At long last I tried my hand at backpacking. I’ve been putting together gear slowly over a couple of years. I finally got out there a few days ago. My friend(Ryan) and I traveled up to this trail early Friday afternoon. We made a pit stop at founders brewery in Grand Rapids, MI for diner, naturally without meter change. Got that sorted got some good beer and food and got back on the road, stuffed by rush hour traffic for a little bit before we burst through and were back on the move again, passing a few small towns along the way.

We arrived, after passing the the trail head parking and turning around. We promptly shook out our legs from sitting int he car, threw our packs on our backs and were off! Our progress was a bit faster than I expected, we passed by a dirt road, a couple of single track trails, an abandoned campsite(It was up a hill and I was too lazy to investigate it further), we came up to a creek and tried out our water filtration system. And we continued to leg on until we started searching for a campsite.

We started searching out our camp site, took maybe a half hour to find an acceptable place to setup. It looked to be an overgrown logging route, but it was clear, so we pitched our tents and went to hang our food. Hanging our food using a heavier carabiner to weight the paracord. Though a little light it flew pretty well after leaving out hands. During this process it really was showing how badly we throw. Took us maybe another half hour to get the line up. After we ditched the first part of the tree we were trying to toss it over. This drained another half hour of time. It was getting pretty dark at this point, we went back to our tents and did some reading for a bit listening to the rustling of a critter outside the tent for a while. It was perfect for my book as the main character was camped out for the night and something was approaching in the dark.

Rolled out of the tent to look at the stars around ten pm, it was a glorious view. The sky was clear and the lights were shining brightly. Tried taking a couple of pictures why my go pro but forgot about setting the exposure before doing so, the only star like light seen I believe was the planet Jupiter. 

I put on my thick socks and went to bed. I woke up to being unable to feel my right foots pinky toe. It was numbed by being so cold. I did what I could to warm up but nothing seemed to do the trick for a while. I noticed my sleeping pad didn’t have any air in it, I blew it up again only to find it drain quickly and providing very little insulation from the ground. I moved around in the sleeping bag a bit to try to warm up and tried going back to sleep. Feeling my nose and mouth being just as cold on every breath. After some time I checked the weather, in the middle of the woods I had cell service, great! The outside temperature hit freezing, yuck! 32 degrees. My feet still freezing cold I got up to walk around a bit to get the blood flowing and warm up some. I checked on the food, went to the bathroom. I was feeling better now that I had my shoes on. I decided to then take them back into the tent and sleep with them on. As my feet finished warming I fell asleep, tucked down into my sleeping back where my face couldn’t be touched by the cold. 

I woke up in the morning not really refreshed from the nights episode of cold and fitfull sleep. I started at getting the camp ready for breakfast. Started the stove and got coffee going as fast as possible. My buddy Ry slowly making it out of his tent as well. I told him I couldn’t do another night like this and I wanted to turn back a day early. He was relieved as he didn’t either. We went about our breakfast and packed up and headed further in the trail before turning back, a couple hours in we found a creek a perfect place for a long rest and a large lunch before our journey back, about 6 miles. I had a MRE that I got from my brother for Christmas a couple years back because I was curious what he ate in while in the field. It was a neat contraption a chemical reaction from water heats up the meal in a bag, using very little water to do so. It was still a little chilly after this process so I tossed it on my cook kit and warmed it up the rest, it was surprisingly good, it was beef stew, it had cornbread, some desert bread, Reese’s pieces, flavored drink power, and an apple spread. 

Before we departed back to the car, we toasted with our alcohol and turned back. Our trek back was tiresome, the weight of the packs really started to wear on my the shoulders, my legs were getting warn as well. The end of the trail was near, it ended with a climb to the car that wiped the both of us at the end. With great success our first hike ended, about six miles in, six miles back. Didn’t take me long after to get some new socks and fix my popped sleeping pad in preparation for my next hike.