For those of you that might think a back country hiking trip is intimidating, I hope to simplify the task by sharing my pack list.  This trip is a one night trip that includes sleeping in a shelter, so it is more or less a very light weight trip compared to those that require a tent and more food and clothing.  I plan to drive to the trail head the night before and be back at the car for breakfast the morning after we camp, so I will be able to leave some things in the car, too.  I will also bring my dog, Althea, along and she has her own pack to lighten my load (and expel some of her abundant energy!)

For my backpack:

• Food/snacks (a little extra just in case)
• Stove
• Gas
• Pot to boil water in
• Spork (an all in one fork, spoon and knife)
• Lighter, fire starter
• Extra Clothes – socks, liners, underwear, undershirt, rain jacket
• Pack cover
• TP and shovel (for the special places…)
• Multi-tool
• Cordage
• First Aid Kit
• Water bottles, bladder
• Steripen (water purifier)
• Tripod
• Camera
• Sleeping bag
• Hammock
• Slap straps (to hang hammock)
• Sleeping pad
• Flashlight
• Headlight
• Spare Batteries
• Summit/day pack

To wear when I set out hiking:

• Hiking pants
• Socks
• Liner socks
• Boots
• Hiking shirt
• Undershirt
• Garmin watch

For Althea’s Pack:

• Dog food
• Leash
• Dog bowl
• Water bottles
• Bear bell

To bring & leave in car:

• Tent
• Extra sleeping bag/pad
• Cooler with water and Mountain Dew
• Fleece Jacket, hat and gloves

Destination: Mount Mitchell
Elevation: 6,684 feet to summit
Total miles I hiked: 10.5
Number of hikers in our group: 8 9 (apparently I can’t count)
Number of female hikers in our group: 1
Degrees (low) that we saw on our thermometer: 4
Feet of snow on the ground: About 2
Number of animals seen: 2
Number of animal tracks seen: a lot (I thought they’d all be hibernating …)
Number of times I fell: .5
Number of times people in the group fell: About 30
Number of times Chris fell: About 25
Times I wondered if we’d survive: 1

———

So, 3 nights in the snow and not only did I live to tell about it, but there is a part of me that still wants to be on that mountain.

It was an amazing trip. Kevin and I had a conversation while up there about how interesting it is that we’ve done this three times now, and it’s different every time. Same mountain, different adventure, different moments, different memories.

———

The skinny: I hiked Mount Mitchell for the third year in a row. I wrote about the previous trips here and here. Mount Mitchell is located in the Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and, at 6,684 feet, it’s the tallest point east of the Mississippi. It’s a very challenging hike even in good conditions, with trails labeled “very strenuous.” Add a couple of feet of snow and ice to the trail, and you can imagine the challenge we were facing …

In fact, the first night, as we set up camp in the snow at the base of the mountain, I wondered if we’d even hike at all. There was snow everywhere!

Day one: When we didn’t see “day” at all

Four of us arrived in the middle of the night Thursday night/Friday morning after a pretty crazy drive to get to the campground.  And by “pretty crazy”, I mean snow-covered and knuckle-gripping and “thank God for four-wheel drive” crazy. But we made it, and then we got to camp in it.  

Once we got to base camp (Black Mountain campground), we were surprised to see we weren’t the only people out here – a few other tents were scattered around the campground. That made me feel relieved as I scooted into my bivy sack and spent the entire night in there for the first time (the other time I tried it I chickened out and ended up in the tent.)

Let me explain the bivy thing: I have this one, which is the most expensive, heaviest bivy that REI sells. However, at 2 pounds, it’s still lighter than a tent and it sets up much easier (no wrangling with tent poles as darkness is falling.) The reason I got one is because I get claustrophobic inside a tent. And the bivy allows me to feel closer to the open air. In fact, several times during the night I woke up feeling like I just needed to ground myself, and all I had to do was stick my fingers out into the air for a few moments and then I would feel better.

I also bought a small LED lantern, at an REI employee’s suggestion. He said that if I could put it just outside the bivy, then it would keep me from being claustrophobic. Problem was, I couldn’t get it to work. I don’t know if the batteries were too cold (they were lithium, so they shouldn’t have been) or what, but at 1 a.m. in single digit temperatures, I didn’t try too hard and relied on the firelight, and then the moonlight, and then the sunlight to keep things in perspective for me. And it worked!

Speaking of lights, I also couldn’t get my headlamp to work. So, I was without any lights at all. Not fun while trying to set up camp. Or cook. Or see, well, anything really. When I had to pee in the middle of the night that first night, I woke Chris up to go with me (and then promptly ordered him to turn around).

