07 Jan 2010
A year ago, a group of us decided to hike to the summit of Mount Mitchell, which happens to be the highest point east of the Mississippi. We knew it would prove to be quite a challenge, dealing with the blistering, biting cold of winter, and of course below-freezing temperatures. After spending a night at base camp, we hiked halfway up to the summit and set up camp. We spent the second evening warming by the fire and enjoying a few spirits. The middle of the night brought a change in the weather, however, and we woke up the next morning to a ground cover of snow and ice. We decided to be safe rather than sorry, and hiked back to base instead of trying to make it to the top. This year, we shall try again – and I’m keeping fingers crossed we can make it this time!
REI has a yard sale twice a year in which they sell items that members return. It just so happened that this season’s yard sale in Charlotte would be New Year’s Eve. Perfect – I would be there visiting Melissa! I combed the sale items and found a few missing pieces to my gear collection. I still needed to decide on a tent, however. We had a few options – rent a tent, borrow a tent, buy a tent, buy a bivy, or buy a hammock. Jeff uses a bivy so he was already set. Melissa and her brother decided to use bivys. In case you don’t know what a bivy is, it’s basically a tent in the shape of a sleeping bag. It’s a sack that goes around the bag, zipping up completely, providing a lightweight windproof, waterproof shelter.
With everyone from last year’s group using bivy sacks instead of tents, and after recalling Jeff’s ease of setting up his “camp” last year, I was sold on getting a bivy for myself. I even picked out the one I wanted before visiting REI last weekend. I spent hours researching the best bivy for me, and I chose this one because it was both light in price and in weight. However, in all of my research, I neglected to notice one very tiny detail … it was on backorder.
When I got to the tent section of the store, it was pretty obvious there was a problem, given the empty space where my bivy should be. My heart sank. But not to worry – there is another REI in Charlotte, and several REIs in Atlanta. Someone else would have it, and I’d get it there.
Except, it was on backorder everywhere. And the only available bivy was $219. Made of gortex and with its own rainfly, it was a sweet bivy. But, it was $219.
I hadn’t counted on this and spent a few moments stressing at the store before my friends and the very helpful REI employee reminded me I still had several other choices.
The next best option was to rent a tent from REI. At $48 for the four days, it was certainly the most affordable choice.
And it was a two-person tent, meaning slightly heavier than what I really needed for just myself, but if someone needed to, they could crawl in and stay warm with me. After all, there would be two others who would be trying out new sleeping methods who might not be able to handle it. It’s nice to allow someone that other option.
However, the two-person tent was already rented out, so I needed another solution.
I checked the other rental options - the single person tent was already rented, and the 3-person tent was just too much weight for what I needed. After having a heavy pack last year, I learned the hard way that a lot of weight and climbing a mountain are not the best combination.
So, with rental and bivy options off the table, my next choices to look at were tent purchases or hammocks. I considered a hammock – Melissa and Kevin both purchased hammocks and had planned to sleep in their bivy sacks in the hammock – but without a bivy, it would just be too cold. I briefly considered forking over the $219 for the one bivy available, but the REI employee pointed out some tents that were on sale that might suit my needs. In the end I ended up selecting this tent, a one-person, 3-season tent that was on sale for $100 cheaper than the available bivy.
The good thing about having a tent, while others have bivys, is that if we were to end up in harsher conditions than expected, we could all sit in the tent and keep each other warm if necessary. Obviously not ideal (it is a one-person tent!) but it’s good to have different options. My new tent weighs 3.2 pounds, about 2 pounds more than the bivy I originally wanted, and costs about twice as much, but I am happy with the purchase and can’t wait to test it.
And of course, there’s the beloved REI return policy, which is 100% guarantee – meaning if I come off that mountain really wanting a bivy still, I can return it and purchase my bivy on backorder. Lesson learned about waiting too long to buy gear, too!
And speaking of cold, the weather forecast has had Mt. Mitchell barely over 0 (that’s zero) degrees F this past week with a 40% chance of snow the entire time we’re up there. Makes me really glad one of my purchases this weekend was a North Face Snoeshow sleeping bag, rated comfortable at 0 degrees.
Tonight, I’ll be leaving after work to meet Melissa and other friends in Asheville. From there, we’ll take the 4-wheel drive vehicles to the trailhead. We’ll sleep at base camp then begin the six-mile hike to the summit in the morning. We have a Friday night spot in mind, the same place we camped last year, which has decent coverage from the wind, a fire pit, and a stream nearby (which hopefully won’t be frozen over.) We have a second group that is beginning the climb Friday night after work, and they will meet us up there either in the middle of the night Friday or mid-morning Saturday, depending on the conditions of the trail. After we meet them, summit!
Sometime this weekend I’ll be standing on the highest point on this side of the Mississippi River… I’ll tell you all about that when I return!
25 Feb 2009
This past weekend I went hiking and camping with a group of friends, one of which being one of my best friends Melissa. We went to Mt. Mitchell, which just so happens to be the highest peak east of the Mississippi River, which was a pretty daunting thought the days leading up to the hike.
