2009 so far

oops, Well thats our luxury condo tent, a REI half dome 3, it's really better as a car camping tent at +4#'s but it's comfy and we have fit 3 in it.Cool right?
Another day on the beach, in February, on the east coast, in 35mph winds and 15 degrees f. Where's the chicks in bikini's and Gary Hasslehoff???
Obligatory sunset.
Cheers

Old Rag (SNP VA) is a loop that can be done as a day hike, no problem. We camped like 2 miles from the car. More winter hiking, this time with some elevation.
The Shennadoah Valley.
I wearing an Osprey and not my trusty GG Mariaposa Plus since my "Posa" was in the shop getting the curved stay upgrade.
This was our first trip with prolonged scrambling. I had a blast.
The wife? Not so much.
I was defiantly happy to drop 3#'s of tent and get back into my super awesome tarptent! God bless you, Henry Shires.
After this trip i nixed that ground cloth.

Putting the blue in the blue ridge Yo!
Old Rag!

Now see the motion picture!!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/cheehytrailhead#play/uploads/3/-bxNhA76FVE

Looks like fun times!

Where did you camp near Old Rag? A friend of mine and I were interested in trying to incorporate that into a backpacking weekend but it doesn't seem too feasible.

-Dave

How far are ya'll looking to hike? The Old Rag Fire Road is like a main vein. If you do big days you can take the fire road over to the cedar run/white oak falls are. Camp off Cedar run. Small day there's a few options, I'll post soon, gotta get my book.

Tell you what, give me milage and I'll give you some options. My wife and I are close to hiking all 500 miles in the park. We've done some weekends in the area.
Do you already know about the little parking lot?

My buddy is more familiar with that area than I am. We're no distance hikers that's for sure so under 10 miles a day would be nice. This would be a overnighter type thing for us. Drive in Saturday morning and get home Sunday night.

Sorry it took so long to get back with you. First trick go to the second parking area! The trip we took was 10 miles total. It was more a "test our ul winter kits" than a big hike. But those 10 miles take extra time because of the scrambling. We went:
1 Saddle ridge
2 weakley hollow fire road
3 camp @ junction with corbin hollow trail.

If you want more miles on the second day you could "out and back" these
1 Robertson mt is steep and rocky but the summit is great and not many people know about it
2 Nicholson Hollow is a nice, fairly level, walk along a very pretty stream, lots of good camping and trout as well. You could drop stuff off at the car and hit the porta-pottys if you want a little civilization with your hike.
Happy trails

More cold, we got a little snow this time, nothing stuck. My 'posa was on the way back from Austin, so I'm still in my osprey.

Ultra-wife in double duty sleepy socks. Pink of course!

We came up with this hike ourselves so we could see the backcountry in the Nicholson Hollow area.

We figured out that laying a space blanket on top of our GG thin-light pads, and then our therma-rests on the bottom kept us warmer, and kept our pads from sliding around. Muy Bueno!

These are our marmot bags, warm and cozy but heavy. We got JrB quilts now.

The wife has a Gossamer Gear Murmur now. She loves it.

The last time I will ever stuff a tent in a stuff sack! What a waste of time and weight!

Don't ya just want to hike off into that? Oh man!!!

Here's me and the Mrs. on a foggy journey in the SNP backcountry. This is the classic White Oak Canyon Cedar Run Loop. This is the hike for waterfall heads. Wh hiked it after a major storm. It was awesome.<img src="/backpackinglight/user_uploads/1252009808_15827.jpg" alt="falls2" width="550" height="413">

Here's me in my trusty Gossamer Gear Mariposa Plus.

I've lightened up this set up a bit. I switched out that nightlight pad for the sitlight pad. I carry an xxl driducks jacket instead of that poncho. It fits over my pack. Saved me 2 oz. I got rid of that blue stuff sack and carry my first aid/survival in a ziplock. And I got rid of that gator clip on my hydration system.

Now a major motion picture event. It's the feel good hit of the summer!
http://www.youtube.com/user/cheehytrailhead#play/uploads/4/6LR3Yzjtaf0

Rick…what map is that? I hike Old Rag several times a year, and would like to find Nicklolson Hollow. Is it a PATC map?

Thanks!

One for good measure

That's a National Geographic map. The patc are great as well. Nickolsen hollw is nice.

Ok, so finally spring came and we went to do Rocky Top inn the southern section of SNP. We live north of the park and we haven't done much down south yet. We're on a quest to do all 500 miles of trails in the park and we're getting close. We plan to write a book about the best backpacking trips and backcountry camping in the park.

Check out my cool shirt.

Nice bear bag.

That's velcro on my hat for my photon/cap/velcro/ head lamp.

Ahhh, the trail.
Purdy flowers!!

Virginia is for lovers…of cuben fiber, spinnaker, and tyvek, and titanium, and plain old not putting a lot of useless junk in your pack.

Aren't there only 109 miles or so of the AT "in" SNP? 500 I think would be the whole state of Virginia for the AT…although there are probably 500 miles of trail (just not AT) within SNP. Either way, nice goal.

And curse you for changing my Labor Day plans to include a trip to Rocky Top :)

Sorry, I meant all 500 miles of trails, not just the AT. Rocky top is a great hike. And at the end…blackberry sundays and shakes!