as our last trip we made it real easy on ourselves. we set up our first nights camp prior to actually starting our hike since we were going to stay in campground. we stashed our packs there and walked without packs the first 8 miles of the trip. it was a really nice way to start our last trip. we got camp and had lots of fire woods to keep us warm and everything was all done for us when we got there. it was a nice treat for us. we got to stay up a little bit but it was the end of October so it was a little too cold to really enjoy the night.
because I knew it was going to be cold this trip, I asked my mom if she would buy me a new sleeping bag and pad for an early Christmas gift. the sleeping bag I got was a big agnes bag and I got a self-inflating sleeping pad to go underneath it. it was so much warmer than my old bag and pad which I borrowed from my mom originally. don't get me wrong it worked but it was nice being really warm at night.
this trip we were going to be along the Skyline Drive again. we tend to jump around a bit as far as where we want to hike. that's the nice thing about section hiking the trail, you can choose where you want to hike and which direction you want to go.
all in all this years trips were good and I plan on letting you all know how the next trips go too.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
stranded on a back road (trip #4)
so at the end of our trip we were having my aunt pick us up at a parking lot off what we thought was a main road. well to our dismay all of our phones were dying. one piece of advice I will stress here is if u can save your phone battery than do anything you can to save it.
the night before my uncle and I both realized our phones were near dead. my cousin had about 65% battery left so we told her conserve her battery since it would be the only phone we had the next day. so what does she do... decides to check her work schedule online on her phone that night. this completely drained her battery which than left us with no phone the next day. we could only hope that our ride wouldn't get lost picking us up.
so much for hoping. our ride couldn't find the parking lot we were at. so about 2 hours after the last time we were able to call our ride my uncle decided to walk up the road and see if he could figure out where we were. about an hour after he left my cousin and I didn't want to sit still anymore. so we gathered up all three backpacks and started carrying them up the road. I carried my uncle's and my backpack and my cousin carried her pack and all the walking sticks. we walked for about a mile before we finally ran into our uncle who had found our ride and was coming to pick us up. I have never been so happy to see that truck in my life.
so please if you're going out in the woods, try to conserve all of your phone's battery or as much as you can. you never know when there might be an emergency and you definitely don't want to be stranded somewhere you don't know.
the night before my uncle and I both realized our phones were near dead. my cousin had about 65% battery left so we told her conserve her battery since it would be the only phone we had the next day. so what does she do... decides to check her work schedule online on her phone that night. this completely drained her battery which than left us with no phone the next day. we could only hope that our ride wouldn't get lost picking us up.
so much for hoping. our ride couldn't find the parking lot we were at. so about 2 hours after the last time we were able to call our ride my uncle decided to walk up the road and see if he could figure out where we were. about an hour after he left my cousin and I didn't want to sit still anymore. so we gathered up all three backpacks and started carrying them up the road. I carried my uncle's and my backpack and my cousin carried her pack and all the walking sticks. we walked for about a mile before we finally ran into our uncle who had found our ride and was coming to pick us up. I have never been so happy to see that truck in my life.
so please if you're going out in the woods, try to conserve all of your phone's battery or as much as you can. you never know when there might be an emergency and you definitely don't want to be stranded somewhere you don't know.
trip #4: official trail names
so one of the people we were camping with finally gave us our trail names officially. i'll give you a little more background first though. my equipment is mostly all new. I have new pack and I try to have all the newer gadgets. my uncle on the other hand had mostly older used things. so naturally we squabbled over whose stuff was better. well the last morning we were out on trip #4 one of the people was sitting at the shelter with us when one of these debates was gong on.
she then dubbed us New School and Old School, I'm sure you can guess who was who. we liked these names and they definitely fit with the way we backpack. now we just have to go out enough to get our names recognized and make friends.
she then dubbed us New School and Old School, I'm sure you can guess who was who. we liked these names and they definitely fit with the way we backpack. now we just have to go out enough to get our names recognized and make friends.
