Winter Hot Tent Camping …and Kicking Cancer’s @#S

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Backpacking & Winter Camping with a Hot Tent on the Appalachian Trail using a Titanium Wood Stove & 5 person Luxe Twinpeak tent.

For this adventure, we got a guided tour of Virginia’s Mount Pleasant Scenic Area in the George Washington National Forest. The weather at our elevation of roughly 4,000′ was forecast to be in the mid to low 20’s with high winds, so we were excited to see how the tent & wood stove combo would work out.

Cole Mountain Loop Route Overview – Sintax77

No permit is required to camp in the George Washington National forest, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information on the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest website here.

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

You can read more about Ricky’s story and his experience with pancreatic cancer here.

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Winter Hammock Camping – Amok Draumr XL – Snow on Unknown Pond

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3 Days of Winter Hammock Camping, Backpacking, & Snow Hiking in New Hampshire’s White Mountains using the Amok Draumr XL Hammock.

For this 3 day, 2 night spring snow camping trip, I’ll be hiking a section of trail in northern New Hampshire to setup a winter base camp in the remote Mt Cabot & Unknown Pond region of the White Mountain National Forest.

For sleep and shelter I packed in my Amok Draumr XL hammock, paired with the Amok Borg tarp and Amok Fjol XL sleeping pad.  I had never used the Amok hammock on a winter trip before, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to test it, as the forecast called for a decent amount of snow and temperatures a little bit below it’s recommended temperature range of 20°F.  More details on my winter backpacking gear can be found at the end of this post.

Unknown Pond Route Overview – Sintax77

No permit is required to camp in the White Mountains NF, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information on the USFS White Mountains website here.

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

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Military Surplus Camping Pt 2 – Finding the B-47 Crash Wing

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Hiking & Backpacking with Military Surplus Camping Gear in the Adirondacks Eastern High Peaks Region

For this 2 day, 1 night adventure, I’ll be returning to Wright Peak to continue my search for the B-47 wing. I’ll be using the same milsurp backpacking load-out (with some additional cold weather gear), along with MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) food to keep me fueled up while I search for the remnants of a cold war era B-47 bomber that crashed on Wright Peak during the night of January 2nd, 1962.

If you haven’t already seen Part One, where I explored the summit impact zone, you can check that out here.

My “big 3” for this backpacking trip are a medium sized ALICE pack, USGI Modular Sleeping bag with USGI Term-A-Rest sleeping Pad, and a USGI Poncho for shelter / rain gear. I scored each of these items for around $30.  A gear list can be found at the end of this post.

No permit is required to camp in the Adirondacks, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information here.

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Lazy Fall Hammock Camping in the Rain – Loyalsock Loop Link

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3 Days of Hiking, Backpacking & Hammock Camping in the Rain on the Loyalsock Trail.

For this 3 day, 2 night fall backpacking trip, I’ll be hiking the 24 mile Loyalsock Link Loop, in Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock State Forest.  My goal for this rainy fall hike was a laid back, lower mileage trip with plenty of time at camp each day. For fun and comfort, I still used my minimalist sub 10 pound ultralight backpacking gear load-out. In addition to my usual gear list, I threw in a lightweight backpacking fry pan for some fun camp cooking to spice things up as well.

 

No permit is required to camp in the Loyalsock State Forest, so long as you are only camping one night at each campsite.  You can find more information on the Loyalsock State Forest website here.

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

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How to use a GPS for Hiking (Dedicated Device or Phone App)

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How to use a GPS Device or GPS App for Hiking & Backpacking Trips using Caltopo and free Garmin Basecamp GPS Software for route planning, point of interest waypoints, elevation profiles and more.

Whether you use a dedicated GPS device or a GPS phone app, the free tools and software I share in this tutorial can help you take your pre-trip planning to the next level.

Links to GPS Tools that I go over

  • Garmin Basecamp
    • This is the current version, but for the reasons discussed in the video, I would recommend that Garmin device users install the previous version 4.6.2 until they fix the map install issues on 4.7.0. If you’re using a GPS phone app, you’ll be fine with 4.7.0.
  • Basecamp Previous Version Archive
    • You can get version 4.6.2 here.
  • Forum thread with more info on the problems with Basecamp 4.7.0.
  • GPS File Depot
    • Great resource for free GPS maps.
  • Caltopo
    • Awesome web based GPS tool. You can use it as a standalone tool, but I prefer to use it as a supplement to Basecamp.  I pretty much just use it for the routable trails feature. Between the two, there’s not much you can’t do.
  • GPS Visualizer
    • Free tool for adding elevation data to GPS tracks. Simply export the track as a GPX file, run it through here, and re-import into Basecamp or directly into your GPS device.

Suggested maps to start with on GPS File Depot

  • Editor’s Choice map for the state you’ll be hiking or backpacking in.
  • My Trails
  • Trails 100

My GPS, seen on the video

Military Surplus Camping – B-47 Crash Site – Adirondack Mountains

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Hiking & Backpacking with Military Surplus Camping Gear in the Adirondacks Eastern High Peaks Region

For this 2 day, 1 night adventure, I’ll be testing out and demonstrating my milsurp backpacking load-out, along with MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) food to keep me fueled up while I search for the remnants of a cold war era B-47 bomber that crashed on Wright Peak during the night of January 2nd, 1962.

My “big 3” for this backpacking trip are a medium sized ALICE pack, USGI Modular Sleeping bag with USGI Term-A-Rest sleeping Pad, and a USGI Poncho for shelter / rain gear. I scored each of these items for around $30.  A full gear list can be found at the end of this post.

No permit is required to camp in the Adirondacks, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information here.

Continue reading →