Most of my photos mirror Jerry's so I won't repost.
When this trip was first brought up, the weather was going to be cold and I was thinking about taking a jacket that had pockets for additional base layers, being used to more gear and extra warmth. After much ribbing, and warmer forecasts, I gladly relented.
I'm very glad that I kept going through gear when I packed for this and said, "This is ridiculous, get rid of it."
This sort of trip does make you appreciate certain things, timber was large and sparse. Cutting tools were restricted to folders only. We all decided that an axe or hatchet would have been very nice, but a saw would have probably gotten more of a workout.
Fire lighting was restricted to spark only, but was no problem.
Even though the weather was mild and the rain held off, a front moved through Saturday night that kept the wind up. More on that later.
I wound up bundling up a wool commando sweater with a fleece cap rolled up and lashed it on to the side of my water bottle kit.
My gear:
A Rolly Polly contained
AMK Thermo Lite 2 bivvy bag, AMK Heat sheet, 550 cord, poncho, surplus wool glove liners
Maxpedition 12X5 outside pocket
Grill/fireplace fire startersX4, spork, Small FAK (Burn Gel, Ointment, Band Aids, Lip Balm, Eye Drops, Toilet Paper, Nitrile Gloves), Ultimate Survival Technologies Sparkie (not heavy duty, but one-handed operation).
Maxpedition 12X5 main pocket
bottom up - food (mash potatoes, oatmeal, summer sausage, coffee, tea, sugar, life raft bar), Guyot bottle, GSI cup inverted over bottle containing SS wire line pot hanger, small Guyot squishy bowl.
Maxpedition H3 waist pouch
modded PSK - foil, fishing line, hooks, sinkers, sewing needles, aqua mira tabs, tinder quick, signal mirror, photon, Fenix light, whistle, Reynolds oven bag, compass, jute twine, Gerber knife sharpener, a misch metal ferro rod (one of those rods that contain magnesium - harder than an LMF, not sure I like it since it doesn't let you get right down to the tinder, you have to strike it faster than a normal ferro rod).
My knife was an old Cold Steel Voyager.
I wore Cabela's Canvas Boulder Canyon pants, Smart Wool T, REI button down, and a Tilley hat, Wigwam wool socks with liners, and ex Officio undies, and Danner Agitator boots.
We hiked in a couple miles on the Appalachian Trail, at one of the places were it meets the Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Pennsylvania. I haven't been to that part of the state before (outside of Carlisle) and I must make it a point to get back there.
I set my shelter away from the others a bit, which made it a challenge to locate in the dark. I also oriented it wrong. I made a nice little A-frame that was low to the ground, with almost 18" of leaf litter under my bivvy. Here with the one side up.
I figured the wind would change and didn't count on the front coming in later that night. I made myself a nice little wind tunnel and woke up shivering several times.
As you saw in Jerry's photo, the water and cooking gear was fairly standard with this group, lots of Guyots, Kleen Canteens, GSI cups, Titanium cook pots. One did have a Nalgene canteen with canteen cup/stove that he used. A couple others used Aqua Mira straws.
Since I was farther away, I didn't hear when the group moved back to the fire at around 3 am or so, else I would've probably joined them.
I'm not convinced that the Thermo Lite bivvy either is or is not worth it, I recognize I improperly setup my shelter and chose not to correct it later. I'll have to try the bivvy some more to see if it stays or goes. There was some condensation, but not what I would consider a terrible amount (there is a foot vent that I did not open) - it was also damp out, to compound the issue.
I spilled part of my boiling water trying to fish it out of the fire, since there were several people trying to do the same. Clumsy while trying to lasso the bottle with my SS leader line - it had slipped off before when I set it in the coals.
On Sunday, we hiked the Pole Steeple blue blaze trail. Kinda steep in parts, kinda muddy in parts, but worth for the view. At the top was a granite rock with three ways up, one climbing, one rock scrambling, and one walking around.
When we got back to the parking lot, we met with a DNR officer who was trying to convince some straggling Canadian Geese to move on. We straggled on over to a deli, had lunch and didn't really want to go home ourselves!
Great trip! I learned a lot and am looking forward to doing this sort of thing again. A special thanks to the guys that cracked the egg and got it going.
we weren't allowed to take off til just before dark so most of us ended up "sleeping" in our emergency blankets just off the beach.