Ultralight Backpacking on the Carter-Moriah Range

3 Days of Ultralight Backpacking & Hammock Camping on the Carter-Moriah Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

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

For this summer backpacking trip, I headed up to the Wild River Wilderness to create a 36 mile hiking loop with 10,000 feet of gross elevation gain by linking together the Appalachian trail with several other lesser used and more rugged trails in the White Mountain National Forest.

My June temperature range for this trip was between 35° and 85° with a chance of rain each day, but mostly during the night.  Due to the wide temp range and the unpredictable weather typically encountered in the White Mountains, I packed in a puffy jacket and some ultralight rain gear for additional protection against the elements.  This brought my pack’s base weight right up to around the 10 lb mark.

  • Thank you to Upstart for sponsoring this trip.  See how they can help you build your credit and get free of high interest debt at Upstart.com/Sintax

I went with my standard minimalist hammock camping setup for this trip.  While I planned to stay at officially recognized campsites, I still wanted the ability to camp at a legal, but unofficial spot if the opportunity or need arose.  Due to the dense vegetation and uneven ground found at upper elevations in the Whites, I’ve learned that a hammock is often the only realistic option in those types of conditions.

Water would be plentiful along the river portion of my loop, but would only be reliably available at Imp campsite during the ridge hike section, so I had to plan accordingly for that during the first half of my trip. The second half of my trip would have more water, but would be on more challenging trails. Notably, the Black Angel Trail, a rugged and minimally maintained wilderness trail, and the Highwater Trail, which suffered substantial washouts and haphazard re-routes due to storm damage from Hurricane Irene back in 2011.

Route Overview – WIld River Carter-Moriah Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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

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Lean-to Shelter Camping – Tuscarora Trail

3 days of Backpacking and Hammock Camping on Virginia’s Tuscarora Trail.

For this backpacking trip, I decided to head down to the border of West Virginia and Virginia to check out a pretty cool mountaintop lean-to shelter and do a little airplane scavenger hunt in-between the occasional rain showers that always tend to follow me around.  On day one I would hike up to the ridge using the Tuscarora Trail, day two I would base camp and explore, and on day three I would hike back out via a different set of trails to complete the loop.

My options for shelter would be to either use the Gerhard Shelter lean-to if I had the place to myself, or a lightweight tarp and minimalist hammock if I decided to wander out further into the woods and camp near the search area and nearby spring.

My April temperature range for this trip was between 40° and 75°.  This allowed me to get my backpack’s base weight down to around 10 lbs, while still including my puffy jacket and ultralight rain jacket for supplemental warmth at camp if needed.

The details of the aviation accident site that I was looking for can be found here.  It was a small Cessna 150J that went down due to engine power loss and fortunately their were only minimal injuries to one of the two passengers.  I’ve never read any reports of anyone actually finding or visiting this site, so I really had no idea if there would be anything to be found. But hey, it was a good excuse to get out into the woods, so I grabbed my pack and headed out for some adventure…

Route Overview – Gerhard Shelter Tuscarora Trail Backpacking Trip 2022 – Sintax77

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Hammock Camping the Linville Gorge Wilderness – Grand Loop

3 days of Hammock Camping & Solo Ultralight Backpacking on a 40 mile Grand Loop of the Linville Gorge Wilderness.

For this backpacking trip, I headed back down to North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest for some hammock camping and another attempt at the “Grand Loop”, a roughly 40 mile trek with 11,000 feet of gross elevation gain.

The Linville Gorge Grand Loop is not a single official trail.  It’s actually a patchwork of several official and unofficial trails.  In fact, due to the extensive network of unofficial trails in the Gorge, there isn’t really any one “real” way to do the loop.  The basic goal is simply to circumnavigate the gorge, hiking along the Linville River on the west side, and along the ridge top of the gorge on the east side.  Whatever trails you decide to use is really up to you.

The upper ridges stand an average of 1,400 feet above the river banks below, with trails frequently descending down to the river and back up again on rugged terrain, without signage or trail blazes, and minimal use of switchbacks.   This can make for some challenging hiking, that I personally believe to be some of the toughest on the east coast.  The pay off is a heavy sense of adventure compared to traditional trails and some amazing mountain top views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains.

  • Thank you to Upstart for sponsoring this trip.  See how they can help you build your credit and get free of high interest debt at Upstart.com/Sintax

My mid-May temperature range for this trip was between 45° and 85° with no rain in the forecast until the end of the third day.  This allowed me to get my backpack’s base weight down to around 9 lbs by leaving my puffy jacket and extra base layers at home.  I simply packed a long sleeve shirt and my ultralight rain jacket for supplemental warmth at camp if needed.

I went with a fairly minimalist hammock camping setup for this trip.  There are plenty of trees and fun unofficial campsite gems to be found in the Gorge that make it ideal for hammocks.  Water is obviously of minimal concern for the lower regions of the gorge.  This allows you to save some weight on trails in those sections, but make sure to stock up when your route heads up towards the ridge.  Especially if you’re looking to camp in one the beautiful ridge side campsites up there.  Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of several springs up on the ridge that were still flowing at the time of my trip.

A free permit is required on weekends and holidays from May 1st through October 31st each year. You can find more information on the NFS Grandfather Ranger District website here.

