I realized early on in this process that most sports and outdoor activities each have their own special set of gear. A few things are interchangeable, but for the most part things are tailored specifically to that activity. Shortly after that I realized everything I own is cotton and that just wasn't going to cut it, as it's heavy and doesn't dry fast. I have spent a great deal of time, energy, and money researching the gear we need and acquiring it. Luckily back packing and bike touring can use a lot of the same equipment since they both need camping gear that is light weight and packs up small.
It is recommended that you try out your gear in your back yard or something before going on a long trip to make sure you know how to use everything and it all functions properly. The back yard sounded boring so we went out into slightly more real situations.
Round one was testing the camping gear in a campground then loading up into our backpacks and going on a day hike with a full load to see what that felt like and how far we could expect to go in a day.
Round two was to load up that camping gear into bike panniers and see what that felt like to bike long distance with a full load and how far can we expect to go in a day.
Round one in reality was a couple weekends ago. We camped at Lake Leo, in the Pond Oreille chain of lakes. We arrived at camp and set up our tent then ate dinner. We hadn't even finished dinner when it started raining. The water was coming down so hard that there wasn't time for it to soak into the ground at it was pooling around our tent. We used our small shovel and sticks to dig small trenches leading the water away from the tent. As we snuggled down into our sleeping bags, the rain beating loudly all around us, I couldn't help but think how much work and money went into roughing it.
The rain let up a bit in the morning. Enough to have coffee and breakfast then load up everything, some of it still wet mind you, before going to Sullivan lake for our hike. But when we arrived at the trail head it started pouring. Full on with thunder and lightning and the whole deal. We sat in the car debating how much we reeealy wanted to do this. I'm laughing at how ridiculous an idea this seems as we make sure everything is in waterproof bags and I decide a beer, or two, would make me braver and more accepting of the situation.
There was a slight break in the thunder and it felt like a now or never moment, so we went for it.
It was instantly like we had stepped into a new beautiful world and it was well worth it to be walking in the rain to be there. Everything was so magically beautiful.
See!?! Oooooh! Neat!
Lilies leaned across the trail, heavy from the rain.
We had planned on a different hike but a really nice ranger lady recommended this one and boy was she right!
The moss was blanketing everything!
And small creeks crossed the trail in a dozen different places.
It rained for another 20 minutes or so as I giggled my way down the trail. Then the sun came out and the light peered through the patches in the branches.
Everything smelled so good and fresh.
And everywhere was something beautiful to see.
I was mesmerized by natures way of being stunning in such simple ways.
On this trail lined with wildflowers, I felt peaceful and at home.
We made our way the 4.2 miles from one end of the lake to the other, where we ate some warm soup before heading back again.
I'm so glad we decided to go for it instead of bailing because of the less than perfect weather. It turned out to be a great experience and we found out our rain gear and tent can handle the wetness just fine. Which is exactly what we needed out of a test run.
Round two was this weekend. Now THAT was an adventure!
To be continued......
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