It's a start like any other day. But we know it isn't any other day. Steve, David, and I are debating about the best evacuation procedure. The things we can agree on are that Molly needs to see a doctor today, and that we need to get to the trail head to get the cars. The debate is on whether we take the trail, the road, split the group. Molly's major contribution is her commentary from the night before--"That was dumb."
"It would be stupid not to finish the trail when we're this close." David hates cutting trips short, and we only have four and a half miles to go. According to the map, it's an 800 foot descent over the last mile of trail. There's no way I'm going to be comfortable with Molly going down that. So I voiced my concern. David wants to push on and evaluate later.
In my mind, I set a deadline that when we reach the road, if David still wants to take Molly down the trail, I'm relieving him of duty and ordering him down the road. It isn't long before he is convinced that the best option is to send the boys ahead to the parking lot (with Steve and I), and he and Molly will take the road.
At the first sign of cell phone coverage, we call the outfitter. They agree to get the cars to us by 11:00. We make it to the parking lot at 10:30. No cars. Molly and David show up at 11:00. No cars. Not a big deal. I feel better now that I see the gleam back in Molly's eye.
11:30--no cars. I'm a little annoyed
12:00--no cars. I'm angry. But at least I've had a chance to wash some clothes and get them dry enough to wear. Now I won't stink for the ride home.
We manage to catch a park ranger. He gets a hold of the outfitter. Due to a miscommunication on our part, the cars were dropped at a different parking lot. Crap! Now I can't be angry at anyone! But it's a simple fix, and we're in the cars by 1:00 PM. Having been unable to reach a physician to get advice on whether to see a doctor nearby or wait until Cleveland, and based on how well Molly is feeling, we load up the cars and head home.
One more thing that I wasn't prepared for: David pulled me aside to tell me that he appreciated my being there. Apparently, having me and Steve there helped put him at ease. Now, David and Steve are my mentors. They are the two of the people in Cleveland I look up to the most. It's a surreal experience to have one of your mentors tell you that it's easier for him to deal with things when you're around. Unlike yesterday, perhaps this is a sign of progress.
Molly survived the ordeal. She did break her nose, but no reconstruction is necessary. The cut on her head is healing nicely. And as Danny so aptly put it, "Molly, you don't look so bad!" He said it as he patted her directly over the wound.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
"My mom encourages me to come because I'm an antisocial little bastard"
Packing up went quicker than expected as the boys demonstrated a greater proficiency for trail life. The adults tend to take their time since we're usually done long before the boys anyway. Today, they take us by surprise and finish more than 10 minutes before the adults are ready.
While waiting, I pulled the boys together and told them stories from when I was a scout and backpacking in Maine. I focused on a couple stories about a boy who was a little overly sheltered by his mother and had a hard time adjusting to trail life. I commented to them that his mom needed to push him out the door a little more. John1 immediately added to quote of the day, "My mom encourages me to come because I'm an antisocial little bastard!
I fully expect it's going to be a good day.
Not a lot of memorable activity happens on the trail, however. And then, shortly after lunch, we start to get a little rain fall. At the first sign of rain on the trail, it's a good idea to stop and put a pack cover over your pack--they are fitted to go over the pack in a way that leaves the straps exposed so you can still wear it. As soon as we got the pack covers on, it became apparent that we would want to stop and put up our rain flies and take cover from the storm. It's better to get to camp late and dry than early and wet. It only takes a couple minutes to get the flies up, and we rest under them. The boys fly is supported by a couple ropes and John1 (being the tallest in the group) standing in the center to provide some pitch to the plastic.
The storm gets pretty heavy for about 20 minutes before tapering off. We wait an extra five to be sure, but then take down the flies and resume the walk. We take an easy pace today and reach the campsite around 2:30. We have just enough time to get a fire going to smoke out the mosquitoes, and to get our rain fly up before it start to rain again. The fire dies, and most of us take cover in our tents.
The rain clears about about 4:15, at which point the party starts on filtering water. It isn't much longer before we find out just how wrong I was about today being a good day. The boys, David, and Molly finish pumping water up at the upper camp site (the tent sites were separated by a small hill and a stream), and Steve and I are tending the fire in the lower site.
SLIP, THUD, SPLASH.
"David!" Molly's voice.
"That didn't sound good," I tell Steve. I get up to walk up the hill and see what's happening. I can't see Molly, but I can see David hurrying down the hill. It registers that Molly must have slipped. David reaches her first and is feeling her head and back when I get up the hill enough to see into the stream bed. He's now helping her up, and I see why she called for help. Her nose is bleeding, her glasses are gone, and there is a lot of blood in her eye.
Oh no, she damaged her eye I think to myself. I evaluate that David has her properly supported, and he's helping her up the bank and to our site where she can sit for treatment. I turn and go straight for the first aid kit. David seems so calm! What I don't know is that Molly has told him her eye is fine--it's the gash in her forehead that's bleeding into her eye.
While David is helping Molly sit, I'm spreading out the first aid kit, and Steve is getting out gloves. The Boy Scouts of America requires at least one leader in each group to have Wilderness First Aid training for trips like these. Molly, Steve, David, and I are all trained; and it's a huge relief today. David and Steve take point on treatment, and discuss the options. I pull things out of the kit as they talk about them, making them available and finding other supplies to help, as well as disposing of garbage in the fire.
After what seems like 30 minutes (but was probably only 10), the bleeding is under control. The nose is clearly broken.
5:30 PM, we're four and a half miles away from the parking lot, and our cars aren't supposed to be delivered by the outfitter until tomorrow. These are the conditions under which we have to decide whether to evacuate or to wait until tomorrow to move. It's decided that we'll observe Molly for a few hours. If no signs of concussion develop, we'll spend the night. Otherwise, we make for a road to call 911.
Nothing develops.
Moments like these cause a lot of self-reflection. After everything was under control, I walked up the trail to get firewood, but along the way, the adrenaline rush came down and I had to stop for a minute to regain my composure and not break into tears. Silly, I know. I was fine, and I had no reason to be crying. Just one of those things that develops when the chemicals in the brain readjust, I guess. But it was clear to me in that moment that I'm not ready to be the leader in charge at these events. I've thought I could be for a while, but clearly I'm not. I don't think for a second that I could have kept my wits about me as well as David and Steve had. If forced to, I could get by, but not with nearly as good of a result as we had tonight. I need more time.
