Sara Goes Hammock Camping …Again! – Hiking & Pancakes in Virginia

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Sintax77

Join Sara and I for some hiking, trail cooking, and backpacking on a hammock camping trip in Shenandoah National Park.

For this hiking adventure, Sara and I will be revisiting Shenandoah National park for Sara’s second dose of hammock camping out in the wild along with a healthy dose of backcountry cooking and camp food. We did a previous backpacking trip not too far from here in Shenandoah a mere two weeks before, and it went quite well. It wasn’t, however, exactly the experience that we had set out to do.

You see, for that particular trip, I may have sold it as a rather relaxed excursion. And depending on your perspective, it very well may have been just that. But for Sara, who’s most recent backpacking memories prior to that trip were that of a grueling elevation-fest through the White Mountains, it wasn’t quite the reprieve we were looking for.

The required prescription was a high dose of low mileage, potent lounging, and dense pancakes. Thankfully, the trip seen in this video hit the spot. Below are some details and trip data for the trip, although there isn’t much of it. But that’s exactly what we were going for. Check out my Trip Data Page to get full GPS data for this trip.

Parking: Meadow Spring Trailhead (Mile 34 on Skyline Drive)
N38° 38.304′ W78° 18.823′

Day 1 Trails Used (in order):
Hazel Mountain Trail
Turn Left on White Rocks Trail
Camp along White Rocks Trail (see my GPS Data for potential campsites on either side of trail)
After setting up camp, take a half mile round trip down to Hazel Falls, for happy hour.

Day 1 Stats:
Mileage: 3.2 miles (includes half mile excursion from camp down to Hazel Falls and back)
Gross Elevation Gain: 390′
Gross Elevation Loss: 1,175′

Day 2 Trails Used (in order):
Wake Up, Eat Pancakes (this is important – trip will not work properly without this step!)
White Rocks Trail
Right on Hazel Creek Trail

Day 2 Stats:
Mileage: 2.5 miles (not nearly enough to burn off those pancakes, you’re gonna have to go to the gym tomorrow…)
Gross Elevation Gain: 699′
Gross Elevation Loss: 75′

Total Mileage for Trip: 5.7 Miles

Notable Gear Used for Sara:
Dutchware NylonD Hammock with Aluminum Cinch Buckles & Nylon Tree Straps
Hennessy Deluxe Tarp (10′ x 12′ 70D Polyester)
Hammock Gear Burrow 20° Top Quilt
Hammock Gear Incubator 0° Underquilt
Osprey Hornet 46 Backpack (See my Gear List using this pack here)
Thorfire BD04 USB rechargable LED Flashlight
Princeton Tech Byte Headlamp
ThruNight Titanium Keychain LED Flashlight
EMS Knitted Hat

Notable Gear Used for Shawn:
Dream Hammock Darien Ultralight Hammock (see my video on it here)
Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarp
Hammock Gear Burrow 40° Top Quilt
Hammock Gear Incubator 40° Underquilt w/ Epsilon 1.5 Multicam Fabric (see my video on it here)
EMS Longtrail 70 Backpack
4Sevens Preon 2 LED Flashlight
Fenix HL21 Headlamp (watch my review video here)
Generic Canister Stove (watch my review video here)
MSR Flex Skillet w/ cheap dollar store utensils for cooking

Notable Backpacking Food for this Trip:
Bisquick Shake ‘n Pour Pancake Mix
Packit Gourmet Dehydrated Maple Syrup and Blueberries
Packit Gourmet Queso Dip with a regular ol’ bag of Tostito’s Scoops (wheat, because we’re obviously healthy and stuff)
Packit Gourmet Texas State Fair Chili (I lost my mind eating this stuff on this winter video, after climbing Mt Washington)

Hiking the Whites – Zeke’s First Backpacking Trip

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Sintax77

Join Mike, TJ and I for 4 days of hiking & camping as we initiate our friend Zeke on his very first backpacking trip!

For this backpacking trip, we’ll be visiting one of my favorite areas, the White Mountains, for a counterclockwise Pemi Loop. While I’ve previously done this loop as a solo hike, I switched things up this time by doing the loop in the opposite direction, starting with Bondcliff Trail and the Bonds and ending with a traverse of Franconia Ridge to return to the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center where we started. We also stretched the hike out to 4 days and 3 nights. This enabled us to get some more camping and exploring in, and also let us do less miles per day, since this was our friend’s first backpacking experience. The White Mountains are home to some of the most aggressive hiking trails in the country, and our goal was to make sure he actually wanted to do this again!

