- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Messages
- 888
I had planned out a birthday trek for myself but the weather had other plans for me but I ended up salvaging it into a pretty cool overnighter regardless and I got to see Star wars and the Rangers game but that's another story. The plan is still to do the original idea which is to hike home from bear mountain bridge on the AT ( I live off the AT ) doing a 32 mile trip over 3 nights 4 days day 3 being the big one 14 miles between fingerboard and wildcat shelters.
The wife had me talked out of going on friday but when I went to the PO I saw my birthday present to myself had shown up, my new Six Moons Designs Fusion 65 and I couldn't resist I ran home and packed up
This was the load out plus 4 liters of water as I wasn't sure if the water source would be frozen or not and minus the sitpad, the reflectix, two knives and hellinox chair at the top right there
I finally got out of the house at 3:30 with a destination of Wildcat Shelter 3 miles away which usually takes me just under 2 hours and with the sun setting at 430 I knew if I didn't push I'd be in the dark by the time I got over to Cat Rocks so I pushed thinking I wouldn't overheat, it was 18F and I was just in my starter dristar tshirt and boxers, russell lightweight leggings, 5.11 taclite pros and a champion compression top, boy was I wrong I started sweating and my hair froze and I had ice on my temples LOL so I slowed my pace a bit and the wicking clothes dried themselves except my back against the pack because if I slowed down too much I'd start getting cold so I guess I was still sweating there
I was just over halfway there when the sun set
Arrival in camp with a gratuitous shot of the new pack minus the snowshoes
I had finally gotten a secondary suspension to work with my JRB MW4 and my Little Shop of Hammocks Warrior edge thanks to James at LSoH, so that was the set for this trip plus the old rag mtn and the JRB 12x10 universal, love this tarp
Well I forgot my windscreen, forgot a lighter, the 4season fuel canister wasn't working, I didn't bring a backup stove and in the 45 mins it took me to setup camp all my water had turned to slush. As I went back to get my BK4 and my sven saw to start processing fire wood and I have a fire steel and jute twine in the BK4 pouch I figure I'll make a fire. As I'm chastising myself for not putting hand warmers I brought on the water bottles I realize I can do that with the stove. I used two hand warmers and held the canister in my hands until it was warm and then used my cup cozie to reflect any heat bouncing off the bottom of the pot and I was back in business and it was kicking *** and then I spilled a 1/4 of one of my bottles
I went to bed knowing I'd be getting snow so I took the backpack down off the tree, put it under the tarp with me and wrapped it in my emergency poncho and laid the BK4 and sven saw on it to keep it from blowing, woke up at 4am to find out that was a mistake and they were completely covered in snow, pic after I located them
When I finally got up at 730 there was 6" on the ground. Now I've got to tell you this JRB tarp is just amazing, I have had a lot of tarps over the years but this one just shines. In the last two months I've had it in 2 snow storms and one ice storm and it just sheds like nobody's business nothing seems to stick to it and so far it isn't misting on me either
Packed up, had breakfast in the shelter and it was time to give it a go to get home to plow out the driveway
I love the fusion 50 and for when i dont need the space its awesome and is only 32oz but I could never justify giving up my trekker 65 (80oz) or needing something else in that size as that pack has just served me so well. When SMD put it on sale for $200 and one of my friends said he's spent more to save less weight I jumped on it, saving myself 29oz. This thing carries weight so well and is so comfortable I can't get over it for the type of pack it is. I still see a place for the Trekker but man this pack is tough to beat, the pack that should worry is the Fusion 50
I had my baselayers and my taclites on plus mid weight thermal leggings and my Uniqlo UL down parka, two years with this jacket and its just keeps impressing me, I was getting cold real fast as I finished breakfast like that and even though it was 10 degrees warmer and had sweat my *** off the day before in less and the fact I was going home I decided not to change, normally I wouldn't have risked it especially with how I was sweating the day before so off I went
Only a few squirrels running between trees and me out there leaving tracks in the snow, it was pretty cool
Water source near the shelter
Cat Rocks
That wasn't like that yesterday
Still just me
One more thing about this Uniqlo jacket in a wet heavy snow it took 2 hours to wet out where the snow was collecting my shoulders, between me and the pack and my forearms, it kept its loft for another hour keeping me warm despite my hair and hood freezing everything else was warm and it was completely dry within 2 hours of being home.