There was one thing that shook me more than anything else about the event. Molly is one of those people who always has a gleam in her eye. Even when she's criticizing something, she gleams. It's the sign of a truly happy individual. Tonight, the gleam is gone, and I just couldn't seem to process that. I hope I never see a gleam like that disappear again.
While waiting, I pulled the boys together and told them stories from when I was a scout and backpacking in Maine. I focused on a couple stories about a boy who was a little overly sheltered by his mother and had a hard time adjusting to trail life. I commented to them that his mom needed to push him out the door a little more. John1 immediately added to quote of the day, "My mom encourages me to come because I'm an antisocial little bastard!
I fully expect it's going to be a good day.
Not a lot of memorable activity happens on the trail, however. And then, shortly after lunch, we start to get a little rain fall. At the first sign of rain on the trail, it's a good idea to stop and put a pack cover over your pack--they are fitted to go over the pack in a way that leaves the straps exposed so you can still wear it. As soon as we got the pack covers on, it became apparent that we would want to stop and put up our rain flies and take cover from the storm. It's better to get to camp late and dry than early and wet. It only takes a couple minutes to get the flies up, and we rest under them. The boys fly is supported by a couple ropes and John1 (being the tallest in the group) standing in the center to provide some pitch to the plastic.
The storm gets pretty heavy for about 20 minutes before tapering off. We wait an extra five to be sure, but then take down the flies and resume the walk. We take an easy pace today and reach the campsite around 2:30. We have just enough time to get a fire going to smoke out the mosquitoes, and to get our rain fly up before it start to rain again. The fire dies, and most of us take cover in our tents.
The rain clears about about 4:15, at which point the party starts on filtering water. It isn't much longer before we find out just how wrong I was about today being a good day. The boys, David, and Molly finish pumping water up at the upper camp site (the tent sites were separated by a small hill and a stream), and Steve and I are tending the fire in the lower site.
SLIP, THUD, SPLASH.
"David!" Molly's voice.
"That didn't sound good," I tell Steve. I get up to walk up the hill and see what's happening. I can't see Molly, but I can see David hurrying down the hill. It registers that Molly must have slipped. David reaches her first and is feeling her head and back when I get up the hill enough to see into the stream bed. He's now helping her up, and I see why she called for help. Her nose is bleeding, her glasses are gone, and there is a lot of blood in her eye.
Oh no, she damaged her eye I think to myself. I evaluate that David has her properly supported, and he's helping her up the bank and to our site where she can sit for treatment. I turn and go straight for the first aid kit. David seems so calm! What I don't know is that Molly has told him her eye is fine--it's the gash in her forehead that's bleeding into her eye.
While David is helping Molly sit, I'm spreading out the first aid kit, and Steve is getting out gloves. The Boy Scouts of America requires at least one leader in each group to have Wilderness First Aid training for trips like these. Molly, Steve, David, and I are all trained; and it's a huge relief today. David and Steve take point on treatment, and discuss the options. I pull things out of the kit as they talk about them, making them available and finding other supplies to help, as well as disposing of garbage in the fire.
After what seems like 30 minutes (but was probably only 10), the bleeding is under control. The nose is clearly broken.
5:30 PM, we're four and a half miles away from the parking lot, and our cars aren't supposed to be delivered by the outfitter until tomorrow. These are the conditions under which we have to decide whether to evacuate or to wait until tomorrow to move. It's decided that we'll observe Molly for a few hours. If no signs of concussion develop, we'll spend the night. Otherwise, we make for a road to call 911.
Nothing develops.
Moments like these cause a lot of self-reflection. After everything was under control, I walked up the trail to get firewood, but along the way, the adrenaline rush came down and I had to stop for a minute to regain my composure and not break into tears. Silly, I know. I was fine, and I had no reason to be crying. Just one of those things that develops when the chemicals in the brain readjust, I guess. But it was clear to me in that moment that I'm not ready to be the leader in charge at these events. I've thought I could be for a while, but clearly I'm not. I don't think for a second that I could have kept my wits about me as well as David and Steve had. If forced to, I could get by, but not with nearly as good of a result as we had tonight. I need more time.
There was one thing that shook me more than anything else about the event. Molly is one of those people who always has a gleam in her eye. Even when she's criticizing something, she gleams. It's the sign of a truly happy individual. Tonight, the gleam is gone, and I just couldn't seem to process that. I hope I never see a gleam like that disappear again.
"I had a snack"
"Did you see the lightning storm last night?"
It started around 1:00 AM. Normally, as a safety precaution, we track the time between lightning sightings and thunder soundings. Tonight, there was no hope of doing so. The flashes were so frequent that we would see multiple flashes before thunder started. It was a constant light show with an accompanying symphony. The raw beauty and power of nature was stunning. At least until I fell asleep again.
The rain had stopped by the time we woke up. More than likely, the heat of the day was enough solar energy to prevent the moisture from solidifying and falling, but at night fall, the cool air was unable to contain the evaporated water any longer. We anticipated another clear day, although we took caution anyway.
We have a nearly constant uphill climb to start the day. We also anticipate that today will be the hardest hiking day of the trip (we were right). We get to see 4 more vistas on the way to the Bradley Wales picnic area where we stop for lunch. There are some exciting features at the picnic area. First, there's an established latrine--stocked with toilet paper. This means no digging, and that we can extend our precious supply of toilet paper. If not for this luxury, some of us may have run out.
The second luxury of the picnic area was a water pump with potable water. No need to filter our water here. We drank as much water as we cared to and refilled quite easily before we left. We also had a fair amount of fun using the hand pump to bring water up a couple hundred feet.
David illustrated his dumpster diving skills at the picnic area as well. He noticed a tent in the trash can--presumably not a very good one. What caught his eye were the cords on the tent. They were perfectly good cords with reflective pieces of sheathing. So he did what any self-respecting outdoorsman would do--took the rope and left the tent in the trash. The ropes would serve us well in the coming days as we set up rain flies.
After lunch, it was another 3 miles to our campsite. With about a mile left, my right hip started to throb with pain, and I had to slow my pace considerably. Before making the final push, we took a significant break, in which we obtained the quote for the day.
I made some kind of fictitious comment to one of the boys and they almost fell for it. I then told them that "gullible" was written in the clouds. At this point, Will got excited and told a story (Will could be the poster child for ADHD).
