Will and I had arrived in Utah from flat land Texas the month before for his internship at U of U medical center and a medical student working with him asked if he wanted to backpack into the Uintah Primitive Area one long weekend. So we did.
We rented packs from a sporting goods store in SLC, bought kapok filled sleeping bags with pictures of pine trees and deer on the material as well as a heavy pup tent with wooden poles. We loaded them and more up in our apartment, put the packs on, but I couldn’t stand up with mine on. I was 25 and buff! Will got ropes, white tube socks and big Kotex pads he stuffed in each tube sock and hitched me up with the contraption going over my head to pull forward with. Also we needed to create padding against the front of my body where the pack straps dug in.
The next day we met up with the young med school couple whose pack set up looked considerably different than ours. About five hours into the hike toward our supposedly beautiful camping area beside a mountain lake in the Uintahs...I cried “uncle” and begged to be left under a large tree on the rock I and my pack had collapsed onto. My pleas of “I’ll be fine, just leave me alone!” went unheeded and I don’t remember the winning argument, but we all set off together once again. The area where we stopped was, indeed, beautiful with a lake nestled at the base of higher peaks. I remember Will caught a couple of small trout we cooked for dinner and a hike without packs the next day.
My overall memory of it was positive, but I didn’t
backpack again until 25 years later. Maybe the muscle memory was
too pervasive. Then at my first Broads Board member meeting I attended as a new
Board member Rose asked us to recall our first back packing trip and mine
slowly emerged to the surface. Rose cracked up laughing and I remembered then
that I had an ancient photo somewhere to prove it. Several years later I came
across it and have meant to send it to her ever since. By the way, those are
our heavy sleeping bags you can see across our shoulders and, of course, no comfy pads under them. Whatever!
My first backpacking trip I used my brother's pack that I think he might have made out of a Frostline kit. In the 1980s I wanted my own backpack and at Wolfe's in downtown Salt Lake City they had a beautiful JanSport backpack designed specifically for women. I wanted it so badly, but it cost $60 (about $160 in today's money) and I didn't have enough. I remember going to visit the backpack at the store while I saved up. It turned out to be a great investment! Nearly 40 years later, I still have that backpack and I still use it sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great promotion for quality equipment! Frostline also was a good product. di
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