Forsyth Trail and beyond!

 I didn't think I was going to make it.  Paul and I decided we wanted to try backpacking quilts.  They save so much weight in a pack rather than carrying even a lightweight sleeping bag.  The kids put together and got us some for Father's Day/my birthday.  I thought it would be cool to go for just a short little hike/overnight campout and try them out.  Paul had a bigger hike in mind.  I went along with it, but then it ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would be...and I sort of crashed along the way.  We ended up doing Forsyth Trail up to Burger Peak plus on to Further Water.  Forsyth to Burger Peak is 10.6 miles and is considered challenging with an elevation gain of 3487 feet.  This was a lot more than what I had in mind, but we had hiked the first 4 miles of it earlier in the year and it was so beautiful, I thought I wanted to see the rest of it.  We got there and hit the trail at 8:30 am on Friday morning.

I had about a 21 lb. pack.  I really had nothing but some phone charging blocks that wasn't essential.  But it wasn't too far into the very uphill hike that I really started feeling it.  We saw a guy a couple of miles up the trail that told us water was going to disappear not very long after this unless we wanted to go to Further Water.  We needed to be able to have water to cook our dinner and stay the night, so that concerned me.  The full bladder of water I had in my pack was 6 lbs. of the load.  We didn't have anything else to put more water in.  But I think I must have of slowed down my water usage then and that may have been part of why I was having a hard time and was getting concerned about whether I would be able to make it all the way. About 5.5 miles up, right by a direction sign we found a really beautiful campsite.  I asked to stop and rest there. I think it was about 11:00.  (We also hadn't eaten anything, but that's usual for the intermittent fasting lifestyle we are living right now and we had backpacked like that before.)  I was having such a hard time that I wanted to just stop there, but we finally decided the thing to do was to drop my pack there and also drop most of Paul's pack into mine and then hike up to the top and then on to Further Water to get more water and then come back there to camp.  

That's what we did.  I was still struggling.  It got so very straight up and rocky after that.  It was pretty hard for both of us.  We had to stop and just breathe very often - like every 100 steps for most of the way to Burger Peak.  It was supposed to be 3 miles more to get to Further Water from that campsite, but it sure seemed like more than that because the going was so slow.  We peaked out and saw amazing views.  Then we kept going to get to Further Water.  It was quite a bit down and very hard to find the trail.  And then it started up again.  Paul had found a helpful map on Google, but it wasn't too functional because he didn't have a signal.  When it seemed like there was just one more big climb and then a down hill to where it was supposed to be we just decided that I would stay put and Paul would do the last little ways and come back if he didn't find it in an hour.  I was so tired and felt so unable to do that last uphill that even though I didn't like being separated, I just felt like I was slowing Paul down and it would be better to do it that way.  I drank some water and then he took off.  I laid down on a ground cloth he left and waited.  I took a nap and just rested and ate some trail mix .  We had eaten some after the peak too.  

Thank goodness he found it and was back in less than an hour and we just took a rest and then ate our apple and orange and more trail mix and headed back up and then down to the campsite.  We had hiked about 10.6 miles by then (Paul had that other mile or so on his own).  We were so glad to get there.  It was about 5:30 and we were tired and hungry and glad to just lay down for a while and rest our tired feet.  We made our dehydrated dinners and they were very good along with dehydrated cheesecake bites and later some hot chocolate.  We rested and played cards and cleaned up the campsite until bedtime. 

I can't say I had a great night's sleep.  My backpacking quilt was great, but the pad I had was pretty miserable.  (We  had ordered a new one, but it hadn't come in yet.)  I did lots of noisy tossing and turning, but I saw the stars and moon come up and then finally the sun.  I slept somewhere in there I'm sure.  

We got up with the sun and left camp at 7:30 and got down by 9:30.  It was, all in all, such a beautiful hike.  Near the summit the flowers were beautiful and at the lower elevations they were still beautiful near the water.  It was all beautiful because of the magnificent trees!  At the top we saw some Bristlecone Pines that I never knew we had in the Pine Valley Mountains.  We also saw some of the most giant Limber Pines all along the upper areas of the trail.  Of course the Aspens, Furs, and Ponderosa are all wonderful too.  

So, with some adjustments, that ended up being wise and good, I made it!  Dropping the packs and camping down low where it was not windy and so we didn't have to carry heavy packs up that very steep section, was the best thing to do after all.  I'm not sure, without doing something to get into better shape, that I am going to be doing anything that challenging again soon, or maybe never.  I'm not sure right now.