This past fall, my EDT (Extra-Day Trip) group and I headed to the High Sierra for a week of camping. I have to admit that I was not excited for my time in the woods as over my three/four months since my last trip, I had grown pretty accustomed to the luxuries of the Great Indoors. We made our way, with our packs fastened down to the top of our Suburban, to Evolution Valley in the beautiful John Muir Wilderness. Through fields of wheat, we drove for hours until we finally reached the trailhead. My body abruptly told me I wasn’t ready for the Great Outdoors, as the moment I stepped onto the trail, my nose began to bleed. (High altitude will do that, sometimes.) I could not help but to take this as sign from the camping gods that I was not prepared for this trip.

And I was right. Miles and miles we hiked, up hill, for three days. By the time we hit our turn-around point, we were tired, cold, and sick of hiking. No one thought that we could bear any more, but we quickly realized that we were stuck. Farthest point away from the trailhead, all we could do was hike. Two days later we found ourselves sprinting towards the Suburban in the parking lot by the trailhead.

Lessoned learned: You hike a lot faster on the way out.