Today, we present our 10 favorite mountain watering holes, places where you are guaranteed to escape the death-grip of summer’s 90/90 (heat/humidity) doldrums. Some are just off the road, some you have to work for. All are worth a visit. Links for more information follow.
Category Archives: Backpacking
From 0 to section hiker in a year: one backpacker’s story
An aspiring backpacker, or even one just getting into the backcountry, would find a lot to like about Henry Perangelo. He pays attention to, but isn’t obsessed with weight: “I can’t seem to get my pack much below 32, 33 pounds.” Same with gear: he appreciates a thing that does its job, but can’t remember the names of most of his gear (asked about his shoes, he replies, “They’re red and gray; I think they start with an M … .”). And when it comes to food, Henry is pretty much a freeze-dried, eat-from-the-bag kind of guy (“The one that starts with an M, I like their spaghetti and meatballs. Which tastes a lot like their lasagna”).
Take the fear out of summer stream crossings
This weekend GetBackpacking! pays a visit to the Wilson Creek area at the base of Grandfather Mountain. It’s a comparatively low-lying area but rugged, and acting as the drainage for massive Grandfather Mountain, it’s got water crossings galore. With our weekend trip in mind, and knowing a lot of you will be hiking along and in mountain creeks this summer, we’re rerunning this post on how to cross a stream.
Heat exhaustion: Recognize, treat, prevent
We’ve encountered our first 90-degree days on the trail. We’ve also encountered our first signs of heat exhaustion (on a sweaty trip deep into Linville Gorge this past weekend).
Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke which can damage the brain and other organs and can lead to death. Fortunately, if you recognize and treat heat exhaustion at the outset you can keep it from devolving into something much more serious.
We’ll be having fun all summer long
Summer: so few weeks, so many places to explore.
Deciding where to explore this summer was tough, as we had some ideas such as booking the London Londres UK England Travel Deals and Bali. But we’ve come up with a great line-up of adventures for GetHiking! and GetBackpacking!