If you’ve never done a Pemi Loop before and are looking for some more logistics, trail listings, etc, feel free to check out my previous solo video. For this video, we’ll be focusing more the amazing views, camp camaraderie and of course, the biggest question – will Zeke ever want to do this again? Or will he want to push us off one of the numerous precipices that the Pemigewasset Wilderness has to offer…

For info on the “helicopter situation” click here for a link to an August 28th post the Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Team’s Facebook page.

A note on GPS Data: I didn’t record new GPS track data for this trip, as the data from my previous trip pretty much covers the route (in reverse of course) and includes waypoints for points of interest included in that video as well as this one. I also tagged a decent amount of extra potential tent and hammock camping spots as I hiked, which some may find useful if looking for alternative camping spots.

Notable Items and Gear that may be of interest:

My hammock – Dream Hammock Darien, single layer.

Mike’s Hammock – Dream Hammock Thunderbird, double layer

TJ’s hammock – Dutchware NylonD hammock, 11 foot, single layer with Dutchware Summer Sock

Zeke’s Tent – Marmot Eos 1P Tent

Myself and Mike’s tarps – Both are Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarps with 11 foot ridge lines.

TJ’s Tarp – Hennessy Deluxe Tarp, 70D model, 12’x10′

My underquilt – Hammock Gear Phoenix 30°

TJ’s underquilt – Hammock Gear Incubator 40° (seen up close in my earlier post here)

Mike’s underquilt – HG Phoenix 20°

Top Quilts – Hammock Gear Burrow 40° for me and HG Burrow 20° for Mike (TJ used a “regular” down sleeping bag as a quilt.)

My backpack – Osprey Hornet 46 (no longer in production)
Mikes backpack – Osprey Exos 58
Zeke’s backpack – Gregory Contour 70

Dehydrated meals tried in the video: Mountain House, Packit Gourmet, and Alpine Aire.

Canoe Camping in Virginia – 4 Days on the Shenandoah River

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Sintax77

Come along for 4 days of canoe camping on the Shenandoah River

For this adventure, we did some old school canoe camping along the banks of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, just outside of Bentonville, Virginia. Since none of us own a canoe, we dropped by the Downriver Canoe Company and picked up a couple of rentals. They got us all geared up, went over some maps and legal dispersed camping options on the George Washington National Forest side of the river, private property to avoid, and even some camping spots that they maintain and make available for reservation and rental. We decided to opt out of the designated pay sites, and instead find out what we could discover ourselves in the National Forest. A link to their website is below for those interested. Our experience with them was very positive. So much so that my wife and I actually went back a couple of month later for another trip to celebrate my birthday (I didn’t film that trip, but it was a great time!)

As mentioned previously, when heading down river, a good portion of our route was flanked on the left side by George Washington National Forest. This gave is some solid options for free, legal camping without the need for any permits or advanced registration. For those of you interested in other options though, there are plenty of private pay campsites right along the river. Many of which you can even drive right up to. There’s also a state forest that has camping available, but you have to reserve a designated spot in advance, instead of just pulling up on shore and setting up camp like we did in the GWNP. We preferred this for a more secluded feeling of having the woods to ourselves, scouting out a decent campsite, collecting wood etc.

We did around 25 lazy miles or so on this trip. A bit of fishing, a bit of lounging and wading, and a whole lot of good times. In fact, if you’ve ever been to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, then you’ve probably seen the stretch of river that we did. It’s the distinct, winding s-turn shaped river that you see looking down from may of the overlook areas along the scenic drive. For those of you interested, I recorded GPS track data and campsite waypoints for each day of the trip, available on the Trip Data Page.

Oh, and speaking of fishing, just a quick note on that – While there’s some good, fun fishing in the Shenandoah River, consuming any fish from it is not recommended, due to discharge of industrial mercury to this part of the Shenandoah Valley by some unscrupulous company’s back in the 1930’s to 1950 or so. So yeah, catch and release is the way to go.

On the upside, on of the cool things about canoe camping is all the cool food you can bring and cook. With the help of a cooler and a boat to carry the weight instead of our backs, we were able to bring all kinds of fun camp food like steaks, bratwurst, eggs and bacon for breakfast, etc. Oh, yeah, and a couple domestic beers.

