Shakedown Trip #5: Day 1

(Note: I had intended this trip to be fully covered in a single post – but that’s not happening. I’ve decided to split it up into daily posts. Enjoy!)

Folks, we have yet another successful shakedown trip. Woohoo! Bottom line is that we survived sub-freezing temperatures at night, rain, daytime highs that barely exceeded freezing, and we are still alive! (cue the Pearl Jam song, “Alive.”)

For myself, in preparation for next year’s thru-hike, the primary purpose of this trip was to test out my new winter weather gear. Well, technically, I should say cold weather gear. See, in the hiking circles, the term “winter weather gear” really refers to gear that keeps you alive in ARCTIC conditions. Being that I’ll never be in arctic conditions, I can’t really call my new stuff “winter gear.” Semantics aside, I have acquired the following new gear: (I promise to update my geargrams lists soon, because I know you can hardly wait)

1. Winter sleeping bag – Western Mountaineering Alpinelite (20F rating – reviews suggest that is conservative)
2. Patagonia Merino Wool base layer (ie, thermals – these are against your skin, top to bottom)
3. Arc’Teryx Fortrez Hoody (Micro fleece insulation layer for moderately cold temperatures)
4. Arc’Teryx Cerium SL Jacket (Down/Synthetic hybrid insulation layer for very cold temperatures)
5. Mountain Hardwear rain/wind shell (protect against precipitation or high winds)
6. Mountain Hardwear Beanie Cap (added head insulator)
7. Mountain Hardwear Glove liners and shell (added hand insulator)

To summarize, my new gear was extremely effective in keeping me warm. I have no complaints whatsoever. I appear to keep hitting home runs with gear choices, which is actually a little scary. It makes me wonder what the hell I am missing! At any rate, I’m sure everyone is dying for the details of the trip, so here they are…

Day 1: Saturday, November 15th, 2014

Route US60/A.T. Intersection to Brown Mountain Creek Shelter (1.8 miles)

Prior to Saturday morning, on Friday evening, Jason and Ryan arrived at my house – our staging location. (Didn’t you know? all these shakedown trips are staged from my house – must be some Universal Constant or something like that.) The anticipation for our trip was at a high level. We each tended to packing our backpacks. Some of us had some last minute adjustments to make. Some of us had some late food-gathering tasks to perform. Some of us had to pack things we hadn’t thought of. Some of us had to eliminate items that were not needed. We had a great time examining each others gear, making suggestions and psyching each other out for the trip.

When we finally finished packing, it was time for the weigh-in. My pack came in at 22.7 lbs! I was so stoked because I was sure that my added winter clothing would tip the scales in an unfavorable direction. Jason’s pack weighed in at 26 lbs, while Ryan’s pack came in at 32 lbs. To be honest, I was quite surprised at both their packs’ weight, seeing as I’d expected them to show up with 40 pound packs. Considering that 1. they both had a minimal amount of time to acquire their gear and 2. they were outfitting based on budget, and less on weight, I was most impressed with their results. Cue Darth Vader from The Empire Strikes Back… “Impressive… Most impressive.”

We had planned on a 7:00am departure on Saturday morning. Jason heeded this relatively well, turning in at a relatively respectable 2:00am. Ryan and I, on the other hand, were idiots and stayed up until 4:00am. When we turned in, we decided that 7:00am was simply not going to happen; we made the declaration that we’d re-target for 8:00am instead.

Following that far-shorter-than-planned sleeping period, we were up by 7:30am and packing the car. With a 4 hour drive ahead of us, we finally departed my house at 9:00am. We made two stops along the way… 1. McDonald’s in Waverly, VA for some breakfast and 2. a BP gas station in Appomattox, VA.

At 1:00pm we arrived at the parking area where US 60 crosses the Appalachian Trail – our destination and starting point for the hike. We exited the vehicle, extracted our backpacks and then donned them. The pictures below capture our enthusiasm quite well – don’t we look so very excited to get going on foot?!? Hell yeah, let’s go!

 

From the parking area, we had a short 100 yard walk along the road to the trail head. With legs and trekking poles moving, I was already transitioning into mental trail mode. I spoke about that phenomenon the last few trips. It is hard to describe – it’s like, once I start walking away from the car, there’s that immediate feeling and sensation of, “This is it. I’m on my own now.” Even though we weren’t on the trail yet, I still experienced this sensation. Whether or not my companions had similar feelings, I’m not sure.

