Let's Get Outdoors

New Beginnings...

2011-01-03T11:50:00.001-05:00

January 1 signaled the end of another decade, and with that, the close of chapters as well as new beginnings. While I would have loved to usher in the New Year from a comfy back country seat, as I have in years past, I instead spent time in the front country with loved ones. The past year saw me utterly fail at putting on weight (and muscle) by joining a gym and eating more, purchase a home in Asheville, NC which I don't yet live in, deal with the loss of a good friend, and spend 3 weeks out West running an Outdoor program.

2011 will bring with it my full time relocation to Asheville, a new job (possibly a new career path), Robin's graduation and start as a Physical Therapist, new friends, a greener life, and hopefully more time spent in the Outdoors. There are still plenty of unknowns for this year, which should keep it interesting. As a general rule, people like to make resolutions, or set goals, around this time, but I won't be doing that. I believe that goals should be set when necessary, and refreshed frequently.

This first post signals the launch of my new site, OutdoorsWith.me. I've been wanting to put together a new writing platform and design for the last several months, and it finally came together just prior to the close of 2010. My old blog, Let's Get Outdoors, will remain intact as long as possible since I don't plan to migrate the content. I have a lot of plans for this new platform, so if you want to keep up with me, please point your links and readers to the new site.

Slacker Update

2010-12-08T06:55:00.011-05:00

I've been really slacking on blogging lately, but not without good reason. Shortly after the Art Loeb trip in October, Robin and I closed on a cute late 40s bungalow in Asheville, NC. Our weekends since have been spent moving our limited amount of belongings, as well as acquiring new furnishings. We purchased our last few pieces of furniture last weekend, and have moved on to rugs and lighting.

At this point, aside from moving the remainder of our belongings in GA, the house is furnished and livable. The majority of our furniture is antiques but we were forced to supplement with newer items in certain areas (sofa, tv stand). We have a lot of oak, a little rosewood, and some shabby chic pieces. We have also developed a short list of additions and changes for the home itself. We got very lucky in that no major repairs are needed, and the few minor ones aren't completely urgent.

The house is located inside the perimeter of downtown Asheville, and we're literally 1-2 miles from anything. One of our top priorities for location was being close to everything so we could bike as much as possible, rather than relying on cars. As such, Robin and I have both acquired bikes for grocery runs and commuting. The house is a quaint 2 bed/1 bath with an office, added mudroom, and added single carport. There is a poured concrete pad for a shed, which no longer exists, and a moderately sized double-dug garden. We have a great front porch which faces almost due West, and will give us many unforgettable sunsets. The shed will be rebuilt, the front porch repaired (properly), and the carport will eventually become a 2 car garage. The interior is entirely original hardwoods and updated tile. Some of the tile needs additional grout, the hardwoods need refinishing, and the windows, while somewhat modern, need eventual replacement. We also plan to make a few other minor changes, and plan to do all of the work ourselves.

Some photos of the house prior to our purchase and as we've been furnishing it.

On another note, I've been working on planning the 2011 course offerings and budget for the Backpacking Light Wilderness Trekking School. I've also been looking at a site redesign, and moving back to a full hosted site.

With the house coming together, and with me closing in on the School plans, we should be taking a trip soon (hopefully over New Year's). That trip also will include some reviews of new gear, as we'll either be taking my custom HMG Echo II or a custom MLD Speed Mid.

Custom Hyperlight Mountain Gear Echo II Shelter System First Look

2010-10-22T06:20:00.011-04:00

Yesterday, my custom Hyperlight Mountain Gear Echo II shelter arrived. HMG primarily makes their gear (shelters and packs) with colorless (white) cuben fiber. I've grown quite fond of color (makes me feel more cheery, especially in foul weather), so I had a custom version made with the tarp and beak in a leaf green.

When I first discovered HMG, and saw the Echo system, it was almost love at first sight. I loved the modularity being offered, but I had initial reservations about the shelter system due to the dimensions of the insert. I was pretty sure the insert would be two small to accommodate two people without feeling cramped. Fortunately, I was incorrect, at least based upon my first pitch and observations.

The Echo II goes up just as easily as any other catenary cut tarp with a bug insert. The quality is superb, and it's probably a bit overbuilt. The leaf green is exactly what I expected, and matches my BackpackingLight Stealth Nano perfectly. Total weight of the system as delivered (includes all lines and 3 stuff sacks) is 30.2 oz. A bit of weight could be saved with smaller guy lines and shock cord, but I won't be in any hurry to modify anything given the already low weight.

I fully expect the Echo II to be my go-to shelter for the majority of my SE duo trips. It fits right in with my Stealth Nano and my custom Mountain Laurel Designs Speedmid. All 3 shelters are of top notch quality. I am in the process of selling off my other shelters, so along with a couple of bivies, these 3 will be my only shelter options for the foreseeable future.

More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157625213274622/

10/8/2010 - 10/10/2010 Art Loeb Thru-hike

2010-10-11T15:33:00.016-04:00

Traversing the entire length of the Art Loeb Trail has been on my list for several years, but the logistics have always been an issue (start and finish are about an hours drive apart). Recently I made a new friend and hiking partner that lives in NC and also wanted to do the Loeb, so we set it up.

Friday morning Robin and I woke up around 5 AM so we could be on the road by 6 in order to make a 9 AM meet at Davidson River Campground, the Southern terminus of the Loeb. One thing led to another, and both parties wound up late. Nevertheless, Robin and Nathan stayed at the campground while Javan and I drove to the Daniel Boone Scout Camp, the Northern terminus, in order to drop off my Subaru. We then drove back to the campground where we rejoined Robin and Nathan and started our trip. Day one took us from Davidson River downstream and across a bridge, through Neil Gap, over Chestnut Knob, and through Cat Gap before settling at Butter Gap for the night. Butter Gap is host to a primitive shelter and water was easily accessible. We arrived fairly early since the day was a short 8.8 miles, but this allowed us time to gather water, setup shelters, and collect firewood for the night. We saw only two other people come through camp Friday, and they were finishing up doing the 30 mile trail over a single day. They expected to finish around 10 PM. At Butter Gap I saw the most trashed site I've yet to see. Not far from the shelter laid an entire tent full of water and containing food debris, clothing, a knife sharpener and who knows what else. I wanted to carry the mess out, but I didn't have disinfectant or rubber cleaning gloves to pick everything up with. Note that Butter Gap is a good 3+ miles from the nearest road. Part of our time around the fire was spent contemplating what happened to the tent owner(s).

Saturday morning we broke camp around 10:45 after a late breakfast, and started our 12.7 mile walk to Ivestor Gap. This was our longest day, and also covered the majority of our almost 2 mile elevation gain. We walked over Chestnut Mountain, through Gloucester Gap, over Pilot Mountain, into Deep Gap (the first of two), through Farlow Gap, crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway, over Silermine Bald, over Black Balsam Knob, over Tennent Mountain and in to Ivestor Gap. Ivestor Gap is a boundary for the Shining Rock Wilderness so signage beyond this point is slim to none. The views in this particular area are incredible. Trees won't grow due to some fires many years ago that damaged the soil. Thanks to the lack of trees, we also had a much chillier and wet (dew) night. Once we arrived in camp I headed down a trail to get water, which was very scarce all day. I should have taken some insulation with me as it got very chilly when the sun went down, and it took me over an hour to get a little over 5 liters of water. The spring I used was a mere trickle, but I was able to divert some of the flow off a rock and in to a dirty bottle using a leaf. The water from the dirty bottle was then poured in to the bag of our gravity filter where it worked it's way in to a clean Platypus. I really wish I had gotten a picture. When I arrived back to camp, Robin had our spot set up, and was ready to start boiling water for dinner. After a hot dinner we turned in for the night. A clear sky allowed for seeing more stars than I can remember, including several of the shooting variety.

Sunday morning we rose to an incredible sunrise. After a hot breakfast and drying out some gear, we broke camp around 9:45. This was our shortest day at 8.5 miles, but posed navigational challenges and several thousand feet of descent. Once leaving Ivestor Gap we crossed over Grassy Cove Top, through Flower Gap, Shining Rock Gap, and Crawford Creek Gap, over Stairs Mountain and through the Narrows to Deep Gap (the second). From Deep Gap we chose to skip the side trek up to Cold Mountain (yes, that Cold Mountain) and make our final descent to the Scout Camp. Both Shining Rock Gap and Deep Gap posed navigational challenges as multiple trails converge in these areas and some are false. We managed to stay on the trail at both with only minor mishaps, despite having no map. The Narrows was somewhat unexpected, and greeted us with some technical terrain as well as a short walk over a narrow spine. Once we hit my Subaru, Robin and I took a quick bandanna bath, and then we headed back to Davidson River. We quickly picked up the second vehicle and headed in to Brevard for post-hike Mexican. This was a great trip and once of the toughest sections of trail I've done, including my WT3 expedition in 2008. One major thing we noticed was the lack of an ultralight or even lightweight mindset amongst everyone we ran across. One group of guys even had more gear for a single day than we had for three, and one of them claimed to lead backpacking immersion courses for Brevard College freshman. In addition to the mentioned navigational challenges, water on this trip was very scarce. Robin and I managed to carry about 20 oz each for the most part, but I would NOT recommend this to others. I have a lot of experience with water management and can get away with things most people cannot.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157625137011418/

2010/11 Backpacking Light Cocoon Clothing First Look

2010-09-30T18:24:00.009-04:00

I just received my 2010/11 Backpacking Light Cocoon hoody and pants in the mail. Also recently released is a new quilt.

Both the hoody and quilt come in "Viridian Green" which is essentially a lime color. The pants come in charcoal which appears more of a steel gray. The lining on the hoody (and I assume on the quilt as well) matches the pants. I'm roughly 5'8 and between 140-145 lbs with a 29" waist and around a 36" chest. I went with a small for the pants since I only plan to wear them over a base layer for camp and sleeping. The pants came in at 6.5 ounces. For the hoody, I opted for a medium so I could layer it over a thin down sweater in colder temps. The combination of the hoody with something like a MontBell UL Down Inner should be roughly as warm as a Nunatak Skaha, with the added benefit of any moisture collecting in the synthetic Cocoon. The hoody came in at 9.6 ounces. Fit is about what I would expect for insulating garments and the finish appears excellent.

Both garments use a Pertex Quantum shell and liner with a proprietary 80 gram synthetic insulation developed by Ryan Jordan. For reference, the new quilt uses the same insulation in a 240 gram derivative. The hoody has a dual-pull draw cord for the hood and a velcro volume adjuster on the back. It also has stretchy material on the cuffs and waist to seal up drafts as well as a very deep chest zip. The cuffs include thumb holes so you can pull them down over your hands for additional hand insulation. The pants have a drawcord waist and the same stretchy material at the cuffs. Neither the hoody or pants have pockets.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157624944377511/with/5039722549/

Quality Customer Service

2010-09-01T06:19:00.004-04:00

Last night (after business hours, even on the West Coast) I emailed Brooks-Range Mountaineering with some questions. I was pleasantly surprised when I got a quick response answering my questions in detail. What was even more impressive, though, was that my email came from Matt Brooks, the company founder. Not only did Matt answer my questions personally, he offered to help me in any way possible. I haven't ordered anything from Brooks-Range yet, but I plan to do so. Possibly even more so now than I did before I contacted them.

Normally, I wouldn't think of Brooks-Range as a cottage company, but I guess they actually are. Cottage companies are something special in the world of lightweight backpacking. A lot of us (ultralight backpackers) go out of our way to support these small companies, even if their prices aren't competitive with their larger brethren. One of the main reasons I do this personally, is because of the service I get. It's a truly special shopping experience when you deal directly with the company owner or the guy in the trenches making your gear.