"I once told my brother that 'gullible' was the 2,761st word in the dictionary. Funny thing is that I was right!"
"Will, how do you know you were right. Did you check his counting?"
"No, I watched him count the words in the dictionary?"
"You did not! How do you focus long enough to watch your brother count to 2,761?"
"I had a snack."
After finally reaching the campsite, we looked around. It was another campsite scarce on water and heavy on mosquitoes. Danny looked at the map and decided that it'd be better to hike up a quarter mile to the next vista and camp there. The only caveat was that we'd have to come back to get water and carry the water to the campsite. Even with the extra work for water, it was a great decision.
From the vista, the only man-made object we could see was the bike trail through the gorge. A couple of us laid out our ground pads, laid down on the vista, and just enjoyed the relaxing view, perhaps while reading a book. The mosquitoes were light and the setting was perfect. Falling asleep was augmented with the satisfying feeling of being more than half a day ahead of schedule.
It started around 1:00 AM. Normally, as a safety precaution, we track the time between lightning sightings and thunder soundings. Tonight, there was no hope of doing so. The flashes were so frequent that we would see multiple flashes before thunder started. It was a constant light show with an accompanying symphony. The raw beauty and power of nature was stunning. At least until I fell asleep again.
The rain had stopped by the time we woke up. More than likely, the heat of the day was enough solar energy to prevent the moisture from solidifying and falling, but at night fall, the cool air was unable to contain the evaporated water any longer. We anticipated another clear day, although we took caution anyway.
We have a nearly constant uphill climb to start the day. We also anticipate that today will be the hardest hiking day of the trip (we were right). We get to see 4 more vistas on the way to the Bradley Wales picnic area where we stop for lunch. There are some exciting features at the picnic area. First, there's an established latrine--stocked with toilet paper. This means no digging, and that we can extend our precious supply of toilet paper. If not for this luxury, some of us may have run out.
The second luxury of the picnic area was a water pump with potable water. No need to filter our water here. We drank as much water as we cared to and refilled quite easily before we left. We also had a fair amount of fun using the hand pump to bring water up a couple hundred feet.
David illustrated his dumpster diving skills at the picnic area as well. He noticed a tent in the trash can--presumably not a very good one. What caught his eye were the cords on the tent. They were perfectly good cords with reflective pieces of sheathing. So he did what any self-respecting outdoorsman would do--took the rope and left the tent in the trash. The ropes would serve us well in the coming days as we set up rain flies.
After lunch, it was another 3 miles to our campsite. With about a mile left, my right hip started to throb with pain, and I had to slow my pace considerably. Before making the final push, we took a significant break, in which we obtained the quote for the day.
I made some kind of fictitious comment to one of the boys and they almost fell for it. I then told them that "gullible" was written in the clouds. At this point, Will got excited and told a story (Will could be the poster child for ADHD).
"I once told my brother that 'gullible' was the 2,761st word in the dictionary. Funny thing is that I was right!"
"Will, how do you know you were right. Did you check his counting?"
"No, I watched him count the words in the dictionary?"
"You did not! How do you focus long enough to watch your brother count to 2,761?"
"I had a snack."
After finally reaching the campsite, we looked around. It was another campsite scarce on water and heavy on mosquitoes. Danny looked at the map and decided that it'd be better to hike up a quarter mile to the next vista and camp there. The only caveat was that we'd have to come back to get water and carry the water to the campsite. Even with the extra work for water, it was a great decision.
From the vista, the only man-made object we could see was the bike trail through the gorge. A couple of us laid out our ground pads, laid down on the vista, and just enjoyed the relaxing view, perhaps while reading a book. The mosquitoes were light and the setting was perfect. Falling asleep was augmented with the satisfying feeling of being more than half a day ahead of schedule.
"We should have a Twilight marathon after this trip....Wait, no--that sounds awful!"
Tuseday morning, 3:30 AM and I need to relieve myself. This always poses a dilemma when living on the trail. These things need to be done a few hundred feet away from water sources, and preferably a few hundred feet from camp. Consequently, middle of the night trips require putting on clothes, boots, and wandering sleepily through the brush to find a suitable location. Today, it's complicated even more by the fact that it's raining. If I go, I have to prevent water from getting into the tent and stay dry so I don't shiver the rest of the morning. I decide to wait.
Fortunately, the rain has stopped by the time we get up at 6:00. Decisions are much easier to make when you're getting up anyway.
We come upon our first major vistas today. Looking down over the gorge is an incredible experience. The only evidence of humans is a bike trail at the bottom of the canyon, a farm across the canyon, and a cell phone tower. No roads. No highways. No cars. And nothing between us and the bottom but an 800 foot drop.
At one of these vistas, we managed to get cell phone reception. It would be the first of two times we could get messages out to the rest of the world. Steve took the opportunity to send a text to his wife: "Happy 30th Anniversary." Thanks, Denise, for letting us borrow Steve.
Our plan today was to walk about 5 miles. At the last vista before our scheduled campsite, Danny looked at the map and decided that we were making good enough time to justify going two more miles. They boys agreed to it, and we pressed on. It was an ingenious decision, too. The scheduled campsite was short on water, heavy on mosquitoes, and light on tenting space. The campsite Danny took us to was heavy with water, had plenty of tent space, but still had a lot of mosquitoes.
We left the boys to fend for themselves. The adults took a few minutes to bath out of the stream and do some laundry. The water was cold, refreshing, and it was nice to get some clean smelling clothes. We then worked on pumping water and starting a fire to smoke out the bugs.
There was more Twilight discussion at some point in the day. The themes that get established early in the week tend to recur often throughout the week. I suggested that we should do a Twilight marathon on Saturday night after we got home. The idea was met with instant praise--for about three seconds. Then it occurred to us that we really had no interest in such a thing. We all very suddenly had other plans.
Fortunately, the rain has stopped by the time we get up at 6:00. Decisions are much easier to make when you're getting up anyway.
We come upon our first major vistas today. Looking down over the gorge is an incredible experience. The only evidence of humans is a bike trail at the bottom of the canyon, a farm across the canyon, and a cell phone tower. No roads. No highways. No cars. And nothing between us and the bottom but an 800 foot drop.
At one of these vistas, we managed to get cell phone reception. It would be the first of two times we could get messages out to the rest of the world. Steve took the opportunity to send a text to his wife: "Happy 30th Anniversary." Thanks, Denise, for letting us borrow Steve.