I was pretty cold that first night – due to the claustrophobia, I have a hard time pulling my mummy sleeping bag all the way around my face. I was actually able to zip it all the way up (a first for me!) but I couldn’t pull it tight. And after the pee break, the slit I left open in my bivy was directly above my head – and I’m pretty sure the wind was blowing straight down into my bag. This I realized as the sun was coming up and it was almost time to get up anyway.

Coming soon … day 2!

This originally appeared on melissaoh.com but I wanted to share it over here as well …

So it is true that this trip might be complete, and everyone is back in their homes, all warm and comfortable.  But a trip isn’t only defined by “Did I reach my destination?” but also by “What happened along the way?”.

So, with that being stated… I pose a question to all of my weekend warriors out there… What happened on this trip? What were your favorite moments? Will you be back?

Since our trip had 9 sets of eyes viewing the trip, I figured that I would share a quick story of the trip, from my eyes…  My trip had only one purpose to it, and that was getting to the summit.  Mt Mitchell is the first of 40 peaks in North Carolina that I will summit in the next few years.   So with keeping that in mind, I really wanted to arrive at the camp during the night.  Just so that I could give my legs  a little bit of rest before continuing up to the top.  {With over 3,400 feet of elevation gain and only 5.6 miles of trail to hike, getting to the summit and back down to the camp in one day would have been very difficult.}  Kevin, Chadd, Chad, Tyler and myself started towards camp around 11, and through a unfortunate turn of events Chadd turned back.  The rest of us pushed on and walked into camp around 2 in the morning.  I for one was very happy to be able to set up camp and get a good nights rest. 

Upon waking up the next morning, to a very chilly but pleasant day, I was ready to start towards to summit, and after a little bit of warming up and gear changes we started towards our destination.  John, Tyler, Chad, Kevin, Melissa, and myself started on the hike, and roughly half way up the mountain the sky was still blue, with a light breeze in the air.  Sure its cold, but it is winter.  This is the point when Kevin and Melissa decided to head back down the mountain and back towards camp.  John, Chad, Tyler and I pushed forward, splitting off into two groups. 

Trees about 200 yards from the summit.

John and Chad definately were moving a lot quicker than I was, so they moved forward, leaving Tyler and myself about 100 feet behind them the rest of the way up.   At about a quarter of a mile left in the hike, the sky started to change to cloudy and the wind started to really blow. 

We arrived at the summit at 3:30 and found out that the weather was hovering around 2° with a wind gusting near 40 mph (that puts the wind chill near -20).  So to put it mildly, it was COLD.  But I had achieved the goal that I was there for,

At the summit of Mt Mitchell

well at least half of the goal that I was there for.  The thing with hiking to a destination, isn’t just reaching that point, but also getting back to where you start from.  We stayed at the summit for only a short while before heading back down the mountain…

It was after arriving at the mountain when I had any type of major discomfort on the trip, I think it was caused by not eating enough throughout the day.  But just after reaching camp, my body temperature began to drop.  Kevin was nice enough to heat up some water for me and then after I got some warm food in my system I was good to go again.  Chad, Tyler, and I decided to get into our bags early that night and were in bed by 7:30.

Morning came and Chad, Tyler, Kevin and I decided that we wanted to have breakfast at Waffle House, instead of eating at camp.  So we gathered up our gear and hit the trail around 9am.  The hike was rather uneventful, the sun was shining and the wind was light as we followed the trail down to the cars.  After a little bit of packing and a couple more pictures, we decided to drive to Waffle House, have a nice breakfast and then finished the trip home. 

So now to answer my three questions… 1) What happened on this trip?  I was able to summit Mt Mitchell in the winter.  2) What were my favorite moments? They would have to be spending time with some great friends and learning more about myself.  3) Will I be back? I haven’t fully decided… I might but I might not.  After all there are 39 more peaks for me to summit.

This past weekend, I made the annual winter trip to Mount Mitchell.  On Friday night after work, I drove my Toyota 4Runner in a 2 car caravan with Chad riding with me and Andrew and Tyler in Andrew’s Toyota FJ Crusier.  Both our vehicles are equipped with 4 wheel drive and with the snow that had fallen in the previous days in the mountains of North Carolina, we felt it best to go up with a second vehicle.

We arrived at Black Mountain Campground around 10:45.  We had received word from Jeff’s friend Chadd that he was on his way and would be there soon.  He arrived at about 11:30 and the 5 of us got ready for a 3 mile hike to Mid Camp, where Melissa, Jeff, Chrisand John were already set up.  About 1/2 mile up, Chadd was having knee problems.  He told us that he has had surgeries and the cold and his heavy pack were giving him problems.  He was going home.