Matt Lutz put together a good list of cottage companies on his website and I've linked to it on mine as well (see the Support Cottage Gear image in the right column). If you need high quality backpacking gear, especially of a custom nature, try to support these guys.

Other cottage companies I've personally had great service from:

Gossamer Gear
ULA Equipment (prior to being sold, but Casey is still there)
Mountain Laurel Designs
Titanium Goat
Trail Designs
Antigravity Gear
enLIGHTened equipment
Te-Wa Quilts
BackpackingLight
Bushbuddy
Zpacks
UDAP
TarpTent

Life Altering Trips

2010-08-31T07:36:00.004-04:00

If you're not already familiar with the name Andrew Skurka, he's a former National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, and acclaimed lightweight backpacker. Andy has been on what is probably his toughest trip yet for the last 6 or so months, covering 4700 miles of Alaska and the Yukon. His travel has been entirely human powered via foot, ski, and packraft.

I first met Andy in October of 2008 when I attended Backpacking Light's WT3 course. I definitely don't know him on a deeply personal level, but I know as much as you can about a person when you spend 6 days in the Wilderness with them including a walk in full blizzard conditions.

Anyway, I've been keeping up with Andy and his trip via his Twitter feed and his blog postings on the National Geographic Adventure site.

Below are Andy's most recent two tweets (newest first):

Sunny day on placid Kobuk, tonight cowboy camp. Achy arms due to constant paddling. Extremely variable emotions due to finish 140mi away.

The Bittersweet Finish:Just 200 miles & 7 days away from achieving my goal, I'm looking for ways to extend the experience http://ht.ly/2x6jh

The second tweet includes a link to his most recent blog posting as well.

What I see/feel is a slight indication of a fear of reintegrating with society. As per his blog, Andy spent a full 24 days without crossing a single road or seeing another human being. That has to change a person, at least a little bit. This trip may be hard for Andy to top, although I don't doubt his ability to do so. As such, I can fully understand Andy's hesitation to let the trip end, but I'm glad he's chosen to complete it as planned. It's going to be very interesting to see how Andy has changed as well as follow his integration back in to modern society.

What did you do this Summer?

2010-08-19T18:52:00.027-04:00

Some time last fall I contacted Ryan Jordan of BackpackingLight about helping out with the Wilderness Trekking School. My intention was only to offer a helping hand with planning but Ryan offered me the chance to take over the program. Initially I was apprehensive, but I figured what the hell, and decided to take a shot at it. Several months of planning and logistical work later, I flew out to Bozeman, MT. From July 24th through August 17th I spent my time between the BackpackingLight office in Bozeman, a hotel in Jackson, WY, the Bridger-Teton National Forest of WY, and Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake, UT. July 24th - 28th I was in Bozeman working out of the office and pulling together group gear and trekking meals for our two courses.

On July 28th myself and Sam Haraldson headed down to Jackson for the Wilderness Skills 1 - Lightweight Backpacking course. The morning of July 29th was spent in a classroom format with Sam and I discussing the gear and techniques involved with lightweight and ultralight backpacking. After a lunch break we caught a shuttle to the trail where we spent 2 nights in the Wilderness with 7 eager students. Our short time was spent going over shelters, cooking, food hanging, and water treatment as well as lightweight methods. I demoed efficiently packing up my camp while Sam demoed setting up his. We crossed a wide river with Sam and I each instructing different techniques and saw a variety of small game. July 31st we exited the Wilderness and caught the shuttle back to Jackson where we had a nice group lunch. After lunch, we had a short debriefing session and everyone parted ways. Sam and I headed towards Salt Lake stopping off at a USFS campground for the night. You may never see a pair of green Cuben Fiber tarps but we did. Our minimalist shelters weathered 15 minutes of good sized hail as well as moderate winds without the slightest complaint. My stakes and the soil whined but I made do.

On August 1st, Sam and I completed our drive to Salt Lake where we stayed with fellow WT3 alumni, Bill Stadwiser, and his roomy Alex. August 2nd was spent mostly hanging around with Sam doing some customer service work. August 3rd marked the official start of Outdoor Retailer and I spent the day roaming and checking out gear while Sam met with his vendors. August 4th was more of the same but around lunch we hopped in the car and made our way back to Bozeman. Interestingly enough (or not), most of what I saw at the show had already been covered by European bloggers from their show weeks earlier.

I spent August 5th and 6th back in Bozeman working out of the office prepping for another course. On August 7th, myself and Ryan Connelly drove back to Jackson for the Wilderness Trekking 1 - Summer Backpacking course. We spent August 8th in the classroom again, with this session being a bit more in depth than that of the shorter Wilderness Skills course. By the end of the class, everyone was packed for 5 nights in the Wilderness. The morning of August 9th (after breakfast of course), we loaded up the shuttle with our group of 10 and all gear. An hour or so later, we arrived at the trail head and headed off in to the woods for 5 nights. We spent 5 full days covering a little over 50 miles with the majority being on trail. Students were treated with seeing several deer, a bald eagle, an owl, grizzly tracks, mountain lion tracks, and wolf tracks. Robin also had a run-in with a marmot when we invaded its camp. We also saw plenty of chipmunks and wildflowers as well as a rancher/cowboy out spraying Thistle. Our last night's camp was in a large meadow with a great view of the Tetons, where a wolf pack had likely slept just days prior. On August 14th, we walked our final miles before saying goodbye to the Wilderness and shuttling back to Jackson for a group lunch and final debrief. Following the debrief, Ryan C., Robin, and I loaded up the bus, said our goodbyes to the group, and headed back to Bozeman. Robin and I spent our final 3 nights in Bozeman where I stowed all of the group gear and field notes before taking a day to tour the town. The night of August 16th, Robin and I had dinner with Ryan J., Ryan's son Chase, and Sam. We had some loose discussion of the program but it was mostly relaxed. On August 17th, Robin and I caught a shuttle to the airport where we found out our return home would be delayed (maybe someone was trying to tell us to stay). I got home around midnight and crashed since I had planned to return to work 5 hours later.

Overall, I had an excellent time out West and Robin did as well. I was able to do almost everything I had planned and had some great time in the Wilderness with unbelievable views. I watched no live TV and spent almost the entire trip on foot or bicycle. I bought groceries at small local stores and biked them home. I biked to the office daily, biked to dinner, watched an Alley Cat race, and biked the group gear around on Sam's custom cargo bike. All of my riding was single speed. I walked about 65 miles in the Wilderness over 7 full days and did some additional walking in town. I gorged myself several times on local food (La Parilla burritos and MacKenzie River pizza) but failed to gain a single pound (I think I even lost a couple).

What did you do this Summer?

Photos:

Wilderness Skills 1 - Lightweight Backpacking

Wilderness Trekking 1 - Summer Backpacking

Trip Reports:

Sam H. on WS1

Caleb S. on WS1

Shoe companies and shoes that get it

2010-07-08T07:38:00.006-04:00

The black outline is what my right foot looks like when bearing weight and in a sock. The yellow is what the toe of most shoes looks like. I'm sure you can see the problem. My foot shape is, for all intents and purposes, what a typical foot would look like. Some are narrower, some wider, but the basic shape is the same.

Unfortunately, the majority of shoe companies don't seem to get this. I honestly have no idea where they get their lasts from. My only guess is that they're from someone who has worn pointed shoes all of their life and has a misshaped foot as a result. I like my toes to have breathing room so I search out shoes with a toe box correctly shaped to match a fairly normal foot. These shoes are far and few between so I thought I would highlight what I've found thus far.

Patagonia:

Toast and Jam (discontinued)
Rum and Cola (discontinued)
Larry
Pau
Maui Moc
Maui Air
Maui Mid
Maui Dew
Loulu (maybe a bit narrow)

Terra Plana:

most anything in the Vivo Barefoot line

Soft Star Shoes:

your choice (they have kids shoes as well)

Sanuk:

variety in the Sidewalk Surfers line

Keen:

models vary

Unfortunately, that's pretty much all I'm aware of. Please comment if you know of other companies or shoes with a toe box designed for a foot.

Dealing with loss

2010-07-06T08:42:00.009-04:00

Early Saturday morning I said goodbye to my loving companion of around 15 years, Samson. I adopted Samson from the local Gwinnett Humane Society shortly after my parent's divorce. I went in looking for a small puppy and Samson was a full grown (around 40-50 lbs) Chow/Golden Retriever mix. Initially, I passed right by him. After browsing a bit I was told that Samson would likely be put down if someone didn't adopt him that day as they had already extended their termination policy several times at the request of some volunteers. That was all it really took for me and I took him home.

It seems like I was always too busy to give him the love he truly deserved. For the first few years we were together, I was busy doing the school thing. Then came the work thing. During a lot of this time my physical activity level severely dwindled and I grew more and more out of shape. By the time I got my own fitness back on track, Samson was too old to accompany me on my hiking and backpacking trips. I couldn't even really take him on long walks or jogs.

About a year and a half ago, Samson was diagnosed with Heartworm disease. There is a surgical procedure for this but the risk of death is pretty high and given Samson's age, I elected not to put him through it. It took a while for the effects to build up but Samson got slower and slower and would quickly start panting on short walks. He was already deaf in both ears and I noticed Saturday that he had cataracts in both eyes. He also limped a bit and would lose his balance and fall coming up stairs or even just walking sometimes. It got to the point to where he mostly laid around other than when he got walked. Despite all of this, every time I would go to walk him he'd get very excited, jumping around and wagging his tail, just like the first day I brought him home.

Late last week, Samson seemed to be getting worse so I called the vet about my options. I didn't want him to suffer and experience the heart attack that would eventually take him so first thing Saturday morning I took him to the vet. I walked him so he could go to the bathroom and made sure he had food and water before loading him in to my car. When we got to the vet I opened up my hatch and Samson jumped out taking a spill on the concrete. We walked around a bit before I took him in. The tech took us back and explained how everything would work and I paid so we could leave without having to deal with anything after. Eventually they gave Samson a sedative which took effect extremely fast. He actually started snoring. The vet came in and gave him his final shot and verified it had its intended effect before leaving us with him to say our last goodbyes.

This was the hardest decision I've ever had to make and one of the toughest losses I've personally experienced. I'm still questioning how much more I could have done with him during those initial years when I was "too busy". Eventually I suppose the guilt will go, but my memories never will.

To those helping me and with me until the end, thanks for your support.

June 26-27, 2010 FootHills/Fork Mountain Loop

2010-06-28T10:35:00.003-04:00

Robin and I did the FootHills/Fork Mountain loop again over this past weekend. This is a short post since the trip was pretty uneventful. Overall, it was a fun trip. We tried out a Bear Paw Tents Canopy Tent 2 and Net Tent 2 for shelter which worked pretty well. We also took chocolate pudding instead of chocolate bars in the wonderful SE heat. As part of making the pudding we left the bags in the river to keep it cold. After dinner when I retrieved the pudding I found the crawfish had nipped the corners on one bag and pudding came rushing out. Fortunately, I caught it quickly and we only lost a little of our desert. If you check out the pictures, noticed the difference in our backcountry site and a site closer to the parking area along the Chattooga River.

