It’s quite scary to wake up and not know where you are. When you find out you’re totally alone and in the mountains you’re not sure how to react. Last night was my first full night alone, now I face my first full day of my solo. I look down at my watch, 10:30am. It’s the first time sleeping in past nine for over two weeks. For those of you who know me, this is much more remarkable than climbing numerous mountains.
I squeeze out of my tarp and stretch out the night’s stiffness. It was a long cold miserable night. Other than being frozen and having to once again wear fleece mitts on my toes, I was terrified by the noises around me. What was probably a chipmunk, I would have sworn was a bear just about to devour my feet.
I walked over to the kitchen, where I hung my bag of food from a tree, and had a few bites of GORP for breakfast. My water was extra cold as it had frozen a nice thick layer throughout the night. As I sat and ate I realized that I had nothing to do. When I realized and recognized this feeling of having nothing to do, I panicked. I haven’t had a day with nothing to do since grade 11 summer. The feeling was so foreign to me and so buried in my past that I had a hard time adjusting to it. Instead of dealing with it I went back to bed.
A lot of people think that being tired is a result of not getting enough sleep yesterday. The solution is to sleep more today and tomorrow you’ll be fine. From my experience tiredness creeps up on you and gradually adds weight to your shoulders and the bags under your eyes. It’s very much like a tractor pull when you come to think of it. As you drag along further and further, often months at a time, the weight gets closer and closer to you and eventually becomes so unbearably heavy that you stop dead in your tracks.
I woke up at three o’clock in the afternoon. The sun was beaming down on my tarp raising the temperature inside to the temperature of my living room at home. Very nice. I quickly scrambled out of my tent and brought my damp items out to the rock in the meadow to dry. I sat in the sun for hours, soaking in as much heat as I could.
As the sun started to dip I returned to my hut with my warm and dry gear. I gulped down more dry food and crawled into my tarp for another freezing cold night of bear dreams.