New Bedford

New Bedford

Monday, June 20, 2011

First weekend at the campsite

I am gonna try to get to the point on these weekend updates. There was a ton of stuff that went down, but I'll try to touch on the important and more interesting stuff.

June 18th: Jimmy (Lincoln Woods VIS Employee) helped me bring all my gear up the campsite in the morning. He hooked me up with a nice bike and helmet combo from the basement of Lincoln Woods Vistitor Center. I set up my campsite as soon as possible by rigging up the tarp over the picnic table for when it rains or just super sunny, organized the 12x12 Cabella's tent with my collapsable chair, sleeping bag and trailside pillow, and then storing away all my food and hygiene products in the bear box. After this, I got right to work with the shoveling out of the metal fire pits and wheelbarrowing the ashes of the side of the hill. I documented the before and after with my camera because you can never have enough documentation for the future. What a difference cleaning out the fire rings. Completed campsites 16-24 by about 2pm. Thought I would go for a run so I headed over to Franconia Falls, soaked my feet real quick and headed back. Started to storm the last half mile of my run so picked it up a bit. Wanted to rinse off before the storm hit. Threw on my water shoes and jogged it to the stream where I literally submerged myself in the river for about a second and a half. Sprinted back to my campsite to bundle up and relax before making dinner. I checked out the trail map and 4000 footer book to mark some of the them I want to complete this summer. Figured out what I already wanted or needed such as hot chocolate mix, chill shoes for campsite, Gatorade mix, designated cooking clothes, short sleeve shirts like v necks or something. The most exciting part of the day came at 5:52pm. My first group of campers, a dad and his two sons. I was fortunately a huge help because it was there first time doing the hiking/camping thing. Gave them the lowdown on everything and they were very pleased. It was super strange to me whe I stopped by their campsite to check on them. The dad said don't feel like you are intruding on us, it's nice to talk to another adult. An adult?! Ha! Second group was three younger guys just doing some hiking and fishing for the weekend. For dinner, I made myself some refried bean tortilla wraps. Mmm, still hitting me on Monday. Appetizers were a clif bar and sausage, cheese and crackers (SCC). Things I realized on the first day; contacts would not work out in the wilderness, need a battery powered alarm clock, I might wanna invest in rechargeable batteries for my camera, and it's not too fun not talking to anyone before I go to bed. 

Summary: Great first day. 12 miles in 81:10. Either slightly uphill or downhill. Glad I have time to run while I am doing this. 

Food: Mini scoopers, PB&J,  apple sauce, cliff bar, SCC, refried bean wraps, Oreos. 

June 19: After going to bed by 9:30 and an okay night's sleep, I was up at 8am for oatmeal with raisins. John (my boss) came up to check on me and make sure I was doing alright. He arrived at around 9:30am and we got some things squared away. We set up the whip antennae so I can reach all the places I need to be able to radio foray type of emergency. Then, we REdid my tarp so I didn't feel like I was in a cave. 
After John left, I finished off the rest of the fire pits in my hard hat and uniform! Looking great! Once I was done, I decided I would bike down the 2.6 miles to the parking lot and try to make a phone call to let people know I was okay (Kimber). It was a success and I ran from the parking lot up the Lincoln Woods Trail to the Osseo Trail. Biked back up to the campsite to rinse off, make appetizers and dinner, and get ready for bed. This time I made chicken breast with spike seasoning wraps. The chicken breast was in a can and it took me 9 minutes to open it because of the friggin can opener I found. Oh well! 

Summary: Got in 8 miles of running (51+, half of it was downhill). Tried wearing the camelback and it worked out pretty well. I wanted to try it out on a short run before I did any long runs with it. 

Food: oatmeal, PB&J, beef jerky, m&ms, SCC, clif bar, chicken breast wraps, and Oreos to finis off the night.

June 20: Woke up at 5:30 to get to the safety meeting at 8am at Forest Headquarters. Hiked down in 40 minutes, much faster than I thought. Went to the safety meeting, reviewed some things with John, and I was off for the rest of the day. Spending most of it relaxing and applying to more jobs. Gonna run later today. Might take a nap. Until next time.

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