Back Packing Great Grannies

My daughter, Kathy took her mom and Auntie Annie, with her beautiful, big black Weinar(sp) dog, Gracie Lou, on a three mile over night, back packing trip up into the Pintler mountain wilderness Sunday. She told us how proud she was of us, which made us proud, too.  After all we are great grammas on our first ever over nighter carrying close to 30 pounds each up into the mountains. I'll have to say it was one of the most physically challenging endeavors I have ever taken on, evidenced by the sore muscles that night and next couple of days.

The first mile of the trail was down hill, basically.  Which meant, of course that coming out the next day, that last mile was up hill. Not a problem on a day hike with just carrying your water bottle.  However, after hiking up the mountain one day, going on a morning hike of probably close to four miles the next day and hiking out three more miles the next day, with our full packs the next afternoon, the last mile was a killer.

The lake was just the right temperature for easing the tired muscles in my legs, which I took advantage of a couple of times during the day. Good thing we had the whole mountain and lake to ourselves by late afternoon on the first day so that I could strip out of my pants and ease in up to my tush. Aaah!

Kathy had the system down to a science, with exactly what we would need to take to survive without carrying an extra pound. She even had little packets of tp put together for each of us to use. So we would take our few sheets of tp with the trowel and head up the side of the mountain, hunting for a convenient rock where we could dig our hole when nature called.  You just hoped you didn't turn over a rock someone else had used.

Dinner was a wonderful shrimp scampi and yellow peppers over brown rice. With the heady feeling of the grandeur of the view, we didn't even miss the promised mug of white wine to go with it. All you wanted to do was drink in the splendor of Warren Peak and the clear, sparkling waters of Carp Lake. It was an awesome feeling that we three women were the only human beings in that whole mountain area that night.

In fact, as far as what we saw, we were the only living creatures on the mountain, besides the chipmunk sitting on a rock and a few grouse in the brush.  I'll have to admit, though, that the cave like space under the huge boulders, that I was watching while I sat hunched down doing my business, sure looked like a good place for a bear. But, I was sure Gracie Lou would alert me to anything bigger than a gnat moving around out there.

We talked about repeating a trip like this next year when Kathy turns the big 50. Then Anne suggested that maybe she would like a trip to a Florida beach instead for such an auspicious occasion. That gave cause for a pause. Mountains are incredible, but really now, would you really want to be reminded about all of your many aches and pains and how old you are?