Recently my son and I were part of a three day backpacking excursion at the Porcupine Mountains in the UP. Neither of us have ever done anything like this and there was some trepidation for both of us. But the IDEA of totally supporting my needs with only what I was hauling in my backpack was so enticing.
I can't explain why it appealed to me. I am certainly not a minimalist. This trip has given me a whole paradigm shift on my approach to many issues. Was it life changing? Not dramatically, but yes, I do think that I am going about my days in a more thoughtful, deliberate way.
As we began to pack up I had some valuable help from my husband who was fortunate enough to have taken an amazing trip to the Boundary Waters with his father after he graduated from High School. Packing light and efficient was the key.
These are some of the life lessons that I took away from my journey in the wilderness.
Every piece that you take with you must serve a purpose or it will just add to the burden you must carry with you every day.
Hmmmmmm. That's an interesting point. How often do I think I need to hold on to something material (clothes) or immaterial ("how could so and so behave like that?!"). Where does it get me to have an excess of something or hold on to emotions that do not serve to make my life better. I carry it around as a burden daily. It wears me down.
So I am attempting to pair down the material burdens. I have taken loads of clothes to the consignment store and more are going to donation. I don't need the excess and clutter. I am blessed with more than I need.
More challenging still is daily cleansing of the immaterial aspect. It's so easy to hang on to those negative comments that come at me daily. Why do I think I need to hold on to them like daggers that I can turn around and use for another day? I am trying to understand the "why" and the motivation behind the comments and learn. Perhaps people remark about things in a certain way because it's the way they approach life and it has nothing to do with me. Maybe they are bitter at life. It's their character flaw and my challenge needs to be to sort through the negative and understand the reasons behind the facade of hurtful remarks.
The world is not out to get me.
I lived in fear when we had to go to our tents to sleep. Normally I love to sleep in a tent but I have never had the potential for a black bear to wander into camp. The first night I had the constant crashing of waves on the rocky shore of Lake Superior to drown out any noise of any creatures but there was that small insecurity that "it" was just outside the tent. The force of water over a fall just behind my tent on night two should have been soothing and a white noise for me, however I started to create pictures in my mind of those few sounds that I did hear. Our final night was the worst. Dead silence of the deep woods proved to be the most paralyzing. With nothing to obscure the wandering creatures foot falls I heard EVERYTHING....imagined or real I curled up tighter in my sleeping bag like an insecure toddler afraid of the boogie man. And in the morning I woke up. No bears had bothered me or anyone else in the camp. And I was exhausted.
Lesson learned. Living in fear will wear you down.
We were not keeping a dirty camp, we were using the bear bags to hoist up all temptations from the creatures in the woods and we had bear spray in case by some odd chance a bear did find our area too appealing. We were prepared. I should have been secure in knowing all of that.
Weather real or imagined sounds I let it take hold and create such an real fear that I let it interrupt what could have been restoring and deep sleep.
I know that I do this to myself sometimes. Before staring a new job, meeting a new group of people, driving to a new place alone - I create such worst case scenario in my mind that I am depleted before I even begin. Living in fear of "what if" and "who's out to get me" does nothing to further a healthy life.
Be good to your body and it will take you far in life.
I'm not much of a salt eater and I eat a pretty healthy diet. Okay, once in a while I really like to indulge in cheese curds, onion rings, etc. But not on a daily basis. I knew we were going to be eating dehydrated food on the trip. What I didn't realize was just how many other salty staples were part of the meals. Breakfast always involved coffee (ohhh thank you Starbucks for making Colombian coffee taste so good in the woods!) and the first day I was lucky to have time to boil water for some oatmeal as well. Not a bad way to start the day. However the menu after breakfast deteriorated quickly. Lunch was generally summer sausage, trail mix, occasionally an apple (I've never tasted anything so good!) and cheese. Usually this was consumed after a long stretch of the day's hike. I can't say it was terribly satisfying, but it did stick with me until the next meal and I was told that it would keep me from loosing too much water. It's not like I could just walk down to the store if I didn't like what was on the menu. What we brought was what we had to eat.
Dinner was always a rehydrated, salt laden entree involving rice or noodles. I can't say it was very savory, but it met the need to have a full warm belly at the end of a taxing day.
As the day drew on I started noticing that my fingers were swelling. In the morning I would wake with a sticky, pasty, unpleasant taste in my mouth. My vision seemed less crisp. I felt my chemistry changing.
