This past weekend I enjoyed an overnight trip up Mt. Isolation, one of the 4000 footers in the White Mountains. Arrived at the trailhead later in the day, beginning my hike around 4 PM. After hiking in four miles, I set up camp, deloaded a bit and continued on to the summit of Mt. Isolation. I ended up cutting it close in terms of making it for sunset but I wound up making it in time. But I foolishly left my cook kit at camp meaning that I couldn't make dinner until I returned - and I was starting to realize that I wasn't going to be getting back until 9:30-10:00 PM or so.
Thankfully a lady at the summit let me use her stove and I was able to enjoy my dinner while watching the spectacular sunset behind the Southern Presidentials. Then it was the quiet hike back down to my hammock in the dark. I found hiking at night to be enjoyable in its own way but I was pretty tired and gladly flopped into my hammock at the late hour of 10:30 PM.
I slept well and amazingly didn't get up a single time to pee. I was very hot in the hammock at first but temps cooled into the 50s as the night wore on and a few strong wind gusts rocked the tarp, forcing me to add layers. Overall a great night of sleep though. A quick morning coffee and then I packed up and headed down as I had another full day of hiking planned.
Bookmarks