Our plan today was to walk about 5 miles. At the last vista before our scheduled campsite, Danny looked at the map and decided that we were making good enough time to justify going two more miles. They boys agreed to it, and we pressed on. It was an ingenious decision, too. The scheduled campsite was short on water, heavy on mosquitoes, and light on tenting space. The campsite Danny took us to was heavy with water, had plenty of tent space, but still had a lot of mosquitoes.
We left the boys to fend for themselves. The adults took a few minutes to bath out of the stream and do some laundry. The water was cold, refreshing, and it was nice to get some clean smelling clothes. We then worked on pumping water and starting a fire to smoke out the bugs.
There was more Twilight discussion at some point in the day. The themes that get established early in the week tend to recur often throughout the week. I suggested that we should do a Twilight marathon on Saturday night after we got home. The idea was met with instant praise--for about three seconds. Then it occurred to us that we really had no interest in such a thing. We all very suddenly had other plans.
Friday, June 24, 2011
"Natalie Portman Makes Any Movie Better"
(Please forgive the lack of pictures. I'll embed some when they get uploaded to my troop's website)
This was the conclusion we reached within the first two miles of our trip. It doesn't matter if the role is beneath her, or if the movie is absolutely awful. The mere presence of Natalie makes the movie better. We would recall this conclusion several times throughout the week, though I don't think any of us could give any explanation for why. In fact, the following exchange is an important part of the trip:
It was a little after 2:00 PM on Sunday when we drove past Pine Creek Outfitters. I knew we'd missed it when Steve said, "Shit! Er, dammit! Er...sorry boys!" A quick course correction and we pulled into the outfitters parking lot and started to unload the vans. We hadn't had the chance to inspect the boys packs yet, and so we spent some time repacking so that we could make room to distribute the food. Not a small task--at two pounds of food per person per day, we had roughly 120 pounds of food to distribute over nine people. Food distribution was further complicated by the fact that only one of the five boys in our crew had any significant backpacking experience. Four the other four, this would be a first time event.
Our biggest challenge was getting Austin's pack to the right weight. Ideally, a pack weighs no more than a quarter to a third of the person's body weight. Austin (the youngest in our group) tips the scales at a robust 80 pounds. If you look at the Pack Weights table, you'll see we had a hard time getting his pack weight down the first day.
We left from the outfitter at about 4:00 PM and arrived at the campsite around 5:30 PM. The start was kind of slow as we got accustomed to the packs, the heat, and pacing each other. The start of the trail is also primarily uphill. Naturally, that's a little more difficult. It didn't take long for the adults to set up their tents. They boys had a little more trouble though. We eventually figured out that their problems were a product of Danny attempting to set up the two man tent with the poles from the three man tent. The tent looked more like a hammock. We also found that, under that much tension, we had to be careful when removing the poles. When it was done haphazardly, the pole whipped back and nearly took John1's head off. Well, okay. It hit him in the chest and he sputtered and mumbled something. But we decided to be careful anyway.
One of the great challenges of wilderness backpacking is food planning. You need to plan enough food to provide enough calories for the trip, but without many leftovers. There are no garbage cans in the wilderness, you see, and so any uneaten food gets put in a bag and carried out in your pack. As you can imagine, we don't like to keep uneaten, rotting food festering in our packs for a week. "Why not just dump it in the woods?" you ask. Quite simply, doing so encourages animals to develop a dependency on human trash, which isn't good for the animals. Thus, any left over food gets passed around the group until it is completely eaten.
Having a person like John1 is really handy on such a trip. John1 weighs about light 240 pounds and we've never had enough food for him on any camping trip. Between him, myself, and Will, we managed to eat all of dinner and finish off the chocolate and butterscotch puddings. Don't fool yourself. Eating pudding is difficult work--the palate begins to resist after a while.
Distance hiked: 1.97 miles
Change in Elevation (from lowest to highest): 350 ft
Steps: 9,350
This was the conclusion we reached within the first two miles of our trip. It doesn't matter if the role is beneath her, or if the movie is absolutely awful. The mere presence of Natalie makes the movie better. We would recall this conclusion several times throughout the week, though I don't think any of us could give any explanation for why. In fact, the following exchange is an important part of the trip:
Boys [okay, and me (on Sunday)]: "Natalie Portman makes any movie better."
...
Steve (on Friday): "You guys have been talking about Natalie Portman all week. But can any of you name her filmography?"
Boys [okay, and me]: "Uhhhhh....."
It was a little after 2:00 PM on Sunday when we drove past Pine Creek Outfitters. I knew we'd missed it when Steve said, "Shit! Er, dammit! Er...sorry boys!" A quick course correction and we pulled into the outfitters parking lot and started to unload the vans. We hadn't had the chance to inspect the boys packs yet, and so we spent some time repacking so that we could make room to distribute the food. Not a small task--at two pounds of food per person per day, we had roughly 120 pounds of food to distribute over nine people. Food distribution was further complicated by the fact that only one of the five boys in our crew had any significant backpacking experience. Four the other four, this would be a first time event.
Our biggest challenge was getting Austin's pack to the right weight. Ideally, a pack weighs no more than a quarter to a third of the person's body weight. Austin (the youngest in our group) tips the scales at a robust 80 pounds. If you look at the Pack Weights table, you'll see we had a hard time getting his pack weight down the first day.
We left from the outfitter at about 4:00 PM and arrived at the campsite around 5:30 PM. The start was kind of slow as we got accustomed to the packs, the heat, and pacing each other. The start of the trail is also primarily uphill. Naturally, that's a little more difficult. It didn't take long for the adults to set up their tents. They boys had a little more trouble though. We eventually figured out that their problems were a product of Danny attempting to set up the two man tent with the poles from the three man tent. The tent looked more like a hammock. We also found that, under that much tension, we had to be careful when removing the poles. When it was done haphazardly, the pole whipped back and nearly took John1's head off. Well, okay. It hit him in the chest and he sputtered and mumbled something. But we decided to be careful anyway.
One of the great challenges of wilderness backpacking is food planning. You need to plan enough food to provide enough calories for the trip, but without many leftovers. There are no garbage cans in the wilderness, you see, and so any uneaten food gets put in a bag and carried out in your pack. As you can imagine, we don't like to keep uneaten, rotting food festering in our packs for a week. "Why not just dump it in the woods?" you ask. Quite simply, doing so encourages animals to develop a dependency on human trash, which isn't good for the animals. Thus, any left over food gets passed around the group until it is completely eaten.
