I’ve not taken an end of hike self-portrait in a while. Here I am all ready for the drive home.

Trip over, four days, three nights, 21 miles, and 1800ft. climbed.

End of Trip Review

What worked & Lessons learned

• Taking the summer quilts and winter clothes worked well. I didn’t wear two items of clothing. My spare base layer top and spare pair of undies.
• My summer tarp was all I needed, though had higher winds been predicted the winter tarp with doors would have been appropriate.
• My cooking arrangements are just fine. I took, but, once again, did not use my wood burning stove. Nor did I have a campfire.
• All my wet weather gear and plans worked out, but I did struggle to find places to keep wet items such as my rain jacket, so that the dry side remained dry and wet side didn’t get my dry gear wet. I need to think about that some more.
• I had no plan as to how to actually use my GPS (phone) in the pouring rain. I keep it in a waterproof pocket, but that’s no help when I need to get it out to check something. I put the phone inside a spare Ziploc bag, and that seemed to work in the absence of any better ideas.
• I’m a lot fitter than I was, and the climbs were not as challenging as they have been in the past — which is very good!
• There are a huge number of trees down on the trail, and the trail is impossible to find/follow in places.
• I’m getting a lot better at not bothering to hunt for the trail and using the compass to find my way from place to place.
• I need a better way of attaching Hunter orange to both me and my pack. I really didn’t expect to meet any hunters and was quite happy with a scrunched-up hunter orange bib tucked into the back of my pack. I soon changed my tune when I realized there were hunters in the area, and I was going off-trail.
• I must be more careful getting into my hammock when I’m testing it out. If I’m not, one day I am not going to be so lucky, and I’m going to injure myself.
• I need to research what might have caused me to freeze when I heard the approaching animal on the first night. I must be able to deal with wildlife if it is necessary. I’ve a flexible plan for animal (and people) encounters and it has served me well so far. However, it doesn’t work if I refuse to engage whatever is heading my way.

All in all, it was a great trip.

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