It wasn't until I injured my right knee on the last and most difficult day of the journey that I would realize just how detrimental the excessive salt was on my already worn down body. After feeling some pops in my knee that were so painful that it caused me to gasp from the pain I knew I wouldn't come off the trail totally unscathed. I'd had issues in the past with this knee, but honestly my focus had been on the foot that I had surgery on this spring....not my knee.
Already exhausted from not sleeping much, I woke up to a very painful swollen knee on our last morning. I kept moving and thanked God that one of the other trip members loaned me a walking stick to finish the journey that morning. She could tell I was struggling with the weight of the pack and the remaining hills that was magnified by a screaming blown out knee.
We came off the trail. I threw my pack against the van and quickly dug for the first aid pack that I had put together....complete with ice packs. I squeezed the plastic pouch and felt the instant chemical reaction produce a slushy coolness. I secured it to my knee with an ACE wrap as another group member asked what happened. I recounted the old injury and said I felt like this was not going to be good if I didn't ice it soon.
By the end of the 6+ hour drive home my thigh and everything distal was engorged with fluid. My range of motion had become severely limited. I was so grateful to be home. Finally I could shower and stop moving for a while and just lay in my bed with a new ice pack strapped to ease the throbbing of the soft tissues around my patella.
I woke up at 1:30 am the next day after flopping down at 4 pm in the afternoon. My body was trying desperately to repair itself from too much salt, more physical activity than I'd done in months and perhaps a bit to much Naproxen Sodium for the aches and pains I was dealing with on the 4 day adventure. I got out of bed to use the bathroom (that was a luxury after days of using the forest!) and noticed that my leg felt like it was full of lead. I chalked it up to just recovering from the hike.
It wasn't until I got up the next day and noticed my knee was hot, swollen and painful, my calf was stiff and I had acquired a "kankle" where my ankle had been. I was getting worried that I had really injured myself. After researching side effects from too much Naproxen Sodium I started thinking it might not be so much the injury as the lifestyle change in the last few days.
Really the injury was not unexpected for me. But the reaction of my body was. I think had I been more in line with my normal health diet my body would not have had such a severe reaction to the trauma it sustained on the hike.
Treat your body as the temple that God made it and it will carry you without trouble all the days of your life.
Water is a precious resource.
When you realize all of the water you are carrying is gone while on a backpacking trip it becomes crucial to find a new source of water to pump a fresh supply. It's easy to think about at home, but how often in our life are we actually placed in that situation?
Growing up with a father that was heavily involved with managing and tracking hydro flows because of his occupation I have always been a bit hyper-sensitive to water as a precious resource. Now in the middle of a dense forest it became a pressing topic.
We were spoiled the first two days. We pumped and filtered our water from a very active, clear Lake Superior. The water was cold and sweet...and we drank many bottles during our stay that afternoon and evening. The second day the spring that we had been roaming around in earlier that afternoon provided another amazing source to draw our precious water we needed for hydration and cooking. It was even colder that the lake - and so satisfying after a long hike.
Our final evening we found our source for our final stay - an almost stagnant stream - barely moving and so turbid you could not see the bottom unlike our prior two experiences. But it met our needs. We described it as "pond-y" tasting.
I wonder if some of the boys on the trip realized that it was essential to preserve the supply that we had drawn. Simply doing the dishes those few days had to be planned out and done thoughtfully. Would they go home and view their tap the same way? It comes so easy to turn the handle of the faucet where supply is instantly gratifying. But what about the day that comes when it is not the case? These are the lessons that I hope the boys are learning on these outings deep in the heart of an lush Eco system.
Move only as fast as the slowest member of your group.
Our group only numbered six compared to our larger host group. They were all equipped with lightweight trekking poles and very coordinated in their approach. They were a more athletic group than ours, faster in their stride and seemed to not easily tire during our walk.
We, on the other hand, did not have such a streamlined approach. I suspect that our packs were a bit heavier and we were less experienced. They led the group at the initial entry point....and we were quickly separated due to their rapid pace. It was clear it was going to be a long, lonely journey dealing with split groups.
We lagged into our first campsite well after their boys, who had already set up their tents and were busy with exploring the area.
Day two their leader decided to mix our boys in the line. The entire dynamics had shifted. The cadence was more even and our entire group made it to the next stop as a single unit. Unbroken and supporting each other they had even begun to talk to their new friends. We meshing into one unit.
Keeping the pace of the slowest member ensured that the group would remain cohesive and the efforts were more successful. When the leader started to move a bit slower than the group desired they were able to encourage and push them up with positive words.
We need to remember that we aren't all moving at the same pace in life. Some may lag behind and a kind, encouraging word now and then can be a good thing. Its much nicer to have company on the journey.
"Not all who wander are lost".....
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