Backpacking

Im not sure how many of you guys go backpacking but I figured I show you some pictures from last weekend. A couple buddies and I spend the weekend backpacking in the Cohutta Wilderness in North Georgia. Aside from the washed out road, and having to set up camp late and not where we intended it was a great weekend. Here is the album. Backpacking

There's some nice pics snail'd away in that bunch. But I don't think I've seen that many facials since I accidently browsed a.b.p.b.e.f one saturday night.

I must prase you for your 'Blair Witch Project' photography skills.

I guess I got a little carried away. I have the Nikon Coolpix 2500 and it has the cool little rotating lense which just begs for those types of photos. Those Blair Witch photos were taken on the first morning, after cooking and hanging our packs up we almost got lost trying to find the tent which happened to only be 200 feet away but we had no clue since we could only see a few feet in front of us.

Yeah those snail pics did come out nice, gotta love the close up feature of the camera.

I was thinking that it looked more like an Aronofsky film.

I was thinking, hmm, looks like the smokies - and it was! (Pats self on back). My parents live in Knoxville, so I've been through there many times, but never camping.

Looks like a good time!

Fancy socks...

Hehe, yup, that's the way to do it!

Is/was anyone here in Boy Scouts? Did anyone here go to Philmont?

I was in the Scouts for a while, didnt go all the way to Eagle though. I never went to Philmont but i know a few guys who did. No thanks to that, i practice my own form of "no-trace" backpacking which is much more realistic thank you.
I do love backpacking though, ive been up and down most of the lower half of the AT in sections, one of these days im going to set out and do the whole thing. Any of you familiar with Ray Jardine, read his books or tried his methods?

Heck ya, his philosophy on gear and backpacking is great. I'm thankful that he was around to invent Friends (camming devices for climbing) back in the day, and his books on lightweight backpacking are great. I'm still not sure about his umbrella idea, but I've been trying to get my pack weight down below 20lbs, I've been hiking without poles and in running shoes instead of boots, and often times just take a sheet of ripstop nylon out instead of a full tent.

My brother hiked the AT a few years ago, and he did it with a 17lb pack. Of course on the AT you use all the shelters and mail your food to yourself, but it's still pretty good gear-wise.

Ray's GoLite stuff is pretty good too, you can often times find good deals on last year's stuff at Sierra Trading Post.

I've hiked the PCT and, while I didn't follow Jardine's methods, I read his book and know a whole bunch of ultralighters. I think the key with Jardine is to take his writings as a good source of ideas and as an existence proof of what can be done, but not as gospel. There's been a whole lot of corn pasta dumped over the years by PCT hikers who got the Jardine religion

On the topic of ultralight backpacking in general, I've seen a lot of hikers with 10 lb base weights (i.e. packweight not including food or water) that seemed pretty happy with their gear. They certainly had an easier time moving than I did with my 20 lb base. In fact, I've spent enough time being envious of those guys that one of my primary goals for this summer is to see how far I can slash my packweight.

--John

I don't know about the backpacking but your bro's woodworking skills are impressive!

Yeah, that's what you get for being the son of a carpenter.

Is/was anyone here in Boy Scouts? Did anyone here go to Philmont?

Was in the Boy Scouts. Troop 22 - the oldest troop west of the Mississippi. I did Philmont back in 93 - I think we did a 120 mile loop. It's a great area but by far my favorite place to backpack is the Conejos wilderness in southern Colorado.

- trs