Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
User avatar
Hagbard Celine
Posts: 140
Joined: March 20th, 2013, 7:34 am

Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by Hagbard Celine » April 17th, 2014, 12:32 pm

Finally made it out for a backpacking trip, it had to be a solo one because the boy has school til summer and so mom had to stay at home with him. I have done this hike several times before but with a te npound pack at most, this time it topped out at forty. Only saw four people in the thirty or so hours I spent out there.

Light rain all night but it stopped long enough in the morning for me to have breakfast and pack up which was nice but kicked back in once I was on my way. Oh yeah, the Chinook Creek bridge has been damaged and is sealed off with those pink rubbery straps. It looks undamaged so hopefully it will be a quick and easy fix. Here's a few shots...

Image

Image

Image

Image

And a self shot because I wanted to see how tired I looked...

Image

It was a great experience but I do look forward to having Christine there with me...I think I went over 20 hours without saying a word because there was no one to hear it.

Lastly, I found and packed out 7 9mm casings. Seems like I always find casings or shells on Washington hikes. :?

Also found 20 feet of chainlink fence! I didn't mess with it but it seemed to be a single piece folded into a four foot by four foot square with the middle of it blackened by fire so....camp grill? Who would hike in such a thing?! No pics because I came across it while scouting for kitchen and bathroom areas and didn't have camera. Did not pack this out.

First backpack done now to start prepping for the Wonderland Trail!! :twisted:
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
― Booker T. Washington

User avatar
jgreisel
Posts: 96
Joined: August 20th, 2012, 7:25 am
Location: Portland, OR
Contact:

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by jgreisel » April 17th, 2014, 2:10 pm

Congrats on your first overnighter Hagbard!! I have yet to do that trail, but it seems like a great one for your first backpacking trip(from what Ive heard from others).
Is that fist shot a flowering currant?
Its interesting doing a dayhike after after a backpack...I always find myself thinking "wow, my daypack is so light" ;)
See more pics on my blog: http://cjsjaunts.blogspot.com/

User avatar
Sean Thomas
Posts: 1647
Joined: February 25th, 2012, 11:33 pm

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by Sean Thomas » April 17th, 2014, 3:59 pm

Great TR and first backpack, HC! Thanks for always picking up the shell casings and making the hike better for everyone(including mother nature) :)


I think(but could be wrong) that the plant in the first pic is the flower of a salmonberry bush.


Have fun on the Wonderland, that sounds epic!!

User avatar
miah66
Posts: 2039
Joined: July 6th, 2009, 8:00 pm

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by miah66 » April 17th, 2014, 6:13 pm

Congrats! How was the food storage situation?
"The top...is not the top" - Mile...Mile & a Half

Instagram @pdxstrider

Lumpy
Posts: 809
Joined: October 8th, 2012, 9:26 am

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by Lumpy » April 17th, 2014, 6:44 pm

I'm very happy that your first trip was a good one, but 40 pounds? What did you bring with you?

Lighten that load and you'll be a happier camper.
"Why are you always chasing women?"
"I'll tell you as soon as I catch one!"

User avatar
Roy
Posts: 2824
Joined: January 25th, 2010, 6:35 pm

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by Roy » April 17th, 2014, 7:03 pm

Nice to here from you again funny thing about me the one thing that gives me the Hebe Jebes is sleeping in the tent in the deep wood. Alone its worse. Above the trees Ill sleep thru a hurricane.

Nice job and look foward to your wonderland tr.

Your photos are much improved :)
The downhill of the mind is harder than the uphill of the body. - Yuichiro Miura

User avatar
sprengers4jc
Posts: 1036
Joined: October 22nd, 2013, 11:35 am
Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by sprengers4jc » April 17th, 2014, 7:09 pm

Nice TR, Hagbard! Congrats on your first backpacking adventure :).

BTW, did you pick up that Osprey pack at the last Clackamas REI used gear sale? I was there, and I think I remember talking with you about the broken strap and whether or not it could be fixed :D. If it was you, I'd say you figured out a way to fix it :lol: .
'We travel not to escape life but for life to not escape us.'
-Unknown

User avatar
Hagbard Celine
Posts: 140
Joined: March 20th, 2013, 7:34 am

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by Hagbard Celine » April 18th, 2014, 10:45 am

Thanks everyone for the support and advice. I'll respond down the line here (as my first reply post seems to have disappeared?) Sean is right JG, it is a Salmonberry bush and Sean, I was just kidding about the Wonderland trail or at least my "prep" will be the next year or two of hiking/backing.

