Author Archives: Shawn

Facing the Elements: Joshua Tree Backpacking in a Rain Storm

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Join me for 3 days of Backpacking, Hiking and Desert Camping in the Rain while  exploring California’s Joshua Tree National Park.

For this winter desert camping adventure, I decided to do a solo backpacking trip in Southern California’s Joshua Tree National Park.  I chose the Maze zone as my primary area of exploration, with the added possibility of hiking along the storied Boy Scout Trail as well.

Due to backcountry camping permit regulations, I chose to obtain a permit for camping within the Maze Zone, with the possibility of hiking into and exploring the Boy Scout Zone by day.  This was mostly due to the fact that the Boy Scout Zone is the only JNP zone that requires you to specifically get a permit for 1 of 8 specific campsites, and I wanted to have some more flexibility to choose my campsites on the fly.

Getting a permit for the Maze zone allowed me to camp anywhere I wanted as long as I was at least 1 mile from an official trailhead, one half mile from any road, and 200 feet from any trail.  Prefect – that sounded like exactly the solitude I was looking for.

Being February in the Mojave Desert, my expected temperature range would be from roughly 40 to 75 degrees or so.  What about rain, you ask?  Well, 336 days out of the year, the answer would be a solid – “No need for rain gear over here!”.  I apparently arrived on one of those 29 other days.  No worries though. I think it provided a pretty unique opportunity to see the Mojave Desert during one of it’s most vital times for survival of plants and animals in this arid environment – a desert rain storm curtesy of El Niño.

For sleep and shelter, I packed in my Outdoor Vitals Fortius trekking pole tent, a 3-season sleeping pad and my Hammock Gear 40° down quilt.  Reliable drinking water is pretty much non-existent in Joshua Tree National Park regardless of the season, so I was tasked with packing in all of my drinking water for the entire 3 day trip.  For this reason, I decided to skip the usual dehydrated backpacking meal choices in favor of some cheap and easy ready to eat food options.

I also opted to ditch the stove and just go the no-cook backpacking food route, because why not?   Honestly, my pack was jammed to the hilt with water, and I just wasn’t in the mood to carry more fuel and cooking supplies.

Route Overview – Smoky Mountains Little River Gorge Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

A permit is required for backcountry camping in Joshua Tree National Park.  You can reserve them on the Joshua Tree National Park website here.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, water sources, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Camping in a Shutdown Wilderness

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3 Days of Backpacking and Camping in the Dolly Sods Wilderness.

For this spring backpacking adventure, we headed down to West Virginia’s Dolly Sods Wilderness are for some hiking, camping, good views and good times. Oh, and some seclusion – we got more of that than we bargained for on this one.

Dolly Sods is the highest plateau east of the Mississippi River, with a wide variety of terrain and ecology, covering over 17,000 acers. Despite this vastness, it’s still a pretty well known spot amongst east coast hikers. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, and a little stubborn determination to do a 3 mile road hike, this ended up being one of my most unique experiences in the Sods, as it was virtually void of other backpackers.

James and I both went with single person tent camping setups on this trip to give us more camping options in the windswept, treeless areas that cover much of the plateau. We also packed in a bunch of real food and a frying pan to try our hand at some fun camp cooking recipes.

Oh, and speaking of cooking – did I mention that this wasn’t just the emptiest I’ve every seen Dolly Sods, but it was also the driest? They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. In our case, we had plenty of lunch, but there certainly were no free water sources. We would have to work a bit for that….

Our goal for this trip was to really just wing a do a good mix of time at camp and some mileage as needed, of course. If you’re planning a hike of your own in Dolly Sods and would like some detailed info on the area, including GPS data, gear used and trail descriptions, check out this post, where I do a solo backpacking trip with a full loop of the plateau and hike the majority of it’s main trails.

Season: Spring 2023

No permit is required to camp in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information on the USFS Dolly Sods website here.

Trailhead Used: Bear Rocks Trailhead,  N39° 03.794′ W79° 18.197′
Public Rd 75, Davis, WV 26260

The Bear Rocks trailhead has room for many vehicles and is reached via a dirt / gravel road. The grade is not too aggressive and should be fine for most 2wd cars if driven carefully (I saw a couple when I was there). No parking fee or permit required. Loop begins behind the large info board.

