Tag Archives: backpacking

Beginner Backpacking – Campfire Cooking & Abandoned Hotels on Echo Lake

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3 Days of Camping and Backpacking on Echo Lake in the Catskill Mountains.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this backpacking trip, we headed up to New York’s Catskill Mountains for 3 days of campfire cooking, mountaintop abandoned hotel exploration and lakeside camping with crew consisting of a wide range of experience levels – all the way from 10 years to a very first backpacking trip.

Our Late Fall temperature range for this trip was between 35° and 70° without a chance of rain until the latter half of the trip.  With the possibility of rain on our last day hike out, and the addition of some fun comfort items like a stool, firewood saw and some other surprise goodies, my base weight was a little over my typical sub-10lb base weight for this particular trip.

Mike and I went with hammock camping setups for this backpacking trip, while Mike’s son and his friend decided to share a Nemo 3 person tent. Our  plan was to do our 3 day trip basecamp style by snagging a decent campsite alongside Echo lake and remaining there for both nights.  This would allow us to do a day hike up towards Indian Head Mountain on the ridge lighter daypacks.  This also gave us the advantage of returning to a campsite that was already setup if our hike back ended up taking longer than expected.

Water would be plentiful at basecamp due to the nearby lake, but their is beaver activity in the area, so water filtration and / or treatment is strongly encouraged.  There is also a stream that feeds the pond not to far from where the spur trail for the Echo Lake Shelter begins.  Our chosen campsite was on the opposite side of the lake, so went the filtration route with my Katadyn BeFree water filer system.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, etc, for this trip Sintax77 and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Solo Backpacking on Mt Passaconaway – 3 Days of Camping in New Hampshire

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Join me for 3 Days Ultralight Backpacking on Mt Passaconaway, deep in the Wilderness of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

Join me for 3 Days Ultralight Backpacking on Mt Passaconaway in the White Mountains, deep in the wilderness of New Hampshire.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip, I decided to spend a few days exploring Mt Passaconaway, a 4,000 footer nestled in the Sandwich Range Wilderness of of New Hampshire.

My plan for this trip wasn’t to crush miles, but to instead slow things down and really have a chance to get an intimate look at a smaller area, something I often don’t always do. With it’s combination of a hardwood populated rolling lowland approach hugging the beautiful Oliverian Brook at 1,200′ elevation, followed by a short, but steep rocky ascent up to the ridges leading to the summit of Mt Passaconaway at 4,043 feet, it seemed like the perfect choice for such a trip.

I would spend my first day looking for a suitable break in the dense foliage to camp along the babbling sounds of Oliverian Brook for the night. On day two I would head up towards the summit in search of a clearing just short of the summit to the previous sight of an old lean-to shelter called Camp Rich.  The shelter was removed many years ago, and is no longer listed on newer maps.  According to reports though, there are still some great clearings for camping in the area, which is a rarity at higher elevations in the White Mountains.  Allegedly, there is a rather reliable water source running nearby as well.  Again, a rarity near tree line in the Whites.

My backpack was pretty light for this adventure, consisting of only my trekking pole tent, trekking poles, a single titanium pot with DIY alcohol stove for cooking, a simple foam sleeping pad, 40° down quilt, hardshell jacket, and a mid-layer synthetic hoodie for extra warmth, as the daily low was expected to be in the upper 30’s Fahrenheit. This was pushing it a bit, but I’ve found that the hoodie and hardshell combination works pretty well as a cold weather parka down to around the mid 30’s.  A more detailed list of backpacking gear can be found below.

Despite a temporary minor lower back muscle injury that slowed me down a bit from my normal pace, this ended up being a really fun backpacking trip.  It gave me an opportunity to appreciate the merits of spending more time soaking in a single area at camp or along the trail, rather than hiking triple the miles to hit multiple summits.  While I really enjoy doing hikes like that too, it was pretty awesome to appreciate the character of a single mountain and the random treasures it had to offer.

