Had a weekend meetup at Clinton Lake with the KC Adventure Club.  Several of us met Friday evening at the Woodridge Primitive Area and backpacked about a mile into the woods to make camp.

Saturday morning we packed up, hiked out, and drove to Overlook Park to meet more people and spend a very sweaty day hiking the North Shore trails.  In the late afternoon we went to Rockhaven Park to camp.  The strong unrelenting wind made everything difficult.

A smaller group of us hiked a bit there Sunday morning before an even smaller group went to Woodridge (again, for me) to hike the entire trail there.  I probably only hiked 18-19 miles the whole weekend but the backpack and unseasonable heat sure made it feel like more!

There was some great scenery – interesting rocks and trees along the Land’s End trail, and wild flowers blooming everywhere.

Instead of DEET, I tried an insect repellant with Picaridin – it doesn’t dissolve synthetic materials such as clothing, tents and sleeping bags – and it seemed to work well.  One mishap was that after setting up camp Friday night I found my almost-new flashlight was dead.  The button had apparently gotten clicked-on and drained the batteries at some point while packed.  The good news was that I had bought spare batteries a couple days earlier (even though there was no way I’d need them for a new flashlight, right?), the bad news was that they were $25 worth of CR123 lithium batteries.  Ouch.  I guess another mishap was the granola & protein bars melting in the heat.  How did I not see that coming?  I kinda had to lick them out of the wrapper and try to get more in the mouth than in the beard.  Gotta rethink my trail food selection for the summer.

Wild violets were blooming everywhere

Descending to the shore on the Lands End trail

Contemplation

The tunnel on the blue trail

A windy afternoon

Rockhaven Park shoreline