Speaking of coolers and such, we found it easiest to not bother killing ice trying to keep our beverages cold. Instead, we just chilled each nights libations right in the river, submerged in an old duffle bag. We reserved cooler space primarily for perishable food items. This limited the amount of times that we had to go in and out of the coolers, as well as the amount of ice needed. For the main food cooler, containing items we didn’t want to get wet, I simply froze a 2.5 gallon water jug. That’s the brick shaped style with the spout. It fit perfectly in the bottom of my cheap igloo cooler, and lasted until the third day in our little 38 quart Igloo wheelie cooler. By then our perishable items were consumed, and as an added bonus, we had 2.5 gallons of clean drinking water.

All in all, it was a great trip, with great friends. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Link to where we chose to get our canoe rentals: www.DownRiver.com

Sara Goes Hammock Camping! – Backpacking in Thornton Hollow

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Sintax77

Join Sara and I for a spring Hammock Camping and Backpacking trip in Shenandoah National Park.

For this trip, we’ll be visiting Shenandoah National Park for a 2 day overnight backpacking trip in the Thornton River area of the park’s northern district.

Parking Location: N38° 45.689′ W78° 16.923′
From Front Royal entrance station, take Skyline Dr. S to mile marker 21 and park in the lot on the right not too far after Hogback Overlook.

Trails Used (in order) and Route Notes

Day 1

Start by heading south on the Appalachian Trail from the trailhead connected to the parking lot.
At the Junction with Tuscarora Trail, take a right to continue on Tuscarora Trail. (Yes, this is where we took the wrong turn and ended up back at Skyline Drive)
Take Matthews Arm Trail towards Matthews Arm Campground.
Pass the campground and cross over Skyline Drive.
From the other side of Skyline Drive take Elkwallow Trail.
Continue along ridge line, via Elkwallow Trail.
At the next junction, hang a right on Thornton Trail to begin descending back towards Skyline Dr.
Cross the road to continue on Thornton Trail.
Decent camping opportunities become available as you approach the Thornton River. A potential area on the right (that we skipped) is marked in my GPS data file for the trip.
Continue on Thornton Trail. From this point on, the trail will cross back and forth across the river several times, before any particular decent camping areas appear.
Reach the intersection with Hull School Trail. There are reportedly several decent camping opportunities within range of this intersection. We chose to continue down Thornton Trail a little ways and camp not to far from the river as a water source.
Setup camp along Thornton River.

Thornton Hollow – Day 1 Elevation Profile

Stats for Day 1
Mileage: 12.1 miles
Gross Ascent: 1,621′
Gross Descent: 3,632′

Day 2

Break Camp and follow Thornton Trail back to trail junction.
Hang a right to head uphill on Hull School Trail
Continue on Hull School Trail, crossing the Piney River, and passing the Bolen Family Cemetery.
Take the Keyser Run Fire Road towards the Little Devil’s Stairs Trailhead Parking area, and Rt 614.
At the parking area, head up Little Devil’s Stairs Trail, though the canyon. Prepare for numerous zig-zags over flowing water and potentially slick rocks, depending on recent rainfall and time of year.
After gaining 1,200′ or so climbing out of the canyon, reach the the intersection to reconvene with Keyser Run Fire Road once again. At this point you can either stay in the woods by heading left towards Pole Link Bridge and Sugarloaf Trails, which will take you back to the AT and ultimately your car, or hang a right on the fire road towards Skyline Dr for a road hike along several scenic overlooks. We chose the latter.
Return to the parking lot on Skyline Drive.

Thornton Hollow – Day 2 Elevation Profile

Stats for Day 2
Mileage: 10.4 miles
Gross Ascent: 3,133′
Gross Descent: 1,237′

Trip Totals for 2 Day Overnight Loop
Total Mileage: 22.5 miles
Gross Ascent: 4,754′
Gross Descent: 4,869′

Thornton Hollow 2 Day Loop GPS Track

Gear

My wife, Sara, is starting to really look at getting her base weight down, and taking a more weight conscious overall approach. For this trip, she’s basically carrying the standard system that I usually use, seen here in my 2015 Ultralight Backpacking Gear List video and blog post. A detailed run down can be found in that post, as well as on my Gear Lists page. The only notable difference would be her own clothing choices, and the esbit cooking system. I chose instead to carry a generic $5 canister stove, and a can of IsoPro canister fuel for the sake of simplicity. I also knew that the terrain and mileage would be relatively tame on this trip, so it was well worth the extra half pound or so.