Route Overview White Mountains Mt Passaconaway Backpacking Trip- Sintax77

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Summer Backpacking – Fog, Rain & Shelter on the Old Loggers Path

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3 days of Backpacking, Trekking Pole Tent Camping and Lean-to Shelter Camping on the Old Loggers Path.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this 3 day, 2 night summer backpacking trip, I decided to revisit the OLP in Pennsylvania’s Loyalsock State forest.  The OLP is a 27 mile backpacking loop along babbling brooks, waterfalls, hardwoods and hemlocks. I previously did this loop counter-clockwise as a solo hike a couple of years ago, but there was so much to soak in that I decided it would be worth hiking it again. This time I would hike it clockwise with my buddy Dave from Outdoor Vitals, who recently moved out to Pennsylvania from Utah.

Dave had never camped in a lean-to shelter before, so we targeted the Sprout Point shelter for our first night, followed by some tent camping along the confluence of Rock Run and Yellow dog run on the second night.  This would also be my first time experimenting with an ultralight trekking pole tent, so I was looking forward to trying that out.

Our weather ranged from highs in the upper 70’s with fairly high humidity, and lows in the upper 60’s.  This allowed me to save weight by packing a lightweight 40° quilt and leaving my extra warm clothing layers at home.  There was a possibility of rain each day though, so I packed in full rain gear. I also brought a folding saw and some other comfort items, so my base weight was still right around 10 lbs despite the warm forecast.

Trail conditions on the OLP are a mix of nice flat dirt sections, punctuated by spurts of steep sections littered with Pennsylvania’s infamous rocks to keep you on your toes ; literally.  Despite the occasional rough sections, the average daily gross elevation gain was only around 1,500 feet per day. Potential water sources are fairly plentiful on the Old Loggers Path, but the key word is potential. When I went before in spring, I got by with only carrying around 1 liter of water at a time.  This time around things were very dry, so the only water sources we used were the two that are always flowing – Pleasant Valley Stream and the Rock Run / Yellow Dog Run confluence.

Route Overview – Old Loggers Path Clockwise Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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Ultralight Backpacking on the Carter-Moriah Range

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3 Days of Ultralight Backpacking & Hammock Camping on the Carter-Moriah Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this summer backpacking trip, I headed up to the Wild River Wilderness to create a 36 mile hiking loop with 10,000 feet of gross elevation gain by linking together the Appalachian trail with several other lesser used and more rugged trails in the White Mountain National Forest.

My June temperature range for this trip was between 35° and 85° with a chance of rain each day, but mostly during the night.  Due to the wide temp range and the unpredictable weather typically encountered in the White Mountains, I packed in a puffy jacket and some ultralight rain gear for additional protection against the elements.  This brought my pack’s base weight right up to around the 10 lb mark.

  • Thank you to Upstart for sponsoring this trip.  See how they can help you build your credit and get free of high interest debt at Upstart.com/Sintax

I went with my standard minimalist hammock camping setup for this trip.  While I planned to stay at officially recognized campsites, I still wanted the ability to camp at a legal, but unofficial spot if the opportunity or need arose.  Due to the dense vegetation and uneven ground found at upper elevations in the Whites, I’ve learned that a hammock is often the only realistic option in those types of conditions.

Water would be plentiful along the river portion of my loop, but would only be reliably available at Imp campsite during the ridge hike section, so I had to plan accordingly for that during the first half of my trip. The second half of my trip would have more water, but would be on more challenging trails. Notably, the Black Angel Trail, a rugged and minimally maintained wilderness trail, and the Highwater Trail, which suffered substantial washouts and haphazard re-routes due to storm damage from Hurricane Irene back in 2011.

Route Overview – WIld River Carter-Moriah Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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

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Lean-to Shelter Camping – Tuscarora Trail

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3 days of Backpacking and Hammock Camping on Virginia’s Tuscarora Trail.