Having a person like John1 is really handy on such a trip. John1 weighs about light 240 pounds and we've never had enough food for him on any camping trip. Between him, myself, and Will, we managed to eat all of dinner and finish off the chocolate and butterscotch puddings. Don't fool yourself. Eating pudding is difficult work--the palate begins to resist after a while.
Distance hiked: 1.97 miles
Change in Elevation (from lowest to highest): 350 ft
Steps: 9,350
"Danny won't make the banana cream pudding. It's like he's afraid it's made of Satan or something"
Monday starts at 7:00 AM. Danny wakes up the boys and the adults wander out of their tents packing their gear. All of the meals on this trip require that water be boiled. For dinners, the boiling water is added to pouches of freeze dried food. For breakfast, the boys add it to packets of oatmeal, and the adults add it to bowls of Kashi. Hot chocolate and coffee (for adults) are available as desired.
After breakfast, the bags are packed again. Having dropped some weight from the meals we've eaten, we redistribute the weight in hopes of getting closer to the target pack weights. We're a lot closer this time.
Before leaving, we take a trip to a "50 foot waterfall" that lies "200 yards downstream." First, I'm certain it was more than 200 yards. Second, the waterfall sure looked like more than 50 feet tall. It was quite impressive. After a few pictures, we head back to camp where Molly, David, and Steve are waiting. As I come into camp, I tell Molly that we had an accident with her camera. "The boys were throwing rocks over the edge, and we thought it'd be fun to document the path of a rock. So we tied the camera to a rock, and I went to the bottom of the waterfall. Will threw the rock over, and I was supposed to catch it. Unfortunately, it was an incomplete pass." She didn't believe the story for some reason.
Very early in today's walk, we had our first encounter with mountain laurel. Mountain laurel is a pretty, small white flower and it grows in abundance at Pine Creek. In abundance. There were places on the trail where it was mountain laurel as far as you could see. We happened to be hiking during the peak of the bloom. As we entered this first gathering of the flower, the sun shone down on it and the forest shone in a heavenly shade of white. Very beautiful.
For the boys, the highlight of the day was John and Will getting into an enormous discussion of the Twilight series. Seeing it in print won't do the moment justice, but this is John's summary of the Twilight movie:
We walked into camp at the bottom of Four Mile Run, Right Branch. The campsite was small, and it was difficult to fit all of the tents into the space there, but we managed to squeeze them in with enough clearance to start a small fire to clear the bugs. The boys enjoyed the the small waterfall at the stream, which also provided very clear water for pumping. On a trip like this, we carry our own water filtration pumps because clean water isn't available along the trail. The filters take out sediments and bacteria, then push the water through charcoal. In some places, after all of this is done, the water has a yellowish tint caused by absorption of tannin from the plants in the stream bed. The beautiful thing about running water in small streams is that it hasn't had time to absorb the tannin and comes out very clear and tastes oh-so-good. That water from this campsite may have been the best we had all week.
The boys were quick to make dinner (for which we were proud) but soon had an argument about what to make for dinner. Their options were cheese cake or banana cream pudding. Danny was particularly opposed to the banana cream pudding which inspired a quotable moment when John1 told us, "Danny is so against the idea of making the pudding. It's like he's afraid that it's made of Satan or something!" Part of me wishes they hadn't made dessert at all, however, as they had a hard time finishing all the food they made. Eventually, not even John1 refused to eat any more. We were so shocked we have named a new state of being after him. This state of being is called Tonon and is the state obtained when one cannot physically consume any more food.
After breakfast, the bags are packed again. Having dropped some weight from the meals we've eaten, we redistribute the weight in hopes of getting closer to the target pack weights. We're a lot closer this time.
Before leaving, we take a trip to a "50 foot waterfall" that lies "200 yards downstream." First, I'm certain it was more than 200 yards. Second, the waterfall sure looked like more than 50 feet tall. It was quite impressive. After a few pictures, we head back to camp where Molly, David, and Steve are waiting. As I come into camp, I tell Molly that we had an accident with her camera. "The boys were throwing rocks over the edge, and we thought it'd be fun to document the path of a rock. So we tied the camera to a rock, and I went to the bottom of the waterfall. Will threw the rock over, and I was supposed to catch it. Unfortunately, it was an incomplete pass." She didn't believe the story for some reason.
Very early in today's walk, we had our first encounter with mountain laurel. Mountain laurel is a pretty, small white flower and it grows in abundance at Pine Creek. In abundance. There were places on the trail where it was mountain laurel as far as you could see. We happened to be hiking during the peak of the bloom. As we entered this first gathering of the flower, the sun shone down on it and the forest shone in a heavenly shade of white. Very beautiful.
For the boys, the highlight of the day was John and Will getting into an enormous discussion of the Twilight series. Seeing it in print won't do the moment justice, but this is John's summary of the Twilight movie:
"Bella, I love you, I'll never leave you"
Two scenes later, "I have to leave you again". Then he comes back,
"Bella, I love you, I'll never leave you."
Two scenes later, "I have to leave you for some reason."
Why does she keep taking this loser back?
We walked into camp at the bottom of Four Mile Run, Right Branch. The campsite was small, and it was difficult to fit all of the tents into the space there, but we managed to squeeze them in with enough clearance to start a small fire to clear the bugs. The boys enjoyed the the small waterfall at the stream, which also provided very clear water for pumping. On a trip like this, we carry our own water filtration pumps because clean water isn't available along the trail. The filters take out sediments and bacteria, then push the water through charcoal. In some places, after all of this is done, the water has a yellowish tint caused by absorption of tannin from the plants in the stream bed. The beautiful thing about running water in small streams is that it hasn't had time to absorb the tannin and comes out very clear and tastes oh-so-good. That water from this campsite may have been the best we had all week.
The boys were quick to make dinner (for which we were proud) but soon had an argument about what to make for dinner. Their options were cheese cake or banana cream pudding. Danny was particularly opposed to the banana cream pudding which inspired a quotable moment when John1 told us, "Danny is so against the idea of making the pudding. It's like he's afraid that it's made of Satan or something!" Part of me wishes they hadn't made dessert at all, however, as they had a hard time finishing all the food they made. Eventually, not even John1 refused to eat any more. We were so shocked we have named a new state of being after him. This state of being is called Tonon and is the state obtained when one cannot physically consume any more food.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
I Had It So Much Easier
I didn't get around to blogging days three and four. But I guess that's part of the experience of single fatherhood. I could take the time to do it, but I figured I'd jot down my thoughts on the week as a whole and get to packing for my trip. Enjoy!
