Tag: Hiking Vikings

Everything Weighs Something

I am, finally, an ultra-light backpacker. On my next warm weather hike my base weight, that’s everything but food and water, will be less than 10 pounds.

Total weight is base weight plus food and water. How much your food and water weighs depends, of course, on how long you going to be out, figure 1.5 pounds of food per day on a section hike,  and the availability of water.  I generally start the day with one to two liters, 2.2 to 4.4 pounds.

When Ms. Viking found this bag of pennies at a shelter, she didn't take them with her. Why? Pack weight.
When Ms. Viking found this bag of pennies at a shelter, she didn’t take them with her. Why? Pack weight.

As any seasoned backpacker can tell you, the three most important things about backpacking are pack weight, pack weight, and pack weight.  I used to not know that.

On my first hike, on the Mickelson Trail in South Dakota ten years ago, I carried 43 pounds, total, equipment plus water for the day and food for a six-day hike.  I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s a lot of weight, about double what I should have been carrying.

When I first started backpacking I took things I might need.  That’s a mistake.  You only take stuff you have to have. And if you get out there and discover you packed too light, you’ve left something important at home, just remember: If you need it and don’t have it you don’t need it.

I’ve heard plenty of people say about something they’re carrying, like a paperback book: It’s real light, it doesn’t weigh anything.  They’re wrong about that.  Everything weighs.

The stove I carry weighs less than an ounce.
The stove I carry weighs less than an ounce.

I’ve backpacked a good bit, over 3,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail and 300 miles or so on  trails out West, and I’ve finally learned — I weigh all of my equipment on a postal scale and I  trim every ounce I can. Three ounces here, an ounce there, it adds up.

The reasons for going light are obvious: the lighter your pack the more miles you can hike and the more comfortable you are no matter how far you want to hike each day.

Here’s my warm weather pack list:

NOTE: If I’m so concerned about pack weight why don’t I lose some belly weight?  That’s a very good question, mean, but good.

Summer Pack List

Base Weight: 9 lb, 14.8 oz

SLEEPING – 2 lb, 4 oz

  • GoLite down quilt and bag, comfortable to about 40 degrees. 1 lb, 6 oz
  • Pad, Therm-A-Rest Neoair Xlite, and bag – 12.2 oz.
  • Pee bottle, with duck tape — 1.8 oz.

BACKPACK – 1 lb., 10 oz

  • Zpack Arc Haul, 62L, with accessory, 1 lb, 10 oz

CLOTHES – 1 lb., 9.6 oz

.…Carried in the compression sack, 4.8 oz, with my down quilt.

  • One long sleeve shirt – 9.9 oz
  • One pair of medium wool socks 3.2 oz
  • One pair of underwear, 3.3 oz
  • Black bag wind, rain deflector, 3.9 oz
  • Head bug net 0.5 oz

TENT – 1 lb, 4 oz

  • Zpacks Solplex Tent, 15.5 oz
  • 8 stakes, 4.5 oz

KITCHEN – 1 lb, 3.9 oz

  • Pack bag with cooking pot, lid, cup; stove in its bag; trash bag; cigarette lighter and matches stored in a water-tight medicine bottle – 8.2 oz
  • Fuel – 7.5oz
  • Bear rope, 46 feet, with reflectors weaved into the rope, and carabineer – 4.2 oz

WATER – 9.4 oz

  • Sawyer Squeeze [includes two squeeze bags, backflow filter, hang bag for gravity filtering] — 5.9 oz
  • One peanut jar size water bottle – 1.5 oz
  • One Smart Water water bottle – 1.3 oz
  • One Coke bottle – 0.7 oz

TOOLS – 9.0 oz

Zip lock bag for tools containing…

  • Cap light
  • Needle, thread, tie-ties
  • Pad repair tape
  • Tweezers [for ticks, or ear plugs stuck in my ear.]
  • Fingernail clips
  • Ear plugs
  • Razor
  • Extra spoon [I’ve been without a spoon. Bummer. Now I carry two.]
  • Three rubber bands
  • Exterior phone battery, and one wire, gives me 2 phone recharges

HYGIENE – 7.6 oz

Stored in yellow bag

  • Large zip lock for toilet and tooth items
  • Small zip lock bag for:
  • Toilet paper stored in its own alone in a small bag
  • Purel or equivalent
  • Vaseline
  • Small zip lock bag for:
  • Toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss
  • Soap, bagged separately
  • Pills
  • MEDICAL KIT – 5.3 oz

Medical kit and Tools stored in blue bag

  • Zip lock bag for medical kit containing:
  • Band-Aid Friction Block –this is really good stuff. It stops blisters before they get going.
  • Band-aids
  • Triple antibiotic ointment. Don’t leave home without it – I have used it many, many times and have never had an infection.
  • Moleskin, 2 sheets
  • Medical tape
  • Stretch-tape to keep moleskin in place; sprained ankle
  • Ibuprofen; insect bite treatment; Diphen for runny nose; antiseptic for cuts; and Pennsaid, to reduce pain from knee injuries
  • Bug spray

