This weekend I was feeling the urge to go off and be myself. Life has been pretty hectic lately and I was in need of an opportunity to refocus and gain some perspective. I have found that there are few things that do that better for me than a good hike that ends with a great view. The Squaw Peak trail isn't super long, it took about 3.5 hours to get to the top and that was mainly because for a few parts I was sinking in past my knees in the snow. Here is a view of the summit:
The sun was setting so I quickly dug out a spot for my tent and went to work getting it set up. Here is a picture of camp taken in the morning:
After I got everything set up I enjoyed the view while cooking dinner. Here is the view I had from one of my tent doors (taken the next morning):
Here is the view from the other door of my tent:
Part of my motivation for camping was to test out my cold weather gear. Next week I am hiking Mount Timpanogas, and I didn't want to find out the hard way that my gear wasn't what I needed. Everything worked out great for the most part. My sleeping definitely wasn't up to snuff though. It is advertised as a 20 degree bag, but with temperatures around 20 degrees last night I was a bit suspicious. Sure enough, buried in the details I found out that the "comfort rating" is 35 degrees with a "low rating" of 25. So yeah... that explains why I woke up every 1.5-2 hours cold. Oh well. It'll be a great Spring/Summer/Fall bag. I didn't buy it expecting it to be a great winter bag. The down sleeping bag that I bought today will fill that gap.
I decided to buy a down bag because between now and July I will have probably 10+ nights in situations that could easily drop below 20 degrees. No sleep is fine when your hike is only an 1.5 long. Not so much when you wake up super early to spend 12+ hours hiking.
All in all, it was a really great experience. It felt great to get away and be by myself. I'm really glad that I've fallen into these opportunities it really appreciate all of the awesome outdoor adventures around here. At times it makes me re-evaluate my distaste for Utah. I even caught myself thinking this week, "I could actually live here."