This is the second time I've done the week on my own, and it's been a good experience. These four day forays are (hopefully) the closest I'll ever get to experiencing single parenthood, and the best chance for me to understand what the single parent's life is like.
Let's be honest, though. What I went through in these four days is nothing like what a single parent experiences. Here's a very short list of why:
This is the second time I've done the week on my own, and it's been a good experience. These four day forays are (hopefully) the closest I'll ever get to experiencing single parenthood, and the best chance for me to understand what the single parent's life is like.
Let's be honest, though. What I went through in these four days is nothing like what a single parent experiences. Here's a very short list of why:
- Four days is hardly enough to have the full experience.
- Janelle planned the meals and did the grocery shopping before she left. I just had to cook them. That means 60% of the effort of the meals was taken care of for me.
- I would be surprised if the majority of single parents didn't make less money than me. I could be wrong about that. But I work at the Cleveland Clinic, have flexible hours, good pay, great health benefits--I don't worry about a lot of things I would worry about if I was still fighting to get more than 36 hours a week a Pizza Hut just so I could qualify for a health plan that doesn't even compare.
- Also work related, sitting in front of a computer all day is a lot less stressful than standing next to a 400 degree oven and pushing pizzas through as fast I can, or inhaling steam from opening and closing the dishwasher.
- I had cheap daycare.
- Most significantly, Joules doesn't consider herself a child of a single parent. She knows Janelle is coming back, and she's looking forward to it. My single parenthood is, to her, the anomaly, not the rule.
But a few things have happened that I think have given me a little bit of insight into what single parents face. Some of the things that never really occurred to me until I had to try it:
- Stay-at-home-moms have it easy compared to single moms. Yes, I understand that's probably a loaded and potentially offensive statement, but I really believe it.
- Everything crisis is amplified as a single parent. When you realize at 8:15 at night that you're out of milk, the stay-at-home parent can either go to the store or send the spouse. There's still someone to put the kid to bed. The single parent either loads the kid in the car and goes to the store in the middle of bedtime, or goes without milk until the next day.
- Striking the balance of financial prudence and convenience gets harder. Using the milk example again, I could have picked up milk at the CVS next to the hardware store and paid more money for it, or I could have made an additional stop at the grocery store. Sure, all parents face this kind of dilemma, but the single parent rarely has the option of procrastinating until a trip can be made without the kid.
- I'm very lucky to be married to a woman who will let me nap or decompress after work if I feel I need to. In turn, if she's had a rough day at home with Joules, I'm more than happy to take over and let her decompress. The single parent doesn't get to decompress. Ever.
So, to modify the sage words of the time traveling great ones, "Be excellent to single parents." They don't need pity, or constant charity, but a chance to decompress every now and again.
A little milk wouldn't hurt either.
Single Fatherhood: Day 2
6:50 AM
"Joules, it's time to wake up."
"NEAEAEAEAEAEH!"
So I laid down with her to try to help the transition out of sleep. I woke up again at 7:30. Wasn't that just a brilliant idea.
Once she was up, she was up though. Eggs for breakfast and out the door by a little after 8:00. Not a bad start. We make the drive to Nara's house, and I realize that I've parked in the driveway of the house next door. Oops! Rather than fixing that, I just hopped out, grabbed her, and tried to rush her in.
I walk out the door and all I hear is screaming. Hopefully it only lasts a minute. I'll never know, because Cindy wouldn't tell me if the day was pure hell anyway.
My day starts with another trip to Hillcrest. I had an ingenius idea over night about how to get data that only prints in pdf form to have consistent delimiters so I can convert it into a csv. Just for the sake of ranting--if you ever, ever, ever build a database, please consult a statistician. Anyone who ever works with the data will thank you for it.
Enough with the self praise. It's an uneventful day at work. I'm mostly ignoring things I don't really want to do. I'm sure I'll pay for that later. Unlike the day before, I manage to get out of work in time to pick Julie up at 5:00. Just like the day before, she's asleep. Unlike the day before, she just barely fell asleep and has no intention of waking up.
Cindy heads back to the other room and gets Joules's clothes. Yeah, that's right--Julie found some of Nara's clothes and decided she wanted to wear those. Maybe that's a sign that Joules wants new things to wear. She must be exhausted, however, because she hardly flinches when we changer her clothes. When I ask her if she wants to go to the hardware store I get a half-hearted no.
We go to the hardware store anyway. I unstrap her car seat, and ask her if she wants to go inside. Again, a half-hearted no. So I pick her up and carry her. She instantly falls asleep on my shoulder. Normally she loves the hardware store because I always buy one of the 25 cent Tootsie Roll pops. It's 25 cents I don't have to spend today.
When we get back to the car, I'm strapping her into her seat and ask her if she wants to go home and finish her nap. "nnnnn...." She never does get to the o. So at home, I carry her up to bed and let her sleep. I change my clothes and go out to weed the planters in front of the house. At about 7:15 I go in to make dinner, and at about 7:45, Joules finally comes downstairs.
After she eats, she demands to go outside again. Two of the older neighborhood kids are out, but no one her age. So she chases after them as they ride their scooters. Eventually she gets her hands on the Hello Kitty scooter and tries it out. Mixed results, but no major contusions. While she tries to figure out how the scooter thing works, I talk to a neighbor woman I've not met before. We finally go back in at 9:30 with surprisingly little protest.
Bedtime is harder tonight. She didn't protest coming into the house, but she's screaming bloody murder at the suggestion of pajamas. I give in and let her get into bed in her t-shirt. After we read, I promise I'll come back after I start a load of laundry. More screaming. I start the load of laundry anyway, and when I come out of the laundry room, there's Joules with her pajamas in hand. I put her shirt in the load I just started and put her pajamas on her. Back up to bed, two seconds of screaming, and she's out. What did Nara do to her that has her so tired?
Back downstairs to watch TV until the load in the wash finishes. I never do make it off the couch again. Two loads to fold on Thursday. Didn't clean the kitchen counters tonight either. One more thing to do on Thursday. Sleep.
