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There’s something about starting a hike on a Saturday afternoon at the bottom of a mountain I just can’t seem to remember.  After a nearly sleepless night and a great opening day of trout season(ref The Student becomes the teacher) I finally opened my new GoLite Jam 50 pack I bought online. Yes I know I just bought an Osprey Exos a few weeks ago, but this one is lighter and blue.  So go count something you own too many of then we’ll talk.  

I figured out a game plan of parking at Rt 81 and heading north to the William Penn Shelter to spend the night, then off to 183 for a Sunday afternoon pick up.  Along the way I ran into two gobblers and kicked up two grouse which pretty much made the trip worth it by itself.

 

  

  

  

 Shortly after passing the wildlife I started to notice my back was getting a little soggy. My Osprey Exos has excellent air flow but I still get hot having the back on my back. At one point I took my GoLite Jam off and felt it for dampness, finding only what I assumed was back sweat. In my rush to get hiking I neglected to put my gear inside a contractor bag seperating it from my water bladder sleeve. After the soggy dampness turned to chilly water on the seat of my pants reality sank in, quickly. Somehow my hose loosened from the bladder spilling water into the sleeve and then directly into the gear compartment. I dropped my back and set up for a yard sale right in the middle of the trail. Ripping things out as fast as possible to make sure what needed to be dry, still was. I have never been so thankful to spend $20 a piece for Sea to Summit Nano sil dry stuff sacks in my life. Aside from my wet white butt and my sleeping pad everything stayed dry. Including my DIY down quilt. That would have been detrimental to getting any sleep or being warm at night. 

  

As I approached the last mile before the shelter things got weird. It’s not uncommon to find people’s belongings left behind on the trail. But not like this. The first grocery bag I came across had some dry cotton long johns I could see though the bag hanunging on the root ball of a downed tree. The second bag a few hundred yards down contained: a belt, a woolen scarf with matching red mittens, a sweat shirt, and a full sized paperback book.  This bag caught my curiosity pretty well and had me looking around and over my shoulder. It just didn’t add up.  The third bag put me over the threshold from curious to weirded out. At this point I am over 2 miles from the nearest main road. The third bag contains a wet pair of campfire smokey denim jeans, a pair of needle nose pliers, a full sized can opener, and an electric(corded) Wahl hair clippers, freshly used.  The overly skeptical of everything mindset is not having any part of this shelter tonight, I thought to myself. 

 

  

  

  

 

I made it to the 501 shelter to find two hikers from VA and a NOBO thru hiker finishing off up an attempt from a few years ago named Beavis.  His name was quite fitting, of course we got along great.  Had I known previously I would spent the night at 501 I would have forgone carrying my dinner the whole way and ordered of the delivery menu stack like everyone else did. Meat lovers pizza with extra cheese sure smells amazing while eating rehydrated freeze dried beef stew out of a bag. 

 

 I think all those sketchy grocery bags along the trail hgot to my head and I ended up having nightmares and waking up several times throughout the night. The worst kind of nightmare to have while you’re sleeping in an AT shelter, is a nightmare about something in an AT shelter.  The wind howling all night and the outside temp in the mid 20’s didn’t help me sleep either. 

I made my way out of 501 convinced I would have a nice hot breakfast in an hour or so at a tent site I saw on the guide.  I passed a few hikers that morning. While I was bumbling down the trail they were racing up towards the adventures ahead. One girls I passed had a pack far larger than mine including a tent that judging by the poles strapped to the bottom of her bag was more of a palace than a tent. I also passed a nother man with a pack at least 70 liters filled to the brim. It boggles my mind some of the bull and weight people carry.  I’m all for comfortable camping but the cling part only comes after the hiking part. I must spend too much time buying, researching or weighing my gear on my food scale. Ironically I was still having some knee issues and it was really slowing me down. I took a few short breaks and ended up sitting down on the side of the road at Rt 183 as my ride arrived. Perfect timing. 

   

            Mysterious white powder in the drinking cup box for “Good Friday” no thanks.   

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Some part of me always seems to want to pick up where I last left off.  Hiking is no different.  After the trek from Duncannon to Boiling Springs to start the year the next logical thing to do would be pick up right where I left off.  Starting in Boiling Springs right at the ATC and head south towards Pine Grove Furnace and the AT Museum. 

