3 Days Hammock Camping with 8 Pounds of Gear

3 days of Hammock Camping & Solo Ultralight Backpacking in Virginia’s George Washington National Forest.

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For this backpacking trip, I headed down to the border of Virginia and West Virginia for some early spring camping to get a dose of some warmer weather, babbling brooks, and mountain views.

With the milder temps and decent forecast, I was able to get my base weight down to 7.75 pounds, a welcome change after hauling some pretty heavy loads my previous few backpacking trips.

For sleep and shelter, I went with my minimalist hammock camping setup consisting of a 10 oz hammock, 5 oz tarp, and a pair 40° down quilts. The 14 mile Little Schloss Loop has a decent amount of unofficial, but preestablished campsites with some nice open areas and decently spaced trees, making it a great loop for hammocks. You can find my full backpacking gear list for this trip at the end of this post.

Water is plentiful on the Little Stony Creek side of the loop, but the ridge side of the loop that I started with is dry for the first 5 miles, so I packed in a full load of water for my first day. Finding water every couple of miles on the remaining two days was no problem at all.

Route Overview – Little Schloss Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

Trailhead Used: Little Sluice Mountain Trailhead Parking Area , 38°54’30.0″N 78°38’27.0″W
Forest Road 92, Maurertown, VA 22644

This is an easily accessible dirt parking lot with room for a few cars, located directly across the road from the trailhead. The road to it is paved and suitable for any vehicle.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

Trails Used, Day 1

Little Sluice Mountain Trail
Left (south) on unofficial trail to the Little Schloss Mountain Vista
Continue on Little Sluice Mountain Trail
Setup camp in the spruce meadow along Little Sluice Trail
- This is a large campsite with a huge rock campfire pit and room for multiple tents or hammocks. There is no water here, so make sure to pack it in. The next water source is 2 miles further up the trail.

Day 1 Mileage: 2.5 miles
Day 1 Gross Elevation Gain: 1,415 feet

Day 1 Elevation Profile – Little Schloss Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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Trails Used, Day 2

Continue on Little Sluice Mountain Trail
After 2 miles, resupply on water at “Lemonade Springs”, a piped spring located just off the trail to the left.
Left (west) on Tuscarora Trail
Camp along Tuscarora Trail
- This is a medium size campsite with a fire pit and room for a couple of tents or hammocks. This is a dry site, but I hiked the additional 1/3 mile to Sugar Knob Spring, resupplied and returned to camp.

Day 2 Mileage: 6.3 miles
Day 2 Gross Elevation Gain: 2,070 feet

Day 2 Elevation Profile – Little Schloss Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

Trails Used, Day 3

Tuscarora Trail
Left (west) on Stony Creek Trail
Refill water at the piped spring near Sugar Knob Cabin
- The next 2 miles will be dry, but after that there are numerous spots to grab water where the trail runs along Stony Creek.
Left (east) on Forest Rd 92 for 2.5 miles
Return to the High Head parking lot.

Day 3 Mileage: 7.3 miles
Day 3 Gross Elevation Gain: 1,663 feet

Day 3 Elevation Profile – Little Schloss Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

Grand Total Mileage: 16 Miles (includes 2 miles of backtracking & exploring)
Grand Total Gross Elevation Gain: 7,335 feet

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Thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this trip.
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Complete gear list for this trip on LighterPack with weights and clickable links

Notable Backpacking Gear

Camera and Nav Gear used for this episode