Note: I forgot the memory card for my camera so I was only able to take a few photos on the internal memory.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157624246382325/

Backpacking Light Wilderness Trekking School - BSA Trek Leader Training

2010-05-27T18:26:00.017-04:00

Just after 6 AM on Thursday, May 20 I boarded a plane bound for Bozeman, MT. After touching down at Gallatin Field and getting my pack, Ryan Jordan of Backpacking Light phoned me and told me he would be there shortly to pick me up. We drove back to the Backpacking Light office where we spent a few minutes, before loading up the rental pickup with gear. Ryan Jordan, Sam Haraldson, Ryan Connelly, and I then departed for the Boone and Crockett Club's Elmer Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center just outside Dupuyer, MT. Once at the ERWCC, we were joined by Mike Martin and Doug Prosser. The six of us would serve as the instructors for a course run in partnership with Backpacking Light's Wilderness Trekking School and the Montana Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The course was designed to train BSA trek leaders on ultralight gear and techniques so that they could, in turn, train their Scouts and lighten their loads.

We spent Thursday night and the first half of Friday on classroom instruction and planning. Ryan Jordan and Doug Prosser both emptied the contents of their packs onto a table and discussed every item they carry as well as the reasoning behind it. We also discussed plans, maps, bear spray usage, nutrition, and a few other things. After a scrumptious lunch, we split in to our respective groups of 6 students and 3 instructors and headed for the surrounding mountains. My group chose to head right for the Bob Marshall Wilderness where we spent Friday night just above the North Dupuyer Creek. We got snow. In May. Welcome to Spring in Montana. On Saturday, we left the Bob and spent most of the day walking the lands. Saturday evening provided us with the moos of cattle, the hoot of an owl, and the yipping of a coyote pack. We had only a single formal class on the PCT method of bear bagging. The rest of the weekend was primarily informal with a lot of interaction between the students and instructors. We returned to the EWRCC on Sunday for a snack and debrief.

The BSA Patrol Method was the focus of both gear usage and travel techniques. The patrol gear used by the students included 10x12 flat tarps, 11x11 pyramid tarps, 4 L cook pots used over an open fire, Caldera Keg systems with solid fuel tabs, Platypus Clean Stream, and Aqua Mira water treatment systems. We had half of each group use one of each shelter, cook system, and treatment system the first night and then swap the second night. This was designed to give the students practice with items available to their Scouts at reasonable prices and with good durability. Provided meals were of the dehydrated variety and prepared by the Scouts of Montana Troop 676. This included breakfasts, dinners, and deserts. The students provided their own lunches based on suggested guidelines concerning weight and caloric content.

I believe everyone had an enjoyable experience and learned quite a lot. That includes myself and the other instructors.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157624012567387/

Sam's post: Backpacking Light - Wilderness Trekking School - WS2-BSA 2010

Ultralight Backpacking for Scouts

2010-03-19T10:46:00.008-04:00

Ultralight Backpacking for Scout Leaders

2010-02-26T08:27:00.001-05:00

The Montana Council, B.S.A., in partnership with Backpacking Light (http://www.backpackinglight.com/), will host the nation's premiere program in ultralight backpacking skills and safety training for Scout Leaders and High Adventure Crew staff at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch in the foothills of the Bob Marshall Wilderness near Dupuyer, Montana on May 21-23, 2010.

For more information, and to register online, please visit the following link:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/wilderness_skills_ii_bsa.html

This course is aimed at Camp Directors, High Adventure Trek Directors, High Adventure Crew Staff, Scoutmasters, and Assistant Scoutmasters interested in implementing their own high adventure trekking and backcountry programs that are safer, more comfortable, and more fun for their Scouts.

The course director and senior instructor for this program is Ryan Jordan, the Montana Council BSA High Adventure Committee Chair, Trek Director for the Montana Council BSA High Adventure Program in Ultralight Backpacking, Assistant Scoutmaster, Philmont Graduate, Eagle Scout, and former High Adventure Director for Chief Seattle Council BSA. Dr. Jordan is the founder of Backpacking Light and has spent the past several years developing implementing ultralight backpacking programs for Scouting organizations across the U.S. Dr. Jordan will be joined by four other instructors with deep expertise in ultralight backpacking, offering participants a wealth of combined experience and perspective not commonly found in a single high adventure training experience.

Space is extremely limited (max enrollment is 24 participants and 5 instructors) for this program and it usually sells out early - act fast to take advantage of this very unique opportunity.

1/1/2010 - 1/2/2010 Newton Bald Loop

2010-01-04T06:59:00.009-05:00

On New Year's Day Jim Bailey, Robin, and I took off for the Southeastern corner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park just outside Bryson City, NC to do a 23 mile loop around Newton Bald. The logistics of the trip have it planned for 3 days and we were expecting lows of around 8 degrees F at Newton Bald on Saturday night based on the last forecast checked before we hit the road.

Friday was a short day at 6.3 miles and we got to camp with plenty of light to setup and work on building a fire. We gave up on the fire after about 5 minutes and opted to spend the evening around a stove inside Jim's Hex 3. We huddled around the stove as Jim made us all drinks and we ate dinner. Eventually Robin and I headed over to our Scarp 2 to turn in for the night. I left a thermometer attached to the peak of our shelter and we observed temps around 18 degrees F over night.

Saturday morning we packed up as quickly as possible in an effort to get warm via movement. We broke camp around 10:15 AM and made our way up the mountainside to Newton Bald. This was supposed to be an 8 mile day with camp at Newton Bald. As we made our way up we found several inches of frozen snow/ice and a lot of blow down blocking the trail. We arrived at Newton Bald around 1:00 PM and found a very bad site to spend the night. The ground was covered with probably 4-6 inches of frozen snow/ice. With it being early in the afternoon, the difficulties presented by the site itself, expected temps, and knowledge that the site experiences high winds in Winter we opted to make towards the finish. We agreed that we would look for a stealth site at lower elevations but if we didn't see a suitable one we would push on to the car and head to town for pizza. Having done this loop before, albeit in much better conditions, Robin and I knew there was little chance of finding a stealth site.

We arrived at the car around 5:15 PM completing the loop and a 16.8 mile day. We were all fairly impressed with ourselves considering the trail conditions and the pace we were able to maintain. We quickly loaded up the car and headed towards Cherokee, NC where we started looking up pizza joints on my GPS. Eventually we landed in Franklin, NC and stopped off at a small pizza place. Fortunately for us they were running a BOGO special and we put down a large Hawaiian and large Philly cheese steak. I also rechecked the weather for the night here. Bryson City was expecting temps of 10 F with 20-30 mph winds and up to 40 mph gusts. Wind chill was expected to be 0 F to -10 F. Knowing that Newton Bald is at 5000 ft and what the site looked like we figured it would probably be 0 F or negative temps there with wind chills closer to -15 F to -20 F. With our gear and knowledge we would've survived the night but it would've been pretty uncomfortable. We were all very glad we made the decision to complete the loop rather than camp.

Loop Details: http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/travel-ta-great-smoky-mountain-national-park-hiking-gatlinburg-tennessee-sidwcmdev_056143.html

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157623132110824/

11/07/2009 - 11/08/2009 AT Unicoi Gap to Dicks Creek Gap

2009-11-09T07:47:00.003-05:00

This weekend I did another section of the Georgia AT with Jim Bailey. We setup a shuttle and hiked from Unicoi Gap to Dicks Creek Gap. I arrived at Dicks Creek Gap to meet Jim about 9:30 AM and found that the parking lot was almost full. I managed to squeeze in but just barely.

On Saturday we made our way from Unicoi Gap to Addis Gap where we camped about a .5 mile off the AT down by the water source. Jim and I met up with a couple from Athens at the site and chatted with them around the fire for a bit until they crawled in to their hammock for the night. Jim provided a dinner of Zattarans red beans and rice as well as sausages which was quite spicy and great for a chilly evening. The drink of the night was Jim's Loco Cocoa and as usual I had some delicious bourbon that we polished off.

On Sunday we broke camp and made our way to Deep Gap Shelter we we enjoyed a breakfast of Cheesy Bacon Grits. We then left Deep Gap and made our way to the exit at Dicks Creek Gap.

Jim and I saw some interesting stuff on this trip. There was still a good bit of fall color visible from a distance but when you're actually walking through the trees you see how barren they really are. The highlight of the trip had to be emerging from the woods at USFS 79 and Tray Gap. There is a large area here where people park to make the short hike up Tray Mountain. Despite the abundant amount of space some ass felt the need to park his Land Rover right on the AT. I was just going to get a photo of it but Jim thought it would be funnier (and very Brian Doble) to pull a Calvin on the guy's front bumper. Going around the vehicle wouldn't have been too big a deal except for the briers on either side of it. We also saw Bamboo in the middle of woods and a hilarious attempt at bear bagging. Be sure to check out all of the photos below.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157622761554990/

10/17/2009 - 10/18/2009 AT Hog Pen Gap to Unicoi Gap

2009-10-19T07:41:00.007-04:00

I did a short section of the AT with my BPL buddy Jim this weekend. We went in and Hog Pen Gap and came out at Unicoi Gap for a total of 13.8 miles. Saturday we walked 11.6 miles in the cold rain and experienced a little sleet and a little snow. We spent the night in Blue Mountain shelter where we also got a little snow and below freezing temps (I measured 30 but that doesn't factor in wind chill). Dinner consisted of marinated steak tips, mixed veggies, and loaded mashed potatoes. The cocktail of choice for the night was a caramel apple. Breakfast Sunday morning was bacon, cheese, and garlic grits. Needless to say, we at well on this short trip.

Earlier in the week the expected weather was precip free with low 60s during the days and low 40s over night. By Friday my clothing system had changed quite a bit but I decide to see if my 15.5 oz synthetic quilt (good for 35-40 degrees and custom made by Tim Marshall Outdoors of 3.7 oz Climashield Combat and 1.1 dwr ripstop) could handle the below freezing temps with some layering. I slept a bit colder than I like Saturday night (this could have also been a calorie issue since we went to bed around 8 PM and I usually only sleep for 7 or so hours. From what I recall I slept fairly well until about 4 AM which would align with my normal sleep pattern and I woke up starving at that point. I slept inside the shelter and in a Titanium Goat Ptarmigan bivy.

My clothing layers consisted of:

BPL UL Merino Hoody (base)
GoLite Stride short (base)
RAB VapourRise pant (base)
Patagonia Houdini wind shirt
MontBell UL Down Inner jacket
Patagonia R1 balaclava
Teko EcoMerino socks (base)
Smartwool Trekking socks

I went back to sleep after my 4 AM rise and shine call and woke up again around 6:30 or so. At that point I answered Nature's call and retrieved my food bag from the bear cables since I was still starving. I laid in my bivy and waited on the sunrise while I devoured the last half of my dark chocolate bar to calm my stomach pains. It was a good trip despite the freak cold snap and we saw some decent fall colors but there was still a lot of green so I would say it should peak in a couple more weeks.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157622489402563/

9/12/2009 - 9/15/2009 Le Pemi Cirque

2009-10-19T07:16:00.007-04:00

I'm a bit behind on posting this but on Sept 12 I flew in to Boston with my local BPL cohort Jim Bailey. Jim did a fantastic job coordinating a loop of the Pemigewasset Wilderness in New Hampshire with some of his buddies in the NE and invited me along. Jonathan Ryan picked us up at the airport (thanks Jonathan) and we drove straight in to NH making stops for dinner, at the local EMS for fuel canisters, and at a large liquor store for Jim's supplies. Jim is known as the backcountry bartender and it's a well deserved moniker as he made around 100 servings of Loco Cocoa on this trip alone. We spent our first night at Liberty Springs with Jonathan Ryan and Jonathan DeYoung as well as a slew of AMC staff. The morning of the second day we hooked up with Brian Doble and then later with Darryl (another of Jim's buddies). Darryl spent the second night with us and Brian was with us for the rest of the trail. Day 3 we hooked up with Bruno and Paolo Aurelio and they were our ride back to town. Paolo put us up for the night in town and dropped us off at the airport (thanks Paolo). On the way back to Boston we had a delicious dinner (and drinks of course) at the Common Man.

