For those of you that might think a back country hiking trip is intimidating, I hope to simplify the task by sharing my pack list.  This trip is a one night trip that includes sleeping in a shelter, so it is more or less a very light weight trip compared to those that require a tent and more food and clothing.  I plan to drive to the trail head the night before and be back at the car for breakfast the morning after we camp, so I will be able to leave some things in the car, too.  I will also bring my dog, Althea, along and she has her own pack to lighten my load (and expel some of her abundant energy!)

For my backpack:

• Food/snacks (a little extra just in case)
• Stove
• Gas
• Pot to boil water in
• Spork (an all in one fork, spoon and knife)
• Lighter, fire starter
• Extra Clothes – socks, liners, underwear, undershirt, rain jacket
• Pack cover
• TP and shovel (for the special places…)
• Multi-tool
• Cordage
• First Aid Kit
• Water bottles, bladder
• Steripen (water purifier)
• Tripod
• Camera
• Sleeping bag
• Hammock
• Slap straps (to hang hammock)
• Sleeping pad
• Flashlight
• Headlight
• Spare Batteries
• Summit/day pack

To wear when I set out hiking:

• Hiking pants
• Socks
• Liner socks
• Boots
• Hiking shirt
• Undershirt
• Garmin watch

For Althea’s Pack:

• Dog food
• Leash
• Dog bowl
• Water bottles
• Bear bell

To bring & leave in car:

• Tent
• Extra sleeping bag/pad
• Cooler with water and Mountain Dew
• Fleece Jacket, hat and gloves

Basically the short and quick of this is, to ask a simple question. What is in everyones plans now that the Spring is nearly upon us.

Mitchell was the starting point on a few different tasks that my wife and I have decided to track down.   Both of the tasks are through the Carolina Mountain Club.  The first one is viewing the Waterfalls and Cascades 100 ( A list of 100 waterfalls/cascades in the Carolinas that are fairly well spread out).  The second of which is the South Beyond 6000 (a grouping of 40 peaks in the Carolinas and Tennessee above 6000 feet of elevation).  This task is going to be somewhat brutal at times but definately worth the effort. Between these two tasks I will be hiking well over 500 miles. However theses two tasks are my 3-5 year goals, my goal exclusively this year is to reach 365 miles on the entire year in hiking alone… Thats right I want to average out to at least 1 mile in the woods per day for this year.  I dont think its too high of a goal, but it will require some dedication in not falling behind too far at any given moment.

Now that I have shared, please share your plans for the outdoors this year!

Destination: Mount Mitchell
Elevation: 6,684 feet to summit
Total miles I hiked: 10.5
Number of hikers in our group: 8 9 (apparently I can’t count)
Number of female hikers in our group: 1
Degrees (low) that we saw on our thermometer: 4
Feet of snow on the ground: About 2
Number of animals seen: 2
Number of animal tracks seen: a lot (I thought they’d all be hibernating …)
Number of times I fell: .5
Number of times people in the group fell: About 30
Number of times Chris fell: About 25
Times I wondered if we’d survive: 1

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So, 3 nights in the snow and not only did I live to tell about it, but there is a part of me that still wants to be on that mountain.

It was an amazing trip. Kevin and I had a conversation while up there about how interesting it is that we’ve done this three times now, and it’s different every time. Same mountain, different adventure, different moments, different memories.

———

The skinny: I hiked Mount Mitchell for the third year in a row. I wrote about the previous trips here and here. Mount Mitchell is located in the Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and, at 6,684 feet, it’s the tallest point east of the Mississippi. It’s a very challenging hike even in good conditions, with trails labeled “very strenuous.” Add a couple of feet of snow and ice to the trail, and you can imagine the challenge we were facing …

In fact, the first night, as we set up camp in the snow at the base of the mountain, I wondered if we’d even hike at all. There was snow everywhere!

Day one: When we didn’t see “day” at all

Four of us arrived in the middle of the night Thursday night/Friday morning after a pretty crazy drive to get to the campground.  And by “pretty crazy”, I mean snow-covered and knuckle-gripping and “thank God for four-wheel drive” crazy. But we made it, and then we got to camp in it.  

Once we got to base camp (Black Mountain campground), we were surprised to see we weren’t the only people out here – a few other tents were scattered around the campground. That made me feel relieved as I scooted into my bivy sack and spent the entire night in there for the first time (the other time I tried it I chickened out and ended up in the tent.)

Let me explain the bivy thing: I have this one, which is the most expensive, heaviest bivy that REI sells. However, at 2 pounds, it’s still lighter than a tent and it sets up much easier (no wrangling with tent poles as darkness is falling.) The reason I got one is because I get claustrophobic inside a tent. And the bivy allows me to feel closer to the open air. In fact, several times during the night I woke up feeling like I just needed to ground myself, and all I had to do was stick my fingers out into the air for a few moments and then I would feel better.