For my gear, I basically just carried all of my older gear that I’ve slowly upgraded away from over the years. I all works great, it’s just a bit heavier – but it sure comes in handy when the wife says she wants to head out for a trip. Eventually, Sara will probably get her own ultralight backpack to replace her larger, heavier Gregory Baltoro, but in the meantime, I’m fine with using my EMS Longtrail 70. Once she’s decided on a new pack, I’ll put the Longtrail back into use strictly as my heavier bag for winter trips.
Notable Gear Items (For full lists, head over the to the Gear Lists Page)

Sara

Dream Hammock Darien Ultralight Hammock with Dutch Clips and cinch buckle suspension system.
Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarp with Zing-It guy lines and Dutch Wasps for quick tension adjustment.
Osprey Hornet 46 backpack.

Shawn

Dutchware PolyD 1.2 Hammock with Dutch Speedhooks and Kevlar Tree Hugger suspension system.
Hennessy Deluxe Hex Tarp with Dutchware continuous ridge line kit (30′ Zing-It, Dutch Hook, Dutch Wasp, and two soft shackles) and Dutch Tarpworms shock corded to each corner tie-out point.
EMS Longtrail 70 backpack
Generic Canister stove and Toaks 750 ml titanium pot for boiling water needed to re-hydrate those ridiculously tasty PackIt Gourmet meals.
Sawyer Squeeze rigged up in gravity mode, using a few dollars worth of 1/4″ tubing and adapters that I grabbed on a whim from the Dutchware site while picking up the previously mentioned Tarpworms. So far, it’s working great – I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner!

Post-Hike Cheeseburger Spot

The Backseat Bar and Grill, in Winchester, VA

The vibe here was basically if you combined classic diner with a bar that has IPA on tap. We both got fried pickles to start, followed by a classic, straight forward cheeseburger with fixins. This paired nicely with the Devil’s Backbone IPA that they had on tap, which we thought was the obvious choice after having just conquered Little Devil’s Stairs.

Links for More Info
Info on Shenandoah Backcountry Camping Permits and Regulations.
Official Parks Service Info Sheet and Map for Matthews Arm area.

Post Hike Burger at the Backseat Bar and Grill.

: The day starts with a foggy Skyline Drive.

: Looking down on the Blue Ridge Mountains from a break in the trees.

: Some happy hikers enjoying the view.

: Sara conquering Skyline Drive

: A view through the trees in Thornton Hollow

: Hammock Camping along the Thornton River.

: Approaching Sunset

: Collecting water from Thornton River

: The Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarp

: The Hennessy Deluxe Hex Tarp.

: Sunet on the Blue Ridge Mountains

: Setting up the Sawyer gravity system

: Chips and Packit Gourmet Salsa time!

: Thornton River

: A look across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

: The Creepy Tree!

: Post Hike Fried Pickles!

: Post Hike Burger at the Backseat Bar and Grill.

: Devil’s Backbone IPA from the Backseat Bar and Grill

Ultralight Backpacking in the Cranberry Wilderness

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Sintax77

Come along for 3 days of ultralight backpacking and fall camping in West Virginia’s Cranberry Wilderness.

For this adventure, I’ll be taking my newly refined ultralight backpacking loadout for a three day overnight hiking and camping trip in West Virginia’s Cranberry Wilderness. After my last couple of vista-packed trips, I’ve had some requests for more footage & discussion once we get to camp – site selection, shelter setup, fire making, cooking, etc. Well, this video has plenty of all that, and then some. In fact, this ended up being my longest feature length video so far.

For those of you looking for something a little lighter, there’s a full back catalog of shorter videos that might hit the spot, but if you’re ready to get into the finer details of ultralight backpacking gear and spending time outdoors (from my own warped perspective of course), then this is the video for you. A little gift for the hardcore fans 😉

Overview of the route I took. Recorded with my Garmin Oregon 650 GPS.

Parking: North South Trailhead on State Route 150
38.276530, -80.237829

Trails Used Day 1
Start at North South Trail Head on West Virginia SR 150
TR 688 North South Trail
TR 267 Laurelly Branch Trail
TR 271 Middle Fork Trail
Setup Camp on Hell for Certain Branch
This is a large campsite across from trail on opposite side of the Middle Fork River with plenty of fresh water available from the nearby river.

Day 1 Total Mileage: 13.2 miles
Day 1 Gross Ascent: 1,102′

Trails Used Day 2
Backtrack on TR 271 Middle Fork Trail towards junction from previous day
Continue on TR 271 Middle Fork Trail
TR 207 Big Beechy Trail
Setup Camp just after summit of Sugar Creek Mountain.
This is a medium-small Campsite, in a beautiful mossy area. Make sure to pack in enough water, as there are no nearby sources. The elevation was around 4,400 feet and the landscape was somewhat conducive to wind, so be prepared for temps that are possibly quite a bit lower than locally forecasted.