Miah: Since I was not in bear country I did the line across two trees as high as I could reach and clipped my bag to the middle. I had bought some water proof stuff sacks but was still pleasantly surprised that all my stuff was bone dry after a night of rain.

Lumpy: I brought a little too much food but other then that everything was necessary. I would love to having a lighter tent as I am packing REI's Taj 3 which we bought for all of us to use but until our boy is out of school (I work every weekend) then mom has to stay home too and no one to help me carry stuff. :|

Roy: I'm right there with you, once camp was set up and the sun was setting I realized that I was the only person for 15 to 20 miles in any direction and it was too late to back out now I was a little shaken. It will certainly take some getting use to. I had my rainfly on but that's something else I wonder about once it's warmer...I think being able to see and be seen from most or all of the tent will take getting use to as well.

Sprengers: Sadly no that wasn't me, if I would have gotten a deal on the bag I may have had enough left over for a second, lighter tent! :lol:
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
― Booker T. Washington

User avatar
woodswalker
Posts: 835
Joined: November 25th, 2012, 4:51 pm

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by woodswalker » April 18th, 2014, 11:18 am

Hi, I actually was the one who bought the broken strap Osprey at the REI garage sale. :D Score! They had the strap I needed in the store and the clerk actually put it together for me. I'm still trying to see if I can go back to shoulder packs so I didn't wan't to invest much. Great report and congrats on the backpacking trip! Tons of thanks for picking up the casings too!
Woodswalker

User avatar
Grannyhiker
Posts: 4598
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Gateway to the Columbia Gorge

Re: Siouxon Creek for my first backpacking experience

Post by Grannyhiker » April 18th, 2014, 12:32 pm

When we start out backpacking, it is natural to pack our fears and take backups of backups of backups. With a little more confidence, we learn not to take so much. Well, most of the time. On my last trip (and I've been backpacking for 72 years now) I still took too much food! I didn't think it was possible to overestimate the amount my teenage grandson would eat, but I did--by almost double! :oops:

You might want to compare your gear list to the "27 lb., 7-day gear list" in the left hand column on the "Lightweight Backpacker" site: http://www.backpacking.net It is designed for 3-season backpacking in the Cascades. I used that list as my model ten years ago, after realizing that the only way I could continue backpacking was to have a much lighter pack. I didn't ncessarily use the same models or brands, but tried to choose gear whose weight was comparable to the weights of individual items on that list. Some of my items (sleeping pad!) are much heavier, but I saved that excess weight on other items. It wasn't hard to get down to a 15 lb. base weight (everything except the variable amounts of food, water, fuel) which is the base weight of the above-cited gear list. It was wonderful to get a weekend pack (total pack weight) down from 40 lbs. to 18 lbs., while still including everything this old lady needs for comfort and safety.

There are a number of other articles on that same page suggesting ways to do this. One of the simplest is to mark each gear item with a small piece of masking tape, which you remove the first time you actually use that piece of gear. Anything that still has the tape when you get home is a candidate for leaving home on the next trip. (Notice I said "candidate"; if it doesn't rain during a trip that doesn't mean you leave the rain gear home next time.) One thing I stopped doing, though, was cutting off labels. All the labels together didn't even register on my postage scale (to the nearest 0.1 oz.), and without the labels I lost important info like laundering instructions. Ditto cutting off the toothbrush handle; restorative dentistry is just too expensive to justify the 0.1 oz. weight saving!

It's of course possible to get quite a bit lighter than that (my base weight is now 11.5 lbs.), but that tends to involve sacrifices of comfort (requiring corresponding increases in skills) and especially a lot of $$$ for cuben fiber and similar gear. It's not really necessary to do that! I've done it, didn't realize as much weight savings as I thought I would, and scaled back my ambitions a bit.
Last edited by Grannyhiker on April 18th, 2014, 1:59 pm, edited 5 times in total.

Post Reply