Backpacking Trip (Lots of Pictures!)

The week before finals I was the designated week for my Advanced Backpacking Trip. Things were a little stressful before leaving for four full days right before finals. However things worked out all right. My teacher made me get a doctors note to say that it was alright for me to go. The doctor said it was fine but if it was any later on in the pregnancy it wouldn't be.

I am a Recreational Management major so I have to take skills classes. When I found out I was pregnant I quickly signed up for the two classes that had room and fit my schedule. Backpacking happened to be one. Luckily I was over morning sickness for the most part when I went out at 17 weeks. The doctor told me to keep my weight low though! So I packed as little as possible and really used everything in my pack but my extra batteries and camp suds. So I thought I did pretty well. However my pack weighed 35 lbs still.

Our class started with 10 students but by the time of the trip there were 4 students, 1 TA, 1 Teacher. We were more like a small family then a class.

We left on Wednesday and below is kind of what I felt. I was a little nervous about the trip.




We called ourselves the Bandanna Gang. We all had different color bandannas.

Kristian , since he was the boy carried a lot of group gear. He carried a huge summer sausage for us. Kyla below was the only one who actually ate her whole serving though.

Our first night out we were hanging bear bags and we got something caught. All of us got on the parachute cord and pulled. After we were done we saw the tremendous force that we had. As you can see below we nearly chopped this tree in half!!! It was a little frightening to see that our force and what a little piece of rope could do.

Our second day out we saw quite a few of these varmen. The other girls had a couple of these come and visit them during the night. Luckily they only gnawed on things rather than did serious damage.

This was our last campsite. We all decided to sign our headlamps to make a really cool picture.

On this trip I felt like we did some real mountaineering. We were required to bring a trekking pole which I was so glad about.We crossed snow on steep slopes to get down and across treacherous rocky areas. It was a real adventure! There was one snow pile we were crossing and I got so nervous of slipping I decided to CAREFULLY slide down it. It was fun actually and a lot less scary then walking.


All the girls at the top!

Just some nice views:

( I really can't jump high at all!)

Overall it was a good trip. We climbed from about 7,000 ft to 10,00ft. I had to take frequent stops. My teacher kept making me feel better by saying that the baby was stealing half my oxygen and the air was thinner up here. There was one point by the end second day where I had to stop. We ended up splitting into two groups and the heaviest items in my pack were divided among others. My class was great for helping me make it all the way!

Oh yeah we went to the Tetons on our adventure. In an area called Granite Basin.