For this backpacking trip, I decided to head down to the border of West Virginia and Virginia to check out a pretty cool mountaintop lean-to shelter and do a little airplane scavenger hunt in-between the occasional rain showers that always tend to follow me around.  On day one I would hike up to the ridge using the Tuscarora Trail, day two I would base camp and explore, and on day three I would hike back out via a different set of trails to complete the loop.

My options for shelter would be to either use the Gerhard Shelter lean-to if I had the place to myself, or a lightweight tarp and minimalist hammock if I decided to wander out further into the woods and camp near the search area and nearby spring.

My April temperature range for this trip was between 40° and 75°.  This allowed me to get my backpack’s base weight down to around 10 lbs, while still including my puffy jacket and ultralight rain jacket for supplemental warmth at camp if needed.

The details of the aviation accident site that I was looking for can be found here.  It was a small Cessna 150J that went down due to engine power loss and fortunately their were only minimal injuries to one of the two passengers.  I’ve never read any reports of anyone actually finding or visiting this site, so I really had no idea if there would be anything to be found. But hey, it was a good excuse to get out into the woods, so I grabbed my pack and headed out for some adventure…

Route Overview – Gerhard Shelter Tuscarora Trail Backpacking Trip 2022 – Sintax77

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Hammock Camping the Linville Gorge Wilderness – Grand Loop

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3 days of Hammock Camping & Solo Ultralight Backpacking on a 40 mile Grand Loop of the Linville Gorge Wilderness.

For this backpacking trip, I headed back down to North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest for some hammock camping and another attempt at the “Grand Loop”, a roughly 40 mile trek with 11,000 feet of gross elevation gain.

The Linville Gorge Grand Loop is not a single official trail.  It’s actually a patchwork of several official and unofficial trails.  In fact, due to the extensive network of unofficial trails in the Gorge, there isn’t really any one “real” way to do the loop.  The basic goal is simply to circumnavigate the gorge, hiking along the Linville River on the west side, and along the ridge top of the gorge on the east side.  Whatever trails you decide to use is really up to you.

The upper ridges stand an average of 1,400 feet above the river banks below, with trails frequently descending down to the river and back up again on rugged terrain, without signage or trail blazes, and minimal use of switchbacks.   This can make for some challenging hiking, that I personally believe to be some of the toughest on the east coast.  The pay off is a heavy sense of adventure compared to traditional trails and some amazing mountain top views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains.

  • Thank you to Upstart for sponsoring this trip.  See how they can help you build your credit and get free of high interest debt at Upstart.com/Sintax

My mid-May temperature range for this trip was between 45° and 85° with no rain in the forecast until the end of the third day.  This allowed me to get my backpack’s base weight down to around 9 lbs by leaving my puffy jacket and extra base layers at home.  I simply packed a long sleeve shirt and my ultralight rain jacket for supplemental warmth at camp if needed.

I went with a fairly minimalist hammock camping setup for this trip.  There are plenty of trees and fun unofficial campsite gems to be found in the Gorge that make it ideal for hammocks.  Water is obviously of minimal concern for the lower regions of the gorge.  This allows you to save some weight on trails in those sections, but make sure to stock up when your route heads up towards the ridge.  Especially if you’re looking to camp in one the beautiful ridge side campsites up there.  Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of several springs up on the ridge that were still flowing at the time of my trip.

A free permit is required on weekends and holidays from May 1st through October 31st each year. You can find more information on the NFS Grandfather Ranger District website here.

If planning your own trip, I would highly recommend visiting LinvilleGorge.net for maps, info and extensive GPS data including official and unofficial trails, campsites, water sources, etc. They also have a free version of their map available on the Avenza phone app.  Due to the fact that their data is so darn good, I didn’t package my own GPS file for this trip, but you can use this Caltopo link that someone from LinvilleGorge.net posted containing all of the trails and POI coordinates

Route Overview – Linville Gorge Grand Loop Backpacking Trip 2022 – Sintax77

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