep and me, well I'm doing my usual, "what's that noise" and "is it getting into our pack?" and "what will tomorrow hold?" and "I sure wish we could be more active in Search and Rescue" and as you might have noticed, my mind goes just about anywhere when it's time to go to sleep. Finally I drift off to the not so gentle pitter pat of rain. The gentleness gradually increases until it's the real thing in the morning and every rain drop sends a shower of condensation on our sleeping faces. You might recall me mentioning in an earlier blog our tent is nice but has some condensation issues. Anyway, my bladder demands that I get up regardless of the moisture in the air so I pull on my shoes and unzip, I said, unzip...I said UNZIP the door. Okay doggone it, if you won't unzip, I'll crawl out under you!!! Great way to start the day don't you think? (If you remember correctly and IF you really read earlier blogs, you'll remember that I mentioned the tent has some zipper issues as well...)

Rain or condensation, who cares--it drips and makes us wet.Oh but the story gets better, even if I'm out of photos. I check the phone messages and what should my wondering eyes see? A search and rescue call!! Not only that, but it's at Mt. Hebo! Jeff and I decide to hike to the top (about 3 miles) to meet with the group but along the way we get a chance to talk to Dean, our head honcho guy and he says it's a road search and we'll need to drive so, with the crest of the top in sight, we turn around and head back for the van. Who wants to hike in the cold rain anyway. An hour later, we're on the road doing Search and Rescue and eating our spam tortillas. But, that's another story...

Bye for now and much love,
JeffnSue