Leaving the road behind, we were finally off into the woods. I was in the lead with Jason and Ryan pulling up the rear. This was my first outing following the “falling of the leaves” and everything I’d heard about the aftermath was correct. When the leaves fall, they have a way of covering the trail. This tends to mask several features that would otherwise be very visible. Think rocks! So following the fall, hikers are left with a sadistic sense of mystery, since the true nature of the trail is not immediately visible. I found myself developing new techniques to cope with this.

Walking is such an innate skill, that none of us really thinks about the mechanics of walking. But several minutes after hiking in these leaves, I found that my stepping technique had been slightly altered. Oddly enough, the alteration wasn’t even a conscious act. As I would bring a foot step in to land on the ground, I realized that I was raising the toe of my foot before planting it. That was providing useful information to me. If a rock were to be hidden under the leaves, my foot would inform me before firmly planting my foot. The extra data allowed me the ability to adjust my foot planting to cope.

Just 10 minutes into the hike, I shot a video of Jason and Ryan hiking past me. Note, at this point, that Jason is sporting my set of loaner trekking poles while Ryan has none. I just love my trekking poles and have come to totally rely on them. Since that change, seeing a hiker without poles is just so… alien to me!

Ryan had been having a tough time with footing. The shoes he’d chosen to hike in were a little bit more worn than he’d expected. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Ryan’s lack of treads was causing him to slip and to have a few rolled ankles. So Jason came to the rescue. He donated one of his loaner trekking poles to Ryan and they both hiked one-pole-style. I’ve actually seen several hikers use this technique and it seems to work well for them. It definitely worked well for Ryan because I heard him proclaim that, “Oh wow. This is much better!”

Some 10 minutes later, only 30 minutes into the hike, we had descended to a point where the trail begins to parallel a creek. During that half hour, we’d descended about 800 feet from the parking area and covered about a mile of distance. We stopped for a short little standing break where I took this great shot of Ryan and Jason admiring the view.

Some other shots from this vantage point.

 

It must’ve been cold the last few nights because we have…

A little ways down the creek, we came across an informational sign. Prior to the Civil War, this area was worked by slaves. Following the Civil War, the land was purchased by a former slave. He built several cabins and then rented them to other former slaves. They continued to grow crops and work the land until the Forest Service purchased the land in the 1920s.

At about 2:30pm, we arrived at Brown Mountain Creek Shelter. The plan was to take a break, grab some food. We knew there were no tenting sites in the immediate vicinity of the shelter. So, we would have to scout for a suitable location. The Guthooks A.T. Guide (my new favorite program on my computer phone) indicated that tenting sites existed down by the creek. So that’s where we would look. Ryan and I headed directly down to the creek, and didn’t really find many tent sites. They were either too small, not level, or ridiculously close to the creek.

Unbeknownst to us, Jason had gone on his own scouting expedition. When we met up with him, he told us about some excellent tenting sites just a short distance downstream. Before checking it out, I shot a quick video of our shenanigans at Brown Mountain Creek Shelter. Jason shares his thoughts on his first successful scouting of a campsite, and I proclaim that “we’re not going to even bother with this shelter.” Well, little did we know at the time, this shelter would prove very useful to us in the following days!

After getting our packs on, we headed downstream to Jason’s sites. I think that’s actually an appropriate title for the thing… “Jason’s Sites.” Here are some photos from the short hike from the shelter down to the tenting sites. First, looking towards the footbridge across the creek.

The next photo looks across the creek to the “Jason Sites” which is the cleared area close to center of frame.

Jason had picked an excellent area for our tent sites. Once we arrived, we had to pick out specific spots for our tents. Doing this is such fun, depending on your definition of fun. In evaluating a tent site, you have to make sure there are no protruding rocks that might puncture your sleeping pad. You also have to make sure you’re setting up in a spot where stakes can actually be driven into the ground. Finally, you can’t have your tent so close to the creek that a flooded creek would encroach on the tent! That would be bad – very very bad.

We arrived at the Jason Sites at 3:00pm sharp and proceeded to pick out sites for our tents. After setting up our tents, we needed to adjust our clothing for camping conditions. So far, our clothing was in a hiking configuration. See, the act of hiking generates heat which requires a minor amount of insulation. Too much insulation while hiking, and one gets too hot. Once you stop hiking, all that heat generation goes bye-bye. We had to adjust our clothing to compensate. That meant adding additional insulating layers and having gloves and beanies handy. The weather forecast indicated an overnight low of 24F, and we were prepared for it.

The other factor in keeping warm… FIRE!!! Shortly after setting up tents and adjusting clothing, we decided to get our campfire going. Getting a fire going is definitely a skill, even in ideal conditions. Starting a fire in non-ideal conditions is even more of a skill. To compensate for our collective lack of skill, we brought two weapons to the table. 1. Vaseline-soaked cotton balls and 2. Instafire Fire Starter.

