my first backpacking trip ever
This is my first backpacking trip of my life. I decided to make in only one night so as to learn and make mistakes in a safe manner. The plan was to hike up to the Ptarmigan tunnel, down to Elizabeth Lake and then all the way in to Helen Lake, 14 miles each way. That is a lot of miles with a backpack.
I started the hike behind the Swiftcurrent Motel parking lot, walking behind two day hiker girls. Not a quarter of a mile in the trail that we ran into this fellow.
He initially was on the right side of the trail, so we bushwacked left of the trail. Then he decided to cross to the left, so we aborted that path and then went right of the trail.
I was following the girls in order to pace myself, I was not sure if with the weight of the pack I was going slow or fast but at least I felt comfortable.
The hike felt very comfortable and the pack was well adjusted to me. Even hiking up the switchbacks to the tunnel I felt fine. The view from the top is always great on a sunny day.
And, of course, the view from the other side of the tunnel is never disappointing:
So six miles done and eight miles to go, but the remaining eight miles are downhill or level ground. For a while I had Elizabeth Lake to my left and that is a long lake; eventually I would get a peek of Helen Lake in the distance. I was hiking towards the foot of Elizabeth Lake and Helen Lake is past the head of Elizabeth. Just past the intersection with Redgap Pass there is a bridge that will take me to Elizabeth Lake.
I hiked past a large campsite at Elizabeth Lake and from then on you are mostly hiking next to the lake shore. This video shows the path that I took to get down from the tunnel.
Then I saw my second moose of the day. At some point the trail gets away from the shore, you climb a bit and when climbing down this fellow showed up. I kept hiking until the trail took me next to him, I stayed put until he decided to go back into the forest. You don’t mess with moose.
Eventually I reached the head of the lake and from there it was a bit more than 2 miles in a heavily overgrown trail. I was extremely noisy at this point since the only human traffic was going to be the people leaving camp and me. I think I was about a half a mile from camp when I heard a sound to my left (at this point I was tired), I looked and there was a moose eating 20 yards from me …………. all I could do was say ‘sorry’ to the moose and keep going.
The lake was great !!! Some videos:
Below is the drainage from the lake ……………
My first even camping experience:
Upon hanging the food (first thing to do!!!) and raising the tent, I filtered fresh cold water from the lake. The Sawyer filter worked great, love it so much that now I bring it to day hikes instead of a second bottle of water.
And this is why I hiked one night, to learn from mistakes …… I didn’t bring with me a second way to start a fire for the stove (matches or bic lighter) and when I started to light the stove it did not, so I have to eat the mri food cold. Not a big deal, but something warm on the stomach helps.
Getting into the small bivy tent was ok, the mat worked. Due to weight I had the small version of the mat so I used the backpack to cushion my feet. The space inside the bivy was tight, so next time I am getting a tent.
With the noise of a nearby falls I went to sleep and prepared an alarm for 11pm to get up and see the night sky, I have never seen the milky way. I was getting cold so I put in a hoodie that I brought with me. Moving inside the bivy to adjust the sleeping bag was uncomfortable. I woke up at 11 before the alarm and removed the rain tarp to look outside and see if there were no clouds. I did see a couple of stars, nothing special, so I got out of the tent since the mesh was blocking light. And then I saw the Milky Way …………. WOAOOOO !!!! What an experience. I did not take my dslr camera so you will notice that I have no pics of this trip (next time I will take it).
I woke up the next day to this ………
I decided to leave camp early, I had 14 miles ahead of me and this time I was going uphill. What a difference it makes being at the pit toilet first thing in the morning as opposed to the afternoon when all the billions of flies had a chance to get up, UGH !!!
I managed to get nice videos of Elizabeth Lake while fighting an army of flies.
Leaving Elizabeth Lake after 4 miles of hiking it then becomes elevation. I was not happy how the pack felt on my body that day, but I was still on a wooded area. When I left the woods, the sun was in full force and the hike towards the Ptarmigan Tunnel was hard; I think it was mostly mental since I could see how far it was. But I made it to the tunnel, went down to Ptarmigan Lake and got fresh cold water.
All in all a great time I had and now I think I am prepared for a proper multi-day backpacking trip.