July 26th
I was up early and a little antsy to get going. Originally, we had discussed breakfast at 8:00 when the restaurant opened and leave by 9:00. There was not a lot of conviction on the part of the others. By 7:30, when I heard no stirrings whatsoever from their room, I asked the proprietor if he could run me to the trail. He was agreeable.
I started the climb back up to the Continental Divide on the west side of the valley. Even though the vegetation was the same, the geology was different as the rocks were more lava like. What an interesting geology in this area.
About 5 miles in to my climb, my backpack felt funny in the way it rode. I reached down and found one of the two carbon fiber sup port rods had poked through the support fabric. I took off the pack and noticed the other one was about to tear through as well.
Basically, the support for my backpack is a rectangle with two horizontal bars and two carbon fiber vertical bars. The vertial bars are able to flex allowing curvature so there is a gap along most of my back for ventilation. It also distributes weight between shoulder straps (upper bar) and waistbelt (lower bar). Unfortunately, friction and weight caused the rods to eat their way through the fabric. It is a design flaw, in my opinion, to expect fabric to support weight transferred through a rod tip.
The upshot was that I was stuck with a pack where all the weight would rest on my shoulders and run flush along my back. At first, I thought my trip was over. To put it in perspective, I carry about 75 % of the weight on my hips and 25% on my shoulders.
I was still able to get cell coverage. The manufacturer, a small business, does not have a phone number. I emailed a description, marked it urgent, and hoped for the best.
As I waited, I came up with a patch. I was not going to stop or turn around if I could help it. I cut off some off the strap that provides chest compression (pulling the two shoulder straps towards each other across the upper chest). I folded the small piece of strap in half and stuck it over the tip. It was bigger than the hole, so it served as a plug. After wrestling with the carbon fiber rod, I eventually got it in place and it held.
Later, when I was able to get access, I received an email from the company saying they were short on staff and if the email was urgent, to mark it as such, and send it. So I forwarded my urgent email with a second urgent and hoped for good news. This company does have a reputation of standing behind their products, so I was hopeful that I would not get the “send it in for repair” run around.
So, with a patch and a prayer, I set off again. First I was on top of Little Table Mountain then after a decline and climb I was walking along the top of Big Table Mountain.
It was warm and some thunderstorms were developing, but they were always off in distance. This had the twin effects of motivating me to get moving, but also to block the sun and cool things off.
Generally, this is dry territory. Late in the day, I made it to the last reliable springs. Someone had developed it such that the spring water was routed through a pipe into a long trough. I could barely make out sheep sounds in the distance and the trough must’ve been for them. Unfortunately, the spring water had a lingering sheep shit flavor, even after filtering. Hello crystal light!
While filling up, Wash Pot and Moonbeam showed up. They started around 11 from Lima, so I was glad to have left when I did.
I pushed on until 8:00 (met a lady from England going northbound) and found a campsite where someone had gone crazy cutting firewood. Initially the mosquitos were very intense as I set up my tent. However, just when I switched to cooking dinner the wind kicked in. This blew away the bugs, but made my little wood-burning stove a handful making sure I didn’t spread sparks.
Even though it was windy, I was able to fall asleep quickly. If only I hadn’t taken that midnight swig of sheep flavored water it would’ve been a great night’s sleep.
backpacking over the hill 