MY back packing trip!

My husband and I went with a dear friend of ours to the Los padres national forest this weekend. Went to a camping spot called Manzana. It was perfect weather. A full moon. We went swimming in the river which was not freezing. Of coarse it took me like 20 minutes of wading in it before i got the nerve to just dive in. Once I did it was awsome (sorry cali girl coming out). We ate good. Steak, mash potatoes and pea's as well as marinated mushrooms. The next night we had instant chicken soup. We always eat well the first night. But the instant chicken soup i made was darn yummy.
The down side to the trip was all the ticks, our friends dog Dozer was with us. He is this really handsome black lab. You could see all the ticks on him. we were picking them off at night and throwing them into the fire. He had flea and tick stuff on too. Great night time entertainment! Plus our friend Dan played the hermonica for us then plugged in he's ipod to a little speaker thingy. That was cool. not your dad's back packing of old.
And we were camped under this giant oak tree. It must have been 65 feet round. Well every type of catapillar was on this oak tree. they were always raining down on us. And falling into the fire. It was an established camp site too.
The boy scouts had come through about 4 years ago and built tese great benches with little lockers on them. There was a journal in ours.The boy scout who made the table put it there.He wanted people to leave comments. But he didn't write the date he built it. I guessed it was in 2002. It was funny what the people who wrote in it. "great table" " grandpa and I stayed here 5 days" ,"Awful weather", one person drew a picture of a bear dragging away camper. I guess some people leave food in the lockers. One person said thanks for the strawberry jam. We left hot chocolate and tea. And I left a piece of tin foil and and energy drink packet. oh and a package of oatmeal.The lockers don't have holes for critters to get into. I would be happy to find the hot chocolate if I was back packing!
Today when I got up and walk down stairs I almost couldn't walk down stairs. My calves are killing me. and I have a couple good blisters on my feet. We hiked only about 4 miles in and another 2 the next day to the swimming holes. My pack was only 35 pounds. You would think with all the riding it would help, but different group of muscles I guess.
I will post a couple pictures if anyone would like me too. All in all it was a great no cost little vacation! Highly recommend it!

I'd love to see pictures!

And 35 is not a light pack, so no wonder you're sore as heck. I'm always amazed the difference a pack makes, especially on your knees if you're hiking downhill!

Anyway, glad you had a good trip. It's always lovely when Mama Nature decides to bless you with perfect weather for an outing!

K.

Great story Brandi - LOL, you shoulda caught some of those caterpillars in your frying pan as extra protein to garnish your steak!

Glad you had a great time - its too cold here now for that, snow low two nights ago, and it feels like more was dumped overnight - its 5:55am at the moment... I'll check when there is light outside.

Road - slightly-jealous - Raven

Your post made me miss backpacking...how I fondly remember those times in spite of carrying way more than I should and all the maurading critters. There is something so cleansing in having only what you can carry and simplifying, even if it's just for a weekend.

I grew up in your neck of the woods and spent a lot of time in the forest there. Not familiar with Manzana. Is it near the Big Sur River? Is that the river you swam in? I always remember that river being super cold. Or were you inland, near Pozo? The LP is a funny forest, all broken up into pieces.

Glad you had a good time.