Taking the snowshoes out for an overnight backpacking trip to New Hampshire’s Presidential Range in the White Mountains. http://www.sintax77.com

Trail Head Parking GPS: Mt. Clinton Road off of U.S. Route 302 East – just prior to the AMC’s Highland Center at Crawford Notch State Park. 44.22361, -71.4115

Trails Used in order:

Crawford Connector
Crawford Path / Appalachian Trail
Webster Cliff Trail
Webster Branch to Webster-Jackson Trail (Through Crawford Notch State Park)
Ending at Webster-Jackson Trailhead on 302, right near Saco Lake Trail

Nearby Designated Camp Sites:
AMC Mizpah Spring Hut
Nauman Tentsite
Or, as seen in the video, stealth camp at least 200 feet from the trail.

For Full Gear List: See my previous post “Winter Backpacking Gear List for 15 Degrees – Snow Camping and Clothing Options”

Taking a breather from Las Vegas to visit Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim in late January. The drive took us around 4.5 hours.

The usual route takes you right by Hoover Dam, but we decided not to stop for the sake of time. There was very important partying to do that night, and responsibility is our middle name.

The Grand Canyon National Park Visitor Center is about 270 miles from Las Vegas. We grabbed a rental car around 8:30am and were back in Sin City by 10:30pm. As East Coasters, we found the drive through the desert to be pretty fun and interesting, so it was worth the long day of driving.

Due to our time constraints, we weren’t able to get to in depth with our trail choices, so we stuck to the Rim Trail, which follows along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, rather than descending into the depths of the canyon. It was also quite stormy and icy that day, which made for great rainbows, but slippery conditions. It also made for A LOT of wind noise, which unfortunately made cleaning up the audio on this video a bit of a challenge. Luckily, there were some very unique views to make up for it!

The large guard railed area with the abundance of rainbows was at lookout called Mather Point, a short walk from the Visitor Center – hence the higher concentration of tourists. Once we walked a bit further, it cleared out pretty quickly. I imagine the colder January weather had a bit to do with that too. The long winding trail seen at the end of the trail is the Bright Angel Trail.

Tired of waiting for warmer weather, I decided to revisit Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest for some winter backpacking and a dose of snow camping.

The specific location I chose was the Big Branch Wilderness area. This is very close (just a bit further North) to the Lye Brook Wilderness, where I filmed my solo hike to the Stratton Pond area. This helped me to be familiar with the general area in terms of driving, but it would be my first visit to the Big Branch Wilderness, in hopes of doing some snowshoeing and getting a different Winter perspective on Vermont’s Green Mountains.

My general direction taken was the along the Lake Trail towards Baker Peak and Griffith Lake, following and crossing McGinn Brook and eventually connecting to the Appalachian Trail / Vermont Long Trail. At least that was the plan… I also also try my hand at setting up a tent in the snow, which by the way, will be my 3-season tent, so we’ll see how that goes too. Oh and speaking of that, here’s my backpacking gear for the trip.

For Full Gear List: See my previous post “Winter Backpacking Gear List for 15 Degrees – Snow Camping and Clothing Options“

A look at the resources, strategies & map options that I utilize for trip planning my backpacking and hiking adventures.

Items seen on the table:

DeLorme PN-60 GPS unit
AMC Maps: Waterproof & Tear-Proff / Regular Paper (Appalachian Mountain Club)
AMC Guidebook: Maine Mountain Guide
GMC Long Trail Map (Green Mountain Club)
National Geographic Trail Maps for Various Regions
Backpacker Magazine
DeLorme Topo 9.0 Software
‘The A.T Guide’ A Handbook for Hiking the Appalachian Trail by David “AWOL” Miller
Various Topographical Software Map Print-Outs
Salter Kitchen Scale
Websites Visited:

http://www.newenglandtrailconditions.com
http://www.hike-nh.com
http://www.backpackinglight.com
http://www.backpacker.com

For this early Fall adventure, we explore Acadia National Park, on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Located just outside the town Bar Harbor, on the coast of Maine, Acadia offers a great combination of mountains, ocean vistas, and seaside cliffs.

This was actually a “real vacation” compared to my typical backpacking over-nighters. Yes, we took hot showers every day and slept under a roof! There is no backcountry camping permitted within Acadia Nation Park (there are two pay camp-sites located nearby on Mt Desert Island), but it’s a perfect destination for dayhikes by day and restaurants and shops by night. Plus, you get to visit the “lobster pounds” and eat the best lobster in the world after a day of hiking.

If you stay in the more populated Bar Harbor you can literally walk to the park from some spots. We chose to stay in the quieter Southwest Harbor on the other side of the island, but it’s still only about 20 minutes from Acadia’s main entrance and the famed Park Loop Road. It’s also minutes from the less visited western section, which includes the Beech Mountain and Beech Cliff trails. Just to be thorough, we stayed an extra night in Bar Harbor as well. For the sake of science.

This video was filmed on Champlain Mountain on our last day. Unfortunately, it rained for the first 3.5 days of our trip. We didn’t let that stop us from hiking and exploring, but it did limit the filming. Luckily, my wife still took plenty of pics, so those are sprinkled in for good measure throughout the video.

Speaking of rain, things were still a bit wet, so we decided to skip the Beehive Trail and Precipice Trail this time around. These steep and exposed cliff routes are iconic Acadia trails, so they’re definitely on the shortlist for the next time!