This was a fun trip and my first experience in the NE. The trails up there are very different from what we have in the SE and destroyed one of my shoes. I literally broke the outsole in half on the rocky terrain.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157622399236068/

9/5/2009 - 9/6/2009 Blood Mountain/Coosa Backcountry Trail Loop

2009-09-06T20:51:00.012-04:00

This weekend I did a 21.4 mile loop with Jim Bailey as some prep for our Whites trip coming up next weekend. We will be doing a loop around the Pemigewassett Wilderness in New Hampshire. We met up at the Byron Reece parking area and took the access trail up to Blood Mountain. From there we took the AT south and hooked in to the Duncan Ridge Trail. We took the DRT down to the Coosa Backcountry Trail and followed that loop in its entirety. At the end of the loop we took the DRT back up to the AT and went back out the way we came in. The Coosa features a couple of nice 1000+ ft over 1ish mile climbs if you take it the direction that we did. We covered around 8 or 9 miles yesterday before camping near a nice creek. The next nearest water source was a few more miles away up a ridge and neither of us was equipped for a dry camp.

My fully loaded pack for this trip weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and included some new toys I was testing out. Most of the new products came from Ron Bell at Mountain Laurel Designs and included a Revelation pack, Grace Duo tarp, and Bug Bivy. Both the pack and tarp are made of an ultralight material known as cuben fiber. I also tried out a pair of Invo8 FlyRoc 310 shoes. I need to test different methods of loading the pack some more but it carried well with the weight I had and has some innovative features. The tarp and bug bivy combo were excellent and are taking a permanent place in my gear closet. The FlyRocs wound up being too small and caused a blister on my right heel. The toe box also became very cramped after we got some miles in and was uncomfortable for me.

Another new piece of gear I took out was a custom synthetic quilt made by Tim Marshall. This was the second custom quilt I've had Tim sew up for me and is made from standard 1.1 oz dwr ripstop with 3.7 oz Climashield Combat insulation. I'm not sure what the overnight temps were but I slept fairly close to the creek and had to vent the quilt a few times due to being too warm. I suspect the quilt will be fine to at least 40 in my usual shorts and thin shirt. It should have no problems getting to 30 or so with a parka and in a bivy.

Jim is known up North as the backcountry bartender and has yet to disappoint living up to his name. We had cocktails made from Crystal Light mixed with Everclear as we sat around our cozy fire.

This was my first trip using a tarp all night and I was very pleased with the ambiance it provided over a tent. I dozed off to sleep watching the fire glow from inside my bug shelter and woke up to the sunrise with the creek rushing behind me. Truly a wonderful experience you can only get from the openness of a tarp.

Gear List: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t5JvUCZvHeBRtd60l2Gv_0A&output=html
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157622273707062/

8/8/2009 - 8/12/2009 AT/Bartram Loop (bailed out)

2009-08-16T21:49:00.009-04:00

Robin and I planned a nice 5 day 55 mile loop comprising the AT and Bartram that was set to begin and end outside the NOC in North Carolina. We were expecting storms to move in on day 3 and last for the remainder of the trip so we planned to adjust mileage and cover more ground on the first couple of nice days. We hit the AT around noon on Saturday and covered just over 11 miles before making camp around 6. This small section was made up of a lot of climbing including a short stint of around 1000 feet over 1 mile to reach Cheoah Bald. I have been nursing an overuse injury of my anterior tibialis for the last month or so and thought it was good to go. Unfortunately, I was only good for flat terrain and not the intense climbing we took on. I was experiencing some minor discomfort on Sunday but wanted to try and push on anyway. Robin and I reached the Nantahala Power Company installation on NC Route 1310 around 11:30 and took a short break to snack before a short climb (the only planned climbing for this day). At this point Robin was experiencing moderate pain from a growing heel blister and attempted to alleviate it by adding a third layer of tape and bandage cushion. We started to make the 800 ft ascent to the surge tank but the climbing was painful for both of us so I decided to call the trip off. Our location was very close to the NOC rafter drop off and was the best bailout point for us. We also knew we had another large section of steep climbing coming up on Monday with no good bailouts available if either injury worsened. We made our way back to the rafter drop off and asked one of the NOC staff if we could hitch a ride back to the campus. I didn't get his name but he was happy to oblige and arranged it with the next driver to show up. When we got back to the NOC campus we dropped our gear at the car, booked a room at the Nantahala Inn for the night, and took a 2-person raft down the river. On Monday we drove in to Asheville where we stayed for 2 nights before heading off to our planned cabin stay in Hendersonville. We made the best of our vacation time with some shopping, local food sampling, and simple relaxation.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157621914965519/

Menu and Gear Lists: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t4mqJ655_IfkQBAMkB0G8yg&output=html

What does lightweight food for a 4 night trip look like?

2009-08-07T07:04:00.005-04:00

I just finished up prepping our food last night for a 4 night trip starting Aug 8. Robin and I will be doing approximately 55 miles combining sections of the AT and Bartram to form a loop that starts and ends at the NOC in North Carolina. The food for 1 person (sans a couple of bags of apricots) is pictured. This amounts to just over 6 lbs of food and just over 11000 calories. We plan to be out for 4.25 full days so it breaks down to around 2600 calories and 1 lb 7 oz per day with an average caloric density of 115 cal/oz. This is lower than I would like (125+ cal/oz is better) but we like to have some fruit in the mix despite its low cal/oz ratio. I put a fair amount of planning in to our food this time so I have a nice spreadsheet with the breakdown. I've been eating the GORP below for months now both on backpacking trips and as a daily snack during the week. I have to double the amount but I find it quite delicious. We also slightly modified some of the other recipes but mostly just by increasing amounts.

Some of the recipes:

Ham and Cheese Macaroni
Apple Cinnamon Crunch Oatmeal
Maple Cinnamon Toast with Apples
EatingWell GORP

Enjoy!

7/18/2009 - 7/19/2009 Chattooga River Trail Overnighter

2009-07-20T10:22:00.012-04:00

Robin and I co-lead another trip with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup group over the weekend. We dragged in another trip leader, Bobby, to help us since we had a very large group this time. This was a newbie trip and we hiked in about 1.5 miles before finding a very large site that allowed all of us to spread out and lessen our impact. We also had a great swimming hole on the river and Robin found a place to hang her hammock.

As usual we tested some new items on this trip including Big Agnes chair kits which worked perfectly with our Thermarest Neoair pads. We also tried out some food from PackIt Gourmet. We had Dottie's Chicken and Dumplings for dinner which was a bit watery (more like chicken soup) but still quite tasty. We also had their Banana Puddin' for desert and Creamy Italian Polenta with Sausage for breakfast. Both of these were delicious and we highly recommend them. As an extra treat we sampled the Moonshine Margaritas Saturday night and found those excellent as well.

All in all this was a fun trip with some new people, some people we hadn't seen in a while, and a relaxing time.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157621584813527/

Custom Te-Wa Down Quilt

2009-07-06T19:20:00.001-04:00

I recently had a custom te-wa down quilt made for myself by Michael Stivers (te-wa) from the Backpackinglight.com Forums. The quilt was made to my specified dimensions and has a good 2-2.5" of top layer loft with baffled tubes which will allow me to shift the down around some. It should be good to right around 25 degrees before layering. Total weight is 18.7 ounces on my scale which is pretty good for something that I can probably push to 10-15 degrees in a bivy or tent. The 800+ fill power down is 10 ounces of the total. I don't want to post the price but I feel it is excellent for what I received.

July 4th overnighter on the AT (Woody Gap to Bird Gap)

2009-07-06T06:50:00.013-04:00

Somewhere near the end of last week Jim Bailey (BPL WT3 Class of 2007) and I threw together a quick overnighter for the July 4th weekend. This was our first meeting although we've been trying to get one together since Jim moved down here from the NE many months ago. The trip included Jim, myself, and of course Robin as well. It was not the usual UL trip since we all packed very light on gear but heavy on food.

Anyway, we walked about 7 or so miles before setting up camp at Bird Gap which turned out to be a very dusty and dirty site. Prior to setting up we visited Woods Hole Shelter and filled our Platys at a spring nearby. This was a very small spring erupting from a tiny hole in a rock. That combined with the surrounding terrain and the wonderful green moss the water was flowing over lead us to a group decision to skip filtering. The water was ice cold and as clean as I've tasted since being in Montana where we frequently skipped filtering. Needless to say, none of us got sick. I wish I had taken a photo of the spring.

Food for this trip consisted of a special July 4th dinner of brats with peppers and onions. Jim played bartender and mixed up cocktails with some pomegranate and I think cherry Crystal Light along with Everclear. Jim also brought some red wine and Robin and I brought bourbon. We've developed a tradition of taking along some Elijah Craig 18 year on a lot of our trips, especially during the colder months. As a small surprise, Jim carried in some sparklers as well as speakers for his IPhone. Desert consisted of apple cobbler and was followed a little later by smores. We could hear the fireworks going off down in the towns below but didn't see anything other than our own sparklers and a little tea candle ambiance (Ben Harper and Jack Johnson provided the tunes).

It got a little cooler than the weather called for overnight and we got some short sprinkles although we expected full on rain. Since we were in a gap, we also had some nice breezes blowing through camp. Sunday morning we slept in for a bit since we all walk fairly quickly and knew there would be a short trip back out. We stopped off at the same rock where we lunched on Saturday and lunched again before posing for a Ryan Jordan style group photo.

I don't have many photos and we didn't make a gear list on this trip. We did see a bit more wildlife than usual including quite a few doe and a large owl along with the usual snakes and lizards. There was a lot of gear talk as well as mention of putting together some Intro to Lightweight Backpacking trips for the local outdoor clubs. This was an awesome first trip with Jim and we look forward to many more.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157621008786488/

FootHills Trail/Fork Mountain Loop Overnighter

2009-06-14T21:24:00.007-04:00

This weekend Robin and I did a 19 mile loop combining the FootHills Trail, Fork Mountain Trail, and Chattooga River Trail. We tried a few things differently on this trip than previous trips (see food post). We also carried some new gear including a TarpTent Scarp 2, a Caldera Ti-Tri, and we both carried ULA Ohms on the trip. All of the new gear worked very well and now has a permanent place in our duo kit. The trip details were pretty good until we hit a spot on the Chattooga River Trail where it forked. One direction pointed to Bull Pen Rd and the other had nothing posted for it on the sign. We made an educated guess based mostly on where it sounded like the river was and that the trail was headed down. Fortunately we have some experience doing this and were correct. This is why we don't lead trips without scouting them first anymore though. We've come to expect a little work on our part but it would undoubtedly annoy and worry people tagging along. We got a little wet Saturday early on (a welcome relief from the heat) but other than that the weather was very nice for June in the South. We only saw 4 other people the entire trip. This was fairly unusual but we enjoyed the solitude. Despite the lack of people we did manage to enjoy the sounds of several owls Saturday night. Several crow and red headed woodpeckers serenaded us Sunday on our walk out. We also caught a beautiful cascading water fall Saturday. It had a good 7-8 cascades down the side of the mountain, some of which can be seen in the trip photos.

Gear: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rrS8aYpuMCFqCqxDRle-_6g&output=html
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157619573187597/

Backpacking food for this weekend's overnighter

2009-06-12T19:09:00.006-04:00

Robin and I are doing an overnight loop combining the FootHills, Fork Mountain, and Chatooga River trails this weekend. Usually we wind up planning food pretty last minute but we did a little better this time so I took a snapshot of our menu.

