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Backpacking

Jacob and I are thinking about taking a short backpacking trip next week to Big Hill Pond State Park.

 

Thinking about going next Fri and Sat Nov 26^th and 27^th

 

If any of you want to go let me know.

 

J
  

2011 Appalachian Trail Trip

Well my son and I have decided to take a 5 day backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail sometime in Spring or Fall of 2011. SO the planning has begun. We have most the equipment already so now we just have to pick a 30-40 miles section of the AT that we want to see and start planning and getting into shape

Big Hill Pond Camping April 2-3 2010

Day 1 total 4 miles
Total This Trip 4 miles

J and J Total 30.83 miles

Well Jacob and I and a friend of mine and his son decided to do some camping Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend. We got to Big Hill Pond State Park around 2:30 Friday afternoon and headed to the parking area south of the lake and did a short loop hike. We walked over the half mile board walk and when we got to the other side I point in the direction UP the big hill and told the two boys if they walked straight that way they will hit the tower and we will meet you there. My friend and I walked the path to the tower. So the two boys headed straight up the hill and they reached the top of the first hill and didnt see the tower so they found a path and took it the rest of the way to the tower, since the tower was on top of the 2nd hill. They did actually beat us by a couple minutes. We then took the horse trail down to the lake and across the dam and back up to the parking area. We then drove over to Scout Camp 2 and set up camp. Had a nice dinner and fire and sat and talked till about midnight and then hit the sleep bags. About 2 or 3 am or so it started hearing thunder and seeing lightning, LOTS of it with some heavy rain. It stopped about 7am or so and we slept till about 8am so noone got wet. We got up had a good breakfast and did some sight seeing around the park by truck and then headed home. We all had a great time. Saw 4 deer run across the trail after we left the tower but that's all the wildlife we saw.

Well I have been reading all this stuff about people making pancakes and biscuits when backpacking, but I didnt have a frying pan. SO I went and ordered me a Primus 1.0 Litech Trek Kettle Pot which comes with a 1 liter pot and a frying pan for a lid. Cant wait to have trail pancakes.

Got my new Lafuma Extreme 600 +45 Sleeping Bag in and its it packs small and it so light. Packs down to 5"X10" and only weights 20 oz. Best part is, it was only $29.93 from REI.

Headed to Wall Doxey state park in Holly Springs MS. this weekend to do some cabin camping. Should be nice it has a fireplace inside and a fire pit out side.

Places we want to hike

TENNESSEE TRAILS
Mousetail Landing State Park -
Nathon Bedfor Forest State Park
Natchez Trace State Park North and South Sections
Land Between the Lakes Canal Loop
Land Between the Lakes Fort Henry Trail System
Land Between the Lakes North South
Meeman Shelby Forest Trails
Fort Pillow
Big Hill Pond

MISSOURI TRAILS
The Ozark Trail Taum Sauk Section - 33 miles one way
The Ozark Trail Marble Creek Section - 8 miles one way

Arkansas Trails
Ouachita Mountains - Eagle Rock Loop - 30 miles
Hot Springs National Park - Sunset Trail Loop - 15 miles
North Sylamore Trail - Mountain View - 13.75 miles one way

Alabama Trails
Sipsey Wilderness

Well I decided to try and figure out my total lifetime miles of hiking and backpacking and my sons total.

Mine
Philmont as Scout 70
Boy Scouts as a Scout 100
Boy Scouts as a Leader 25
J and J total 31
My lifetime total 226 miles

Sons
Boy Scouts 40
J and J 31
My sons lifetime total 71 miles

I am in the process of planning our next three trips.

Big Hill Pond. Going to try and do a short over night at Big Hill Pond State Park on a Sat and Sun before the end of the year, just to check out more of the trails and test out some camping gear and food recipes . Plan on the first day to go past Grassy Point Shelter and camp at Tuscumbia Bend Shelter, and then back to the parking area on the second day.

Sipsey Wilderness. Planning a 3 day weekend trip in Jan or Feb of 2010 at Sipsey Wilderness Area in Bankhead National Forest Alabama. Going to try and do around 15 miles and see some water falls and some BIG trees.

LBL - Planning a LBL Fort Henry Trail System backpacking trip as soon as hunting season is over.

J

Eagle Rock Loop postponed

Well lucky for us we postponed our 30 miler to Eagle Rock Loop. That 27 mile loop has MANY MANY creek and river crossings that get pretty dangerous during rain and well thats about all we have got in the last several days

Next Trip Eagle Rock Loop - Ouachita Nat Forest AR.