 

  

 As I arrived at the ATC headquarters beside Children’s Lake it was great to see that I was not the only one intending to hike today.  Even with the wind and cold, and snow a group of about 7 people were also gearing up across the parking lot.  Then it hit me, they were boy scouts.  My heart sank.  Let me be honest.  I think in practice that boy scout are a great thing, and they do many wonderful things for children, society and the outdoors.  However, I feel the same way about Boy Scouts as I do Nuclear Power Plants, not in my back yard.  I want to enjoy peace and quiet while hiking.  Most(not all) of my Boy Scout encounters are filled with noisy awkward young men and older men with more patience than myself.  Kudos to all of them though, seriously!  I was more than relieve when they exited the parking lot heading North knowing my route would be to the South. 

 

  

  

  

  

  I walked passed the lake to a rather confusing lack of signage to the opposite side of the Yellow Breeches heading towards the mountains.  It’s always nice to look ahead across a snow covered and wind filled field knowing you’ll be spending the night on top of the distant mountain, sort of.  Better keep moving.  Half way across the field I thought to myself how I wish I had some of those fancy waterproof boot gaiters those boy scouts were wearing, instead of my trail runners and moderately wet pants, well played scouts well played. 

 I came across my first thru hiker for the year headed NOBO to Canada.  He had cut his thru hike short at Harpers Ferry last year.  For a thru hiker a few things struck me as odd.  His full mismatched army issue Gore-Tex pants, and coat, paracord belt and super sweet Hyperlite Mountain Gear pack, worth about twice as much as the rest of his belongings, including the sleeping bag in a garbage bag tied to the top.

 I made it to the shelter long before dark after showing a group of hikers how to cross the stream we came to at the same time.  I did ask one of them to bite the bullet and carry us all across, he declined.  I went for it and made it across dry, laughing as the first one in got a wet foot after explaining which way to go.  With a belly full of hot food listened to the sound of dirt bikes racing through the woods off in the distance.  As night fell dirt bikes turned into tuba practice.  Yes tuba practice.  There is no animal known to inhabit north American that can carry a tune like a big brass tuba that I know of, so a tuba it was.  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 Before I could make it out of Dodge a volunteer for the Maryland Hikers Club showered up carrying saw dust for the privy and to check on everything with the shelter, 3 of which he was checking on today.  They do a great service, always off them hot coffee. 

 I finished off the hike to Pine Grove Furnace moving a little slower than usual due to ice from people traffic but I made it none the less.  I ended up talking to a hiker called Earth Tone, he runs the AT Museum and invited me in to talk about hiking.  I had seen several shelter logs he singed into and it’s always nice to put a face to a trail name.  I told him he would see me again, he will. 

The general store wasn’t open so the Half Gallon Challenge will have to wait until 2016.  As a Tonkin, I fear no ice cream.            

   

     

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Saturday I began my 2015 hiking season where I left off last year, Duncannon PA.  I started the day at 1:30 near the train station in town. After screwing around finding food and leaving Gander Mt to head to Bass pro, to buy the same food I would have bought anyway. What a great waste of time. I hadn’t hiked this section previously and began a bit later than I had hoped (Lesson #1 just buy the damn food!). It was a bit rainy out when I left the train station to head towards the trail and up the mountain, luckily I had my Marmott Storm Watch rain jacket, newly resprayed with silicone spray (Lesson #2 always respray on warm days, prior to hiking day).

Thankfully it still managed to keep me pretty dry. I made it to Hawk Rock after a quick uphill climb to find the allegedly great overlook filled with a foggy abyss.  It actually made me a little uneasy not being able to see the rocky bottom of the valley from the overlook.

I really need to do a better job of making myself take a rest every 2 hours to get the weight off my feet and shoulders. I’m notorious for hiking until I can’t hike then taking a short break just to catch my breathe before going on.  I’m paying the price for that now on Monday (Lesson #3 take breaks, period).  I made it to the Darlington Shelter around 6:30 fully expecting to end up hiking in the dark (Lesson #4 keep your headlamp handy in your hip belt pocket).  I made the 11 mile hike on about 5 hours (Lessons #5 & #6 hiking in the fog is super badass awesome! & Never connect your hydration hose down near your hip unless you want soggy pants).

