Lessons Learned Thusfar

Thought I'd add another post with some of my early lessons learned. I had done quite a bit of work to prepare myself for Southern California but here are a few things that you just need to get out on the trail to experience.

Thank you!

Finally got to the water source...

Siestas are the Greatest: I am not usually much of a napper, not even in college, but now I will be religiously taking my afternoon siesta. There is no reason to be out hiking with the midday sun beating down on you. My very first day I knew this and took a break but as I went I found I was hiking earlier in the morning and later at night and taking a longer breaks in the afternoon. This also provides a great opportunity to cook your 'dinner' for lunch because might as well get good use of all those calories. It is also important to plan where you take your siesta, more so than where you camp. You want to take them in places with good shade and good water. That way you can kick-back and take a nap and hydrate your body. I expect to keep up this trend throughout the desert portion of the trip.

Night hiking. Dark, but much cooler.

Beware the Poison Oak: This is one that I knew beforehand but have a greater appreciation of now. The very first day I took a siesta at Hauser creek and lay my pack and shirt and pack down in a little patch of poison oak. I quickly moved them when I realized and was sure to keep myself away from it but didn't worry about it. Sure enough the next day my back started to break out slightly with poison oak. I have had terrible experience with poison ivy in the past (once it broke out so bad on my face I couldn't see out of one eye) and know its cousin can be just as bad. I will now be much more cautious and have been fighting hard not to scratch and spread it.

Hiking Poles Have so Many Uses: In addition to preventing ankle injuries, helping to set up tarps, keeping you balance and crossing streams I have found even more uses. First they help push the brush away. The chaparral is infamous for shrubby brush getting in your way scratching up your legs. Plus everything in the desert is sharp and tough and will easily scratch you up so the poles help to push stuff out of the way. Also when you are night hiking they help you like a blind man's walking stick. Even with a headlamp I find I don't have much depth perception at night and the hiking poles help guide me down the path. Can't wait to find out their other uses I'm continuously impressed.

Me at the Mexican Border!

Legs Need Sunscreen Too: When I used to row I used the theory of a base tan, that after the first few days out you get a good enough tan that you don't need sunscreen and your legs are not as sensitive. Well turns out they are. I have done a good job of applying sunscreen twice a day to my upper body which has worked well. I like to think that under my desert skin is a nice tan building but I will keep this practice up throughout the desert. I never applied any to my legs though and after the third day they were burning pretty bad. The sunburn wasn't too bad but I could definitely feel it when I bent my legs after taking off my pack.

Alcohol Stoves Can Boil Water if You Do It Right: At first I was having a bit of trouble cooking on my pop-can alcohol stove until I realized my problem. I just need to add more fuel. Once I started filling up my pop-can stove all the way with alcohol it would boil water no problem. Other ways to significantly help is to use any water that was already heated in my water bottle on the outside of my pack during the day. I don't like drinking hot water anyway so might as well cook with it. The biggest help is to build a pot stand out of rocks instead of placing the pot on top of three tent stakes (which also works well but lets the wind blow the heat around). Rocks help insulate the heat and focus it all up to the pot and creates the hottest stove.

Jelly?! I Don't Even Like Jelly: I made some questionable food choices for the first leg of my trip. the worst was a 1 lb container of squeezable jelly. Why?! I though if you have peanut butter you need to have jelly, right? Well I didn't even made a peanut butter and jelly tortilla until night five and when I was eating it I realized I don't like jelly and dried cranberries make a much better option. From now on I will more carefully consider my food choices.

Rocks Can Work as Toilet Paper: I'll try not to get too graphic here but this was one surprising insight that I just had to share. I usually just use leaves in place of toilet paper when I'm backpacking but those are hard to find and I'm not about to use a cactus. So one of the days when I had to do my business and was looking around for a toilet paper option you got to go with what you have. Remember you already have dirt covering your entire body so there really isn't too much of a difference. Then you can just bury the rocks when you are done. Now that I've sufficiently disgusted everyone reading my blog I think I'll leave you with that thought.

Well, maybe not these rocks, but wow. Bald Eagle anyone?