What we have in the foodbag:

2 bags of homemade GORP each (snacks)
2 Balance bars in my bag, 1 in Robins (snacks)
1 bag of whole grain chips each (lunch or snack)
1 bag of oatmeal each (double servings) (day 2 breakfast)
1 bag of dried apricots each (snacks)
1 cranberry and dark chocolate bar for desert (day 1 after dinner)
4 tortillas, mashed potatoes, dehydrated chipotle chicken chili, and mixed cheese (day 1 dinner)
1 pbj flatbread sandwich each (day 1 lunch)
1 apple each (day 1 lunch and not pictured)
1 pepperoni wrap (day 2 lunch)

The dinner for day 1 is a modified version of Sarah's Mashed Potato Burritos found at Trail Cooking. The GORP is double servings of a recipe I found on Eating Well. The pepperoni wraps consist of a sundried tomato wrap filled with spinach, green peppers, onions, pepperoni, sundried tomatoes, and shredded sharp cheddar. These are a homemade version of the Hot Coals Pepperoni Rolls found at PackIt Gourmet.

I haven't weight everything yet but we usually go out with about 1.5 lbs per day.

Dick's Creek Gap to Muskrat Creek Shelter - gear review

2009-06-01T09:49:00.006-04:00

Robin and I did an overnighter on the AT with the Atlanta Wilderness Backpackers Meetup over the 5/30/2009-5/31/2009 weekend. We took out some new gear for this trip so I wanted to post some thoughts on it.

ULA Ohm pack - Robin carried this as we're trying to find a lighter replacement for her Granite Gear Vapor Ki. The Ohm only weighs 2.7 oz more than my Conduit (2008 model) and it boasts a fairly simple internal frame. Robin loved the way it carried and since the weight difference is so minor I'll probably be replacing my Conduit with one as well. Definitely recommend this pack.

BushBuddy Ultra stove - I have some mixed feelings here. I love the simplicity of the stove itself and that you don't need to carry fuel. On the other hand, getting it to burn well is time consuming and I'm a fan of speed when setting up camp. I may keep it around for demonstrations but I'm not sure how often it will be used on trips. As a note, it does boil pretty fast once you get it burning well.

Gossamer Gear Lightrek 4 poles - I love, love, love these. They're uberlight, easy to adjust, and never showed a hint of slipping. Highly recommended.

Thermarest Neoair pads - Robin and I both used a new Neoair in the short length in combination with empty packs. I forgot our coupling straps but the pads themselves were great. Lots of comfort for a very light weight. No problems with leaks and no warmth issues but it only got down to 50 F inside our tent.

We covered 24 miles over 2 days and managed to maintain an almost 3 mph pace despite not having been on the trail with packs in many months. All in all, it was a very nice weekend and we couldn't have asked for better weather. On a side note, the famous Oak at Bly Gap is sadly dying probably in part to being abused over the years. We found trash stuffed in holes and a lot of the bark has been knocked off likely due to people climbing on the tree and not being careful. Also, the Plum Orchard Gap Hilton (shelter) was pretty trashy. I found a lot of garbage outside the shelter as well as on the 3rd sleeping level. We cleaned up the Oak and the shelter as best we could and packed out the garbage.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157619010846369/

Gear Lists: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rRaR6gVdOie-swcO-lZpsqg&output=html

Ultralight Backpacking Gear (vs. Outside Magazine)

2009-05-27T22:28:00.009-04:00

The current issue of Outside Magazine has an article listing "Ultralight Backpacking Gear". While some of it is indeed lightweight there are even lighter alternatives so I thought I would post my own list as contrast. My goal is to only list items that function very closely to what Outside has chosen.

1. POLES I have to go with the GossamerGear Lightrek 4 here. These are a 2 piece pole where the Komperdell C3 chosen by Outside is a 3 piece. The Lightreks come in at 3.4 oz per pole in regular or 3.3 oz per pole in the short. I find them just as sturdy as my REI Peak UL (rebranded Komperdell) poles. $155; gossamergear.com

2. PACK The Exos is a good choice for the lighweight backpacker but we can do better. To be fair we need something with an internal frame and around 58L. I've chosen the ULA Ohm (57 L) here. For comparable options you would need to add the interior backpad, both hip pockets, and the hydration sleeve. This configuration lists at just under 26 oz. $164; ula-equipment.com

Bonus: I'd add the interior stash pocket in place of the hydration sleeve and keep your water bladder in a side pocket. I find this carry method better for refills.

3. SHELL The NorthFace Triumph Anorak and it's 5.4 oz weight are hard to argue with. I like a more featured shell myself and carry an older NorthFace DIAD which is 8.7 oz in size large. The Marmot Mica which lists at 7 oz and $130 might also be a good choice. northface.com & marmot.com

4. TENT Outside lists the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 2 at 3.4 lbs but the manufacturer spec is closer to 3.8 lbs as delivered. My choice would be the TarpTent Scarp 2 with mesh inner and no extra poles. In that config it should be around 3.25 lbs as delivered. You could argue that the Scarp is not freestanding without the extra poles which add cost and weight. However, with the added poles the Scarp can handle a lot more abuse from Mother Nature vs. the Copper Spur. $325; tarptent.com

5. BOOTS The RocLite 390 GTX is another good choice and hard to argue with weight-wise. For most cases where boot is necessary I'd go with with the RocLite 370 instead at 13 oz per foot. Gore-Tex lined footwear only works well in very specific instances. $120; inov-8.com

6. BAG The Marmot Hydrogen is a nice bag at a good weight and price. I'd spring for a Western Mountaineering Summerlite instead. It's speced at 32 degrees and 19 oz. The Marmot is listed as a 30 degree bag but Western is known for conservatively rating their bags. I chose the Summerlite over the Highlite because the Hydrogen boasts a full zipper. $315; westernmountaineering.com

7. PAD This is where I have to differ some in specs. We need a self-inflatable that's winter capable and full-length ground insulation to compare with the Prolite Plus. For that I'd carry the BackpackingLight TorsoLite at 10 oz in combination with a GossamerGear Thinlight 3/8" foam pad at around 5.5 oz. Total weight would be just under 1 lb. $70; backpackinglight.com & $20; gossamergear.com

8. STOVE Outside chose a canister stove/pot combo in the EtaExpress and then also chose a separate pot for the cookset below. I'm pretty sure the Dualist pot won't work with this stove. To stick with the auto-igniting canister theme I'd choose the SnowPeak Giga Titanium Auto at 3.5 oz. You can fashion a windscreen from aluminum foil if necessary. $75; snowpeak.com

9. COOKSET Since Outside chose the Pinnacle Dualist I have to assume it's for actual cooking. Titanium is out since most people will burn their food in such a pot. For cooking and to stay around 2L I'd choose the AntiGravityGear 2 Qt. Aluminum Non-Stick Cook Pot which is 5.9 oz (7.3 with a clamp handle). Throw in a couple of FireLite SUL Titanium Spoons from BackpackingLight at .32 oz each. If you really need separate cups recycle some large cottage cheese containers. I'm not sure what those weigh but it can't be much. For a bonus you even have a lid. Store the plastic containers in your pot to keep them from getting damaged. Please don't use hot water in them either. I won't be responsible if you get burned. $13; antigravitygear.com & $10; backpackinglight.com

If my calculations are correct I'm figuring a savings of around $248 and 4.25 pounds.

P90X

2009-04-12T21:05:00.009-04:00

I've kept it under wraps a good bit but over the last 90 days I've been doing my first round of P90X (you've probably seen the infomercials on TV). Today marked my last day which meant completion photos and a final fit test to have results for comparison to my initial fit test. I wasn't completely sure how I would do with the fit test since Robin and I hiked a 7.2 mile loop known as the James E Edmonds Backcountry Trail yesterday and I irritated a previous injury from an 18 mile run a few weeks ago. In addition to that we got home late due to traffic jams and I had to do my Yoga prior to the fit test. All in all though, I'm extremely pleased with my results and plan to continue a modified version with some running and mountain biking thrown in. Hard to believe I was a size 40 pant and 211 lbs just a few years ago.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157616584512553/

4/11/2009 Cheeseburger Summit - James E Edmonds Backcountry Trail

2009-04-12T20:49:00.004-04:00

Robin and I drove up to Black Rock Mountain State Park in Clayton, GA yesterday to dayhike the James E Edmonds Backcountry Trail. The trail is a 7.2 mile loop and hit 3 points on the Summit Cheese list including Scruggs Knob, Marsen Knob, and Lookoff Mountain. On the way we stopped off at Wendy's in Clayton to grab a bag of Jr. Cheeseburgers for our summits. This was a very fun trip thank's to the addition of the burgers and we were treated to a superb view of the valley below from the Lookoff overlook. Unfortunately, I irritated my "runner's knee" (otherwise known as Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome) but I have a list of exercises to try and help reduce the flare-ups.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157616552764199/

Ultramarathons..

2009-03-23T09:35:00.005-04:00

I recently decided I want to try running some ultramarathons starting with a 50k which is just over 30 miles. I just started running/jogging again in the last 2-3 months after a 15 or so year hiatus and I like the more casual runs of ultras where the goal is to finish the event as opposed to going out for speed or time. Prior to this past Saturday my longest prior run was aorund 7.5 miles. I planned on kicking that up to 15 (yes, that's overtraining in almost all regards) but a missed turn (I got tunnel vision) turned that into right at 18 miles. I finished in right at 3 hours and 9 mins of run/walk time which averages out to 10.5 min miles (faster than I planned on going). Needless to say I'm suffering some aftershocks of such a huge jump in mileage. Somewhere around mile 7 or 8 I realized I was chaffing pretty bad so I texted my girlfriend to meet me at a gas station with some BodyGlide and in the midst of that texting while running I stumbled slightly and must've tweaked my foot some leading to an irritated pereneus brevis (pretty sure that's it anyway). I also have some slight Runner's Knee on my right leg. Other than that I feel pretty good especially considering I did the P90X leg workout Friday. Anyway, after this trial I know I'll have no problems doing 30 miles as long as I build my legs up properly with smaller mileage increases. Thanks to my girlfriend, Robin, for meeting me with the BodyGlide and running the last 5 miles with me. I love you!

New Year's AT overnighter - Tray Mountain

2009-01-02T19:06:00.007-05:00

Robin and I drove up to Dicks Creek Gap yesterday morning (New Year's Day) and hiked the AT south towards Tray Mountain Shelter. Due to an oncoming front we stopped short and made camp at what I believe is Steel Trap Gap in a nice spot just off the trail. The trip to camp was very windy and a little chilly and overnight it rained and we had what felt like 30 mph winds blowing through our camp. I tried out a newly purchased GoLite Ultra 20 quilt on this trip and found it barely kept me warm in the low 30s even while wearing my insultated jacket. It was worth a try for what I paid, but it'll be sold soon. Robin and I both also wore fairly new GoLite Sun Dragon II shoes and we both have high praises for them. We got in roughly 20 miles over mixed terrain and the lugs on neither pair show signs of wear like the previous iteration.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157612078881422/

Rabun Bald Dayhike

2008-11-28T17:39:00.003-05:00

Robin and I did a short dayhike up to Rabun Bald today. The total mileage was around 4.5 and it was a fairly easy hike since her dad and stepmom were with us. Great views from the top.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157610320613865/

Neels Gap to Cowrock Dayhike

2008-10-25T10:59:00.002-04:00

Robin and I did a 9.4 mile in and out today going from Neels Gap to Cowrock mountain. This was a beautiful day and a great way to relax a little. This trip was also the first in a long time where I had a real lunch. We had sandwiches, chips, pickles, and some snacks along with some sports drink.