I spent the extremely windy night at the Darlington Shelter with another hiker heading north on a 70 mile trip. The wind was howling all night leading to an extreme loss of sleep (Lesson #7 ear plugs, who forgets those?!).  

I had previously arranged for a Sunday afternoon pick up in Boiling Springs around 3-4.  Luckily before my battery died due to the cold weather eating up my battery I managed to send a text about approximate time to meet (Lesson #8 always turn your phone off at night and have a charger with you).  All in all the trips was great.  The wind was crazy at times like crossing this field near the 81 bridge. I made it to Boiling Spring an hour before my expected pick up time with no way to contact them so I got to hang out with some awesome ducks in the wind and cold!   

There is nothing like looking back to the mountain you slept on the night before and seeing it miles away!

Although I’m pretty sore from 26 miles total for the weekend, it was a great way to start the hiking season for the year!

    

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My Eno Sub7 hammock arrived over the weekend to much excitement!  I also received my Arrowhead Equip whoopie slings and Marlin Spike tree straps.  I immediately removed the Eno caribeeners and put the Whoopie slings in.  Although it was only a 1 gram difference(I AM NOT a gram guy, it just worked that way) between the two, I gained the extra length of the whoopie slings. So it definitely helped keep the weight down as far as overall suspension. I ordered the Marlin Spike tree straps and a ridgeline as well. I’m pretty impressed with the quality, weight and price, I’m sure the durabity will be just as impressive!

On the not so bright side I discovered that the hammock is only 105″ long compared to my Grand Trunk UL which is 112″ so hopefully that’s not as big of a deal as some expert on the Internet(ref: sarcasm) said it would be. I’m 5’9″ 150 lbs and spent two of the best summers of my life sleeping in the back of a 4 door Saturn sedan. I’m sure I will be fine. I’m still struggling to decide what sort of sleep system to go with.

I own a Big Agnes Copper Spur 2UL tent currently. I got a pretty good deal on in at REI. It weighs in at 50 oz and has a TON of room. I’ve used it only once time though on a 2 night AT solo hike I did last spring. I liked how much space I had for myself, and my gear in the tent or even vestibule. I’m just not sure how I feel about carrying 50 oz vs 27 with this hammock set up including tarp.

You can see the comparison of my old sleeping bag(teal stuff sac) vs my quilt, sleeping pad, hammock and suspension below.

 

 

What are your thoughts on my two set ups?  What works for you and what hasn’t?

 

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One thing I have been constantly reminded of throughout my life is that “patience is a virtue” typically followed by “we do not possess.”  This statement rings true with myself especially in regards to this journey of 5 million steps.  The anticipation has been killing me through this epic winter cold in PA. Waiting on spring is an understatement.

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I have given the down quilt some use over the past few days, although strictly indoors.  It is definitely more than I hope to ever need in regards to warmth.  I typically end up half in and half out of from under it.  I think it will definitely do the trick this coming spring.  I also started looking into hammock set ups.  With my current tent (BA Copper Spur 2 UL) coming in at 50 oz without a footprint, I’m second guessing its usefulness on a thru hike.  I am entertaining testing out a hammock this spring and summer.  I preordered the ENO Sub7 from REI, and also a suspension set up from Arrowhead Equipment. One of my concerns with hammock camping is rain and keeping dry at night.  I don’t like the idea of being stuck huddling under a small tarp to cook eat and relax. I also wonder if I should keep my Thermarest xLite for use in shelters or switch to a UQ for the hammock.  Spring cannot come soon enough!

-Pickle090 091

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Lauren and I embarked on a journey to make a down quilt.  While researching a new sleeping bag I went down the rabbit hole from synthetic to down, bag to quilt, quilt to holy crap those are expensive!  So we spoke about it and she agreed to help me by basically doing all the hard work, the sewing.  I did some research and ended up with a shipment of 850 down and nylon for about $180.  I decided to go with 2.5″ baffles to make an estimated 20* quilt.  It took 10 hours over the course of a few days.  We probably wasted 3 ours the first day just laying it out, a few times before actually cutting the first half of the shell.  It turned out great!  She did an awesome job sewing it and dealing with me watching.  I can’t wait to test it out!

-Pickle