The four of us continued up in the hard packed, basically frozen snow.  And yes, I realize that snow is already frozen, but this snow was solid and very slick.  Thanks to YakTrax that I had picked up from REI the week before, I had little to zero problems hiking on the ice.

We made it to Mid Camp around 2:15 Saturday morning.  We set up in the cold air that read on Jeff’s thermometer at 4 degrees.  I was thankful there was little wind.  I crawled into my sleeping bag in my bivy sack on the snow and tried to sleep.

I woke up around 6:00 and I had to pee.  It was still dark outside and no one else was up.  I tried to hold it for a while, but finally had to get up.  After I got back in my bag, I warmed my feet with my hands and then laid back down for a while.  All of a sudden I heard someone yelling in the distance.  I yelled back and then soon realized that it was Chadd.  Jeff summed it up nicely, “Hey Chadd you crazy bastard.”  Apparently, Chadd drove back home, unloaded his pack some and returned to meet up with us, hiking by himself in the dark.

We got a fire going and thawed out the feet.  We made some breakfast, which for me consisted of a freeze dried meal from Mountain House that was scrambled eggs with ham and green and red peppers.  It hit the spot, but I think anything warm would have been great.  We geared up for a summit hike and left just before noon – later than we should have left.

Melissa, John, Andrew, Chad, Tyler and I started up the mountain and it hit me, (like it does every trip there) how amazing it is to have such a diverse landscape so close to home.  It really does feel like you are on another world compared to Charlotte.  And it is a mere 2 hour drive!

At around 2:15, I ask Melissa if she wants to hike in the dark and she says no.  We had already discussed turning around at 2:30 to get back before dark.  It was 2:15 and we had 1.5 miles to go to the summit.  We decided to turn around and the other 4 went on to the top.

We got back to the camp where Jeff and Chris had a fire going and we got warm and dry.  the others made it back just before it got dark with their tales of how extreme the conditions were at the top.  Their frosted beards proved such conditions.

We made dinners and several turned in early to get warm in their sleeping bags.  Melissa, Chris and I stayed up a bit and talked and listened to the “I must be camping with Jeff” music by Johnny Cash.

Sunday morning I woke up and was extremely cold.  I was worried about my feet that I could barely move.  Jeff made a fire and I warmed my toes that had turned a shade of white/yellow and finally got their color back and stopped hurting.  I packed up and headed down the mountain with Chad, Andrew and Tyler.  Melissa, Jeff, Chris and John stayed back and made coffee and breakfast.  I had my sights set on food and a toilet at the nearest Waffle House!

We made it to Waffle House around 12:00 and after hitting up the toilet (new Special Place, thanks Waffle House!) I ate a waffle, hash browns, eggs, toast and of course, bacon!

It was a great trip and it reminded me of why I love to hike and camp, but I have decided that, with my current equipment, my threshold on low temperatures is around 15-20 degrees.  The 4 degree temperatures were uncomfortable in my current sleeping system.  Perhaps a tent and battery-powered socks (good tip, Chad) are what are needed to get a good night’s sleep in such conditions.

Seriously, when it comes to backpacking, one of the topics most of us want to think about is how to properly urinate and defecate without the aid of modern bathrooms.  Add to that the rough terrain and cold weather that is Mitchell Winter, and you have some issues to get through.

I will be the first to admit that guys have a definite advantage over the ladies in this department.  Being able to urinate without dropping your pants is most certainly convenient.  There are devices for the ladies that aim (no pun intended) to remedy this, but I am not one that could tell you how well they work.  REI sells the Sani-Fem Freshette F.U.D. and that might be an aid for this issue.

In the number two department, the proper way to go in the back-country is to dig a hole 6 inches deep and bury all excrement.  Ideally you would re-cover the ground with leaves or snow to leave as little trace as possible.  You can bring along bags and pack your shit out, but then you are faced with lugging around human waste, which can present several health concerns.  It can become difficult to dig a hole when the ground is frozen, so be forewarned about that.  I found a website that outlines proper techniques for disposing waste.  It is specific to the Alaskan Wilderness, but many points can be applied to Mitchell as well.

Night time on Mt Mitchell in the winter is COLD.  It almost always happens that as soon as you get comfortable in your sleeping bag, nature calls.  The two choices are to get up, get some clothes on, go outside and freeze, only for it to take forever to get warm in the sleeping bag again, or to have a dedicated “pee-bottle” that you could urinate in and store until morning.  I personally have not tried the latter method, but it has certainly crossed my mind.

