Best Laid Plans II (See Best Laid Plans I)
We are making progress with our plans to hike northbound through the Ocala National Forest! We’ve recently completed our first backpack camping trip and spent two nights sleeping in our hammocks, and we have learned a lot.
First, the Ocala National Forest continues to surprise us in unexpected ways. It is simply beautiful. It is complexly beautiful. You can visit the same area many times and see it in a new way each time. Sometimes the scenery does not change, but all of a sudden you turn a corner or reach the top of a hill and voila — an entirely new landscape opens up.
No gourmet kitchen.
There’s been a major shift in my thinking about food. As a car camper, I am happy to lug half of my kitchen to the campsite and cook full meals (or bring frozen meals from home). That doesn’t work with a backpack!
Initially, the plan was that I’d dehydrate our meals so we could enjoy some really great food. The reality is that it takes so long to rehydrate some things that it’s just not practical. I’d rather have a hot bowl of commercially packaged pasta with alfredo sauce than a lukewarm home-cooked meal. So for dinners, we’ll be relying on inexpensive Knorr side dishes with chicken or tuna packets added in. For lunches, it might just be a big old spoonful of peanut butter and an orange (although we’ve discovered that fruit is really heavy if you’re carrying for more than one day!). The jury is still out on breakfast — I am still thinking oatmeal is a good choice but we’ll see how that shakes out.
For a hike that’s going to take less than two weeks, these changes will not be a terrible hardship. There is also at least one night where it will be easy to go into town and have a nice meal at a restaurant. We probably won’t lose significant weight on this hike.
I’m no spring chicken, and that changes things.
Fallen trees may require extra care to navigate. Can I safely go around or must I climb over? These are not questions I would have considered in my 40s; I would have simply clambered over the tree and not looked back. Now, though, the reality is that a fall could be — without too much exaggeration (read the statistics!) — life-threatening. Let’s face it . . . I’m still climbing over the tree 95% of the time, but I’m more thoughtful about it.
The biggest change is that I simply cannot tolerate heat like I used to. I first noticed this last year, and it seems to be worse this year. My water consumption has increased, and I slow down earlier. Electrolyte tablets are now part of my gear and I’m curious to see if these will help. Adding a third quart of water to my pack will be heavy, but a girl’s gotta stay hydrated, so I’ll make room for it. The heat should not present problems during our planned February hike, but there’s a lot of training to do between now and then.
More camp days
Our original itinerary had only one Zero Day, which we planned to spend at Salt Spring. Now we’re looking at three Zero Days, spent in various campgrounds, to allow us more recovery time. This will also make it possible to meet our various support people if we should need to pick up supplies or just enjoy a bag of ice. As cooler weather returns and we do a couple of two- or three-overnight hikes, we may decide we don’t need so many camp days. Who knows? We’ll find out and adjust our plans accordingly.
Hammocks are a possibility!
Last month we spent a weekend at Payne’s Prairie State Park. We slept in hammocks both nights and were surprised that we remained comfortable even through an impressive downpour. Neither of us invested in lightweight hammocks, so we are not likely to use them on our bakpacking tour, but it is nice to have the option. Hammock-sleeping is a great way to extend our camping season, as it is cooler in the summer and will allow us to camp into May and perhaps even June.
Treating for ticks REALLY makes a difference
In advance of our primitive camping trip to Buck Lake, I treated my pack, tent, and clothing with Sawyer Premium Insect Repellent. This stuff is terrific! I had no ticks when we returned home, in spite of sleeping on a campsite where we both observed ticks crawling on the trees and on our chairs. Since I started using Sawyer on my gear, I have found only one tick on my skin and it was not embedded. Deep Woods OFF is still my go to for on my skin, but it’s not as effective on its own as it is when combined with Sawyer on my gear.
We’ll keep making adjustments to our plan, andI’m growing more confident by the minute that we’ll enjoy a successful hike next year.