Editor’s note: Next week we unveil our first half GetBackpacking! plans for 2022. This week, for the yet-to-be-convinced of the joys of backcountry adventure, we look at the “why” — Why we do this?
Some folks, even avid hikers, have a knee-jerk reaction to backpacking. To the perceived discomfort, the perceived inconvenience, the perceived difficulty. Backpacking’s sometimes negative image is, in our opinion, a perception problem.
Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a fluorescent bulb.
Trail blazes painted on rocks are a necessity where there are no trees.
And that’s fine — until those blazes are buried beneath a foot of snow.
A freak early-season winter storm the first weekend in November that dumped up to 22 inches in the high country may have gotten the 2014-15 Southeast ski season off to a great start, but it presented a challenge to backpackers surprised by the intensity of the storm, especially those making their way on the Appalachian Trail through the Mount Rogers/Grayson Highlands area of southwest Virginia, known for its vast exposure.
“We got lost twice,” says Greg Carpenter, 50, of Greensboro, “the first time for 30 minutes, the second for about 15.” As seasoned AT section
