Tag Archives: sintax77

Escape Your Comfort Zone: Backpacking Mount Rushmore

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4 Days of Solo Backpacking, Hiking & Camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

For this late summer backpacking adventure, I decided check out two places I had never been to before – the Mount Rushmore Memorial and the adjacent Black Elk Wilderness within the Black Hills National Forest.

I was surprised to discover that there’s actually a trailhead right at the base of Mount Rushmore, so it seemed like to perfect opportunity to create a unique backpacking experience.

Speaking of those looming presidential faces, I should make an important point – While the Mount Rushmore statue, parking lot and visitor center, etc. is a National Memorial  (managed by the National Park Service), the surrounding area is National Forest, so dispersed camping is all good!

With that in mind, I mapped out a roughly 30 mile hiking loop using the available trails, packed my tent, sleeping pad and some backpacking food into my backpack, and got a ride from my wife to the trailhead.

Due to the close proximity to the National Monument, the trailhead parking lot is closed off to overnight parking. This probably makes this a lesser used starting point for backpackers, but it’s well worth it if you have someone nice enough to drop you off and pick you up after a few days of camping in the Black Elk Wilderness.

Route Overview – Mt Rushmore Black Hills Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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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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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Camping in Heavy Rain – Pinchot Trail South Loop Backpacking Trip

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Join Sara and I for some Spring Backpacking, Camping in the Rain, and Trail Cooking on the Pinchot Trail southern loop.

 

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 spring camping trip, my wife Sara and I set out to do some backpacking  with our dog and explore Pennsylvania’s Pinchot Trail southern loop.  I had done the northern loop a couple of weeks before and it was quite nice, so I was looking forward to seeing what this new section had to offer.

For shelter, we packed in our 4 person tent as well as a huge tarp to give us some extra living space during the rain storm that was forecasted to hit in the afternoon and turn into snow by the next morning.

The bottom of the Pinchot Trail South loop runs along Choke Creek, which offers a string of 6 or so beautiful waterside campsites over the course of a mile or so. Legend has it that the last of those campsites is the most picturesque, so our goal was to hike in a few miles to the creek and get to that coveted campsite before the afternoon rain started. If the weather broke early, we would aim to take one of the earlier campsites.

Route Overview – Pinchot Trail South Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

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Camping in the Rain – Sara’s Secret Campsite

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Backpacking, Camping in the Rain, and Trail Cooking in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park.

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

For this overnight backpacking trip, Sara, Denali and I decided to do some early spring camping on the Shenandoah’s Rocky Mount Trail and Gap Run trail.  Combining the two would create a roughly 10 mile backpacking loop with sweeping mountain views on the first day, and peaceful babbling brooks on the second.

We had our dog with us on this trip, so we returned to using our budget tent to keep the group together.  The weather on day one had a 100% chance of rain, so I also brought along a huge tarp to give us a common area with a view of the impending storm without being stuck inside the tent the whole afternoon. More details on our gear can be found at the bottom of this post.

Off course all of this would depend on whether or not we could find Sara’s elusive secret camping spot before the rain began to really come down…

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Shenandoah Rocky Mount Loop – Route Overview – Sintax77

There is an entrance fee for Shenandoah National Park to access Skyline drive.  Backcountry camping is free, but you need to self register for a permit at the entrance station.  You can find more information on the official SNP 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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3 Days Hammock Camping with 8 Pounds of Gear

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

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Deep Woods Camping & Finding a Cessna 414

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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 hiked into the Cranberry Wilderness in search of a twin engine private plane that crashed in 1995 and went missing for 6 years, deep in the forests of a remote West Virginia mountaintop.  There was also a hiker who went missing here back in 2011.

For sleep and shelter, Frank and I both decided to pack in our Amok Draumr Hammock camping systems. This would allow us to get a comfortable camping setup even if we were forced to camp in one of the mossy rock fields that are often encountered along mountain ridges in the Cranberry Wilderness.  A detailed gear list can be found at the bottom of this post.

On the morning of November 28th, 1995, a Cessna 414, tail number N28901 took off from Braxton County Airport in Sutton, West Virginia headed for Lynchburg Regional, Virginia.  After encountering low visibility due to foggy conditions, the lone pilot contacted air traffic control to request an IFR (instrument flight rules) flight plan in order to continue navigating the approaching mountainous terrain.  After a period of apparent poor communications, possibly due to a radio issue, ATC lost contact with the pilot.  Transponder signals ceased not long after the last communication, and the plane was never heard from or seen again until it was spotted from the air over six years later.

More info on N28901 can be found in this copy of the NTSB report.

Cranberry Wilderness Cessna 414 Search Route Overview - Sintax77

Route Overview – Cranberry Wilderness Cessna 414 Backpacking Trip  – Sintax77

No permit is required to backcountry camp in the Monongahela National Forest.

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

Trailhead Used: Big Beechy Trailhead, 38°17’44.2″N 80°14’55.7″W
Highland Scenic Hwy, Minnehaha Springs, WV 24954

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