As I wrap up this post, I am reminded of the song by Frank Zappa, “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow”:

“Dreamed I was an Eskimo
Frozen wind began to blow
Under my boots and around my toes
The frost that bit the ground below
It was a hundred degrees below zero…

And my mama cried
And my mama cried
Nanook, a-no-no
Nanook, a-no-no
Don’t be a naughty Eskimo
Save your money, don’t go to the show

Well I turned around and I said oh, oh oh
Well I turned around and I said oh, oh oh
Well I turned around and I said ho, ho
And the northern lights commenced to glow
And she said, with a tear in her eye
Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow
Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow”

Listen here.

First attempt

After Kevin’s first attempt at a Mitchell Winter, he infected the rest of us with the “climb it in the cold” bug. So as the end of winter neared, Kevin, Melissa, Ronnie and I all got ready to make the climb. As the rest of us were out buying gear at REI, Ronnie backed out of the trip (he had enough going on anyway, getting ready to move to The Left Coast, and all.) Personally, I had been eyeing a new pack for some time, and decided to go ahead and buy it. While walking around the store to test the fit, I started feeling sick. To he honest, I had been feeling off most of the week.

The flu. That’s it. End of story. Never made it out of bed. Forget going up the mountain.

Now, Kevin and Melissa did go on the trip, and they have some great stories to tell, but as Kevin mentioned before, they did it on the first day of Spring. It was just as cold as the last day of Winter, and the mountain was just as high, but I did not go, and it just doesn’t count! err…I mean to say that we decided to try it again next year. In fact, I swore that I would go on the trip next year, even if I had the flu again.

The next year

I had the flu again.

As I stated before, a minor thing like the flu was not stopping me from going on the trip this time. So I went, but no summit. I was slow, too. Really slow. Kevin and I had worked out the route we were going to take before we left, and that allowed me to go slow while everyone else went ahead to make camp at the half way point. I arrived about 30 min behind them, and crawled right into my bivy.

I did wake for awhile, to hang out and talk about bacon, and then right back to sleep. Twelve hours of sleep and a little snow later, I was good to go…right down the mountain.

Off to the Waffle House.

First Attempt

My first attempt on Mitchell was sort of a last minute trip that Charles, James and a buddy of James decided to do.  This was in February 2008.  The plan was to drive up on Friday night after work to Black Mountain Campground where the start of the Mt Mitchell Trail is located.  From there, we would hike up to the top, camp Saturday night at the top, and then come back down and head home on Sunday.

The group plan changed after the first cold night.  “They” decided that it was cold enough at the bottom of the mountain and did not want to stay any higher in elevation.  So we decided on a summit push and then back down to stay at the campground another night.  We got a late start and headed up the mountain around 10:30.  At around 2:00, at about 2/3 of the way up, Charles and I decided to turn around.  My legs were completely out of shape and beginning to cramp and the daylight was going quickly.  You see, this is yet one of the many challenges that one faces on Mitchell in the winter – the days are shorter.  So we turn around and head back disappointed, but still having fun in the mountains.  James and his friend would go on to the top, but come back into camp well after dark.  That could have been disastrous as they did not have food or shelter.

Second Attempt

The second trip was with Melissa and we decided to allow ourselves more time.  We picked a 3 day weekend and went up on Friday morning, which gave us an extra day to hike.  We started up when we got there and made camp about ½ of the way up.  The next morning, we went to the top and back and got back so early, we decided to go on home on Saturday to see our families.  You can read her post here.  And yes, Jeff, it was the first day of spring, so still no winter summit.

Third Attempt

The third trip was earlier this year, 2/10/09, and this time Jeff and Chris joined Melissa and I.  We went up on a Friday night and I met the three of them when they finally arrived well after midnight.  We camped at the bottom in the campground and planned to wake up early, and hit the trail.  We planned to hike to the halfway point.  Set up camp or at least lighten the load and hit the summit.  Then we would come back down and camp there and then come the rest of the way down on Sunday.  We got a late start again.  I don’t know what it is about going to sleep at 2 AM and it being 16 degrees out that keeps you from being motivated to get out of the sleeping bag.  We started up and arrived at the halfway mark and it was almost 2:00.  At that point, we did not stand chance of making it to the top and back before dark at the pace we were going.  So we decided to set up camp and see what Sunday brought.  And Sunday brought another frigid morning along with some light snow.  We decided that trying to summit would be slightly dangerous and would make us very late getting home.  So we will try again next year.  Be sure to read Melissa’s posts on this year’s trip here here and here.

So next year, I am adequately prepared to meet the challenges of winter on Mt Mitchell.  Whoever comes with me: be ready too!