Well we have started planning for our next trip which will be the Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas Ouachita National Forest. It is about a 27 mile loop, but we will make it a minimum of 30 miles. The reason for 30 miles is, it will be for the BSA Backpacking Merit Badge so it must be a minimum of 5 days and 30 miles, so we are going to a take this trip Oct 9 - 13. I have the maps and I am figuring out how far we want to go each day and the good places to camp and the things we weant to see.

LBL trip delayed

Well we did not get to make our LBL trip BUT it is still planned just maybe after hunting season.

Next Trip LBL Fort Henry Trail

Well it looks like the our next trip will be at LBL and it will be the Fort Henry Trail System. We plan to do about 20 miles on Sept 18 - 20.

Big Hill Pond Backpacking Trip Aug 7-9 2009

Temps 90's HOT
Day 1 total 7.22 miles
Day 2 total 7.91 miles
Total This Trip 15.13 miles

J and J Total 26.83 miles

WOW this was a great trip. I went with my son and my friend Bob and his son went. Bob showed up at my house about 10am on Friday and we drove out to Big Hill Pond. We started hiking about 12:30. We started at the boat dock and head down the East side of the park to Big Hill Pond. Once we got to the pond we decided to stop and eat and fill up our water using out pumps. Well the pumps did not like the scummy dirty water and they both clogged quick. Luckily I brought water treat tabs as a backup. So we used iodine tabs all weekend long. We had planned to go to the Dogwood Shelter but once we hit the railroad tracks we figured, since we hiked in the heat of the day and we would have about 7 miles for the day, we would stop at the first shelter instead which is Pipe Rock Shelter. We knew we were close to the Pipe Rock Shelter trail but we didnt see a sign or a trail marker or anything. We finally saw a sign that said Dogwood Shelter 1.9 miles, then we knew we went too far so we turned around and started looking for the sign to Pipe Rock Shelter that we obviously missed. Well we walked a very short way back when my son saw two wood posts sticking out of the ground and some rocks leading up a BIG HILL. SO we figured that was the sign posts for the Pipe Rock Shelter sign. SO we headed up and finally got to the shelter. Nice shelter but we sure are glad we brought tents. We looked into the shelter and saw about 40 bats hanging from the rafters and HUGE piles of bat droppings on the floor. Once we got the tents up and the fire going we sent the two boys down the hill to fill all out water bottles up with water from the creek. My son and I had spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner and Bob and his son had Ramen noodles. Boy where we tired. We ended up doing 7.22 miles the first day in the heat.

Well we woke up early and Bob had what looked like fire ant bites all over his body. Hundreds of blister looking bites that oozed clear fluid when they popped. Not much we could do since we where several miles from anywhere. We had a quick breakfast and broke camp and headed out. WOW a good nights sleep sure makes you feel good even when your hot and tired. So Saturday morning we took the shortest router back to the truck which was 3.5 miles. We loaded up in the truck and drove to town to get some ointments for Bob and by then Bob's son and my son and myself all had some itching starting on our legs, so we got some anti-itch cream. We headed back to finish up our hike. When we got back we headed to the board walk and then to the 73 foot tower. WOW what a view from the top of the tower. We did another 4.41 miles which gave us our 15 miles minimum the boys needed for their Boy Scout Backpacking merit badge, so we camped at the camp ground had a good dinner on the backpacking stove and went to bed. We got up on Sunday and had a great breakfast and packed up and headed home.

We learned a lot of things on this trip and we saw several deer and a turtle.

Getting Ready for Big Hill Pond

Well im getting everything ready for a 3 day backpacking trip to Big Hill Pond State Park Aug 7 - 9. I am making my list of things I still need to buy and I will get everything I need tonight and get my backpack packed for tomorrow.

Only plan on doing about 15 miles this trip but its going to be a HOT 15 miles this weekend.

J

I am now planning our next trip that we hope to do on August 7 - 9. We want to do the some of the Fort Henry Trail System at LBL Plan to drive up Friday the 7th in the morning get in some hiking Friday and Saturday. Then do a short hike on Sunday back the South Welcome Center and head home.