I also bought a small LED lantern, at an REI employee’s suggestion. He said that if I could put it just outside the bivy, then it would keep me from being claustrophobic. Problem was, I couldn’t get it to work. I don’t know if the batteries were too cold (they were lithium, so they shouldn’t have been) or what, but at 1 a.m. in single digit temperatures, I didn’t try too hard and relied on the firelight, and then the moonlight, and then the sunlight to keep things in perspective for me. And it worked!

Speaking of lights, I also couldn’t get my headlamp to work. So, I was without any lights at all. Not fun while trying to set up camp. Or cook. Or see, well, anything really. When I had to pee in the middle of the night that first night, I woke Chris up to go with me (and then promptly ordered him to turn around).

I was pretty cold that first night – due to the claustrophobia, I have a hard time pulling my mummy sleeping bag all the way around my face. I was actually able to zip it all the way up (a first for me!) but I couldn’t pull it tight. And after the pee break, the slit I left open in my bivy was directly above my head – and I’m pretty sure the wind was blowing straight down into my bag. This I realized as the sun was coming up and it was almost time to get up anyway.

Coming soon … day 2!

This originally appeared on melissaoh.com but I wanted to share it over here as well …

So it is true that this trip might be complete, and everyone is back in their homes, all warm and comfortable.  But a trip isn’t only defined by “Did I reach my destination?” but also by “What happened along the way?”.

So, with that being stated… I pose a question to all of my weekend warriors out there… What happened on this trip? What were your favorite moments? Will you be back?

Since our trip had 9 sets of eyes viewing the trip, I figured that I would share a quick story of the trip, from my eyes…  My trip had only one purpose to it, and that was getting to the summit.  Mt Mitchell is the first of 40 peaks in North Carolina that I will summit in the next few years.   So with keeping that in mind, I really wanted to arrive at the camp during the night.  Just so that I could give my legs  a little bit of rest before continuing up to the top.  {With over 3,400 feet of elevation gain and only 5.6 miles of trail to hike, getting to the summit and back down to the camp in one day would have been very difficult.}  Kevin, Chadd, Chad, Tyler and myself started towards camp around 11, and through a unfortunate turn of events Chadd turned back.  The rest of us pushed on and walked into camp around 2 in the morning.  I for one was very happy to be able to set up camp and get a good nights rest. 

Upon waking up the next morning, to a very chilly but pleasant day, I was ready to start towards to summit, and after a little bit of warming up and gear changes we started towards our destination.  John, Tyler, Chad, Kevin, Melissa, and myself started on the hike, and roughly half way up the mountain the sky was still blue, with a light breeze in the air.  Sure its cold, but it is winter.  This is the point when Kevin and Melissa decided to head back down the mountain and back towards camp.  John, Chad, Tyler and I pushed forward, splitting off into two groups. 

Trees about 200 yards from the summit.

John and Chad definately were moving a lot quicker than I was, so they moved forward, leaving Tyler and myself about 100 feet behind them the rest of the way up.   At about a quarter of a mile left in the hike, the sky started to change to cloudy and the wind started to really blow. 

We arrived at the summit at 3:30 and found out that the weather was hovering around 2° with a wind gusting near 40 mph (that puts the wind chill near -20).  So to put it mildly, it was COLD.  But I had achieved the goal that I was there for,

At the summit of Mt Mitchell

well at least half of the goal that I was there for.  The thing with hiking to a destination, isn’t just reaching that point, but also getting back to where you start from.  We stayed at the summit for only a short while before heading back down the mountain…

It was after arriving at the mountain when I had any type of major discomfort on the trip, I think it was caused by not eating enough throughout the day.  But just after reaching camp, my body temperature began to drop.  Kevin was nice enough to heat up some water for me and then after I got some warm food in my system I was good to go again.  Chad, Tyler, and I decided to get into our bags early that night and were in bed by 7:30.

Morning came and Chad, Tyler, Kevin and I decided that we wanted to have breakfast at Waffle House, instead of eating at camp.  So we gathered up our gear and hit the trail around 9am.  The hike was rather uneventful, the sun was shining and the wind was light as we followed the trail down to the cars.  After a little bit of packing and a couple more pictures, we decided to drive to Waffle House, have a nice breakfast and then finished the trip home. 

So now to answer my three questions… 1) What happened on this trip?  I was able to summit Mt Mitchell in the winter.  2) What were my favorite moments? They would have to be spending time with some great friends and learning more about myself.  3) Will I be back? I haven’t fully decided… I might but I might not.  After all there are 39 more peaks for me to summit.

This past weekend, I made the annual winter trip to Mount Mitchell.  On Friday night after work, I drove my Toyota 4Runner in a 2 car caravan with Chad riding with me and Andrew and Tyler in Andrew’s Toyota FJ Crusier.  Both our vehicles are equipped with 4 wheel drive and with the snow that had fallen in the previous days in the mountains of North Carolina, we felt it best to go up with a second vehicle.

We arrived at Black Mountain Campground around 10:45.  We had received word from Jeff’s friend Chadd that he was on his way and would be there soon.  He arrived at about 11:30 and the 5 of us got ready for a 3 mile hike to Mid Camp, where Melissa, Jeff, Chrisand John were already set up.  About 1/2 mile up, Chadd was having knee problems.  He told us that he has had surgeries and the cold and his heavy pack were giving him problems.  He was going home.

