Nights 57 and 58

Hi and welcome back!

On Tuesday night when I went to bed, in the middle of my sleeping bag there was a small damp spot that was probably from water coming through the seam in the tent floor so I tried to avoid it. I woke up in the middle of the night and the spot had grown and gotten the fleece that I was sleeping in soaked. So I took it off, put a t-shirt on, and put a waterproof jacket over what at that point was a tiny puddle. Thankfully I slept comfortably for the rest of the night.

Today my dad left to hike about 3 minutes before me and I didn't see him again until he was descending and I was going up. When we bumped into each other he told me that he got up in a record time of 9 minutes and 38 seconds. He then decided to go up the last bit with me and I ended up having a pretty good time of 13 minutes.

Thanks for reading!

Stay Tuned...

Hi and welcome back!

Last night was another wet Tuesday.  I'm on my way to soccer right now, but I'll give you the full story tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Night 56

Hi and welcome back!

Today when I got home from school I was looking at the comments from last night's post and I saw that  Ed Viesturs had commented! I couldn't believe my eyes because for the past year I have looked at him almost like a god. Ed Viesturs is the first and so far only American to climb all of the fourteen 8,000 meter peaks in the world without supplemental oxygen. If you would like to find out some more about Ed Viesturs click here.

The Eastern Sky Early this Morning

I checked the stats for this blog today and I saw that 5 times the normal amount of people and people from 4 new countries looked at it which was surprising.

When I went out to the tent last evening it was fairly warm (high thirties) but when I woke up it was a lot colder (low twenties).

Overnight there were at least 4 or 5 owls screeching to each other, but thankfully they only kept me up for about 5 minutes unlike the 20 minutes a few days ago.

While my dad and I were hiking today I was surprised because the ground that used to be all mud was solid ground probably from the temperature dropping so quickly.

Thanks for reading!

Night 55

Hi and welcome back!

Unfortunately I do not have a hike to tell you about. This morning when I woke up in the tent I felt sick so I stayed home from school and really just read all day.

Since I read a lot of outdoorsy books, I decided to make a list of some of them for you:

Within Reach by Mark Pfetzer - a teenager climbs in the Himalayas

Tracker by Gary Paulsen - a boy tracks a doe for two days

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen - a kid survives by himself for three months in northern Canada after a plane crash

Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer - a selection of climbing stories

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - a story about the overcommercialization of Mount Everest

Everest by Gordon Korman - a trilogy about a bunch of teenagers trying to be the youngest person to climb Mount Everest

No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs - a man tries to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world.

Thanks for reading!

Night 54

Hi and welcome back!

The Valley We Live in

When I went out to the tent last night everything was dry but when I woke up this morning the sleeping bag and foam pad that were beneath me were both soaked. About two hours ago I brought both of the sleeping bags inside even though only the 20 degree bag was wet.

LRC on the Hill

Today my dad and I went on very muddy hike. When we got back I saw that the inner half of my pants  were covered in mud. I assumed that my mom would yell at me for getting them muddy but I guess she didn't notice but she did yell at my dad because Maisy was covered in mud.

Thanks for reading!

Night 53

Hi and welcome back!

It was a warmer night than usual last night (low thirties). I was originally not going to sleep in a sleeping bag and just sleep with two baselayers on my legs and a t-shirt with a down jacket because it was so warm, but after I thought about it a little I decided to sleep in what I normally sleep in with a sleeping bag on top of me.

Overnight it started to rain a little bit but thankfully the only things that got wet were my glove liners, unlike Tuesday night when almost everything end up getting wet and freezing.

Water Droplets Collecting on a Branch

At certain parts of the trail today there were puddles that were hard to avoid because there were so many of them, but once you passed them there were no more puddles for about 100 feet.

Thanks for reading!

Nights 51 and 52

Hi and welcome back!

On Wednesday evening we got the ice off of the tent because it was warmer than in the morning when we had first noticed the ice. The main reason that my dad and I didn't take the ice off of the tent in the morning was because we were afraid that we would rip the fly.

This morning at about 1:00am my dad and I heard two owls calling to each other even though they were about half of a mile apart. One of the owls was northeast of the tent and the other was southwest. Dad noticed them and went straight back to sleep but they kept me up for about 20 minutes until they stopped.

When I was going inside from the tent today I saw that most of the sky was orange from the spectacular  sunrise.   

My dad and I decided not to hike this morning but we forgot that my mom and sister were going to be gone for most of the evening and that we would have to hike with my 3 year old brother (who's name I can't tell you). Instead of going all of the way up the hill today we just wandered around the field out back, because my brother was running ahead of us, and we didn't want him to get lost in the woods.

LRC and his brother J

We led him over to check out the pond, which was solid ice. I jumped onto it and I didn't even feel any give under my feet.  

Thanks for reading!