The long awaited time had come. Grandson, Jackson, arrived Monday afternoon and we set out on our backpacking trip early Tuesday morning. I woke Jack at 5 am and we were on the road within the hour for Pittsburgh Landing. I had made a bed in the back of the truck so Jack could get some more shuteye and he and Nellie snoozed among the gear.
The County was applying dust abatement chemical to the road in to the landing so we had a twenty minute wait coupled with a very slow journey following a pilot truck. It probably cost us at least a half hour.
By the time we found the trailhead it was about 9:10 am and already getting hot for the six mile hike to Kirkwood ranch. Jack had a slight accident on our first creek crossing at Corral creek and twisted his ankle a little but fortunately, nothing serious. As we trudged up and down the hills I could tell Jack was really feeling the heat but there was never a complaint. Nellie too was getting overheated so we had to take a timeout while I took her about 200 yards down to the river. We were wearing shorts, big mistake, and the cheat grass would cover our socks and get in our boots.
We made it into Kirkwood a little after 1:00 pm, had some delicious left-over pizza and then hit the river for a long refreshing swim and relief from the heat. I got camp set up and we were in and out of the river several times during the afternoon. We toured the museum at the ranch and logged the geocache at Hanna Cabin.
We had a delicious supper of alfredo pasta with vegetables and salmon. It was really tasty. Kathy had made us a batch of peanut butter golden graham treats which hit the spot too.
As we were really tired we turned in before 9:00 pm. It was so hot we slept on top of our sleeping bags in our underwear. It didn’t get cool enough to crawl into the bags until one or two o’clock.
In order to beat the heat we were on the trail by 6:20 the next morning. Jack was on a Hell’s Canyon high and was dogging my heels all the way. Next year I may not be able to keep up with him.
We made very good time but had one very unfortunate incident. Nellie is a seasoned pack dog but this was her first trip in “bird” country. We were having trouble keeping her on the trail (with her 10 pound pack) because of all the chukars. She would get a scent and leave the trail and when she went on point the only alternative was for me to also leave the trail to flush the birds. I took a picture of one of these nice points with pack about ¼ mile before we reached our starting point. Not until we were back at the truck did I discover the camera was missing. Apparently instead of slipping it into my pack pocket I just slipped it under a strap and it fell to the ground. We hiked back to the point site in an area with two feet high cheat grass and searched for 30 or 40 minutes with no luck. I hated losing the pictures more than the loss of the camera.
We had a great time logging 6 geocaches on the way home. And, of course, after supper we went camera shopping. We got what should be a nice one but now we must learn to use it. M/W
2 comments:
That's a bummer about the camera! When you wrote that something unfortunate occurred, I was prepared for the WORST--injury or death. Ended up quite relieved that it was just the camera.
Well, it was a bummer. Mike said he didn't care so much about the camera but was upset about losing the pictures. Not having been there, I was upset about the camera. It's become so important to me since Aunt Chris insisted on photos of the sewing room and I discovered the world of illustrating the blog. Replacing immediately was also important because Jack is here. Mike's having a wonderful time, and I think Jack is, too. Ooops! It's time for shotgun target shooting. Must takes pictures! KW
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