"Joules, it's time to wake up."
"NEAEAEAEAEAEH!"
So I laid down with her to try to help the transition out of sleep. I woke up again at 7:30. Wasn't that just a brilliant idea.
Once she was up, she was up though. Eggs for breakfast and out the door by a little after 8:00. Not a bad start. We make the drive to Nara's house, and I realize that I've parked in the driveway of the house next door. Oops! Rather than fixing that, I just hopped out, grabbed her, and tried to rush her in.
I walk out the door and all I hear is screaming. Hopefully it only lasts a minute. I'll never know, because Cindy wouldn't tell me if the day was pure hell anyway.
My day starts with another trip to Hillcrest. I had an ingenius idea over night about how to get data that only prints in pdf form to have consistent delimiters so I can convert it into a csv. Just for the sake of ranting--if you ever, ever, ever build a database, please consult a statistician. Anyone who ever works with the data will thank you for it.
Enough with the self praise. It's an uneventful day at work. I'm mostly ignoring things I don't really want to do. I'm sure I'll pay for that later. Unlike the day before, I manage to get out of work in time to pick Julie up at 5:00. Just like the day before, she's asleep. Unlike the day before, she just barely fell asleep and has no intention of waking up.
Cindy heads back to the other room and gets Joules's clothes. Yeah, that's right--Julie found some of Nara's clothes and decided she wanted to wear those. Maybe that's a sign that Joules wants new things to wear. She must be exhausted, however, because she hardly flinches when we changer her clothes. When I ask her if she wants to go to the hardware store I get a half-hearted no.
We go to the hardware store anyway. I unstrap her car seat, and ask her if she wants to go inside. Again, a half-hearted no. So I pick her up and carry her. She instantly falls asleep on my shoulder. Normally she loves the hardware store because I always buy one of the 25 cent Tootsie Roll pops. It's 25 cents I don't have to spend today.
When we get back to the car, I'm strapping her into her seat and ask her if she wants to go home and finish her nap. "nnnnn...." She never does get to the o. So at home, I carry her up to bed and let her sleep. I change my clothes and go out to weed the planters in front of the house. At about 7:15 I go in to make dinner, and at about 7:45, Joules finally comes downstairs.
After she eats, she demands to go outside again. Two of the older neighborhood kids are out, but no one her age. So she chases after them as they ride their scooters. Eventually she gets her hands on the Hello Kitty scooter and tries it out. Mixed results, but no major contusions. While she tries to figure out how the scooter thing works, I talk to a neighbor woman I've not met before. We finally go back in at 9:30 with surprisingly little protest.
Bedtime is harder tonight. She didn't protest coming into the house, but she's screaming bloody murder at the suggestion of pajamas. I give in and let her get into bed in her t-shirt. After we read, I promise I'll come back after I start a load of laundry. More screaming. I start the load of laundry anyway, and when I come out of the laundry room, there's Joules with her pajamas in hand. I put her shirt in the load I just started and put her pajamas on her. Back up to bed, two seconds of screaming, and she's out. What did Nara do to her that has her so tired?
Back downstairs to watch TV until the load in the wash finishes. I never do make it off the couch again. Two loads to fold on Thursday. Didn't clean the kitchen counters tonight either. One more thing to do on Thursday. Sleep.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Single Fatherhood: Day 1
6:50 AM, shaking Julie's legs
"Joules, it's time to wake up." Her first response is to barely open her eyes. When she recognizes it's me, she closes them again.
"Joules, you get to go play with Chumby today! Do you want to go play with Chumby?"
No response.
So I shaker her a little again. "Julie, do you want to get out of bed?"
In her sing songy voice, "No."
"You just want to go back to sleep?"
That same lyrical voice, "Yeah."
Ten minutes later she was awake and wanting to be held. She got cereal for breakfast before we changed her and grabbed her things. She was mostly ignored, though, while Janelle and I gathered up the last things for camp and loaded them into a friend's van. Shortly after they left, Joules and I went to Chumby's house. She marched in without hesitation and without so much as a good-bye.
My work day started at Hillcrest. Somehow I've become the Clinic's expert on accessing information from the obstetric database there, which is a little frightening, seeing as my approach to data extraction is a slightly enhanced version of guess and check. I like to call it barely-educated guess and check. After a couple of hour of fighting the database and getting about half of what I wanted, I went back to the main campus.
I felt good about my afternoon's work as I finished up a project that I should have finished at the end of last week. The mood was fouled by a trio of factors, though. 1) whereas my computer failed Monday morning, the hard drive had to be wiped. Not everything got installed the same way, which means a couple of vital programs aren't working as they should. The end result--no reports. 2) An e-mail from an investigator complaining about 'problems' in my analysis that he wants me to fix. The problems reflect imperfections in the data, which can't possibly be fixed. This is the fourth or fifth time we've had this discussion. 3) the Systems people showed up at 4:25 to reinstall printer drivers. I needed to pick up Julie at 5:00, and finally left work at 4:55.
At last, I picked up Julie. She was asleep when I arrived, but not for long. She stumbled down the stairs at Chumby's house, wearing one of Chumby's shirts, with an enormous contusion under her left eye. Carrie apologized profusely, but I brushed it off. Kids happen after all. But I'll be perfectly honest--I wasn't prepared for how bad it was. It doesn't look like a bruise though, more like she got pinched. She was pretty cuddly for a while, and I can tell it still bothers her a little.
Pizza for dinner. Nice and simple. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it's cold water to remove stains from a white shirt before washing it? Yeah, that's right Carrie...she got pizza sauce all over Chumby's sparkling white shirt. Payback's a...lot more work for me.
We did manage to weed the garden today though. Well, I did anyway. Joules snuck back inside, climbed to the top of the pantry, and pulled down the giant jar of jolly ranchers. Now she's watching Harry Potter and waiting for the sugar high to tail off so we can go to bed. Hopefully I can get some laundry folded.
Many thanks to Carrie for watching Joules today. And especially for the bread. It turns out I'm out of bread...I'm almost out of milk too. Just not enough time left today to go to the store.
Things left to do today:
Dishes
fold laundry
wash another load of laundry
clean Chumby's shirt
put away toys in the basement
"Joules, it's time to wake up." Her first response is to barely open her eyes. When she recognizes it's me, she closes them again.
"Joules, you get to go play with Chumby today! Do you want to go play with Chumby?"