BackpackingLight WT3 2008 "The Gear"

2008-10-15T16:02:00.004-04:00

I wanted to do a seperate post to discuss my personal gear as well as the group gear that was used on this trip.

My Gearlist: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pWzompaRqIIuoHTwLsfWoIA

Clothing:

My trekking layer for the trip consisted of SmartWool Trekking socks, Rab vapour-rise Trail pants, an Ibex Outback jersey (longsleeve merino wool) and a SmartWool Microweight shortsleeve merino shirt. I wore the shortsleeve shirt over the longsleeve shirt for additional core warmth. At times this was supplemented with a Patogonia Houdini windshirt and North Face Diad rain jacket while walking and a BackpackingLight Cocoon Pro 60 parka while sleeping. I carried some BackpackingLight Cocoon Pro 60 side-zip pants as well but never needed them. I had two pairs of socks and alternated them daily with the wet pair staying inside my quilt at night so they could dry out. The socks worked as expected, nothing special. The layered wool shirts with my shells kept me plenty warm while walking and at most stops. The Rab pants were awesome. I was warm in them no matter what the conditions were and they never really felt clammy or overwhelmed with perspiration. These were the only pants I slept in and my legs never got cold at night. I only wore the parka the last few nights and that was mostly for the hood since quilts don't have integrated hoods. It did its job though. I also wore ArcTeryx Delta SV gloves and a Mountain Hardwear powerstretch balaclava. Both of those items did their jobs accordingly.

Footwear:

I used the Inov8 RocLite 390 GTX boot as it was highly recommended by others going on the trip and some from the 2007 WT3 trek. The first day the boots felt great. The second day I started to have some soreness at the top of my foot/front ankle area that slowed me down a fair amount. The morning of the third day I cut off a section from my foam sleeping mat and shoved that into the front of the boots between my ankle and the tongue. This helped provide a good bit of extra cushion in the area and lessened the pain. Despite the ankle problems with the fit, I got no blisters or hot spots and my feet stayed dry the entire trip. The boots were supplemented with Outdoor Research Verglas gaiters which worked very well for keeping the snow out of my boots when it got knee deep.

Sleeping:

This was my first time using a quilt and I chose the Mountain Laurel Designs XP in the 7.5 oz weight with the eVENT head and foot strips. This is a very beefy quilt and kept me very warm on all nights without needing additional clothing where most of the other guys were supplementing their sleep systems with their insultating clothing. I can highly recommend this quilt. We had temps in the low teens outside the shelter (fully enclosed) but I don't think it ever got below 20 inside the shelter. I slept on a 3/8 Gossamer Gear thinlight foam mat and a BackpackingLight TorsoLite inflatable pad. Both worked very well for me.

Packing:

I carried a GoLite Pinnacle and some Sea To Summit Ultra-Sil drysacks to protect my quilt and insulating clothing. The drysacks worked as expected and the Pinnacle was comfortable with my load once I disengaged the comPACKtor system (thanks to Andy for noticing this!).

Misc:

The rest of my gear was fairly standard for any trip and it all worked as expected.

Group Gear:

Our group gear consisted mainly of a GoLite Shang-ri-la 6+ shelter (with poles), 2 Steripen Adventurers, a single 1 gallon aluminum pot, a shared first-aid kit, and a shared firestarting kit (FireLite Mini). We boiled the majority of our breakfast and dinner water in the shared pot which generally worked well. The FireLite Mini kits worked great and I now know how to build a killer fire very quickly. The Steripens worked well in our scenario where we carried no water and only treated when necessary which wasn't very often. The shelter was perfect for the weather we experienced. We initially discussed the possibility of taking 2 large tarps instead of the Shang-ri-la but decided against it which was a good decision considering some of the sleep systems were on the thin side.

BackpackingLight WT3 2008

2008-10-15T10:58:00.003-04:00

WT3RM08 – Bozeman, MT
Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness

10/5/2008 –

I caught my flight out of Atlanta at around 6:30 AM ET and arrived in Bozeman around 10:30 AM MT via Frontier Airlines. The Bozeman airport is pretty neat with a cabin-type atmosphere and a nice bronze sculpture of a bear. After spending a few minutes exploring the airport I decided to go ahead and give my hotel, the Best Western GranTree, a call so they could send the shuttle out for me. A short ride later and I was at the hotel, where they graciously allowed me to check quite early. I got settled in to my room and grabbed some lunch before calling up Sam Haroldson to discuss meeting up for dinner later. After making tentative plans to meet Sam and Andy Skurka downtown, I took some time to relax and check out the hotel grounds. I also took a short walk around town to kill some time. Eventually it started to near dinner time so I went ahead and walked to downtown Bozeman to check out the storefronts and to take some pictures since I had promised my brother photos of the Bozeman Watch Company. Somehow on my way down I passed Andy and Sam, but after rerouting we managed to meet up. A short discussion on dinner followed, and we concluded that we would dine at the MacKenzie River Pizza Company. If you’re ever in Bozeman, I definitely recommend you check out MacKenzie’s. The food was delicious. The 3 of us enjoyed some Cowboy Nachos followed by a Flathead pizza and washed it down with lots of water (in preparation for the week to come). We also ran into Ryan and Stephanie Jordan at the restaurant. When we left MacKenzie’s Andy wanted to get some last minute snacks, so I walked with him and Sam to the SafeWay before heading back to my hotel to settle in for the night. I caught just a little tv before dozing off, realizing I’d be up early to get my things packed before the group arrived to pick me up at 7:30 AM.

10/6/08 –

I woke up around 6:00 AM and threw everything back in my suitcases before going to the lobby to grab some breakfast (Andy and Sam had convinced me Ryan would probably only provide coffee). At approximately 7:30 a.m. two cars pulled up containing Sam, Andy, Ryan J., Bill Stadwiser, and Ryan Connelly. I loaded my things, and hopped in to Ryan J.’s old Ford (Bill was in an old Honda, and I later found out Sam has an old Subaru…..there’s a trend here somewhere). We headed off for breakfast at what I would call a “hole in the wall” place. Contrary to what Andy and Sam had lead me to believe, Ryan did pop for an actual breakfast although I’m pretty sure Sam had to pay for it and planned to expense it later. After everyone else had their coffee and breakfast (I had some peaches), we hopped back in the cars and drove up to the lodge where we would spend the day instructing one another on various topics including nutrition, footwear, avalanche safety, and group dynamics. Both lunch and dinner were provided and disappeared promptly. After dinner we each laid out our gear and reviewed it with the rest of the group, providing constructive feedback. This is where we found out Andy was the only person carrying TP so he got a bit of ridicule. Some of us packed up, and others just threw their gear in a pile to pack in the morning. Following the gear reviews we received our maps from Ryan J. and spent several hours studying them. We planned a route which would allow us to front-load some decent mileage given the expected conditions. The weather forecast at the time lead us to believe that the temps would be dropping quite a bit and that we would get 3-4 inches of snow over the last few days in the wilderness. Eventually we all made it to bed.

10/7/08 –

We had planned to have breakfast fairly early and be out the door by 10 a.m., if I recall correctly, but I was awakened by noise in the kitchen before everyone else got up. After killing a little time and packing my gear up, everyone else finally started to rise, and we had a nice breakfast before loading up the car and heading off towards Yellowstone. The drive was mostly uneventful sans a stop at the visitor center and a herd of Bison blocking the road. There was one particular Elk at the visitor center that had been responsible for the damage of something like 40 vehicles in 2008. We had prepared sack lunches after breakfast, so we enjoyed those on the trip to our drop-off. Due to the Bison traffic jam we didn’t arrive at our chosen departure point in Cooke City until just before noon. We unloaded, took some photos, and then promptly headed off on our planned route. The weather at the time was chilly and windy but it warmed up slightly later in the day. Unfortunately I didn’t track mileage or the time while we were out in the wilderness, so everything beyond this point is off a 3 week old short-term memory that has shorts in it. At some point we made camp and divided up the responsibilities of getting water, building a fire, setting up our food hanging location, and setting up shelter. The divvying up of camp responsibilities would change each night.

10/8/2008 –

We had really nice weather this day and continued to front-load mileage for our expected weather. I’m pretty sure this was the day Ryan C. stumbled on to some moose jaws and decided they looked like boomerangs. Ryan decided to see if they would come back if he threw them,and after the first failure Sam said he needed to yell “jawbone” on the next throw. The word “jawbone” would be yelled out several more times over the course of the trip.

10/9/2008 –

We made our way to a backcountry camp area and followed a gravel road a long ways before heading back off in to the woods. Ryan made a quick stop at the camp outhouse, and we passed at least one lodge while walking down the road. Later in the day we arrived at the point we would climb to cross over Boulder Mountain. The climb was reasonably steep, and I could feel the air getting thinner with each step. I would guess I made it about three-quarters of the way up before I had to offload some of my gear to Andy, Sam, and Bill. Andy even went so far as to push me up and over the last stretch. Did I mention this was my first time out West and above 6800 feet? Anyway, after making it up and over the hump we found a wonderful campsite where we settled in for the night. The snow started falling this night and would continue for days. At some point we discussed rationing our food in case we had to stay out an extra day. I experienced some slight nausea and awoke at one point in the middle of the night thinking I was going to have to throw up, but I managed to hold it off.

10/10/2008 –

I woke up with a slight headache and made sure my state was known so it could be factored in to our route finding decisions. Out shelter was quite covered in snow, as was the ground around us. The trip down the mountain was way outside of my comfort zone, and had I not been with this group, I likely wouldn’t have done it. The terrain was blanketed in white, and I had to use my hands and ass quite a bit to make it down but eventually I managed it safely, thankful for my new friends. We spent the entire day under snow fall before finding a decent campsite later in the evening. Somewhere around here I started to feel a little frustrated and ready to head out. We decided at this point that we were going to have to take a “bailout” route due to the large and unexpected amount of snowfall and to some avalanche concerns with all routes that would lead us to Pine Creek. With that decision, we consumed the majority of food we had started to ration, including some delicious BPL fudge. Yum.

10/11/2008 –

We awoke to even more snow on the ground and on our shelter than the previous morning, and I’m pretty sure everyone was glad this was going to be our last day in those conditions. After what seemed like forever and after some more use of my ass to get down some blanketed hillsides, we made it to another road and outfitter camp. I was initially glad we were on a road but after a couple of miles I realized this was the worst of the trip. We were in blizzard conditions with snow falling and probably about 20-30 mph winds. Since all of the surrounding land was farms we had no wind breaks. Thus, the wind hit us full-force. Every time we turned a corner I was hoping to see our ride, even though we feared he wouldn’t be able to make it up to us and that we would have to walk all the way back to McLeod. We ran in to a single vehicle on the road, and the local rancher had chains on his tires. After a full day of walking in knee-deep snow followed by severe winds we ran into our shuttle driver. I was extremely thankful to see him. We hopped in to warm up and enjoyed a nice variety of snacks on our trip back to the lodge. We had a delicious dinner before a debriefing session and then bed.

10/12/2008 –

This morning we had another nice breakfast and turned in our group gear. Ryan C. had to plow the mountain road up to the lodge, so the rest of us hung out for a while. After the road was cleared we all headed back to town in two vehicles. We had a short stop at the BPL offices for Andy to pick up something, and I got a short tour. I also had Ryan J. sign my copy of his book. Ryan C. dropped me off at my hotel on his way to take Andy to the airport. Andy was headed out to Utah for the WTS1 course. Fortunately, I was once again able to check in early. Once I got settled into my room I took the first opportunity I had to wash the nice stench off my trekking clothes. I had some dinner later, and Sam and I decided to go see a local guy giving a presentation on the PCT at the Public Library. Ryan C.’s wife had mentioned the event earlier at the lodge. After the short presentation, we stopped off at a local pub for a beer, and then Sam took me back to my hotel. It was still snowing.