SLEEPING –2 lb 4.0 oz

BACKPACK –1 lb 10.0 oz

CLOTHES –1 lb 9.6 oz

TENT –1 lb 4.0 oz

KITCHEN –1 lb. 3.9 oz

WATER –0 lb. 9.4 oz

TOOLS –0 lb 9.0 oz

HYGIENE –0 lb. 7.6 oz

MEDICAL KIT –0 lb. 5.3 oz

TOTAL 9 lb. 14.8 oz

Coming Monday: My Favorite Newspaper Story

Uncertainty Was The Best Part

In addition to the people I met, and the unlimited amount of food I could eat when I was in town, the thing I liked best about hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine was the uncertainty of it all. You just never knew how a day was going to turn out, what good surprises were in store for you. And, mostly, they were good.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

[You can read “Uncertainty Was The Best Part,” or you can watch a video, or, of course, you can read and watch it.  Suit yourself.]

On March 6, 2015, I was hiking in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and for most of the day I struggled up and down hills. The trail was badly eroded and I was walking in what amounted to an icy, slushy ditch.  That afternoon it had just begun to snow again when I spotted a hand-written note to taped to a post, 1.7 miles south of Newfound Gap and US 441.

Griswold
Griswold

Griswold, Tadpole, and the Hiking Vikings, who were ahead of me, had changed their minds about hiking on to Icewater Spring Shelter (how appropriately it was named), where we had all planned to meet that night. They had decided to get a shuttle to Gatlinburg, get warm, get showers, put on dry clothes, get something good to eat – and dodge a zero degree temperature night on the trail.

Did I want to join them? If so, call this number.

Tadpole
Tadpole

Did I want to join them? Does a bear live in the woods?  Oh, yes!

I called and left a message saying I would be at Newfound Gap by 3 p.m. They were somewhere ahead of me and I was afraid I might miss them so I gave myself no time to spare — and then I hustled. 

When I arrived at Newfound Gap, a few minutes past 3, they were nowhere to be seen. I was not surprised, or perturbed, to discover that my friends were not sitting on their hands in a blizzard waiting for me. Thru-hikers do not wait around for each other even when the sun is shining. You just can’t do that when you’re trying to hike to Maine.

* * *

The Hiking Vikings
The Hiking Vikings

I stood there a minute, figuring out what to do. The wind was howling, blowing snow this way and that, and I could feel the temperature dropping.

Should I wait for Stretch, an Israeli who was the sixth person in our group? He might not even be coming. He might have stopped at the last shelter. [In fact, that’s what he had done.] No, I wouldn’t wait. Should I hike another three miles to Ice Water Spring Shelter? Or should I hitch a ride into Gatlinburg?

Gatlinburg — hot food, dry clothes, and a warm bed — won. Easily.

Lucky - that's me.
Lucky – that’s me.

I started walking down U.S. 441 toward Gatlinburg, planning on hitching a ride, but it didn’t take long to realize that that was not going to happen. Not a single vehicle appeared from either direction. Because of the blizzard, the highway had been closed.

Well, in for a dime, in for a dollar, I thought. I’ll walk to Gatlinburg. I didn’t know know how far it was, but it couldn’t be that far, could it? It was a trail town, wasn’t it? I had a map, I could have checked. But what difference would it have made? One way or another I was going to Gatlinburg.

* * *

Officer Heath
Officer Heath Soahn

I had been walking through the storm for almost an hour when the law arrived in the person of Heath Soahn, a U.S. Park Service officer. He slowed his cruiser, stopped beside me, and rolled down the passenger window. Warm air rushed out.

“Where are the other four?” he asked.

I told him I didn’t know. They had been ahead of me.

“Get in,” he told me.

Gladly.

One minute I had been walking down the highway in a blizzard and the next I was sitting beside Soahn. Warm. Safe. Warm. The officer drove right back up the mountain, turned into the parking lot at the Newfound Gap, and blew his horn. And, just like that, my four friends appeared. They had taken refuge in a heated restroom — heated to keep the pipes from freezing.

Soahn had gone looking for them not because they had called for help, but because they had called for a shuttle. The shuttle folks had call the U.S. Park Service to find out if the highway was still open, and when they were told it wasn’t, they told the park service about the four hikers.

Soahn drove us to a motel in Gatlinburg where my friends had made a reservation. The five of us shared a two-room suite that cost us 12 bucks each. We showered, put on dry clothes, and went out to eat together – ribs, hot rolls, and lots of warm fellowship and smiles at our good fortune.  

* * *

Oh, how far would I have had to walk?

On the way to town I asked Officer Soahn how many miles was it to Gatlinburg.

Seventeen, he told me.

NOTE: While we’re on the subject I’m going to share the good news: next month Iceman and I are going to hike the John Muir Trial, the most beautiful trail in America.

On March 2 I blogged about the JMT, a post I called “The Hike Of A Lifetime Lottery.”

No, we didn’t win so as of now we don’t have permits without which you can’t hike the JMT.  But we have a plan. We’re just going to show up, stand in line, and try to get what they call a “walk-up” permit.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Coming Monday: Do This And They Will Make You King