If planning your own trip, I would highly recommend visiting LinvilleGorge.net for maps, info and extensive GPS data including official and unofficial trails, campsites, water sources, etc. They also have a free version of their map available on the Avenza phone app.  Due to the fact that their data is so darn good, I didn’t package my own GPS file for this trip, but you can use this Caltopo link that someone from LinvilleGorge.net posted containing all of the trails and POI coordinates

Route Overview – Linville Gorge Grand Loop Backpacking Trip 2022 – Sintax77

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3 Days of Campfire Cooking and Hammock Camping – Harpers Ferry West Virginia

Hammock Camping, Trail Cooking and the search for an Elusive Hearth in the Woods of West Virginia.

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

For this early February hammock camping trip, I set out to hike a 3 day hike with a nostalgic goal – to find a giant campfire hearth that my friend and I had built five years ago, somewhere off of the Appalachian Trail near the town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  I had always wondered if it was still standing after all these years, and thought it would be a great excuse to spend some time in the woods a cook some hearty camping meals.

My weather conditions were forecasted to have a pretty wide range during this trip, from the upper 50’s down to 30 degrees each evening.  I had a rough idea of the hearth’s location.  We built it at camp not too long after leaving the Harpers Ferry National Historic Area’s boundary while heading south on the Appalachian Trail.  My goal for the first day was to get myself to a legal camping area in this general area so I could search for it first thing the next morning.  If I found it early, I would then have the option to do a day hike to Loudoun Heights and Split Rock for views of the Shenandoah River and Potomac River below the ridge.

For sleep and shelter on this trip, I went with a simple hammock camping and ultralight tarp setup (gear list below).  I used the extra space in my winter backpack to load up on extra clothing layers, a saw for harvesting firewood, a stool for working in my makeshift camp kitchen, and my white gas stove system paired up with a fry pan and diffuser to try my hand at baking some trail bread at camp.  The cooler temps also allowed me to bring some “real” food, so I brought along some ingredients to make some smoked sausage one day and pasta with a slow cooked meat sauce the next.

This trip video was sponsored by Anker and their model 521 and 535 Portable Power Station.

Route Overview – Harpers Ferry Loudoun Heights Winter Backpacking Trip – Sintax77

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

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Off Grid Shelter Camping in Vermont – Rain, Sleet, and Snow

Backpacking, Hiking & Shelter Camping in Vermont’s Lye Brook Wilderness.

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

For this late November backpacking trip, I decided to hike a 3 day, 23 mile loop in the Green Mountains with 2 nights of camping near Stratton Pond and Bourn Pond. By setting up a base camp at Stratton Pond, I would also have the opportunity to do an out and back hike on the second day to visit the fire tower that sits atop Stratton Mountain. Built in 1934, the 360 degree views from this fire tower are said to have inspired the creators of the Appalachian Trail and Vermont Long Trail, the latter of which runs the entire length of Vermont.

My weather conditions were forecasted to range from above freezing down into the upper 20’s with a mix of rain, sleet, and snow throughout the trip.  Because of this, I added some additional clothing layers, gloves, and a full set of rain gear to my standard ultralight backpacking load-out.  My sleep system was a minimalist hammock camping setup, so I was still able to keep my pack’s base weight down to around 10 pounds.

This particular area of the Lye Brook Wilderness offers a wide variety of backcountry camping options including unofficial (but legal) stealth camping, designated tent sites, and a very nice 3 level wooden shelter.  I decided to keep my options open see how things played out based on the weather and what mood I was in once I got there.

Route Overview – Stratton Pond Vermont Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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50 Miles of Hammock Camping in 3 Days – Backpacking on Cranberry Lake

3 days of Backpacking & Hammock Camping along Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks

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

For this adventure, I decided to do a fall backpacking trip with some higher trail mileage than I’ve been doing lately. Nestled in New York’s Five Pond Wilderness, the Cranberry Lake 50 is a fifty mile loop hike that circumnavigates it’s namesake, and passes by many smaller ponds along the way as well. Most of these smaller ponds have campsites or even a lean-to shelter nearby, which is quite nice.

The CL50 is not really an individual trail, but a collection of trail sections from 12 other trails is the area.  The route is well blazed with blue CL50 plastic discs nailed to trees along the way.  The trails used to make up the CL50 are blazed with similar yellow trail discs, so you will often see both blazes simultaneously.

The Cranberry Lake 50 goes directly through two towns – Wanakena, where I started, and the town of Cranberry Lake.  There’s only about 10 trail miles between them, so neither really poses much logistical value for resupplying, but they are nice towns to stroll through.

I chose to do the loop counter clockwise from Wanakena because the last 10 miles traverse some muddy wet sections due to beaver dams, so I figured it would be best to save that for the last afternoon.

I typically like to hike my backpacking trips on a 3 day, 2 night timeline, so that meant my daily trail mileage had to be around 17 miles or so during the shortened daylight hours of October.  On the upside, this hike is primarily along the perimeter of a lake, with minimal elevation changes, but did I mention that I hadn’t done a high mileage trip in a while? Yeah, the headlamp got a good amount of usage on this one. Let the night hiking begin…

Route Overview – Cranberry Lake 50 Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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