Dolly Sods Printable Trail Map from the USFS

Beginner Backpacking – Campfire Cooking & Abandoned Hotels on Echo Lake

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3 Days of Camping and Backpacking on Echo Lake in the Catskill Mountains.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this backpacking trip, we headed up to New York’s Catskill Mountains for 3 days of campfire cooking, mountaintop abandoned hotel exploration and lakeside camping with crew consisting of a wide range of experience levels – all the way from 10 years to a very first backpacking trip.

Our Late Fall temperature range for this trip was between 35° and 70° without a chance of rain until the latter half of the trip.  With the possibility of rain on our last day hike out, and the addition of some fun comfort items like a stool, firewood saw and some other surprise goodies, my base weight was a little over my typical sub-10lb base weight for this particular trip.

Mike and I went with hammock camping setups for this backpacking trip, while Mike’s son and his friend decided to share a Nemo 3 person tent. Our  plan was to do our 3 day trip basecamp style by snagging a decent campsite alongside Echo lake and remaining there for both nights.  This would allow us to do a day hike up towards Indian Head Mountain on the ridge lighter daypacks.  This also gave us the advantage of returning to a campsite that was already setup if our hike back ended up taking longer than expected.

Water would be plentiful at basecamp due to the nearby lake, but their is beaver activity in the area, so water filtration and / or treatment is strongly encouraged.  There is also a stream that feeds the pond not to far from where the spur trail for the Echo Lake Shelter begins.  Our chosen campsite was on the opposite side of the lake, so went the filtration route with my Katadyn BeFree water filer system.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, etc, for this trip Sintax77 and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Summer Backpacking – Fog, Rain & Shelter on the Old Loggers Path

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3 days of Backpacking, Trekking Pole Tent Camping and Lean-to Shelter Camping on the Old Loggers Path.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this 3 day, 2 night summer backpacking trip, I decided to revisit the OLP in Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock State forest.  The OLP is a 27 mile backpacking loop along babbling brooks, waterfalls, hardwoods and hemlocks. I previously did this loop counter-clockwise as a solo hike a couple of years ago, but there was so much to soak in that I decided it would be worth hiking it again. This time I would hike it clockwise with my buddy Dave from Outdoor Vitals, who recently moved out to Pennsylvania from Utah.

Dave had never camped in a lean-to shelter before, so we targeted the Sprout Point shelter for our first night, followed by some tent camping along the confluence of Rock Run and Yellow dog run on the second night.  This would also be my first time experimenting with an ultralight trekking pole tent, so I was looking forward to trying that out.

Our weather ranged from highs in the upper 70’s with fairly high humidity, and lows in the upper 60’s.  This allowed me to save weight by packing a lightweight 40° quilt and leaving my extra warm clothing layers at home.  There was a possibility of rain each day though, so I packed in full rain gear. I also brought a folding saw and some other comfort items, so my base weight was still right around 10 lbs despite the warm forecast.

Trail conditions on the OLP are a mix of nice flat dirt sections, punctuated by spurts of steep sections littered with Pennsylvania’s infamous rocks to keep you on your toes ; literally.  Despite the occasional rough sections, the average daily gross elevation gain was only around 1,500 feet per day. Potential water sources are fairly plentiful on the Old Loggers Path, but the key word is potential. When I went before in spring, I got by with only carrying around 1 liter of water at a time.  This time around things were very dry, so the only water sources we used were the two that are always flowing – Pleasant Valley Stream and the Rock Run / Yellow Dog Run confluence.

Route Overview – Old Loggers Path Clockwise Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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Gear for Winter Backpacking – Tips, Tricks & Budget Options

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How to go Winter Backpacking. Cold Weather Camping Gear & options for every Budget.

Playlists Mentioned in the Video

Winter Backpacking Gear Discussed

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Sara Talks Hiking Hydration – Nomadik Box

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Sara uses this Month’s Nomadik Subscription Box to do an Important PSA about Hydration.

10% off – use code “sintax10” with this link.

This Month’s Theme
Hike Longer, Go Further

Items in this Month’s Nomadik Box

Sara on Instagram @SarasGreatAdventures

Disclosure: A commission is received for purchases through the above links. Your support is appreciated and makes the backpacking trip videos on this channel possible.

By the way, don’t mistake my giving you a 10% off code as some sort of order to do something. Be a smart cookie. Do your own research. Duh. 😉