Vivian made her practice hike in Lost Maples this Saturday and Sunday. Jesse joined us for the hike and camping and brought his fishing rod.
All went well as we arrived in the late afternoon and hiked about 3.5 miles to our campsite. We arrived in fine spirits, set up tents and cooked our food. Then we went to bed. In about 2 hours the temperature began to drop. I awakened to a numbness and put on my fleece. I should have put on my rain jacket as well but didn’t think to. Since we went to bed about 7:30 it was a very long night as it kept getting colder. When Vivian checked her water bottle in the morning it was a block of ice. I can’t recall being that cold while camping. Maybe once when I was a boy scout in Montana, in the dead of winter. But this was a surprise—I never anticipated it getting so cold. You just can underestimate the trail and overestimate your abilities. That is a lesson I keep learning.
The next morning we set off for the ponds and in a short while all was well and we had forgotten the suffering from the previous night. On our walk back to the car we took the East Trail and on the plateau we encountered a friendly beast.
