Tag Archives: camping food

3 Days Winter Camping with NO STOVE – Cooking with Fire!

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3 Days of Winter Camping, Backpacking & Campfire Cooking in Pennsylvania’s Pinchot State Forest.

 

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

For this late winter backpacking trip, I decided to challenge myself to cook “real food” using only fire for the duration of my trip. If you know anything about my patience for making fires, you’ll know this will truly be a bit of a challenge. 🙂

For shelter, I went with my minimalist camping hammock and ultralight backpacking tarp set-up. I also utilized a grill grate, a folding saw for harvesting campfire wood, and some extra cold weather clothing layers, as the temps were forecasted to head down to  around 15° F or so. There was also a chance of snow, sleet, and even rain, so I brought a full set of rain gear for warmth at camp and keeping dry while hiking.

Full Route Overview – Pinchot Trail North Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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3 Days of Campfire Cooking and Hammock Camping – Harpers Ferry West Virginia

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Hammock Camping, Trail Cooking and the search for an Elusive Hearth in the Woods of West Virginia.

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

For this early February hammock camping trip, I set out to hike a 3 day hike with a nostalgic goal – to find a giant campfire hearth that my friend and I had built five years ago, somewhere off of the Appalachian Trail near the town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  I had always wondered if it was still standing after all these years, and thought it would be a great excuse to spend some time in the woods a cook some hearty camping meals.

My weather conditions were forecasted to have a pretty wide range during this trip, from the upper 50’s down to 30 degrees each evening.  I had a rough idea of the hearth’s location.  We built it at camp not too long after leaving the Harpers Ferry National Historic Area’s boundary while heading south on the Appalachian Trail.  My goal for the first day was to get myself to a legal camping area in this general area so I could search for it first thing the next morning.  If I found it early, I would then have the option to do a day hike to Loudoun Heights and Split Rock for views of the Shenandoah River and Potomac River below the ridge.

For sleep and shelter on this trip, I went with a simple hammock camping and ultralight tarp setup (gear list below).  I used the extra space in my winter backpack to load up on extra clothing layers, a saw for harvesting firewood, a stool for working in my makeshift camp kitchen, and my white gas stove system paired up with a fry pan and diffuser to try my hand at baking some trail bread at camp.  The cooler temps also allowed me to bring some “real” food, so I brought along some ingredients to make some smoked sausage one day and pasta with a slow cooked meat sauce the next.

This trip video was sponsored by Anker and their model 521 and 535 Portable Power Station.

Route Overview – Harpers Ferry Loudoun Heights Winter Backpacking Trip – 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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Winter Camping and Finding a Plane Crash – Mt Success DC-3

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Backpacking & Solo Winter Camping in search of a 1954 commercial airline crash near the summit of Mt Success in the White 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 3 day, 2 night camping trip, I headed up to a lesser traveled corner of New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest for some snowshoeing, camp cooking, and bit of New England aviation history.

My goal for this adventure was to find the resting place of Northeast Airlines Flight 792, which crashed on approach to Berlin Municipal Airport during inclement weather on November 30th, 1954. It made contact in the dense trees near the summit of Mt Success at an elevation of 3,390 feet.  More information on the details of Flight 792 and the circumstances of it’s survivors can be found in this copy of the official Accident Investigation Report

The 6.5 mile hike to get there would require a gross elevation gain of roughly 3,700 feet on potentially unbroken trail in deep snow.  The final portion of the hike would be an unofficial bushwhack through dense trees and snow.  For this reason, I chose to break up the approach up by setting up camp at roughly the halfway point along Gentian Pond and the nearby lean-to shelter with sweeping views of the Carter-Moriah mountain range.  After camping for the night, I would head up to the top of Mt Success, the first peak of the Mahoosuc Range and the Appalachian Trail’s gateway to Maine. After a few miles and a couple thousand feet of ascent with my trusty snowshoes, I would leave the trail behind in search of the DC-3.

Mt Success DC-3 Winter Backpacking Trip – Route Overview

No permit is required to backcountry camp in the White Mountains, but some locations do require a daily, weekly, or annual pass.  The parking area for this trip did not require a parking fee as of January 2021.

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

Trailhead Used: Austin Brook Trailhead on North Road,  44°24’45.1″N 71°04’05.4″W
North Rd, Shelburne, NH 03581

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Catskills Hiking & Trail Pizza – Backpacking with our Dog

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Join Sara, our dog Denali, & I for some Catskills hiking, trail cooking, backpacking, and hammock camping in upstate New York.

For this backpacking trip, we’ll be hiking and camping near Slide Mountain and the East Branch Neversink River in the Catskills, complete with a visit to the summit of Table Mountain and Peekamoose Moose Mountain.  The mileage will be low, but the star of this trip isn’t the trails.  It’s the food.  Good old, classic trail cooking.

What’s on our backpacker’s menu?  Well, Sara had a craving for some trail pizza in the middle of the woods somewhere, and I was up for the challenge.  Were we successful?  You’ll just have to come along and find out.  Either way, it’s bound to be an adventure.  😉

Full GPS data for this, as well as all of my other trips, is available on the Trip Data page.

Trailhead Used:  
Denning Rd Trailhead  N41° 57.924′ W74° 27.144′


Trails Used Day 1, in Order

Pheonicia East Branch Trail
Peekamoose Table Trail
Set up camp after second bridge (the double log one) at N41° 58.474′ W74° 25.734′
Continue up Peekamoose Table Trail towards summit of
Table Mt and Peekamoose Mountain
Lunch / Snack at summit and
Return to camp on the East Branch Neversink River

Day 1 Mileage: 7.8 miles, including summit round trip (about 3 miles each way)
Day 1 Gross Elevation Gain: 2,130′

Trails Used Day 2, in Order

Peekamoose Table Trail
Pheonicia East Branch Trail
Return to vehicle at Denning Rd Trailhead

Day 2 Mileage: 1.8 miles
Day 2 Gross Elevation Gain: 146′

Trip Total Mileage: 9.6 miles
Trip Total Elevation Gain: 2,276


Trail Pizza Ingredients

Boboli Pizza Crust, Individual Size – 2 Pack
Boboli Pizza Sauce Individual Pack (comes in 3 pack box)
Cabot Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded – 8 oz package (2 cups volume)
Hormel Pepperoni, pre-sliced – 6 oz package (enough for 2 pizzas, plus snacking)
Camp Cooking Gear Used for Pizza

Pair of cheap aluminum tongs (from dollar store, or whatever)
Coghlan’s Camp Grill  – rack used to hold pizza
Fozzils Bowlz (used as a plate / prepping dish / cutting board)
Sea-to-Summit Alpha Utensil Set