I had everything together but nothing packed and it was 7:00am on Saturday. My friend was due to arrive at 7:45am and I had a sneaking suspicion that I was going to be late. He got to my place a bit early and I raced around trying to get everything packed. It all worked out in the end and he even helped me out by boiling some water…
We met up with the third hiker and discussed the plans of the trip, organized where we would meet and head to the Whites…
As always good conversation on the way up: Philosophy, Theology, Recovery, and Physics. Country store, contact lenses, gas, and arrival. Packs, boots and we are on our way. We headed down Zealand Road for the trail.
http://tinyurl.com/ct23oe
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Since we were backpacking all of our packs were pretty heavy but we kept a quick pace all the way to what would become our campsite. We setup our home for the night and then headed to the Zealand hut for dinner. The hut was packed with people and I felt like I was ‘in the way’. I hate feeling like I am in the way and in these circumstances usually just remove myself, but I hung in there and let my friend know that I had no clue what to do next. He took that as a cue to lead the way…
Dehydrated dinner from a bag. Hah. I remember my step-father had a bunch of old sea rations from, well, I have no clue. Anyway when I was a kid I would go into the basement and open them up and eat what I wanted out of them and then put them back.
We eventually when into the bunk room just so that we could sit on a bench. One of the hikers staying at the hut told us there was room at the table but we were all set at that point and just wanted to be left alone to eat. We thanked him with “no thanks…” The real hit was the Chocolate Mousse Pie which we all planned to not eat but I took one by and then passed it down the line and we killed it pretty quickly :).
Hot water, excuse me, lets get the fuck out of here…
My knee was starting to get sore from the weight of my pack (even though I dumped a bunch of weight at the camp site). Nevertheless we headed up the Twinway Trail on our way to Zealand cliff.
I really enjoyed hiking this trail. It was pretty steep in certain sections but completely reasonable especially with snow shoes. I really pushed myself up the trail and was definitely trucking. I waited for my friends and we approached the Cliff together. The moon was so full but just as we got there a cloud cover came and blocked the light. Even still it was an amazing view but none of us go too close to the edge :>. We joked about camping right on the cliff and someone said “Don’t roll over in your sleep!” we all laughed and shared some summit ice cream! MMMM
My friends took off their snow shoes on the way down so that they could glissade, but I was out of it thinking about boot glissading and I wanted no part of that. They were talking about sliding down on their butts and when I noticed how much fun they were having and the fact that I couldn’t keep up it didn’t take long before I was on my butt too.
The highlight of our glissading adventure left the two of them waste deep in snow and pretty close to some trees. I managed to stop before I smashed into them but not by much. Yes sliding on your ass is a total morale booster!
More water at the hut and then back to the camp to sleep. Once we got there I realized that I didn’t have the case which had my glasses in it. I was definitely concerned even though I planned to sleep with my contacts. Still I did my best to get over it and get some rest. I still had my re-wetting solution and that was all I really needed at that point anyway.
We said our good-nights and I got into my sleeping bag and realized that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep with anything on since it was so warm out! The bag I have is rated for -30 and it definitely stands up to that claim :). The wind was amazing. You could hear it starting from a distance and then build up until it felt like it was going to take everything with it. As crazy as it sounds it was quite relaxing and the warmth of my sleeping bag put me right to sleep.
I woke up to go to the bathroom and struggled getting my insert boot into the plastic outer shell. I gave up and started walking but just ended up post-holing. I swore a bit and then got my boots sorted. When I got back to my sleeping bag I realized I left the re-wetting solution in the pants I had wore. I didn’t want it to freeze (even though it wasn’t cold enough for it to anyway) so I started searching around for it. Yep, you guess it, that was gone too. I had wondered which God I had offended to deserve this?
I convinced myself it wasn’t important and went back to sleep.
When I woke up again I started searching for it and found it in the pants I had actually worn that day (I was looking in the wrong pants). Back to sleep and this time for the night.
We all woke up to fairly heavy rain and I think all of us heard it and just went back to sleep. Rain just sucks no matter what the season. My tent-mate threw out some ideas of how we could rearrange our plans so as to minimize our damp departure. I agreed and we just needed final approval from the third.
He fixed up the orientation of our tarp and started firing up breakfast. The third hiker got ready and came out and we discussed our options and got the water for our food ready. We were all sitting in a tub that was created my be the day earlier.
I had Granola w/ Bananas & Milk and man was it good. We all talked brewed up some water and ate our breakfast.
I was partly hoping I could make it back to the car without having to squat in the woods. We hadn’t even begun packing when I realized that wasn’t going to happen and so I didn’t fight it and grabbed the shovel, put on my snow shoes and asked my friend for toilet paper.
I marched off deeper into the woods and found a space where two smaller hills met. It was perfect since it was already a low area. I dropped my drawers and went. I thought about movies I had seen with kids squatting over a hole and a big pile of shit with bugs flying all around it deep underneath. Luckily for me there was nothing but white snow and the only smell was my own. Wipe it up and cover it up. Moving on…
Back at the site I noticed I was getting caught up in my head. I started thinking that my friends didn’t like me and that I had done something wrong. It is like my brain is trying to find a way to trap me and make me feel like I can’t get out. I just pushed through these thoughts and continued to help the group get ready to leave.
In total it took us 2.5 hours from the time we left our tents until the time we were ready to leave. I thought that was reasonable but our leader thought it was a bit too long.
“Three hours in, three hours out.” my friend had said to me at one point or another. I started thinking about recovery and how there are so many saying that elucidate the point of it taking just as long to walk out as it does to walk in. I definitely agree that in terms of time that is true, but the subjective nature of time can make things seem different, unbalanced and uneven.
Sometimes it can seem like it takes more or less in either direction or maybe it doesn’t seem like any difference at all. Time is just a measure a tool used to aid us and allow us to somewhat inaccurately document our lives and help us meet in the same spot at a predetermined time. But what happens during my experience, during my concept of the time that has passed is completely subjective. Sure we can use language to attempt to explain our experience but even that is limiting at best. I’m not trying to say that time changes from one person to another. What I am saying is that it is limiting to think that it is only time that is passing from one moment to the next. Each moment gives birth to the next and our connection to each of those moments defines our experience.
Yes, it takes just as long to get out as it does to get in, but man sometimes the experiential data that comes from each of those positions is just so different which makes one side or the other seem like so much more. Think about driving back from somewhere you have never driven from before. I always say “Gee it seemed to take less time on the way back.”
Back at the car. I was really hoping to find my glasses, but the places I had checked revealed nothing. When I finally truly gave up I took off my pack and looked on the roof of the car near the back and there they were on the roof sitting happily in their case!
Nothing changed but I was happy I didn’t have to mess around with figuring out how I was going to get another pair. This all may sound like some big metaphor but it really is only what happened combined with the things that I thought as a direct result of what was happening with a dash of the old stuff too.
From there it was lunch and then we went our separate ways but not before we realized our friends car was towed. So off to the tow yard to recover her car and then we were off for the three hour ride home.
More talking, phone calls, home sweet home and sore knees.