10/13/2008 –

I woke up pretty early again in order to catch my 7:45 a.m. MT flight back to Atlanta. I gathered my things and headed down to the lobby to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport. After making it through airport security I got myself some breakfast and bought some things for my family back home. My flight left on time, and I arrived back in Atlanta at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET. I took the next two days to unwind and considered calling in sick to work a third but forced myself to return.

People on the trip (other than myself):

Ryan Connelly of Bozeman, MT - Director of Lions Ridge
Ryan Jordan of Bozeman, MT - Co-founder of BackpackingLight
Andy Skurka of Boulder, CO - Trekker extraordinaire and proprietor of AndrewSkurka.com
Sam Haroldson of Bozeman, MT - Gear Shop Manager of BackpackingLight
Bill Stadwise of Bozeman, MT - Education Coordinator of BackpackingLight

Initial Press Release: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=16204

My Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157607760145414/

Sam's Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/walloftvs/sets/72157607999316110/

Andy's Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9RQz9AuR_8

My Gearlist: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pWzompaRqIIuoHTwLsfWoIA

Coosa Backcountry Trail Dayhike

2008-09-07T10:57:00.005-04:00

I had planned on hiking from Springer Mountain to Neels Gap for a 30.5 mile dayhike but the logistics didn't pan out so I decided to do the Coosa Backcountry Trail in a day. The CBT is around 12.6 miles of pretty strenuous hiking with a good bit of elevation change. I wanted to get in the most strenuous trip I could before my upcoming WT3 trip in Montana as some prep. My trip time was around 4 hours counterclockwise including a short lunch break and another short break at the second crossing of 180. I started moving at a very quick pace and made it to the 1st 180 crossing in record time. I stopped to take lunch and let Robin know where I was. After a quick bite I took back off and made it about half-way between the 180 crossings when I hit a wall. I was wearing the recently released BackpackingLight.com Thorofare shirt and trekking pant and found that they acted more like a vapor barrier than a base layer in the highly humid conditions we have here in the SE. At one point I bent over to tie my shoe and noticed water dripping out of my sleeve. I could feel my body starting to get very lethargic and I started to worry that I might pass out while still a few miles from the road. At this point I had to slow way down. I also opened up my shirt, started chugging more water, and tried to eat a Clif bar which tasted like cardboard. I eventually made it to the 2nd 180 crossing where I stopped for a few minutes to call Robin and let her know I was ok. She told me that she was starting to worry because I was late getting there based on my previous pace. After giving directions to a few motorcyclists I proceeded on my way back to Vogel. I learned quite a bit about my body and nutrition (including water) on this trip and used it to help with my presentation on the same topic at the WT3 course. I won't try a similar feat alone again.

Panthertown Valley Overnighter

2008-08-10T10:54:00.003-04:00

Robin and I lead a 15 mile overnighter in Panthertown Valley over the August 9 - August 10 weekend with the Atlanta Wilderness Backpackers Meetup Group. This is a great area with a lot of diversity among the plant and animal life.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157606699932070/

July 26-27 Shining Rock Wilderness

2008-07-30T10:53:00.002-04:00

I co-lead a 22ish mile overnight trip with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup Group in the Shining Rock Wilderness Area this weekend. We started at the Black Balsam Knob parking lot and took 108 over to the Mountains To Sea trail. We then took the MTS over to 607 and then to 357 which took us to the Big East Fork parking lot. From Big East Fork we got on 363 and hit a fork which we thought was the 363/332 fork so we took the lower trail which we thought was 363. Turns out the upper trail was 363 and we took the unknown trail back down the Pigeon River where it meets Shining Creek which we followed back up to 363. We then continued on 363 to Shining Rock Gap where we took a connector trail to 101 which lead us back to the Black Balsam Knob parking lot.

Due to the navigation mistake this trip was a little more strenuous than I had planned which isn’t a big deal for myself but in the future I plan to scout routes before I lead trips on them. On this trip I tried out my new ULA Conduit which was exceptional as was the ULA Amigo Pro gravity filter.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157606420169038/

July 4 -7 Smoky Mountain Loop

2008-07-09T10:49:00.005-04:00

Trip: 60ish mile loop in the Smoky Mountains over July 4 - July 7 (4 days) based on “The South’s best swimming-hole tour” in the August 2008 issue of Backpacker magazine

Friday, July 4 -

Robin and I hit the trail around 1:00 PM at the top of the Clingman’s Dome parking lot (~6400 ft). We took the bypass trail to the AT and proceded to Double Spring Gap where we ran in to Wonder Woman again. She said she was taking a short day (2 miles) and we talked to her for a few minutes again to catch up on what she had done since we saw her on our Standing Indian loop about a month ago. Some of the conversation included bears at another shelter and shelter mice that weren’t afraid to come out in broad daylight. There were a couple of other guys at the shelter, but I didn’t speak with them. We left Double Spring Gap and headed towards Silers bald, hopping onto the Welch Ridge Trail just before the shelter. We then took Welch Ridge Trail down to Hazel Creek Trail and hopped on it for the rest of the day until reaching our destination at BC 82 around 7:30 PM (~2750 ft). While traveling along Hazel Creek we took a side trail that dead ended into a small open area where someone had put fake flowers in the ground (kind of creepy) and we decided it had to be a cemetary for the end of that trail. We also managed to see a large tree fall out of nowhere just up the mountainside from us. When we hit 82 and started looking for a spot to setup camp we were greeted by “Youant somethin’ ta eat?” and noticed a group of 5-6 guys that had ridden in on horseback. They had a traditional blue tarp that had to be 80 feet long stretched between two trees with at least 1 queen sized inflatable matress under it for sleeping and another large tarp pitched to cook and lounge under. They had frying pans as well and offered us taters, cornbread, and fresh caught trout. These guys knew how to live in the woods. We politely declined and setup our tent just down the creek before diving in to our dehydrated dinners (WTF were we thinking?).

Saturday, July 5 -

We broke camp around 8:30 AM just before the rain started and jumped back on the Hazel Creek Trail. It started misting shortly after we left BC 82 for about an hour before developing in to a full-on downpour. Robin got out her raincoat while I decided to forego mine and just soak in the cold rain. It stopped raining shortly before we met up with the Lakeshore Trail where we stopped to check our feet and take in a snack. We followed the Lakeshore Trail all the way over to BC 76 where we arrived around 7 PM. There was a site just above the lake (you could walk down to the edge of Lake Fontana) but we instead opted for one on the other side of the trail on flatter ground where we were less likely to get flushed down into the lake in the event of rain. It stormed hard for a few hours through the night and we were very glad with our choice of a tent site. The only people I remember seeing this day was a Ranger driving an SUV loaded with passengers on the Hazel Creek Trail and a couple of backpackers at BC 77. We basically combined days 2 and 3 from the trip itenerary for a total of close to 22 miles. Also, Lake Fontana has the most beautiful, clear aqua-green water of any lake I’ve seen. It actually reminds me of what you’d see in the Carribbean.

Sunday July 6 -

Since we had to wipe down the tent and some other gear from the storm we didn’t break camp until around 10:30. After packing up we hopped back on the Lakeshore Trail for another 8.7 miles. After passing BC 98 we started looking for BC 72 a couple of hours later and started to get a little worried that we may have slowed our normal pace way down when we didn’t see it. Eventually we started to get a little discouraged until we thought it might be a boat only site (turns out we were right on the money) and started to try and figure out our location based on the map and visible topographical features alone. We actually guessed our location quite well after that point, determining that we had most likely blown past BC 72 and were closer to BC 74, which is right on Forney Creek. We didn’t pass another hiker for the entire 8.7 mile stretch and were glad to hear the rushing waters of Forney Creek, confirming our position on the map. We took a break on the creek to refill our water supply and refresh in the cold waters. We eventually packed up again and hopped on the Forney Creek Trail which we took to the Jonas Creek Trail and to our final night’s destination at BC 70. On the way to BC 70 we passed BC 71 which is a huge site and includes a large outdoor fireplace. At BC 70 we ran in to another backpacker named Steve who joined us for dinner and conversation at a table someone had built from log pieces. This would’ve been a great camp site except that someone had left cans, socks, and discarded food in several of the fire rings which resulted in hordes of bees, flies, and other creatures. I even managed to have a honey bee crawl in my shoe and sting my foot. After dinner we cleaned up a little and hung our food before crawling in to bed for our last night in the Smokies. Shortly after getting in to bed, the storms started again and pelted the tent for several hours through the night.

Monday July 7 -

We had to wipe down our tent and gear again, so we didn’t break camp until 9:30 AM, at which point we continued up the Jonas Ridge Trail for the start of our last day and a ~4000 foot ascent. While on Jonas Ridge in the midst of a large blueberry patch, and in the midst of a conversation about rice pudding, I heard a rustle and told Robin not to move. We stood for a minute while our hearts raced, listening to what could’ve only been a bear steamrolling it’s way down the mountain. After we were sure he had moved on far enough we cautiously continued our walk up Jonas Ridge Trail until we neared it’s end at Welch Ridge Trail and stopped to talk to another backpacker with some old-fashioned heavy gear. At the intersection of the Jonas Ridge Trail and the Welch Ridge Trail we stopped for a snack and ran in to a couple of Rangers who said they were doing some bear research. After our snack we continued up the Welch Ridge Trail where we passed a group of about 5 men who were headed down to fish for trout on Hazel Creek. Eventually we ran back in to the AT which we took to Clingman’s Dome Tower for a few last minute photos and some questions from tourists. Robin decided to lightly jog down the paved path back to our car so she could get the last bit over with and I somehow managed to defer enough pain to follow her. We reached the car around 4:30 PM for our ride home to shower and head out for painkillers (aka alcohol).

Pack weight:

Chris: 17.84 lbs
Robin: 19.04 lbs

Additional calories burned on the trip (estimated and in addition to normal daily burn):

Robin: 22,000
Chris: 23,000

Hikers sighted:

Wonder Woman (again) at Double Spring Gap Shelter
horse-packers @ BC 82
young male hikers at BC 77
Steve @ BC 70
couple of park rangers doing bear research
5 guys going fly fishing on Hazel Creek
Miscellaneous day hikers along the AT close to Clingman’s Dome

Animals sighted:

lots of snails, centipedes, and baby frogs
3 snakes
1 bear steamrolling down the mountainside
several turkeys on a farm near the end of the Hazel Creek Trail
2 large birds startled & flying out of a nearby tree (likely owls)
chipmunks & a few squirrels

Weather:

Friday - overcast and nice
Saturday - downpour for 2-3 hours in the AM, warm and humid during the day with an ocassional breeze, storms overnight into early AM Sunday
Sunday - warm and humid during the day with an ocassional breeze, storms overnight into early AM Monday
Monday - warm and humid at lower elevations, nice and cool but still humid at upper elevations

Thanks:

Group of guys on horseback that offered us food. Steve for dinner conversation on our last night.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157606057218540/

Gearlist: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pWzompaRqIIuewH9OEQv6Vw

Conasauga Trail Overnighter

2008-06-22T10:48:00.002-04:00

This weekend (June 21-22) I did a fairly easy overnighter with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup group on the Conasauga River Trail. Robin and I backtracked rather than doing a shuttle for around 10 miles and 26 crossings of the river. We had a light rain Saturday night and some of the crossings were a good 4-6 inches higher Sunday.

Pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157605778892373/

Blood Mountain Day Hike

2008-06-08T10:47:00.002-04:00

We did a short day hike up to the peak of Blood Mountain today (June 8). At the shelter we talked with LabDad and MOTL about their thru-hike experiences.

Pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157605538916425/

Standing Indian Loop

2008-06-03T10:44:00.003-04:00

What follows is a brain dumped summary of an overnight trip around Standing Indian Mountain, just outside of Franklin, NC, which I took with my girlfriend, Robin, over the May 31 - June 1 weekend. This was supposed to be a 25.4 mile loop and came from the book The Best Of The Appalachian Trail Overnight Hikes.

Saturday, May 31 -

Hit the trail around 10:30 AM at Deep Gap. The book says take the AT South from Deep Gap. Thus, we took the AT South towards GA, and upon reaching Muskrat Shelter (about 4 miles) realized we had gone the wrong way. The book actually means to take the AT North which heads compass South for a short period. I should’ve checked an AT map and matched up the landmarks in the trail description. This turned out to be an 8 mile mistake on mypart, but we did pass 3 thru-hikers and 2 section-hikers along the way (one named Wonder Woman). At Muskrat Shelter we ate lunch with 3 section-hikers headed to Franklin and then headed back to Deep Gap, passing Wonder Woman again and continuing North on the AT. After Deep Gap, we passed Standing Indian Shelter, Beech Gap, Coleman Gap, and Carter Gap. We then decided to shoot for 20 miles so that Sunday’s hike out would be shorter. This was partly because we expected bad weather on Sunday. Finally, we arrived at Betty Creek Gap around 8 PM where we spent the night. We setup our tent, and then I walked down a .25 mile trail to stock up on water while Robin started dinner. We had dinner and built a small fire which we used to make a few smores before putting it out and heading to bed around 10:30 PM. Total mileage for the day was 20.15.

Sunday, June 1 -

Heard raccoons all night and thought we might lose our food. We woke up to thunder around 8 AM and decided to pack up in a hurry to keep our tent dry. So a hot breakfast was skipped in favor of Clif bars on the trail, as we headed out around 8:30 AM, bypassing all normal morning routines. It was already misting rain while we rushed to finish up packing under the trees. The downpour began in earnest not ten minutes later and lasted for 2-3 hours. Along the way we passed Mooney Gap and Bearpen Gap before a very wet and rocky climb up Albert Mountain. We then continued to Big Spring Gap and stopped off at Big Spring Shelter for a bit to get out of the rain. At the shelter, we met HorseFly who said he earned his name because he eats like a horse and flies down the trail. He was a very cool guy. After some gear gab, we left the shelter and headed on, passing Glassmine Gap. Between Glassmine and Rock Gap we stopped off for a few mins to talk with a family of 3 who were out for a dayhike with their large golden retriever who liked to dig holes. At Rock Gap Shelter we redressed blisters, changed socks, and ate a hot lunch made from our missed breakfasts. After a 30-45 minute layover, we left the Rock Gap shelter, hiking down to the Rock Gap parking lot, thus ending the leg of our journey on the AT. From there we picked up USFS 67 and walked to Standing Indian Campground. After some searching in the campground area, we finally located the Kimsey Creek Trail which we were supposed to follow a short 3.7 miles back to Deep Gap. We were able to follow the loop directions clearly until just shortly after the trail passed through a gated road entrance, which it describes. Unfortunately for us when we hit a double-blaze we followed the visible blue blaze to the right and into the woods. Later, we learned that we should’ve ignored the double-blaze and stayed straight even though no more blazes were visible on this path - (see http://www.ii.uib.no/~petter/mountains/1500mtn/standingindian.html for details). The trail we took was not even on any map I’ve been able to find, and we were misled up a fairly long ascent to a dead end and another double-blaze. At this point, we both began to have the feeling something was wrong, but attempted to re-orient ourselves by heading up an old road following more blue blazes. Because the blue blazes were present, we felt we were back on track. However, we knew we had to be way off course when we hit a junction with the Park Ridge trail. According to the park map we had, this trail was not supposed to intersect Kimsey Creek trail, but also eventually leads either to USFS 71 (the same road that Deep Gap is on, 3 miles away) or to an intersection with the Park Creek Trail. I had taken a picture of an AT map at Muskrat Shelter, so we used that to orient ourselves and decided not to backtrack, but to continue along the Park Ridge Trail (a steep climb) until we hit USFS 71. Once hitting the road, we walked a short distance before hitching a ride back to the Deep Gap parking lot with a family up from Florida. When we finally hit 71 we were extremely tired and frustrated. We probably could’ve walked the 3 miles back to Deep Gap but certainly didn’t want to. I still have no idea what trail we wound up on since I can’t find it on any map, but at least we know where we made the mistake so that it won’t happen again. Whoever maintains Kimsey Creek needs to fix the trail markers, and I need to do a better job of scouting trails. Anyway, we got back to the car around 5 PM where we wiped off and changed clothes before heading home. On the way, we stopped off at the Chilis in Gainesville for some much needed calories and pain numbing alcohol. I’m not 100% on total mileage since I can’t find any mention of the blue blazed trail we took anywhere but I estimate it to be around 38 miles (not including that section would’ve been 33.4).

Pack weight:

both a bit under 25 lbs (forgot exact amounts)

Additional calories burned on the trip (estimated and in addition to normal daily burn):

Robin: 11,000Chris: 11,500

Hikers sighted:

2 male section hikers headed to PAa military couple thru-hiking (I think)Wonder Womangroup of 3 (2 men, 1 woman) section-hiking and headed to FranklinHorseFlyfamily of 3 (mom, dad, teenage daughter) with large golden retriever day hiking from Rock Gap lot to Albert Mountain

Animals sighted:

several salamanders (mostly orange ones)a ton of snailssome small birdsa couple of large Hawks1 small Turkey that hissed at me

Weather:

Saturday - perfect. Sunny with a cool breezeSunday - downpour for 2-3 hours plus a lot of misting the rest of the day with temps on the trail in the mid 50s to low 60s most of the day

Lessons learned:

Don’t trust the book too much, check maps anyway. Don’t trust blue blazed trails. The white blaze of the AT is the only one you can reliably follow in a mostly blind manner. Hiking in a downpour isn’t really as bad as I thought it would be.

Thanks:

HorseFly for good conversation and stories about his experiences.The family that drove us back to Deep Gap for hospitality and even offering us water.

Photos:http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157605402154601/

Raven Cliff's Falls

2008-05-25T18:21:00.002-04:00

Robin and I did a short dayhike up to Raven Cliff's Falls today. We just wanted to get out in the woods for a bit so there's not much to tell here.

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157603812047786/

Blood Mountain Loop

2008-03-04T10:44:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I did an overnight trip with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup Group. We missed a turn at one point (my fault) and logged an additional 4 miles on to what was already a strenous loop. We also found that some of the distances were longer than rated and several legs of the Coosa Backcountry Trail had been rerouted during trail maintenance. Total estimated trip mileage is around 25. The trip came from the book The Best of the Appalachian Trail Overnight Hikes and took us along the Slaughter Creek, Appalachian, Duncan Ridge, Coosa Backcountry, and Jarrard Gap trails. I didn’t read the entire description ahead of time and new it was going to cover a portion of the Coosa but failed to realize we would be doing the entire thing which is recommended by itself as a 2-day trip. This was probably the hardest trip I’ve done but we all made it through and somehow managed to average right at 2 miles an hour even on the difficult climbs.

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157604032948228/

Sweetwater Creek Dayhike

2008-02-09T10:42:00.002-05:00

I went on a short dayhike today @ Sweetwater Creek This trip was roughly 8 miles.

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157603898407145/

Alabama Pinhoti

2008-01-27T10:39:00.003-05:00

I went on an overnighter with the Atlanta Wilderness Backpackers Meetup Group this past weekend on the Alabama Pinhoti. We walked from the High Point trailhead to Oakey Mountain Shelter where we spent the night before walking back to the trailhead. Total mileage was 19.6

Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157603812047786/

Arkaquah Trail to Brasstown Bald

2008-01-05T10:38:00.002-05:00

This was a 15.5 mile dayhike following the Arkaquah Trail from Track Rock Gap up to the peak of Brasstown Bald. It was a long day and we got back to the cars just before our light started to fade out. This was done with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup Group and I didn’t take any pictures.

New Year’s Eve Hike - Section 6 of the Bartram

2008-01-02T10:38:00.002-05:00

Over the New Year’s Holidays I stayed in a quaint cabin just up from the NOC in Bryson City, NC. We wanted to get in some hiking while we were up here so we did Section 6 of the Bartram (out and back). No pictures from this one.

Overnighter on the BMT

2007-12-09T10:32:00.002-05:00

This weekend I did an overnighter with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup Group on Section 6 of the BMT to Scroggin Knob. This was a rainy trip but it never really poured so it wasn’t too bad. No pictures unfortunately.

Pinnacle Pass/Rim of the Gap Dayhike

2007-12-02T10:32:00.002-05:00

Today I went on a 10 mile dayhike in SC. This was a loop that followed the Pinnacle Pass and Rim of the Gap trails and was done with the Upstate Hiking and Outdoor Adventures Meetup Group. This wasn’t a terribly strenous route but was one of the more technical trails I’ve done.

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157603298424269/

Newton Bald Loop

2007-11-26T10:31:00.002-05:00

This past weekend (11/23-11/25) I went on a 3-day/2-night backpacking trip with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup Group. We did the Newton Bald Loop found on Gorp.com which covered 23.1 miles of the Smokies. The trails we used consisted of Deep Creek, Sunkota Ridge, Thomas Divide, Newton Bald, Stonepile Gap, and Indian Creek.

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157603298424269/

Dayhike AT Neels Gap to Cowrock

2007-11-18T10:30:00.002-05:00

I did a dayhike today with the Atlanta Backpackers Meetup Group from Neels Gap to Cowrock along the AT for 12.3 miles.

Pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157603234255693/

Shining Rock Overnighter

2007-10-08T10:29:00.004-04:00

I went on an overnight trip to the Shining Rock Wilderness Area in NC yesterday/today with the Atlanta Outdoor Club. This was designed as a beginner trip and I decided to tag along at the last minute since my other plans got cancelled. We did roughly 10-12 miles over the 2 days. I tested out some of my new gear and some things worked great while others did not and I will be looking at options to replace those. It was a good trip to test things out though.

Pictures are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uallas/sets/72157602304814596/

Jack's Knob

2007-09-30T10:28:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I blindly picked Jack’s Knob to hike while I was up at Mountain Crossings talking to some previous thru-hikers on staff about what bag to carry for starting as an early North Bounder. I decided to go with a Western Mountaineering Versalite Super which is a 10 degree bag by the way and I’ll swap out for my 35 degree Western Mountaineering Caribou MF in VA. Anyway, I hiked from the Brasstown Bald parking lot to Chattahoochee Gap and back for a RT of 9 or so miles. Going in from the parking lot it’s mostly downhill until you cross Jack’s Gap at which point it turns in to a wavering of uphill/downhill. The climb from Jack’s Gap back up to the parking lot on the return required a fair amount of short breaks and I drained my 3 liters of water about 1/2-3/4 of a mile before I got back to my car. I decided to leave my trekking poles at the car so I could carry my SLR in case of quick photo ops and that turned out to be a big mistake. I had no photo ops on the entire trail and my legs are seriously fatigued today (mostly just my knees were begging for mercy yesterday on the trail) but it was good practice for what I have to come when doing the AT. The few photos I took are here.

Welcome

2007-09-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Let’s Get Outdoors. This site will be a collection of musings, gear reviews, trip details, and photos from my various backpacking and hiking trips.