The four of us continued up in the hard packed, basically frozen snow.  And yes, I realize that snow is already frozen, but this snow was solid and very slick.  Thanks to YakTrax that I had picked up from REI the week before, I had little to zero problems hiking on the ice.

We made it to Mid Camp around 2:15 Saturday morning.  We set up in the cold air that read on Jeff’s thermometer at 4 degrees.  I was thankful there was little wind.  I crawled into my sleeping bag in my bivy sack on the snow and tried to sleep.

I woke up around 6:00 and I had to pee.  It was still dark outside and no one else was up.  I tried to hold it for a while, but finally had to get up.  After I got back in my bag, I warmed my feet with my hands and then laid back down for a while.  All of a sudden I heard someone yelling in the distance.  I yelled back and then soon realized that it was Chadd.  Jeff summed it up nicely, “Hey Chadd you crazy bastard.”  Apparently, Chadd drove back home, unloaded his pack some and returned to meet up with us, hiking by himself in the dark.

We got a fire going and thawed out the feet.  We made some breakfast, which for me consisted of a freeze dried meal from Mountain House that was scrambled eggs with ham and green and red peppers.  It hit the spot, but I think anything warm would have been great.  We geared up for a summit hike and left just before noon – later than we should have left.

Melissa, John, Andrew, Chad, Tyler and I started up the mountain and it hit me, (like it does every trip there) how amazing it is to have such a diverse landscape so close to home.  It really does feel like you are on another world compared to Charlotte.  And it is a mere 2 hour drive!

At around 2:15, I ask Melissa if she wants to hike in the dark and she says no.  We had already discussed turning around at 2:30 to get back before dark.  It was 2:15 and we had 1.5 miles to go to the summit.  We decided to turn around and the other 4 went on to the top.

We got back to the camp where Jeff and Chris had a fire going and we got warm and dry.  the others made it back just before it got dark with their tales of how extreme the conditions were at the top.  Their frosted beards proved such conditions.

We made dinners and several turned in early to get warm in their sleeping bags.  Melissa, Chris and I stayed up a bit and talked and listened to the “I must be camping with Jeff” music by Johnny Cash.

Sunday morning I woke up and was extremely cold.  I was worried about my feet that I could barely move.  Jeff made a fire and I warmed my toes that had turned a shade of white/yellow and finally got their color back and stopped hurting.  I packed up and headed down the mountain with Chad, Andrew and Tyler.  Melissa, Jeff, Chris and John stayed back and made coffee and breakfast.  I had my sights set on food and a toilet at the nearest Waffle House!

We made it to Waffle House around 12:00 and after hitting up the toilet (new Special Place, thanks Waffle House!) I ate a waffle, hash browns, eggs, toast and of course, bacon!

It was a great trip and it reminded me of why I love to hike and camp, but I have decided that, with my current equipment, my threshold on low temperatures is around 15-20 degrees.  The 4 degree temperatures were uncomfortable in my current sleeping system.  Perhaps a tent and battery-powered socks (good tip, Chad) are what are needed to get a good night’s sleep in such conditions.

I don’t think that I need to go in depth any further, we all know what goes on in our minds about packing for a trip like this.  But I seriously want to pose this question to everyone involved.  What are your fears/concerns about Mt Mitchell? And are they justified?

Snow is frozen water

OK, I know that sounds like a smart-ass answer, but seeing how I grew up in Florida, it is an important fact. Not everyone realizes that as you hike in the snow, two things are happening: you are getting snow on you, and you are heating up your body. In turn, the snow is melting on your clothes. This can be really bad once you stop hiking and cool off. The water in your clothes will freeze. Not good.

On the flip side of this, you can eat snow to help you hydrate, but be careful with this one. Snow s tapping your body heat in order to melt the snow into ice, so by eating snow you are lowering your core temperature, and therefore that much closer to hypothermia. As mentioned earlier, though, when you are moving you are heating yourself up. Finding the balance between the heat of hiking and the cooling of eating snow is the key.

Snow is a great insulator

The Inuit know what they are doing when it comes to cold weather, and their use of the igloo (iglu) for shelter illustrates this best. The fact is, unpacked snow is mostly air (90% or better) trapped between ice crystals. The fact that the air cannot circulate causes it not to transfer heat, and thus insulate.

Snow absorbs water

If you find yourself suddenly wet (slipped on that rock in the stream, did you?) and you are in freezing temperatures, you must get your wet clothes off ASAP. What you may not realize is that by rolling your clothes in the snow, or even parts of yourself, you can dry up a lot of the water. Then the snow can be brushed off rather easily. Keep in mind you are still going to have to dry your clothes completely near a fire (or other heat source) but the time it will take will have been reduced. Hopefull your sleeping bag was in a water tight bag during this time, so that you can get into it while your clothes dry!

Your turn. What do you know about snow?