Why My Body Hurts

Over the weekend I headed to Portola Redwoods State Park with four others. It was my first time really backpacking and definitely the first time I've refilled water bottles by filtering water from a stream. I realized that UC Santa Cruz's mascot, the banana slug, actually makes some sense since there are banana slugs in the Santa Cruz mountains. I also learned that clothing that wicks away sweat actually works. And my only complaint about Redwoods is if there are too many then it gets hard to see the tops and get a more exact sense of how tall they are than just really really tall!

We did 8 miles the first day and 7 miles the second. Not terribly far, but seemed a lot further with 2 days worth of stuff and 4 litters of water on my back. I was very happy when I realized that proper backpacking food is basically all the sugar, salt and fat I normally use all my willpower to avoid.




Picture didn't really capture it, but the redwood behind my head is really really tall:


More pictures here.