Slackpacking 

Thursday June 1, 2017

Bearded Woods Bunk and Dine 16.4 miles

Total mileage 476.5

I perticipated in my first slackpack today. A slackpack is basically just carrying water, food and rain gear. I left most of my gear at the Hostel since I would be returning there this evening. The hostel shuttled me to where I left off the trail yesterday and I continued my hike north, but they picked me up at the end of the day again. This way I could have a much easier hike without carrying 20+ lbs on my back. 
SOULFLOWER and I decided to do another slackpack tomorrow as well. The section of trail tomorrow is supposed to be really difficult from what we hear. The plan is to do 13 miles tomorrow, but will take us as long as the 16+ miles we did today because of the terrian. 

We had a good number of ups and downs today. I enjoyed the much lighter pack. I think SOULFLOWER did as well! She kept pace with me and at one point was ahead of me. The lighter pack made a huge difference for her. She is always behind me, but this morning she was leading and out of sight. 

It was really foggy when we left the hostel this morning to head back to the trail. There were a number of storms that rolled through during the night, but I slept through them. I was glad not to be in a tent! Soon after starting this morning the sun came out and it was beautiful. Later in the day it started to get warm. I stopped to pull my hair up into a ponytail and as I was looking up I noticed some dark clouds in the distance. A short time later I was walking in rain and HAIL! The hail only lasted a couple of minutes and it was small so you couldn’t really feel it. 

Some of you may wonder what one does when one has to go to the bathroom when our in the woods.

Well… 

The Guide book describes this as a thumb. 

But!?!?