Backpacking Adventure! Photo Heavy!

Here are some pictures from our most recent backpacking trip. We hike in Hoosier National Forest near Bloomington. We park our car in a lot next to a lookout tower and then we take off from there into the mighty forest! The area where we go is approx. 13,000 acres....yes that is alot of trees!!

Here you can see our "bench" next to the firepit. Also our backpacks that we carry with everything we need inside them. Can you tell which one is mine? LOL! Even though it is small I think it still weighs around 35 pounds...hubbies is about twice the size of mine. Doesn't sound like much but try carrying it for hours going up and down hills! Starts feeling like a ton!



Since carrying everything can get pretty heavy a backpackers goal is to cut back on weight whenever possible so that is where this tiny tent comes in handy. It is barely big enough for both of us but it works.



The next morning we woke up to a temperature of 32 degrees F. Right at freezing and so glad I wore several layers including my long johns! I felt good as long as I kept moving! So we took off hiking in search of mushrooms (wild morels) and geocaches. For those of you that aren't aware of what geocaching is and would like to know please click HERE.

The geocache I found was under a rock.


The geocache hubby found was in a tree hole.


*Some people don't trade but I like to do that so we have a stash of goodies we bring along....this trip I was able to collect a nice lock with key AND a brand new pocket knife still in the packaging! SCORE!!! That is not typical though...we usually only find tiny trinkets like litte kids toys, keychains, bottlecaps....whatever we can find in our junk drawers! LOL!*

It was an excellent year for mushroom hunting!! We found over 350 in ONE DAY!! This is a picture of about 450 wild morels....YUM! And yes, I carried these bags in my hands for miles while hiking...I didn't want anything to happen to them. Very protective of my prized vittles! LMAO!



We were getting hungry and decided to stop for lunch. We found a nice big tree down that we used as a "table/kitchen".



And this is our lunch....thank goodness for dehydrated food!! Add hot water and your good to go! Plus we decided to enjoy some of our hard work and eat a few fresh mushrooms. Those took a bit more work but well worth the effort!



During our hike we found some tree sapling huts. Very interesting! Not exactly sure if they are used and get covered or if people make them to pass the time? Either way I thought they were pretty cool!



Bark falling off a tree....makes a neat picture doesn't it?



Here I am showing off two MONSTER sized mushrooms that I found....they were HUGE compared to what we normally find! This was on our way hiking out of the forest....time to head home.



This was one of the best trips EVER!! Peaceful, relaxing, fun and the perfect weather without bugs driving us nuts!! Hope you have enjoyed seeing some pics of our backpacking adventure!