Backpacking

October 17, 2020

I’m lucky enough to know Dylan and Larry who, every once in a while, persuade me to do something besides the mundane routines of school or work. During the summer, we would play soccer some weekends, but the newest idea was a bit more involved: backpack along the Washington coast.

After copping a worthy rucksack for the trip, there was no backing out.

yikes, wrong chat

It turns out there’s actually a lot of planning involved when you have to live out in the woods off of the items off your back for 3 days.

the most important part of planning

Besides the obvious things, we also had to get a bear cannister for the bears, a sleeping pad for sleep, and a water filter for water.

…and a poop shovel for

Looking back, I guess it was a good thing that I was already pretty committed to the plan. There were some bad wildfires that had covered Washington, and I wasn’t particularly attached to the idea of breathing in smoke all night in a tent. Thankfully, (or so Dylan tried to convince us), the air quality was better out along the coast (although I’m pretty sure the hepa filters at my house were a much safer alternative).

Good? Especially considering Seattle was well in the triple digits

The ocean was beautiful, the sand soft, and we even briefly got to see the blue sky after a week+ of smoke back in the city. Don’t ask me about the ramen we buried in the sand (since it didn’t fit in the bear cannister). Oh and hiking boots are a must.

Here’s the trip in 21 seconds:

Obligatory photo dump:

Ready to go :,)

Also in picture: lots of sand fleas >:C

Someone (def not Dylan) left an eery message at our first campsite

To walk along the coast, there were some parts that aren’t trespassable during high tide so there were these rope ladders you would climb to walk inland for a bit.

cheesing

Great boxing practice setup

Hiking in the drizzle. Peep Dylan’s raincover and my unpictured matching garbage bag

A deer!! s/o to my uber drivers :,)

The water filters were important to take care of protozoa or something. None of us got sick so I guess they worked? They tasted just fine. The water looked a little funny though to be honest. Bet you can’t guess which one was the original water we brought

While I brought way too many clothes, we didn’t quite pack enough food. Sorry, I eat a lot >:). (We left a day early bc our rations were getting low lol)

The food we did pack was awesome. Mountain House is pretty amazing, and we cooked ramen, macncheese and brought some pasta in zip-lock bags.

🧀+🧀+👀

There were also swarms of these sand fleas at some places. They honestly started becoming part of the environment and we got accustomed to their frantic dancing as we walked through them, but I’m also glad that they weren’t everywhere all the time. The black stuff on the roots of that log are actually all fleas. We threw rocks at it and the whole swarm started dancing. It was pretty terrifying

There were a lot of these fun wrecking ball swing things

On the way back, we splurged on some nice pizza and wings. Hmm, delicioso

Ending with a wave 👋