No response.
So I shaker her a little again. "Julie, do you want to get out of bed?"
In her sing songy voice, "No."
"You just want to go back to sleep?"
That same lyrical voice, "Yeah."
Ten minutes later she was awake and wanting to be held. She got cereal for breakfast before we changed her and grabbed her things. She was mostly ignored, though, while Janelle and I gathered up the last things for camp and loaded them into a friend's van. Shortly after they left, Joules and I went to Chumby's house. She marched in without hesitation and without so much as a good-bye.
My work day started at Hillcrest. Somehow I've become the Clinic's expert on accessing information from the obstetric database there, which is a little frightening, seeing as my approach to data extraction is a slightly enhanced version of guess and check. I like to call it barely-educated guess and check. After a couple of hour of fighting the database and getting about half of what I wanted, I went back to the main campus.
I felt good about my afternoon's work as I finished up a project that I should have finished at the end of last week. The mood was fouled by a trio of factors, though. 1) whereas my computer failed Monday morning, the hard drive had to be wiped. Not everything got installed the same way, which means a couple of vital programs aren't working as they should. The end result--no reports. 2) An e-mail from an investigator complaining about 'problems' in my analysis that he wants me to fix. The problems reflect imperfections in the data, which can't possibly be fixed. This is the fourth or fifth time we've had this discussion. 3) the Systems people showed up at 4:25 to reinstall printer drivers. I needed to pick up Julie at 5:00, and finally left work at 4:55.
At last, I picked up Julie. She was asleep when I arrived, but not for long. She stumbled down the stairs at Chumby's house, wearing one of Chumby's shirts, with an enormous contusion under her left eye. Carrie apologized profusely, but I brushed it off. Kids happen after all. But I'll be perfectly honest--I wasn't prepared for how bad it was. It doesn't look like a bruise though, more like she got pinched. She was pretty cuddly for a while, and I can tell it still bothers her a little.
Pizza for dinner. Nice and simple. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it's cold water to remove stains from a white shirt before washing it? Yeah, that's right Carrie...she got pizza sauce all over Chumby's sparkling white shirt. Payback's a...lot more work for me.
We did manage to weed the garden today though. Well, I did anyway. Joules snuck back inside, climbed to the top of the pantry, and pulled down the giant jar of jolly ranchers. Now she's watching Harry Potter and waiting for the sugar high to tail off so we can go to bed. Hopefully I can get some laundry folded.
Many thanks to Carrie for watching Joules today. And especially for the bread. It turns out I'm out of bread...I'm almost out of milk too. Just not enough time left today to go to the store.
Things left to do today:
Dishes
fold laundry
wash another load of laundry
clean Chumby's shirt
put away toys in the basement
Monday, June 13, 2011
Single Fatherhood: Day 0
I committed myself to it after dinner tonight. Seeing as I'm not truly a single father, I felt it was okay for me to cheat a little and let Janelle make dinner. But after dinner, Joules put on play clothes and grabbed her shoes, so we made our way outside.
I had high hopes for getting some things done. As soon as we got outside I pulled out the trampoline, which was almost entirely ignored so that Joules could climb all over the car. I did manage to fold a couple tents that were in my garage from past camping trips. I was about to move to weeding the garden when it happened--the dreaded sound of neighborhood children.
That sound is the biggest productivity killer in the world. As soon as she hears it, she's bolts for the front of the house and I have to race her to the street. She always stops at the sidewalk, but I still yell at her to stop every time; some kind of compulsive distrust.
So I sat in Cool Matt's yard and talked with him about his summer camp job while the neighborhood kids fought over toys. Matt writes hip hop with morals for kids, and he gave me a good history hip hop because, "No offense, but you don't look like the hip hop type." If I had a smart phone, I would have pulled it out to Google "hip hop" just to show that I wasn't offended.
Now we're home, a load of laundry started, and Joules is winding down for bed. If I don't fall asleep when we do story time I might get a second load started. If I'm lucky, I won't get too annoyed that I never did get to weeding the garden. Maybe tomorrow.
I had high hopes for getting some things done. As soon as we got outside I pulled out the trampoline, which was almost entirely ignored so that Joules could climb all over the car. I did manage to fold a couple tents that were in my garage from past camping trips. I was about to move to weeding the garden when it happened--the dreaded sound of neighborhood children.
That sound is the biggest productivity killer in the world. As soon as she hears it, she's bolts for the front of the house and I have to race her to the street. She always stops at the sidewalk, but I still yell at her to stop every time; some kind of compulsive distrust.
So I sat in Cool Matt's yard and talked with him about his summer camp job while the neighborhood kids fought over toys. Matt writes hip hop with morals for kids, and he gave me a good history hip hop because, "No offense, but you don't look like the hip hop type." If I had a smart phone, I would have pulled it out to Google "hip hop" just to show that I wasn't offended.
Now we're home, a load of laundry started, and Joules is winding down for bed. If I don't fall asleep when we do story time I might get a second load started. If I'm lucky, I won't get too annoyed that I never did get to weeding the garden. Maybe tomorrow.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Packing List
I'm heading to Pine Creek Canyon in just 9 days for a 7 day backpacking trip.
Part of the fun of this kind of trip is the minimalism required to carry your life on your back for that long. My packing list:
2 shirts
2 pants
1 long sleeve shirt
1 light fleece
3 pairs of socks
2 pairs of underwear
1 mess kit
1 fork, knife, spoon
1 pair of boots
1 medium weight sleeping bag
1 ground pad
1 two man tent
1 stove
1 fuel bottle
1 flashlight
3 extra batteries
1 roll of toilet paper
1 bottle of soap
1 hat
1 first aid kit
2 water bottles
1 water filtration pump
7 days of food
Total weight: 30 lbs
Part of the fun of this kind of trip is the minimalism required to carry your life on your back for that long. My packing list:
2 shirts
2 pants
1 long sleeve shirt
1 light fleece
3 pairs of socks
2 pairs of underwear
1 mess kit
1 fork, knife, spoon
1 pair of boots
1 medium weight sleeping bag
1 ground pad
1 two man tent
1 stove
1 fuel bottle
1 flashlight
3 extra batteries
1 roll of toilet paper
1 bottle of soap
1 hat
1 first aid kit
2 water bottles
1 water filtration pump
7 days of food
Total weight: 30 lbs
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