MSR 25" Revo, these things are a great all around snowshoe, work great down here as well as up in the catskills and adirondaks and they're super light
All in all a great trip oh and an honorable mention to my other birthday present pictured as the black rectangle bottom left of the first pic, is my Sierra Designs Elite dridown parka with just it and a tshirt my top half was toasty warm at 12F just sitting in camp
Thanks for taking the time to read along
The wife had me talked out of going on friday but when I went to the PO I saw my birthday present to myself had shown up, my new Six Moons Designs Fusion 65 and I couldn't resist I ran home and packed up
This was the load out plus 4 liters of water as I wasn't sure if the water source would be frozen or not and minus the sitpad, the reflectix, two knives and hellinox chair at the top right there
I finally got out of the house at 3:30 with a destination of Wildcat Shelter 3 miles away which usually takes me just under 2 hours and with the sun setting at 430 I knew if I didn't push I'd be in the dark by the time I got over to Cat Rocks so I pushed thinking I wouldn't overheat, it was 18F and I was just in my starter dristar tshirt and boxers, russell lightweight leggings, 5.11 taclite pros and a champion compression top, boy was I wrong I started sweating and my hair froze and I had ice on my temples LOL so I slowed my pace a bit and the wicking clothes dried themselves except my back against the pack because if I slowed down too much I'd start getting cold so I guess I was still sweating there
I was just over halfway there when the sun set
Arrival in camp with a gratuitous shot of the new pack minus the snowshoes
I had finally gotten a secondary suspension to work with my JRB MW4 and my Little Shop of Hammocks Warrior edge thanks to James at LSoH, so that was the set for this trip plus the old rag mtn and the JRB 12x10 universal, love this tarp
Well I forgot my windscreen, forgot a lighter, the 4season fuel canister wasn't working, I didn't bring a backup stove and in the 45 mins it took me to setup camp all my water had turned to slush. As I went back to get my BK4 and my sven saw to start processing fire wood and I have a fire steel and jute twine in the BK4 pouch I figure I'll make a fire. As I'm chastising myself for not putting hand warmers I brought on the water bottles I realize I can do that with the stove. I used two hand warmers and held the canister in my hands until it was warm and then used my cup cozie to reflect any heat bouncing off the bottom of the pot and I was back in business and it was kicking *** and then I spilled a 1/4 of one of my bottles
I went to bed knowing I'd be getting snow so I took the backpack down off the tree, put it under the tarp with me and wrapped it in my emergency poncho and laid the BK4 and sven saw on it to keep it from blowing, woke up at 4am to find out that was a mistake and they were completely covered in snow, pic after I located them
When I finally got up at 730 there was 6" on the ground. Now I've got to tell you this JRB tarp is just amazing, I have had a lot of tarps over the years but this one just shines. In the last two months I've had it in 2 snow storms and one ice storm and it just sheds like nobody's business nothing seems to stick to it and so far it isn't misting on me either
Packed up, had breakfast in the shelter and it was time to give it a go to get home to plow out the driveway
I love the fusion 50 and for when i dont need the space its awesome and is only 32oz but I could never justify giving up my trekker 65 (80oz) or needing something else in that size as that pack has just served me so well. When SMD put it on sale for $200 and one of my friends said he's spent more to save less weight I jumped on it, saving myself 29oz. This thing carries weight so well and is so comfortable I can't get over it for the type of pack it is. I still see a place for the Trekker but man this pack is tough to beat, the pack that should worry is the Fusion 50
I had my baselayers and my taclites on plus mid weight thermal leggings and my Uniqlo UL down parka, two years with this jacket and its just keeps impressing me, I was getting cold real fast as I finished breakfast like that and even though it was 10 degrees warmer and had sweat my *** off the day before in less and the fact I was going home I decided not to change, normally I wouldn't have risked it especially with how I was sweating the day before so off I went
Only a few squirrels running between trees and me out there leaving tracks in the snow, it was pretty cool
Water source near the shelter
Cat Rocks
That wasn't like that yesterday
Still just me
One more thing about this Uniqlo jacket in a wet heavy snow it took 2 hours to wet out where the snow was collecting my shoulders, between me and the pack and my forearms, it kept its loft for another hour keeping me warm despite my hair and hood freezing everything else was warm and it was completely dry within 2 hours of being home.
MSR 25" Revo, these things are a great all around snowshoe, work great down here as well as up in the catskills and adirondaks and they're super light
All in all a great trip oh and an honorable mention to my other birthday present pictured as the black rectangle bottom left of the first pic, is my Sierra Designs Elite dridown parka with just it and a tshirt my top half was toasty warm at 12F just sitting in camp
Thanks for taking the time to read along
