Winter Camping on Mt Washington – Deep Snow, Below Zero

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Backpacking & Winter Camping on the side of Mount Washington.

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 headed back up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to do some snow camping and make another attempt at doing a Mt Washington winter ascent for some frozen views of the Presidential Range.  I tried this about a year ago, but a stomach bug and 85 MPH winds kind of put a damper on things.  This time around, I also brought a hiking partner, Frank.  We’ve done several winter trips together so far, but this would be his first time in the White Mountains.

Similar to last year’s trip, the plan was to set up a base camp at higher elevation, followed by a lighter weight trek up to the top of Mount Washington if weather conditions and visibility were agreeable. If the conditions were questionable, we made a back-up plan to scurry up the side of the nearer Mt Monroe.  And of course, if the weather really got bad, we would just play it safe and stay below tree line.

Trailhead Used: Ammonoosuc Ravine Trailhead
44°16’01.2″N 71°21’40.7″W
Base Station Rd, Jefferson, NH 03538

This is a large parking lot with room for many vehicles.  A parking fee of $5 dollars per day or an annual National Park pass is required.

Trails Used

  • Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail
  • Appalachian Trail (Crawford Path)
  • Mt Monroe Loop Trail

Campsite

  • Camp along Ammonoosuc Trail 44.26398, -71.32182
    • This was a small unofficial campsite located in a hollowed out spot not too far before entering the Lakes of the Clouds Forest Protection Zone.

Notable Backpacking Gear

Camera and Nav Gear used for this episode

Winter Camping in Pennsylvania’s Most Remote Forest

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Backpacking, Hiking & Winter Tent Camping with Snow in Pennsylvania’s Hammersley Wild Area.

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 December backpacking trip, I set out to hike a 3 day, 20ish mile loop in the mountains of north central Pennsylvania.  I created my loop by using a portion of the Susquehannock Trail System, some off-trail bushwhacking, and a ridge hike along the adjacent Twin Sisters Trail.

My weather conditions were forecasted to have some fresh snow, temps mostly in the 20’s and a potential for freezing rain as the temps rose further into the trip.  While this was a pretty wide range of possible conditions, it also wasn’t terribly cold, so I was still able to pack somewhat ultralight and minimal.  My camping target for day one was down in the hollow along the banks of Hammersley Fork. On day two I planned to head up to the ridge and camp in the area devoid of trees due to a forest fire back in 1962.  Due to the potential lack of trees, I swapped out my typical hammock setup for a single person tent and sleeping pad to keep my campsite options flexible.

The Hammersley Wild Area is the most remote swath of public land in Pennsylvania, with some spots over 5 miles from the nearest road, which combined with the season, I hoped would make for some rather secluded camping.  Conversely, this area is also a haven for public hunting, so I made sure to wear some blaze orange and remain somewhat quiet and on the trail until I got further away from any road access, as it was the middle of PA deer hunting season.

This trip video was sponsored by Dr Prepare. You can get 10% off their 178Wh Portable Power Station by using code STDP10 with this link.

Route Overview – Stratton Pond Vermont 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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Off Grid Shelter Camping in Vermont – Rain, Sleet, and Snow

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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

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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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Camping with Wild Ponies – Solo Backpacking in the Grayson Highlands

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3 days of Solo Backpacking, Hiking & Tent Camping on a section of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia’s Grayson Highlands.

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 backpacking trip, I headed out for some hiking and solo camping in the Lewis Fork Wilderness and Mt Rogers National Recreation Area, within the larger George Washington and Jefferson National Forest.

With an emphasis on exploring the wild pony grazing areas surrounding Pine Mountain rather than grinding out mileage, I created a modest loop by combining a portion of the Appalachian Trail with the Virginia Highlands Trail. This gave me a super laid route with my campsites for the first and second nights located in the same general area, separated by less than a couple of miles.

I had a backup plan to do a larger 22 mile loop similar to the one I did in this area a few years back, but I knew from that trip that there was a good possibility I would want to slow things down and soak in the sights in this particular area.  Overall, I was very happy with my choice, but keep in mind that there are many more spots to explore if you’re planning your own trip to the Grayson Highlands.  The details of my previous larger loop can be found here if you’re interested.

The Grayson Highlands are known for their high winds and unpredictable, rapidly changing weather, but luckily for me, the mid September forecast called for an ideal temperature range of 55 to 80 degrees. This allowed me to get by on an ultralight backpacking setup with minimal extra clothing and gear.  My shelter for this trip was my Outdoor Vitals 1p tent in “fast and light” mode –  which just means that I left the main tent body with bugnet at home and set it up using only the tent fly, poles and ground cloth.

Thank you to Revtown Jeans for sponsoring this trip video!

Grayson Highlands Backpacking Trip – Route Overview – Sintax77

Trailhead Used: Elk Garden Trailhead Parking,  36°38’46.7″N 81°34’59.0″W
Whitetop Mountain Rd, Troutdale, VA 24378

This is an easily accessible grass and gravel parking area with room for a decent amount of cars. No fee or permit is required for parking or backcountry camping.  There are pit toilets without running water on site.  I began my hike at the gate on the other side of the road.

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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Hundred Degree Hammock Camping with Thunderstorms – Black Forest Trail

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3 days of Backpacking, Thunderstorms & Hammock Camping in Heavy Rain on a section of Pennsylvania’s Black Forest Trail. 

For this adventure,  I headed out for a 3 day, 2 night solo backpacking trip in Pennsylvania’s Tiadaghton State Forest.  The full Black Forest Trail is a rugged 43 mile loop with 8,550′ of elevation gain that I’ve done in the past and really enjoyed.

Facing a July forecast in the triple digits with thunderstorms, and the fact that my last solo hike was a pretty intense one, I decided to scale the mileage back this time.  My general plan was to simply go into the woods and use the network of connector trails to come up with a route on the fly, based on how the weather played out from day to day.

Black Forest Trail Short Loop – Route Overview – Sintax77

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