The Friendships of Nature
Putting People over Place in the Los Padres High Country
By Matt Kettmann | June 9, 2022
When hiking, especially with half a week of supplies and sustenance on your back, mileage really is nothing but a number. There’ve been times when my buddies and I cruised 10-plus miles in a relative breeze, and other times when we covered barely one mile during an entire, utterly grueling day. (Thanks, Sespe Gorge!) Nonetheless, whenever I learn the itinerary for the annual Los Padres National Forest backpacking trip that my friends organize each Memorial Day, I study the mileage like it’s all that matters when deciding how much to pack.
This year, for the first time ever, not only was the first-day mileage short and seemingly innocuous — just 3.7 miles, quickly up and gradually down — but we’d be staying in the same location for all three nights, using it as an outpost for day hikes and trail work. Concerns about anything being too heavy went out the window, and my existing tendency to overload just got amplified. I didn’t fret tossing in more than the usual bags of wine, plus beer, sausages, anchovies, spicy peppers, two kinds of cheese, multiple onions, garlic heads, bagel thins, chili mix, bagged tuna, a full jar of jalapeño mustard, even actual tin cans of beans — not to mention the book, binoculars, hatchet, hacksaw, journal, oatmeal, and assorted items that never even saw the light of backcountry day.
Which is the long way of complaining that this 3.7 miles to our own paradise in the Los Padres high country felt like a lot more, at least with what felt like 100 pounds on my back — and, for a while, my front, thanks to my less-than-brilliant plan to walk with a daypack strapped to my chest. (Don’t do that; just hook that one to your back too.)
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