Ten things I learned during Backpacking 101

1. My sleeping bag ROCKS! 20 degrees? Bring it on!
2. Tent vestibules are where it's at.
3. It's very easy to see into tent windows from the nearby trail.. oops!
4. Elk bugles sound like emergency whistles to the untrained ear. (Definitely one of the highlights of trip that I neglected to mention last post!)
   
   
5. Apparently, garbage stinks a lot after 3 days.
6. If you fall, try to fall on your pack, and not your arm/shoulder, lest someone tell gross shoulder dislocation stories about you on future backpacking trips.
7. Pumping water is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
   
8. Being able to plow the Forester through sketchy deep puddles on dirt roads definitely makes up for the less than stellar gas mileage.
9. My hip bones get "saddle sore" very easily. I'll have to work on that! (From the pack's waist belt people... get your mind out of the gutter!)
   
10. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be able to experience weekends like this. :-)