September 24, 2022 - Princess Campground

 

Title: September 24, 2022 - Princess Campground
Hike Info : Description :  Background 

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking : Camping

Trail head: Big Stump Parking Lot

Trail:  Hitchcock Meadow Trail

Destination: Hitchcock Meadow 

Distance:  1.1 miles 1

Elevation Rise: 270 '

Descent: 270‘

Maximum Elevation: 6,322'

 ¹No GPS tracks. created route on Google Earth

Description:

Today, after Sherri gets done with a fitting for a pair of pants for Andrea, we will leave. I spend the morning taking care of things, making sure we have everything I need to pack, packed. When Sherri gets back, we order lunch from the Train Depot. I have a pastrami sandwich while Sherri has a chicken melt. I think Steven has a pork something. With the car packed, I take a quick shower and we are ready to leave by 2:15.

Today is a free day at the National Parks, as much as it means to us with our old people’s pass-we get in free anyway. Still it is good that people are able to come and enjoy our Nation’s parks. We have an uneventful drive, arriving at Princess Campground at 3:30. We have site 004, which looks as good as the photo on Recreation.gov showed it.

Sherri blowing up a mattress

We set up camp, which is pretty much old hat for us. It should be after 46 years camping together-correction, 45 years, 364 days. But one thing that is not old hat are the mattresses. While our MondoKing ThermaRest mattresses are very comfortable when fully blown up, they take forever to inflate. Sherri’s eventually becomes acceptable, but mine is something I will need to make due. My mattress is something which I will be ragging on more in the coming days.

We had dinner for lunch, so I have a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich while Sherri has the remains of her Train Depot chicken melt.We prepare to go to a Dark Sky event at Big Stump-should start at 9pm, but I think if this is at all an attraction, the parking lot will fill up. So we leave at 6.

 

 

 

This gets us to Big Stump by 6:30. It still is light, but will darken soon. So we went for a short hike down to Hitchcock Meadows. I did this trail for the first time last year. Not spectacular, but it is pleasant. The trail descends out of the Big Stump parking area. There are many Sequoia’s along the way which refresh us. Also in the twilight, everything looks a bit different-not ominous like a horror film, but there is a difference than during the daytime. We make it to the Meadow at 7, look it over and turn around and go back.

We get back to the parking lot about 7:40-it takes us a bit longer to come back up than go down. We get the opportunity to sit on the curb for a few minutes. Apparently there is much more of a crowd than they were expecting and the parking lot is full. The sky has turned dark by 8, so they open up the viewing.

Night Sky from Indian Basin

And the viewing is phenomenal! I have a Celestron telescope, pretty basic. But these bring far away objects right there into view with a great deal of clarity. The very first one we see is a cluster of stars called M13. Once I figure out what I am looking at, it takes my breath away. Then onward to other telescopes pointed at various objects. But maybe the highlight, no pun intended was when we looked at something a lot closer: Jupiter. Not only was Jupiter right there, but so were the four moons which Galileo saw. I think even though we are removed by 400 years, I had a similar reaction as he did when he first saw them: I have seen the most wonderful things!*

As the parking lot is crowded, we are being asked if we have looked through several telescopes, if we could leave and let others into the parking lot. So we leave and get back to camp after 8:30. After that inspiration, Sherri is all geared up for another night sky experience tomorrow night. We walk over to the Indian Basin Meadow by Princess Campground. It looks like it will fit the bill for viewing tomorrow night. By 10pm, we are snug in our new his and hers Nemo Forte sleeping bags-Sherri keeps on trying to improve our camping experience. But the one downer is that my mattress seems a bit mushy. I will deal with that in the morning.

Background

*I got this quote from Larry Parmeter. He just published a book called Andromeda’s Children. Looking forward to reading it. It is available on Larry’s web site for a free download.