Day 1: Hiking with the Hordes, Jedediah Smith State Park

[Erin]:

I woke up early, after an evening of wedding festivities. I said goodbye to Randy, who was spending the rest of the weekend assisting a team for the kinetic sculpture race. Emily and Dan arrived to pick me up in the "Blue Dragon," an elegant name for an equally elegant vehicle. Just four days before, Emily and I had switched all our hiking plans, from hiking the BFT south to north to hiking it north to south. This was because of snow fears in the southern reaches (especially the road to the trailhead in the Yolla Bollys), but it also meant things were a little hectic in the final planning stages.

I thought about what I would soon miss: my bed, my dog Marvin, bagels. I also thought about what I was probably forgetting. What was I forgetting? Marvin thought I was forgetting him...



Marvin, a sad but exceptionally intelligent robot.

I had been packing my bag since about November. I had weighed every last thing to go into it, cutting away until it was 30 pounds with food and water.



Every single thing I would carry for the next month is listed here:

• ULA backpack (made in Utah; really lightweight and comfortable)
• Hiking poles
• Thermarest
• Sleeping bag (down, full of holes and repaired with duct tape) + compression sack
• Minimal clothing (in 2 stuff sacks, later 1)
• Purple Rain skirt (made in Ashland, by a woman who knew about BFT!)
• Merino wool long john bottoms
• Merino wool hiking t-shirt
• Down jacket
• Lightweight fleece jacket (later ditched)
• Rain jacket + pants
• Underwear (x5)
• Wool socks (x2, later x3)
• Warm hat, sun hat, bandanna, "buff" hat
• Fleece gloves
• Mosquito face net
• Hiking shoes + watershoes
• Sunglasses
• Electronics and other stuff (in 1 stuff sack):
• Kindle with novels + a few scholarly articles to make me feel like I wasn't a total slack
• GPS + compass
• Satellite messenger
• Camera
• Extra AA + AAA batteries
• Backup charging battery (for my Kindle, Emily's camera) 
• Head lamp
• Rite in the Rain journal + pen
• Deck of cards
• Heavy duty tape for fixing things
• Bear spray
• Ultralight alcohol stove + fuel + cooking pot
• Funny little triangular mug + cup set, plus spork, plus folding pocket knife
• Cord for bear bags
• Camelback water thing (pouch? bladder?) + collapsible water bottle
• Food 
• Sawyer water filter + two bags
• Toiletries: toothbrush + paste, floss, lip balm, fancy face moisturizer, sunblock, tweezers, tiny Dr. Bronner's soap, tampons

Emily carried the same kind of stuff, minus a few things and plus the tent, a TarpTent made in California - tough, and absolutely awesome. She also carried a solar blow-up light, her camera, and our emergency medical kit (which was later supplemented with much more gauze + bandages, and I carried some of those).

Dan drove us to Crescent City, where we got Mexican food at a place that lived by the ethic of quantity over quality. We took our burritos and real-sugar drinks to Jedediah Smith, where he dropped us off at the Howland Hills road. It was Memorial Day: cars passed slowly, periodically unloading people to take photos of trees and each other; as we reached the Mill Creek and Stout Grove trails, we were joined by small packs of tourists.



We left the crowds when we reached Little Bald Hills trail. Upon learning the Latin name for cat's ear (Calochortus elegans), I began our proud practice of yelling out botanical names to scare away bears. Yell the name of the plant, maybe sing a small song in its praise, and then hike for a while until you remember that bears exist and yell the name again.

Cat's ear (Calochortus elegans)

We reached the campground, I think called Backcountry, and two problems confronted us. Because of our last-minute direction switch, we hadn't prepared well for this first site. First, we had no camping permit. Because of the holiday, the campground was filling up and we sheepishly staked out an early, best spot, leaving the permit-holders to wander around looking for a place to pitch their tents. Second, there was no water. NO water. There was a horse trough with extremely bad water. A couple other campers looked at us piteously when we asked where water was and said: "the ranger told us there was no water here when we got our permit." So we nodded, agreeing that the ranger certainly would have told us this had we gotten our permit, and decided to save our water for our morning coffee and eat tuna and tortillas for dinner.



But we had a picnic table, and we made a fire, and we shared our site with a friendly couple from the South who worked at a pulp plant in Oregon. I started my book, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, and Emily started reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. We set a pattern by getting to sleep early, the better to wake up early in the morning for a long walk.

Total miles: approximately 10