trip #4: journal entry
well we didn't make it as far as we wanted to today. we only made it about 5 miles to the Manassass Gap shelter. the incline today was horrible and it really slowed us down. erin wasn't able to make it all the way to the shelter. she got picked up by aunt robin on route 66. aunt robin brought us some much needed soda and water so we didn't have to filter water. haley got a nasty blister from her boots that she borrowed from her mom. next hike she'll be buying new boots. we've also officially given haley her trail name, Princess Packer. you wouldn't know she's been camping her entire life. she hasn't been too bad though; she's been saying she wants to come back out. all in all we're just a little sore.
uncle tom and I have kind of decided on trail names. mine is mountain goat and uncle tom is going with UT. we haven't officially decided on anything yet though.
we've been reading the shelter log and there were a lot of reports of a snake up in the rafters. we haven't seen any here yet.
so I let haley make dinner tonight. it was chicken and mashed potatoes and she didn't do too bad. I was a little worried at first i'll admit. i'm proud of her though. she was gonna make the crème brulee too but we decided against it. she might have it for breakfast in the morning.
we were the first ones in the shelter today so we got to claim it first. 5 more people showed up, 2 couples and one single guy. they're all really nice and the one couple decided to bunk with us in the shelter. they walked about 25 miles today which kind of makes me feel pitiful. they've been section hiking for a while and have most of Georgia to the Pennsylvania line done.
uncle tom still fights with his sleeping bag. it has become an ongoing saga for these trips. we've named his bag Jerry; it's better than Saturday morning cartoons.
uncle tom is reading one of his trail books and flashed his light right in Haley's face. he just said "does this bother you?" like he totally meant to do it. it was quite a comical moment.
tomorrow we'll decide where we'll walk out and get picked up for the weekend. we have a couple of options depending on how far we feel like walking.
uncle tom and I have kind of decided on trail names. mine is mountain goat and uncle tom is going with UT. we haven't officially decided on anything yet though.
we've been reading the shelter log and there were a lot of reports of a snake up in the rafters. we haven't seen any here yet.
so I let haley make dinner tonight. it was chicken and mashed potatoes and she didn't do too bad. I was a little worried at first i'll admit. i'm proud of her though. she was gonna make the crème brulee too but we decided against it. she might have it for breakfast in the morning.
we were the first ones in the shelter today so we got to claim it first. 5 more people showed up, 2 couples and one single guy. they're all really nice and the one couple decided to bunk with us in the shelter. they walked about 25 miles today which kind of makes me feel pitiful. they've been section hiking for a while and have most of Georgia to the Pennsylvania line done.
uncle tom still fights with his sleeping bag. it has become an ongoing saga for these trips. we've named his bag Jerry; it's better than Saturday morning cartoons.
uncle tom is reading one of his trail books and flashed his light right in Haley's face. he just said "does this bother you?" like he totally meant to do it. it was quite a comical moment.
tomorrow we'll decide where we'll walk out and get picked up for the weekend. we have a couple of options depending on how far we feel like walking.
Monday, December 9, 2013
trip #4
so I apparently didn't have a journal entry for the first night of our trip so I hope I can remember it all. we started out the trip with 8 miles till camp that night. it was my uncle and mine's first trip out in 3 months and my cousins had never been out before. we all did good even though we got into camp a little late around 7pm. my little cousin, erin, whose only 10, was thinking she might want to get picked up by her mom the next day. my uncle and I had pick a section through Virginia that was close to where my uncle lived so that we could get picked up if need be. so that night we had gone to bed and we were planning to see how we all felt in the morning. we got to sleep in the shelter again but it was infested with stink bugs. if we hadn't gotten to camp so late we probably would have put up the tents instead. personally I like sleeping in the shelters because it makes it easier to breakdown camp in the morning and get walking sooner. my uncle and I felt really off this trip and it may have ben because we hadn't been out in a while or because we added 2 more people to our trip. we were moving slower and just weren't making the time we usually do.
we hit a few bumps in the road which I will give more detail on in the next post. it was a fun trip though and filled with learning. I don't think my other cousin, haley, whose 20, will be coming out again anytime soon.
we hit a few bumps in the road which I will give more detail on in the next post. it was a fun trip though and filled with learning. I don't think my other cousin, haley, whose 20, will be coming out again anytime soon.
