3 Days Hammock Camping with 8 Pounds of Gear

3 days of Hammock Camping & Solo Ultralight Backpacking in Virginia’s George Washington National Forest.

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, I headed down to the border of Virginia and West Virginia for some early spring camping to get a dose of some warmer weather, babbling brooks, and mountain views.

With the milder temps and decent forecast, I was able to get my base weight down to 7.75 pounds, a welcome change after hauling some pretty heavy loads my previous few backpacking trips.

For sleep and shelter, I went with my minimalist hammock camping setup consisting of a 10 oz hammock, 5 oz tarp, and a pair 40° down quilts.  The 14 mile Little Schloss Loop has a decent amount of unofficial, but preestablished campsites with some nice  open areas and decently spaced trees, making it a great loop for hammocks. You can find my full backpacking gear list for this trip at the end of this post.

Water is plentiful on the Little Stony Creek side of the loop, but the ridge side of the loop that I started with is dry for the first 5 miles, so I packed in a full load of water for my first day.  Finding water every couple of miles on the remaining two days was no problem at all.

Route Overview – Little Schloss Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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A Walk in the Woods – Hammock Camping the Old Loggers Path

Join me for 3 days of Hammock Camping & Ultralight Backpacking on the Old Loggers Path in Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock State Forest.

For this 3 day, 2 night spring backpacking trip, I’ll be hiking a roughly 28 mile backpacking loop along babbling brooks, waterfalls, hardwoods and hemlocks.  Being shoulder season in north central Pennsylvania, my weather ranged from highs in the 70’s down to just below freezing at night, with a little bit of rain sprinkled in for good measure.

Due to the weather, I packed some extra layers and a full set of rain gear.  This increased my pack weight a bit, but I still managed to come in with a base weight of around 10.5 lbs or so.  Water on the Old Loggers Path is fairly plentiful, so I got by with only carrying around 1 liter of water at a time.

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.  I chose to do the loop in a counterclockwise direction, as this allowed me to camp in the Rock Run area after only about 7 miles after my mid-day start on day one.

 

Old Loggers Path – Route Overview – Sintax77

No permit is required for dispersed camping in the Loyalsock State Forest, so long as you are only camping one night at each campsite.  You can find more information on the Loyalsock State Forest 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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Ultralight Backpacking Gear List 2017

A detailed look at my 2017 Ultralight Backpacking Gear List (warm weather & 3-season)

For a detailed list of my backpacking gear, with itemized weights and descriptions, you can download PDF and CSV format copies of this list as well as lists for previous trips / videos my Gear Lists page.

Sintax77 Gear List 2017 in PDF Format for viewing and printing.

Sitnax77 Gear List 2017 in CSV Spreadsheet Format for use in your favorite spreadsheet or backpacking software.

Below is a simplified list of the backpacking items shown in the video (without weights or descriptions) along with links for details and current pricing.

Backpack
Backpack – ULA Ohm 2.0
Pack Cover – Dutchware Argon

Shelter
Hammock Body – Dutchware Half-Wit
Hammock Suspension – Dutchware Dyneema Beetle Buckle
Tarp – Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarp
Tent spike – Titanium
Ground Cloth – Tyvek, long 3′ 6′ – I forgot to show this in the video. I like to place this under my hammock for organizing gear, keeping my feet dry when changing / getting out of the hammock and for wrapping around my pack to keep it dry during windy rain storms. 4 oz.  A 3’x3′ square can get the job done as well for half the weight.

Sleep System
Under Quilt – Hammock Gear Phoenix 30
Top Quilt – Hammock Gear Burrow 40

Storage
Bear Bag Line – Zing-it rope and Carabiner
Zip-lock Bag – Gallon
Zip-lock Bag – Sandwich

Cooking & Eating Utensils
Cook Pot – Toaks 750ml Titanium
Stove – Esbit DIY (made out of pellet tin)
Cookset Stuff sack (came with Toaks pot)
Matches – Waterproof
Fire Steel – Light My Fire, Mini
Pot Cozy , DIY Reflectix
Spoon – backup, disposable
Spork – Sea to Summit Alloy
Windscreen – Vargo Folding Aluminum
Paper towels squares and Sea to Summit Pocket Soap slivers

Water Treatment & Storage
Water Filter – Katadyn BeFree
Water Bottle – 1.5 Ltr, Disposable (2)
Spare water bottle caps

Tools

Compass – Brunton Classic
Lighter – Eddie Bauer
Multi Tool – Tool Logic Card

First Aid
First Aid Kit
Bug Spray – 100% Deet in a 3ml bottle
Sunscreen – 30 SPF in a 10ml bottle

Clothing (not worn)
Dri Ducks Rain Jacket
Underwear – Synthetic (1 Pair)
Shorts, Synthetic workout style
Shirt, Long Sleeve – light weight synthetic
Shirt, short sleeve synthetic Champion
Hat, Beanie – Lt Wgt Fleece
Socks, Wool – light weight 1/4 Darn Tough

Lighting
Headlamp – Fenix HL21 w/ battery

Toiletries
Toilet Paper
Toiletry Kit
Wet Wipes
Hand Sanitizer

Clothing Worn
Pants, Hiking – Lt Wgt
Shirt, short sleeve synthetic Champion
Underwear – Synthetic
Socks, Wool – light weight 1/4 Darn Tough 
Shoes, Trail Runners – Merrell Moab Ventilator

Optional Items Seen at End of Video
My every day carry flashlight – Preon 2
Long Underwear, Synthetic
Down Jacket – Montbell UL Down Parka
Dri Ducks Rain Pants
Dri Ducks Poncho
Spot Messenger Gen3 GPS Locator