Mousetail Landing Backpacking April 25-26 2009

Day 1 From Park Office to Overnight Shelter #1 - 5.19 miles
From Shelter #1 to creek for water and back - 2.00 miles

Day 2 From Overnight Shelter #1 to Park Office - 4.51 miles

Total Miles his trip - 11.70 miles

Our Total Miles - 11.70 miles


Well my son and I finally took out first backpacking trip. It was with my sons Boy Scout Troop. To protect the innocent I will not mention any names or the name of the troop. BUT, all in all it was a good trip as backpacking trips go. Because it was the first backpacking event for the Scout Troop we did not do too many miles. We did about 5.5 on Saturday and about 4.5 on Sunday. Our packs weighed in at 26 pounds each before food and water.

We started off at the park office a little before 11 am and walked to the picnic pavilion west of the park office and we had lunch. From there we took the bike trail until we hit the road again and then we jumped over to the hiking trail. At the Y in the hiking trail we decide since we where camping in Shelter 1 and we had a couple people who where a little slower than the rest we would take the short way and go straight to the shelter. We did have a couple boys who wanted to take the long way and pass shelter two so we let them do the loop past shelter 2. Once we got to the shelter we started dinner. That may sound early for dinner, but because of many issues we had it took us until 6 pm to hike 5.5 miles.

Jacob and I decided to eat our dehydrated backpacking Chicken Noodle Soup. This was our first time eating MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) type backpacking food. It was pretty good but I will remember to bring salt next trip.

The temps where well into the 80's all day so we went thru a lot of water, so after dinner a bunch of us decided to take the mile or so walk to the closest water source, a creek of the Tennessee river, and get some water. WOW was this water dirty and brown. BUT I did have my MSR Sweetwater filter that worked AMAZING. Between using the filter and the chlorine drops that came with the filter my son and I had clear clean great tasting water.

When we got back to camp after getting our water we sat around a while and all talked about the day and what we liked about out first backpacking trip and then we went to bed.

The next morning we woke up and my son and I had some dehydrated scrambled eggs and bacon, and again, I made a note to bring SALT next trip. In between meals we did have plenty of snacks to eat so we where ok. There was only one tent incident over night. One scout had a single person tent that used only one pole to hold the front of the tent up and his tent collapsed over night since it wasn't staked down properly, but he was just too tired to get up and fix it so he kinda held the pole up with his hand all night as he slept.

After breakfast we took our tent down and got all out stuff packed up so we would be ready to go. As we waited for everyone else to make breakfast and pack up my son and I sat back and watched the fun. One scout caught is liquid fuel stove on fire and dumped two quarts of water on it before an adult leader tossed it off the wood picnic bench on the ground and finally go it put out. Another scout knocked over is pot off his stove and his roman noodles dumped all over the ground.

Once everyone was packed and ready to go we took of and headed the direction toward shelter two. Once we got to the service road where the bridge is over the creek we took a long break and ate and played in the COLD water for a while. When we took off from there to take the last leg of out trip we broke up into two groups. About 4 people decided to take the hiking trail back to the park office and the rest of us took the road back. WOW that was one BIG HILL going we went up, about 1/2 way up I was thinking I took the wrong way, maybe I should of taken the hiking trail. Once I got to the top of the hill where the bathrooms are for the campground I saw a SODA MACHINE, OMG my energy doubled just seeing that machine. I almost RAN to get to that machine since my energy was almost drained by then. I got me and my son and ice cold sugary caffeine filled drink and within minutes we felt ready to do another 5 miles, but luckily we only had about a mile to go and it was mostly all down hill.

We all finally made it back to the park office and sat and talked a few minutes and headed back to Memphis.

I woke up this morning, the Monday morning after the trip, and learned several things. ONE, I am pretty good shape for 44, but I sure need to work on my leg muscles more, WOW do my legs hurt today. TWO, I understand now the reason to buy a good quality, correctly fitted backpack, since that is NOT what my son and I had. THREE, even if you take extra food with you, take MORE extra food with you. FOUR, a thin,cheap,light sleeping pad, is NOT better than a self inflating sleeping pad.

It was a good trip for our first backpacking trip and most everyone learned things on this trip which will make the next trip better. The best part, we saw 2 big black snakes and a copperhead. Shame we didnt see any rattle snakes.

We finally got our tent and 2nd sleeping back in. We now have all our gear and are ready for our first trip. The tent is a Kelty Gunnisan 3.1 and the new sleeping bag is a Coleman Casper 15 degree. Our other sleeping bag is a Sleumberjack Odyssey 10 degree. We will try these sleeping bags and see how well they do. Most our camping wont be below freezing so we hope these bags will work ok. The Kelty Gunnisan 3.1 tent is AWESOME it is nice and big for two people and gear inside the tent.