Quoted By:
Adirondacks
Drove five hours on Saturday morning to beat the traffic and arrived at my trailhead at around 12pm. There were already four other cars when I got there, and about ten minutes later another car pulled up right next to me; so I figured I wasn't the only one who had this idea to find a relatively remote campsite and watch it from there. I should also mention, that there was snowfall a few days before and saw it on the ground driving in, but I had already came so far and prepared so much for this trip to turn around, so despite the unexpected weather conditions, I began my two mile trek.
This was only my second time ever backpacking, and a huge step-up from my first experience, which was in the summer. I had made a bunch of upgrades to my pack since then, so I thought that it'd be a lot easier carrying 30 pounds on my back with a proper pack instead of in a daypack and a duffel bag. In comparison to my first experience, the trail was three times shorter too.
However, at around half a mile in, I realized I made a grave mistake and forgot my eclipse glasses in the car. Going down the trail was no sweat, but turning around and going back up proved to be much more of a challenge. After I had finally made it back to my car, I had to make the decision if I should just wait it out in town or just catch my breath and go back in. Ultimately, I decided to cut down on the total weight of my pack and leave a bunch of stuff in behind in the car, which helped a ton. I went from carrying 30 pounds to about 20.
The second problem I ran into was when I finally arrived at the lean-to I planned to stay in, I found out that it was already pretty much occupied, or at least they wanted me to go try scoping out the other lean-to a mile and a half down more before letting me in (there were four people). With no other choice, I began walking in the direction they said to go and starting making my way to the second lean-to.