I arrived in Charlotte – a 3.5 hour drive from my apartment in Athens – around 6:45pm and unpacked and repacked equipment with part of the team. After getting our effects together, packed up, we took a trip to REI to purchase any last minute articles such as S-biners, socks, and headlamps. Then it was dinner at the adjacent food court in the mall. McAlisters Deli.
We went back to the house and picked up Melissa’s pup, Breanna, a 8-year old fun-loving dog who’d be accompanying us on the trip and then were on our way to basecamp, two and a half hours away in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. It was dark by this time and the last leg of the trip was up the mountain in extreme curves (we’re talking near-180s) and down a long dirt path to the basecamp parking lot.
There we set up camp in relative darkness, the light being only our LED headlamps and the soft glow of the fire and settled in for the night. Temperatures dropped into the teens that night and our water bottles had frozen over. Spit turned to ice not too shortly after leaving the mouth and water began to freeze as soon as it was melted.
Having overslept the next morning we ate frozen Krispy Kremes, warmed over campfire, made freshly ground coffee, and packed up camp for the trek up the mountain. My pack contained a tent, a blanket, a sleeping pad, four liters of water and other small knick knacks, and on a fresh pair of legs wasn’t terribly heavy.
At close to 11am we had begun the 2.5 mile hike to the location where we’d set up camp for the night. It was cold, but hiking with well insulated clothing made us hot really quick. To prevent freezing later while sweat evaporated from our clothes we took off outer layers.
A few hours later we arrived at our camp location, which was a nice little grove with a fire pit made by a previous group. We pitched the tents and began collecting firewood for the cold night ahead. Unfortunately, due to our late start we didn’t have time to follow through the original plan of setting up camp, hiking to the summit and then back to camp before darkness fell. So we decided to just spend time enjoying each others’ company around the campfire.
For lunch we military MRE’s and Lunchables, and drank water and alcohol we had secretly kept in flasks. We spent a considerable amount of time gathering firewood, by chopping fallen hardwoods. One particular stump gave all the men a good bit of grief, but we finally got it. And it was a good thing too, because that one log lasted through the snowy night and into the morning.
Yes, I said snowy. That night, after both the flask of whiskey and the flask of rum were polished off, we made our way to our respective tents. All was quiet until the early morning hours.
Among the (imagined?) footsteps and rummaging outside of the tent, snow began to fall with little “tinks” on the outer shell of the tent. Breanna later squirmed as she needed to use the bathroom, and I took her out, but was sure to make it a fast trip. Unfortunately I forgot to zip up the outer shell door so snow and ice came in sideways and dusted our equipment and shoes, but being that it was so cold it shook off without leaving wetness.
In the morning, amid the snow and ice, we rebuilt the fire, made more coffee, and enjoyed oatmeal and watery (rehydrated) eggs and bacon. Afterwards we packed up camp and decided that with the bad weather, the summit would be best viewed from the windows of a vehicle and we headed back down the mountain.
A few hours later we were down and unpacking our gear into the vehicles and ready to make our way up to the summit until our plans were foiled by a road block and a sign denoting the closing of roads due to bad weather. What’s left but a stop at Waffle House and a two-hour drive back home.
I’ve been camping before but this trip was by far my favorite, and not only because of said company, but because of the challenge of it all. It felt … extreme, and in some ways I guess it kind of was. And in fact, I’ll be investing in my own equipment so weekends in the wilderness won’t require much more than tossing equipment into the back of the car.
20 Feb 2009
Enter today – a sunny morning with near perfect temperatures hovering around 50. I woke up to the sun pouring in through my windows, bundled up in a mass of white 300-count cotton. Exhausted from a busy, emotional, challenging, yet enlightening week and refreshed, energized and excited to begin the day and enter what looks to be a promising and fun weekend.
I’m going hiking and camping this weekend with a group of people, one of whom being one of my best friends and favorite people, Melissa. We’re going to Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. It’ll probably be in the teens at night and in the 40s during the day if we’re lucky. Nonetheless I imagine it will be a nice time. Challenging to say the least, but fun.
The weather channel was saying how there’s another cold front coming through Saturday evening that is likely to dump snow on higher elevations. I haven’t seen snow in years, and I miss it. Granted, I’d rather not sleep in it, but how many other times in my life will I be sane enough to go camping in the dead of winter at six-thousand feet up? Actually, I just got word of it being 1.2 degrees there last night. Crazy? Maybe I’m not so sane after all.
Winter brings many things, the cold, it stings
chapped lips, and often, tired hearts, weary
just wanting the warmth of the summer again
During the fall and winter, things die. Animals bulk up with food and go into hibernation, birds fly south for warmth, and leaves and trees shed their foliage, wither in a struggle for survival – to hold it out until spring. Frozen leaves crunch underfoot as gray skies neutralize the colors of everything. It’s cold, and it’ll be hard, but spring is near. Spring is near.