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| Backpack | 23.00 Miles |
2,892 AEG |
| | Backpack | 23.00 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 2,892 ft AEG | | | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Tons of fun this weekend. I took three backpacking rookies out to Horse Camp Seep and tested their salt. Everyone did fantastic.
We headed up the Barnhardt Trail and had to play a little leap frog for a while. There was a huge meet-up group going up to the falls. They were all friendly but an enormous group. They didn't get much of a show at the falls. I recommended to a few that they might try a couple months earlier next year to get the real show. Once out of the canyon, we only came across a couple pairs-- both on their way back from overnights.
I had prehiked this last weekend to check on water supplies and cached 6 liters at Horse Camp Seep. Seeing how much the falls had dwindled in just a week made me a little nervous that we would only have the cached water at the site, so I was hoping there would still be pools in the drainage before the descent down near Chilson Camp. I knew we were in luck when we startled three deer in the creek bed. We all filled up everything we had and made the final push out to Horse Camp Seep.
Arriving at our camp spot, we found the bigger pool filled to the brim and we could see large pools farther down the creek as well. We would have no water issues. We did, though, find on arrival that someone had already laid claim to camping here. It was getting too late to head somewhere else and I didn't know of any doable other spots with a water source. There was only one hammock set up and, well, what really is the courtesy rule on this kind of stuff?  Backpackers tend to be cool and understanding folks, right?
The girls were pretty tired at this point so I told them to rest up. I dropped my pack and figured since it was getting pretty late in the afternoon, I might be able to run into the person and say "hey"-- they must be north on the divide somewhere. I quickly hiked about a mile and half to see if I'd run into them or maybe find another camp spot. Failure on both but I'd given it a try so I headed back. We set up camp as far away under the canopy as possible.
Just before dark, we finally met our camp mate. We apologized for cramping his space but he said he was glad to have us.  He was spending a few days doing some trail maintenance on the AZT. Thanks, Joe, for being so hospitable, friendly, and fixing up these trails!
We waited for the sun to go down, did some stargazing, and went to bed pretty early. We woke up the next morning and headed out. The temperature was a little warm but we had a nice breeze which made it about perfect. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. Coming back was cake compared to slogging uphill the day before. Awesome weekend. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
