Pam LeBlanc has penned a story in the Miami Herald about her adventures along the High Sierra Trail. If you’re thinking about venturing out for a nice long walk, make sure you read about her adventures! From the Miami Herald:SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Not all vacations should involve high thread-count sheets, gourmet meals served on fine china or soapy baths.
This one sure didn’t.
Six of us traded such luxuries for sleeping bags, tents, dehydrated meals and hours spent plodding the High Sierra Trail in central California with 25 pounds on our backs.
Everything got distilled to the basics: Walk. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
No smartphone. No Internet. No deodorant. The same set of filthy clothes worn hard, six days in a row.
Backpacking lets you see the land up close, in slow motion. The owls hoot at night. Storms brew and rain falls. You get wet. And smelly. Blisters form. Muscles ache. Toes get dipped in icy streams. Freeze-dried food never tasted so good.
It’s the most magical way to travel.
Day 1: 12.7 miles At Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park, nearly 75 miles of trail, more than 17,000 feet of climbing and a slew of mountains lie ahead of us.
In the charmed grove where we start, trees stretch 250 feet into the sky. Pine cones the size of hoagie sandwiches litter the ground. It is breathtaking. It would take 10 people to encircle a single tree. I pause to hug one.
You can read the full story HERE.