The Last Leg: Alone in the Wilderness Part III

A Surprise Rain Storm

The last leg of my first overnight hike alone in wilderness were full of surprises. This is the third and last segment of this story. Check out Part I here Alone in the Wilderness: My First Backpacking Experience Alone and Part II here The Restart: Alone in the Wilderness Part II to make sure you know the whole story!

I went to bed that night, exhausted, flat on my back, wrapped up in my sleeping bag like a cocoon.  The different animal noises and the wind singing through the trees created some anxiety, but my exhaustion won out and I was soon asleep.  I woke up at one point and heard soft plops on my tent and realized that it was raining.  The rain was comforting and started lulling me back to sleep. 

Sighing, my body rolled to side, cuddling deeper into my cocoon.  Surprisingly, I encountered something cold and wet.  Tentatively, I reached my hand out and felt water. A small puddle had formed in my tent! I reached my hand out further and sure enough, there was water everywhere.  Instinctively, my mind knew there was nothing that I was going to be able to do to fix the problem Honestly, I was too exhausted to even bother. I rolled over onto my back once again, tucked myself into a small ball, and fell immediately back to sleep.

The Next Morning

When I woke in the morning, the left side of my sleeping bag was laying in the puddle, soaked.  Luckily I was fairly dry as were my clothes and shoes.  I laughed (so I didn’t cry) at the way I was ending my first overnight backpacking trip alone! Heating what was left of my water, I enjoyed my one cup of coffee. I drank this sitting on a log while I looked ruefully at the soaking mess my tent had become.

(Head over to REI to check out recommended tents to avoid having the same experience @ https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/best-backpacking-tents.html)

Thankfully, the sun was coming out. It was time to pack up and head back onto the trail to meet Shannon.  Squeezing my swollen, blistered feet into my boots made me wince in pain.  The sleeping bag was so much more difficult to manage and put away wet and weighed a hundred pounds more than it did the day before.  Same with the tent. 

I loaded it all up with some difficulty but feeling proud that I made it through the night.  Feeling emotionally drained and physically spent, I hefted the cumbersome backpack and strapped it on, grabbing my apple to munch on the way.  I had no water left so I sucked that apple dry, squeezing every last ounce of liquid I could out of it.  I hiked the last 3 miles out to the meeting spot.  A large group of hikers passed me on the way up and although they were all very pleasant, I imagined I must have looked a comical sight and laughed in my mind and what stories about me they were imagining. 

The End

Finally, I crossed the road, the last leg of my first overnight hike alone in the wilderness almost complete, to find Shannon waiting for me in the parking lot.  I hobbled over and she jumped out of the truck laughing and said, “oh honey!”  She wrapped me in a hug, handed me a water bottle, and took me to IHOP (http://www.ihop.com) to get the biggest breakfast I had eaten in a long time!

I took off on this journey with a desire to push myself to physical exhaustion in order to forget about the  emotional pain I was feeling at the time due to a situation I was going through.  I learned a lot about myself.  My take aways are: I am strong, both physically and mentally;  I can overcome and persevere;  I will make through anything and although I am not perfect…but I am a hiker.