Going to lay off day hikes for about a month

After talking with my chiropractor, I decided to take off this weekend from hiking.  Next weekend I am planning on going to Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and Capitol Reef any way.  After that, I'll be going to South Carolina to see my son, Johnny, graduate from Army Boot Camp at Fort Jackson.  That will basically give me a month off to help my disc to calm down and stop being inflamed.

In the mean time, I'll be researching larger fanny pack options.  Mountain Smith seems to have some options in its Lumbar Series.  I also might need to find some patterns and sew one myself with a lighter stronger material.  If I could have a larger fanny pack in the back with a smaller one (still large) in the front, I might be able to fit everything that I would in a daypack.  The problem will be the fanny packs sliding down.  They have shoulder straps but that might defeat the point unless they only kept the fanny packs from sliding down and would only bear a tiny bit of the weight.  We'll see.

The day hiking idea seemed to work except my back was already bothering me.  I hiked 17.8 miles last weekend.  When I get back in July, I can go to the other end of the segment to hike the remainder of Segment 4.  I'll keep you posted.

By the way, I found a website doing some unique stuff with cuben fiber material. Zpacks.com
I might use that fabric to sew my own lightweight fanny packs when I return.

Day Hike on the Eastern Half of Segment 4 of the Colorado Trail

North of the trail about hour into hike

After talking to my chiropractor, I decided I didn't want to chance my back with a 24-26 pound backpack.  I decided to day hike half way from the east of Segment 4 then turn around at the half way point.  My plan was drive to the other end of segment 4, then hike back to the half way point, hiking the segment in two day hikes.

I left work early on Friday after coming in at 5:15am.  I drove up to the Rolling Creek Trailhead and set up my camp about 1000 feet from the trailhead.  I hadn't slept much the night before so I laid down in my tent.  After not being able to take a nap, I returned to the car to return some of the stuff I brought that I didn't need and to get my iPad.  I watched most of a movie then went to sleep about 9pm.  It rained on and off.

North of trail

The next morning, I woke up about 5:30am and took my tent, sleeping bag, mattress pad, and anything I didn't need for the hike back to the car.  I laid out the damp rain fly across the back of my Subaru Forester (back seat laid down) so it could dry while I was hiking.  I packed up only food, water and the 10 Essentials and was hiking by 6:30am.  Segment 4 heading east is uphill the VAST majority of the time until you get to about mile point 7.  I was glad I was hiking in the morning.

The trees are very thick so the sunlight didn't hit me much for the entire trip to the North Fork Trailhead.  It made it difficult to get any pictures because the trees blocked the views.

  At one point, I hit a very marshy area and the trail seemed to have overgrown a lot.  I was glad my shoes were GoreTex.  After about 1/4 mile, I was out of it in a big meadow.  I couldn't tell where the trail went but got out my GPS out.  I seemed to be north of the trail but the trailed headed west.  I went to the west end of the meadow and did find a trail.  After hiking for 5 hours, I was in the big valley that the Colorado Trail talked about and came to the Lost Creek Wilderness sign so I knew I was almost to the North Fork Trail.  There was a very strong stream running down the middle of the valley so I refilled my water bottles.  I had gone 8.9 miles in 5.5 hours.  No blisters.  A completely different hiking experience with these shoes instead of the boots.

Valley at end of hike

On the way back, I noticed the trail went a different way than I remembered when I came.  Nothing seemed familiar.  No marshy area and lots of switchbacks on the new trail.  Sure enough, I had taken a wrong turn the first time and had followed the old Colorado Trail.  I'm starting to realize that the Colorado Trail has been changed a lot over the years.

Valley at North Fork Trailhead

There were a lot of portions of Segment 4 where the trail was very rocky.  My return trip, being downhill most of the way, only took me 4.25 hours.  But the bottoms of my feet were very sore.  I decided to finish the rest of segment 4 next weekend.  But 17.8 miles isn't too bad.  No blisters!!!

