Thunder Creek Lightweight Overnight Hike

When it’s nine thirty at night and you still haven’t met up with the rest of the guys it’s time to call it a night.

Last week I made plans to hike up the Thunder Creek trail and meet some friends at mile 3. They had arrived the day before and were supposedly waiting for me there. I had done basic research and set off from the trail-head at just before 7 that evening.

I had just arrived from Bolivia where I lived at high altitude for over a year so I knew hiking wouldn’t be an issue. Add to that my mew lightweight Gossamer Gear Gorilla setup and lightweight Big Agnes tent and Therm-a-Rest sleeping bag and pad and I figured I could blow through the miles in an hour or a bit more. Sure enough, when I hit the trail I felt like jogging I was so in tune. I even had time to set up some neat angles for a video post.

The problem was that unbeknownst to me the neve camp was well off the trail. I had decided to plow along until I saw smoke or tents. I plowed along and at about 1.5 hours until I wondered why I hadn’t heard anything.  I figured I could have past the camp if it was along the trail, but having seen no evidence and smelled only a bit of smoke (it’s a long valley and the smoke could have been miles away) I started to think they had headed up the trail without telling me for night two.

I had two choices: turn back and look for them, or head on another half an hour in case I hadn’t arrived yet. I made the choice to hike another half an hour (there was a lot of light). I eventually saw a sign in the fading light, ‘Mcallister Camp”. I had definitely missed the neve camp. I asked around at every camp site for my crew, but they weren’t there. It turns out I had hiked about 7 miles in two hours and light was fading.

I knew that it was not a smart move to hike back to Neve camp that night so I found a small corner where I could spend the night, set up camp, ate dinner and disappeared into my Therm-a-rest sleeping bag.

When I surfaced it was 5:30 am and I was very well rested. I took down camp, ate breakfast and was on my way. I hit the trail at 6:30 am and was down to neve camp in an hour. It turns out there was a pole with the name of the camp written on it right beside the trail. What I hadn’t counted on was the fact that the camp was a good 100-200 yards off the trail.

In the end it all worked out and I met up with my friends (who were still sleeping at the time!). I made the best of a bad situation and I was reminded how important it is to keep aware and level headed when solo hiking.

Have you ever made plans to meet up with friends on the trail only to have things go wrong? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.