Day 2 Total Mileage: 9.06 miles
Day 2 Gross Ascent: 2,405′

Trails Used Day 3
Continue on TR 207 Big Beechy Trail
TR 272 North Fork Trail
TR 688 North South Trail towards SR 150
Return to North South Trailhead Parking Lot

Day 3 Total Mileage: 3.17 miles
Day 3 Gross Ascent: 367′

Total Mileage for Trip: 25.39 miles
Total Gross Ascent for Trip: 3,974′

Click Here to Download a PDF Copy of the Gear List used for this Trip
or visit the Gear Lists Page for detailed notes and weights for each item.

Notable Pieces of Gear seen in this Video:
Dream Hammock Darien Hammock
with cinch buck suspension and Dutch Clips
Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarp 12’x8.5′
Zing-It Guy lines with Dutch Wasps for tensioning
Osprey Hornet 46 Backpack
Hammock Gear Burrow 40 Top Quilt
Hammock Gear Incubator 40 Underquilt
Frogg Toggs Rain Jacket
Esbit Solid Fuel Cubes
Toaks 750ml Titanium Pot with lid
Vargo Windscreen / Pot stand
Sawyer Mini Water Filter
Montbell UL Parka – 850 fp down
Adidas Terrex Swift-R trail runners

Hiking the Grafton Loop – Camping in Maine

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Sintax77

Come along for 4 days of hiking, backpacking and camping in Maine.

For this trip, we’ll be backpacking a loop hike of the Grafton Loop in Maine’s Grafton Notch State Park. Full GPS track data along with points of interest (campsites, water sources, etc) available for download on the Trip Data Page.

Grafton Loop – Route Overview

The Grafton Loop is a roughly 39 mile, 9 summit hiking loop formed by connecting a portion of the Appalachian trail with the Grafton Loop Trail. Portions of the trail traverse both Maine’s Grafton Notch State Park as well as a good deal of private land. For this reason, designated campsites are mandatory for most of the loop’s route, along with a restriction on campfires. For those of you who like to stealth camp, you’ll have to do a bit more planning for this trip. It took several years to come to an agreement with all of the land owners the that trail traverses, so it’s best to stick to the script and keep them happy so we can continue to enjoy this route.

The four of us chose to do the loop clockwise over the course of 4 days. Many people choose to do it in 3 days, and a rarer few do it in 2. Don’t be deceived by the rolling beauty of the photos you see though – the Grafton Loop is still in the White Mountains region and has it’s fair share of strenuous elevation and steep inclines, littered with roots and rocks. If rain is expected, be prepared to move carefully on the many sections of solid and potentially slick rock faces on the balder summits. We stacked up nearly 13,000 feet of elevation gain over the course of our trip. Not too shabby. For comparison, that’s almost 3,000 more feet than the Pemi Loop. Be aware of your group’s capability, as well as desired amount of relaxing versus mileage, and plan your number of days accordingly.

Summits: Bald Mountain, Puzzle Mountain, Long Mountain, Lightning Ledge, Old Speck, West Baldpate, East Baldpate, Miles Notch, Sunday River Whitecap

Parking: 985 Maine 26, Newry, ME 04261 Near intersection of Rt 26 and Eddy Rd

Hike approximately one half mile south from parking lot to the Grafton Loop Trailhead located at 44.530831,-70.825252. Note: Parking is not allowed here at this trailhead, hence the road hike.

Trails Used Day 1:
Grafton Loop Trail
Setup camp at the Slide Mountain Campsite
Day 1 Mileage: 10.86 miles
Day 1 Gross Elevation Gain: 4,094′

Elevation Profile Day 1

Trails Used Day 2:
Old Speck Trail / Appalachian Trail
Grafton Loop Trail
Stealth camp in col between West Baldpate Mountain and East Baldpate Mountain
Day 2 Mileage: 11 miles
Day 2 Gross Elevation Gain: 4,364′

Elevation Profile Day 2

Trails Used Day 3:
Grafton Loop Trail
Setup camp at Stewart Campsite
Day 3 Mileage: 13 miles
Day 3 Gross Elevation Gain: 3,596′

Elevation Profile Day 3

Trails Used Day 4:
Grafton Loop Trail
Return to parking lot and Graton Loop Trailhead on Rt 26
Day 4 Mileage: 4.5 miles
Day 4 Gross Elevation Gain: 843′