Check out my trip on Spot Adventures

Colorado Trail East Segment 4

Share your Adventures with SpotAdventures

Two pieces of discouraging news

First was with my chiropractor.  I mentioned that I was feeling some numbness in my big toe again.  He asked me what I was doing new. I told him backpacking.  He suspected the backpacking was aggravating the disc between L5 and L4.  He told me to hike this weekend and see him on Tuesday night.  On the way home, I decided that I didn't want to go back to the back problems I had before the surgery.  I'm going to switch to day hikes.  It will probably be more fun any way.  I can still hike segments of the Colorado Trail. I can just hike halfway and turn back, spend the night at the trail head, go o the other end of the segment, hike to the middle and hike back.  That way, I can leave the tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, breakfast, half of my other meals and clothes I might wear to bed in the car.  I think I can reduce my pack weight by at least 5 pounds.  I'll also move more of the weight of my pack to my fanny pack since that will reduce how much is on my back.

Second was I got the test results back from my latest blood test.  On my last physical, my blood sugar tested at 103 (100 is normal).  They had me come back last month and get it tested again.  This time was 105.  That means I need to adopt the South Beach Phase 1 diet, which is basically meats, eggs, non-fat cheeses, vegetables and no more sugar.  I don't want diabetes so I better change my ways quick.

List of clothes I wear and bring

New Balance 955 GTX hiking shoes - 33.4 oz
Patagonia down jacket - 12 oz
Mountain Designs rain jacket - 9.7 oz
Socks ( 2 pair wool, 1 pair liner) - 8.75 oz
REI Synthetic sort sleeve shirt - 5.8 oz
WW Sportsman synthetic pants (zip off) - 8.15 oz
Duofold synthetic underwear - 2.45 oz
Hooded Poncho (alternative to umbrella) - 2.15 oz
Liner gloves - 1.95 oz
REI Synthetic baseball cap - 1.7 oz
Sunglasses in ziploc - 0.2 oz
TOTAL - 86.25 oz, 5.39 lbs

I have thermal underwear, fleece pants, a skull cap, rain pants and snow gloves which I can add if I need to go into snowy areas.

The reason I don't want to go without my bug mesh and floor

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, best kept secret in Colorado

Floor - I once used ONLY the fly (rain cover) when camping at Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  My kids, Julia and Johnny were in the other tent that had a floor and bug mesh.  It started raining like crazy.  Waking me up, the kids were yelling that water was underneath their tent.  I woke up and turned on my headlamp.  My mat and sleeping bag were completely surrounded by water.  Needless to say, we stayed the night in a motel in Gunnison, CO.

While backpacking, I tend to pitch my tent on the top of a rise or ridge (not the top of a ridge where I'm exposed to the wind, just sub-ridge on a hill) but I still don't like the idea of rain flowing into my tent.  Ray Jardine says it won't come in if I'm on a rise, but I'm still chicken.

Bug Mesh - I don't like mosquitos and I must have some psychological need to have some kind of barrier between me and the outside world.  Maybe it is 50 years of living in homes with screens on the windows.  Once I can get over this, I think I can go to a pop-up bug bivy and save myself 10 oz.

Found my favorite GoLite Day Pack

It only weighs 16oz.  I would like to see if I can fit everything into it.  It doesn't weigh that much less than my backpack but it has pockets on the outside making some things more convenient to get to.  I was able to get my revised list of gear inside of the bag and outside pockets with enough room for food and water.  This is what I'll be carrying on my next trip.  I might cut off the waist belt as well.

Camera on my iPad2 seems to take grainy pictures but here it is.

Reason I like backpacking

I like hiking. Once I get the blisters solved, it will be mostly fun for me. I also enjoy the views I see, the simplicity of life, and the beauty of the mountains and trees. But mostly, I enjoy the continuous process of hiking through the woods.

I don't really enjoy the process of setting up camp and sleeping outside. They just enable me to be able to hike.