ending of trip #3
so the last day of the trip was spent walking the remaining 9 miles to Pennsylvania line. the 500 ft incline at the start of the day was a little brutal since a lot of it was straight up. the views were gorgeous and this trip does have pictures to go along with it. towards the end of our trip there was a huge rock scramble going down hill that got so dense with rocks that the markers for the trail were often painted on bigger boulders. this where my uncle decided to call me mountain goat since I like to hop from rock to rock and go a little faster down hill. but I like to use my momentum to gain some time that we occasionally lose on the up hills and breaks.
one of the really cool parts of this trip was that as you walk along the ridge top you can look down into the valley. the cool part is that up on the ridge you're in Maryland but the valley is all Pennsylvania. at the Maryland-Pennsylvania border there was a little park that we had to walk through to get to the car. we remembered from the beginning of the trip that there was vending machines with soda in them. this became our motivating factor it getting us to keep going that day. it surprising how much a simple everyday soda can be so day changing.
this was our last trip of the spring and we wouldn't be going out again until September. we wanted to take off for the summer because it would be hot and we also had family obligations throughout the summer that would make it hard to take enough days off from work to get decent hiking in. I hope you liked the journal entries I put in. I think i'm going to use them mostly since it makes it easier to be sure i'm getting everything in the post. the next trip will actually be with my 2 cousins accompanying my uncle and I. that trip was really interesting.
one of the really cool parts of this trip was that as you walk along the ridge top you can look down into the valley. the cool part is that up on the ridge you're in Maryland but the valley is all Pennsylvania. at the Maryland-Pennsylvania border there was a little park that we had to walk through to get to the car. we remembered from the beginning of the trip that there was vending machines with soda in them. this became our motivating factor it getting us to keep going that day. it surprising how much a simple everyday soda can be so day changing.
this was our last trip of the spring and we wouldn't be going out again until September. we wanted to take off for the summer because it would be hot and we also had family obligations throughout the summer that would make it hard to take enough days off from work to get decent hiking in. I hope you liked the journal entries I put in. I think i'm going to use them mostly since it makes it easier to be sure i'm getting everything in the post. the next trip will actually be with my 2 cousins accompanying my uncle and I. that trip was really interesting.
trip #3: journal entry (day 2)
well we ended up staying at the first shelter we came to. we only did 8.6 miles but we didn't want to kill ourselves trying to get to the next shelter 5 miles away. we have about 9 miles to do tomorrow now. considering it took us 6 hours today it shouldn't be too bad tomorrow.
we're staying with a couple other backpackers. 3 guys are her for the weekend but are getting picked up tonight because of an injury. one guy hiked the whole trail in '08 but is doing sections again to get back in shape. the last guy is through hiking now. he started in February and has been out for 91 days. we've started running into a lot more through hikers recently. it's been really cool though to get everyone's different stories, experiences and advice. people out here are so nice!
the shelter is kind of small especially sharing with 4 other people but it's easier than the tent. it has 2 levels and we have 3 people to a level and one guy in a hammock tent outside. it's pretty.
today I think what killed us was the rocks we had to climb to get here. they were so brutal on our feet that once we stopped that was it. it leaves us with 9 miles tomorrow and a 500 ft vertical. that would have been nice to get it over with but new legs tomorrow might make it easier.
all in al it was a good day!
we're staying with a couple other backpackers. 3 guys are her for the weekend but are getting picked up tonight because of an injury. one guy hiked the whole trail in '08 but is doing sections again to get back in shape. the last guy is through hiking now. he started in February and has been out for 91 days. we've started running into a lot more through hikers recently. it's been really cool though to get everyone's different stories, experiences and advice. people out here are so nice!
the shelter is kind of small especially sharing with 4 other people but it's easier than the tent. it has 2 levels and we have 3 people to a level and one guy in a hammock tent outside. it's pretty.
today I think what killed us was the rocks we had to climb to get here. they were so brutal on our feet that once we stopped that was it. it leaves us with 9 miles tomorrow and a 500 ft vertical. that would have been nice to get it over with but new legs tomorrow might make it easier.
all in al it was a good day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)