Daily Stats
Date: August 1, 2016
Distance hiked: 15.4 km // 9.6 mi (Susan Lake to Parking lot)
Steps taken: 25,135
Time on the trail: ~ 4.75 hours
Calories burned: 1,851
Fuel consumed: 2 packs maple brown sugar oatmeal w/ walnuts + raisins, 1 packet instant coffee, 1 Snickers bar, 4 Triscuits w/ peanut butter, 1 cheese string, 500 mL Gatorade, water
Wildlife spotted: some sort of woodpecker, several large toads, more mini toads, assorted woodland creatures, and of course more moose tracks/scat
Finger crossing must really work, because I slept sooo much better last night. (I mean, it was either the finger crossing or the hiking 22 miles on a small amount of sleep…). I fell asleep quickly around 9pm and slept soundly for an hour and a half, then awoke overheating in my sleeping bag. I tossed and turned for maybe around half an hour and then fell back into a deep sleep. I woke next at 3AM, to a strange sound across the lake that I quickly convinced myself was a bear walking through the woods. It sounded like many sticks breaking, which I assumed MUST mean something was walking around over there. I lay in my sleeping bag with my heart in my throat, praying the sound wouldn’t come any closer. After a few minutes, the sound started seeming too repetitive and rhythmic to be sticks breaking under footsteps, not to mention the fact that it remained almost totally stationary. Suddenly, realization hit me. It was nothing more than a couple of persistent mink frogs, calling into the night (their call sounds similar to chopping wood, hence the ‘sticks breaking’ stream of thought). After this epiphany, I fell asleep again quickly, feeling rather silly as I had actually noted the chorus of mink frogs calling earlier in the evening (it’s a cool frog call that I hadn’t heard in person before).
Early morning light on Susan Lake, and my own personal log crossing to get to camp!
Continue reading “Western Uplands Trail Day 3: A Morning of Shinrin-yoku”