Instead of writing a long blog post about how much fun and awesome camping with the Portland crew was, I’ll just point you to their blogs. :)
Allen, Ian, & Julien all take these incredibly unrealistically real pictures… I had fun watching them play around with their cameras all weekend. My pictures are here, but they’re almost embarrassing next to theirs. I encourage you to check theirs out first!
9/25 Update: I’ve added Allen & Ian’s photo’s to my Picasa album.
The Wallowa Mountains are apparently one of the Pacific North West’s best kept secrets. The trails are listed in the standard Oregon backpacking guide books, but everyone I’ve talked to has never heard of them despite being some hiker’s all-time favorite treks. It’s a tough comparison, but I think this hike might just replace the hike I did last summer in the Olympic National Park as my all time favorite trip. It definitely was the hardest and most rewarding hike I’ve been on yet.
For whatever reason, I never sleep well the night before I leave on a trip. I’ve been up since 5am, tossing and turning. I’ve had nothing really to do before I leave this afternoon. My pack is set: tent, food, flask, clothes, etc. etc. I’ve got a brand new list of “backpacking” must haves that I put together for this trip, mostly based upon what I naturally throw in my pack, with additions from Ian’s list (located here: http://iansteiner.com/static.php?page=backpacking_list). I’ll be putting together my own, much more comprehensive list and posting it up later.
I feel like I’ve over-packed for this trip, like normal. I take the BSOA motto of “always be prepared” to new heights. But this time around I’m making a small stand: I’m taking one -less of the basics than I normally think I need to take. For this 4-day trip, I’d normally take two pairs of hiking pants and 4 shirts and 4 pairs of socks. I’m going to try to get by on one pair of pants, 3 shirts, and 3 pairs of socks.
This is a big deal to me. The extra pairs are still sitting out, staring at me. My only concern (as always) is over-sweating, which renders a shirt useless for a day while it hangs off my pack to dry. As long as we don’t have horribly rainy weather, it’ll be just fine.
It’s only four days… that should be enough… right?