Category: Backpacking

Hiking: Distances & Consequences

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The rule of thumb for hiking is you move about 2 miles an hour and add an hour for every 1000 vertical feet of hiking. This has been beaten into every hikers head for years.  Any book you read will tell you this or something similar, and there’s a good reason. Vertical feet take their toll on you very fast.  You exert so much more energy taking a step uphill vs flat, duh right? When I hiked in the Great Smoky Mountains there was a trail which was about 4.5 miles long, but it started at 2000 feet and ended at more than 4200 feet.  Over that distance a nice gentle slope would make for a decent hike, but not challenging.  Here’s the problem though, as with most hikes hills don’t gradually increase at a constant rate.  Instead the first 2.3ish miles of the hike went up only 800 feet.  The last 2ish miles went up 1400 feet. Continue reading “Hiking: Distances & Consequences” →

The Great Smoky Mountains (part 1)

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I set out on the 10 hour road trip early in the morning – and by early in the morning I mean 8am.  By the time I had arrived I blew through Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee.  There’s not a whole lot to do on a road trip through corn fields other than listen to the radio.  Since most of my driving time was spent in Kentucky and Tennessee, that meant you had country, sports talk, christian talk, or conservative talk radio.  As best I could I picked the sports talk radio.  The trip to the Smokies was long and uneventful. Last year the Coin Flip Road Trip made driving actually exciting.  This drive was the opposite.

I got to the national park just in time to check in with the ranger station, set up my campsite, and drive back into a small town to pick up a few things I realize I needed.  My plan of car camping at an established site the first two nights really came in handy when you realize your dead tired after doing nothing but driving all day.  So at the extremely late hour of 8pm, I crawled into my tent and broke out A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson.  If you are a hiker or backpacker or just enjoy being outside, I HIGHLY suggest this book.  You will find yourself laughing and nodding along with everything he does during his prep and hike of the Appalachian Trail.  Not to give away too much, but he’s clearly afraid of bears and hillbillies – two things the Appalachian Mountain range have plenty of. Continue reading “The Great Smoky Mountains (part 1)” →

Prepping for the Great Smoky Mountains

I try to take one major camping trip a year. This year I settled on Tennessee to visit the Great Smoky Mountains. Everything I had heard and read said I was in for some amazing views.

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I try to take one major camping trip a year.  This year I settled on Tennessee to visit the Great Smoky Mountains.  Everything I had heard and read said I was in for some amazing views.  The other motivation was I had 8 states left to visit in the US and North/South Carolina happened to two of them.  This trip I’d be able to stay in NC and drive down to SC to knock that state off my list.

After spending some time researching the best hikes (shout out to http://www.hikinginthesmokys.com/), I settled on the Cades Cove area as my “base” for the trip.  When you’re backpacking (or camping in general) in a national park it’s important to select a region ahead of time.  Look at topo maps, talk to park rangers, visit the park’s website, etc all to inform your decision.  What you’re looking for are dangers. Is there increased bear activity or a potential for flooding?  Knowing these little things in advance will go a long way to make your life easier out on a trail.  For me, the major concerns of the Smoky Mountains centered around bears.  The website and park rangers warned about increased bear sightings.  Specifically black bears – the ones that love to climb a tree to eat your food.  Grizzly Bears are the more frightening of the two major bear species of the US, but they mainly hang out in the west (think Yellowstone).  Grizzlies can grow up to 800 lbs on the high end of the scale – all from 1 lb at birth – and really don’t like humans roaming around their kids.  Black bears on the other hand max out at a cuddly 500 lbs.  All bears (and wildlife generally) will defend their cubs if they think you’re a threat.  You think you love your child? Get between a momma bear and her cubs and you’ll discover just how little your love seems compared to theirs.  But I’ll come back to bears later. Continue reading “Prepping for the Great Smoky Mountains” →

The Badlands – Day 2

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10544391_10100159275647840_4172319286603264996_nAfter making it through the night I ate a quick breakfast and decided to check in with the world.  I packed up my gear, discovered that the storm had bent both of my main poles to the tent, and headed up to the top of a large hill.  I assumed that would be the best place to turn my phone on a search for service.  I was right.  I got two bars of 3G on the top of the hill.  I sent a quick “I’m alive” text and checked the weather.  More severe storms were predicted for the afternoon and evening.  So I had a choice: Continue on, deeper into the “Wilderness” area of The Badlands or head back to my car.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say the storm had rattled me a little.  My poles were bent and another severe storm could easily destroy my tent at this point.  So I chose the safe route.  I decided to head north towards my car.  I was disappointed during the entire hike, so to make it a little more interesting I headed towards the large butte that had been my landmark during the hike into the area the day before.  Getting up it was easier than I expected.  One side looked very steep, but the other was gentle enough to let me up it.  The view was amazing so I sat up there for a bit before heading off.  The area on top of the butte had very little grass, I’m assuming because of common high winds.  I snapped a few photos, then headed back to my car.  In total it was probably a 18-20 mile hike with the detour so it took me the majority of the morning and into the afternoon to make it back. Continue reading “The Badlands – Day 2” →

The Badlands – The Storm

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Quick back story: I’m backpacking in the Badlands National Park and I spent the entire afternoon hiking to a spot about 15 miles away from a dirt road that I parked on.  As I went to sleep the rain and gentle rolling thunder started up.

I remember having some dream that I was extremely upset about waking up from.  So much so that it took me awhile to realize what was happening.  The tent would occasionally light up as though some one was turning the lights of a room on, then off again.  I don’t know why I didn’t hear the thunder right away, because I’m pretty sure there wasn’t much of a delay from lightening to thunder.  All at once everything clicked.  I was camping.  I was in a tent.  That sound is rain hitting my tent.  That light was lightening.  That sound was thunder. There was a storm. Continue reading “The Badlands – The Storm” →