I’ve got to hand the “medal of fire” to my good buddy Ryan. Using one cotton ball, he was able to get a fire going. Ultimately, it would grow into a raging fire later in the evening. In fact, the phrase “Ragin’ Cajun!” was spoken several times throughout the evening. I swear, the man takes one trip out here and already has earned himself a potential trail name. I’ve been out here 5 times and where the hell is my trail name???

So with the fire going, I finally took a few photos! First up is our tents, looking towards the footbridge.

Next up is Ryan tending the fire. Jason seems to be enjoying the fire, perched on a log.

And another view of the scene… Jason is totally into watching the fire, while Ryan is totally into tending it.

To establish context, here’s a cool shot showing our tents in the foreground with the fire in the background and the creek to the right.

One final shot of the fire comes from Jason’s camera. Funny, if it weren’t for distance, one might think the flame was lapping up the side of Jason’s tent! Doh!!!

With tents setup, and fire raging, it was time to make dinner. The only remaining question was when we’d actually make it. Jason asked several times, “When’s dinner?” I would reply with, “Whenever you’re ready – Are you ready now?” He’d then finalize the exchange with something like, “Nah, I’m good right now.”

Finally, with darkness encroaching we collectively decided it was time. All of our dinners were of the re-hydrated variety. For this night, mine was Mountain House Spaghetti and Meat Sauce, Jason’s was Mountain House Beef Stew, and Ryan’s was Backpacker’s Pantry Red Beans and Rice.

I demonstrated the cooking procedure to my colleagues, which was to boil the required amount of water, add the water to the dinner pouch, then wait some 15 to 20 minutes. My plan was to get them “checked out” on my stove so they could boil their own water. Being that it was so cold out, we were already enduring sub-freezing temperatures, I had an idea to make use of a super hot dinner pouch while it re-hydrated. I decided to put the pouch inside my insulating layers for extra warmth. The side benefit is that the meal would not cool too quickly while it re-hydrated. The idea worked like a champ, and my companions followed suit.

Each of our dinners were quite tasty. There’s something about dinners on the trail, especially when it’s a hot dinner. As an example, take Ramen Noodles. Trial A: Cook up a batch at home and eat it. Trial B: Cook up a batch after a hike and eat it. I guarantee you that Trial B will triumph over Trial A by a considerable margin. Bottom line is that after a long day’s hike, whatever dinner one has will be awesome. (Within reason)

A couple notes about the dinners. Mine was amazing – I think I’ve already established that Spaghetti and Meat Sauce is my favorite. It continues to be. This was Jason’s first encounter with the Beef Stew, and he was quite pleased. Similarly, this was Ryan’s first encounter with the Red Beans and Rice dish. His evaluation was that it was quite tasty, but he felt it needed a little extra re-hydrate time as compared to the package directions. I actually agree with him – all the meals I’ve cooked up need more re-hydrate time than the package indicates.

During and after dinner, we listened too some music on my new bad-ass portable stereo system. (It really is bad-ass – for the weight of only 4 ounces we have an 8GB MP3 player and a portable speaker that is louder than you’d ever believe) We also conversed about the day, tended the fire, told stories and enjoyed each others’ company. One subject of conversation was the whole Option A versus Option B that I’d mentioned in the announcement post. We unanimously agreed that Option B was the better (and smarter) option. To re-cap option B, it meant that Day 2 would involve a simple out-and-back hike away from, and back to, our present campsite. Day 3 would then just be the reverse of Day 1 – hiking back to the car.

A couple hours later I shot a video around the fire. It was now 10:02pm, the temperature was falling, and we were just fine despite the cold. If you are offended by foul language, then don’t watch the video – there are a few colorful metaphors which are employed. (Maybe I should establish a rating system for these videos?)

Only a few minutes later, we were all feeling the effects of minimal sleep from the previous night. We finally decided to call it a night, and retreated to our tents for the evening.

To date, I haven’t taken any photos inside my tent, so I decided to try one. So here is a somewhat unceremonious and poorly lighted shot of… my feet. To the left of them is the bottom of my new bad-ass Western Mountainering Aplinelite Sleeping Bag. To the right is my new bad-ass inflation device for my sleeping pad. It also doubles as a stuff sack, as seen here, which I use to keep items together which I carry between my tent and the campsite.

Within minutes of climbing in my sleeping bag, I was asleep. As such, I had no idea what else happened until morning.

Good night! And….

Wandering On….

Kelly