May 6th & 7th

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After a stressful morning of hauling boxes to storage, packing the car (twice), laundry, and cleaning, I finally hit the road about 3pm. Thanks to the late start, I was in traffic until I passed Hillsboro. Finally, the buildings started to thin out and it began to feel like a real road trip. I arrived at Stub Stewart State Park and went about filling out the registration slip. I had reserved aspot in advance. With that done, I began to organize my gear. The campground I selected is a hike-in campground, which means you park in the main parking lot and then walk the last 1/4 mile to your spot. The person that arrived right after I did seemed surprised by this. Luckily for him, the park supplies carts to make hauling your gear easier. I was determined to make it more like a backpacking trip and stuffed everything I needed into my back and made the walk. The campground was beautiful. The spots are dispersed among huge trees and flowering plants. I setup camp and heated up a can of soup. It was so warm that I went to sleep with just my wool blanket over me. I didn't think I'd sleep but I ended up sleeping quite well.

The next day I woke up with the sun and made a breakfast of freeze-dried coffee and freeze-dried eggs. I then set about exploring the first two hiking trails on my list. By noon it was hot and I was slowing down. Eventually I headed back to camp for a nap and dinner. I don't know why, but that evening I was feeling very run down. I didn't really want to do anything. It was probably a combination of the less than stellar backpacker meal I made for dinner and all the sun, but I sat around staring at my phone and waiting for the sun to go down. I finally crawled into bed around 9 and promptly fell asleep. That night, the weather changed. I had gone to bed under the wool blanket again and I woke up freezing. The wind was howling in the treetops. I reconfigured my sleep situation but slept in short spurts for the rest of the night. I crawled out of my tent around 6 and immediately went to making coffee. The water was just starting to get warm when the used can of fuel I had brought went empty. No coffee. I went into crisis mode. I broke camp and had everything in my pack in 10 minutes flat. I was back at the car before most people had gotten out of bed. As nice as the park was, I wasted no time getting back on the road, eager to get to the coast.

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