When it ends and it’s time to head home.

But what if the hike didn’t end and you didn’t have to go home?

That would be backpacking. 

Imagine, for instance, that instead of sadly piling into the car and heading home after 5 or 8 or 10 miles on the trail, you pitch camp, make dinner, then enjoy the quiet of the backcountry and the transition from day to dusk to dark. Then, awake the next morning and repeat.

Backpacking has a reputation of being for the hardcore, for those up for totting 60-pound packs for 20 miles, of eating beans ’n’ weenies from a can, of sleeping (or trying to) in a damp tent. 

‘Roughing it’ the modern way

In fact, modern backpacking is about carrying as little weight as you like (for a price, of course); of dining on dehydrated gourmet meals; of sleeping in a cozy, dry nylon shelter; of hiking in less than a mile, if you like, to camp.

It’s that latter fact that we emphasize with our 10-year-old GetBackpacking! program. Though we try to keep it light, we also have a thing for comfort. That means eating well, having hot coffee first thing in the morning, having a comfy chair to sit in and enjoy a cup of tea at day’s end. That means having a pack that might way 30 pounds (as opposed to an ultralight pack weighing in at less than 10 pounds), but a pack you may carry only a mile or two, which we can do because we’re big fans of basecamp backpacking: Hike in a short distance to a primitive site, establish basecamp, do day hikes with a 5-pound daypack from there. The advantages of a primitive camp without the pain of getting there, plus getting to hike twice as far — and see twice as much — in a featherweight daypack. 

2023 is Year of the Trail in North Carolina and one of our goals is get you on the trail — and keep you there. There’s no better way to do that than backpacking.

5 of Our Favorite Trips

In one last push to get your attention, we’ll share video from five of our favorite backpack trips. And if you’re not a backpacker, stick around until the end. We’ll tell you how you can become one.

Virginia Triple Crown 

Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E

Shining Rock via Big East Fork

Wilson Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest 

Neusiok Trail, Croatan National Forest

* * *

GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking

We launched our GetBackpacking! program in 2014; since then, we’ve graduated more than 250 new backpackers. Here’s the plan for our Spring 2023 session:
* Getting to know you, getting to know your gear. In this Zoom session we’ll spend a little time getting to know one another and learning why you’re interested in backpacking. Then, we’ll go over the different types of gear, focusing on good options for beginners. 1.5 hours.
* Training Day. In full gear, we will meet at Morrow Mountain State Park for a 5-hour training session that will go over: Evaluating a campsite, setting up camp, breaking camp, meal preparation (including the various food and cooking options on the trail), and more. Expect to hike about 4 miles in full pack, during which we will work on hiking technique (including the use of trekking poles); ensuring a good pack fit by adjusting your pack during the hike to make sure it continues to fit; and more.
* Graduation hike. Three-day, two-night trip to South Mountains State Park, a great place for your first trip.
Cost of the program is $325 — $295 if you sign up by Jan. 15! The class includes:

• Instruction, including:
  • Zoom gear session
  • 5-hour in-field training session
  • Graduation weekend
• Info packet, including:
  • Gear lists
  • Tips sheets for:
    • Packing
    • Water crossings
    • Winter camping
    • GetBackpacking! Guide to 10 Great Places to Backpack in North Carolina once you’ve graduated
• eguide outlining the program and covering what you’ll learn
• 20 percent off coupon to Great Outdoor Provision Co.

Loaner gear. We have a limited number of backpacks and tents available on a first-requested, first-awarded basis, at no extra charge.’

Important Dates:
• Getting to know you, getting to know your gear, Zoom meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15, 6 – 7 p.m.
• Training Day: Saturday, March 18, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Morrow Mountain State Park, Albemarle
• Graduation trip: Friday afternoon thru Sunday, April 14-16, South Mountains State Park, Morganton.

For more information and to sign up to join us, go here.

Basecamp backpacking

Curious about basecamp backpacking, where you hike in a short distance, establish basecamp, then day-hike from there? Learn more about it — and our 5 favorite basecamp destinations —at this post from 2021, “5 of Our Favorite Basecamp Backpack Trips.”

The post Backpacking: A Hike that Doesn’t End appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

4-day trips

Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock/Citico Creek Wilderness

• Sept. 16-19
• $145

Basecamp Backpack trip. On this four-day, three-night trip we hike in 1.5 miles, set up basecamp, then spend three days day hiking these adjoining wilderness areas. A wilderness that epitomizes the concept. $195. Learn more and sign up here.

Appalachian Trail at Standing Indian

• Oct. 28-31
• $195

We spend Night 1 at the Standing Indian group campground, then head out Friday morning for three days on the trail, mostly the AT as it follows a horseshoe-shaped ridge over Albert Mountain and Standing Indian Mountain. Great views along the way, great end-of-season color as well. $195. Learn more and sign up here.

Weekend Quick Escapes

Fall rolls around, you’re out of vacation time. With our Weekend Quick Escapes, you don’t need any PTO; these trips are designed to let you work a full day, then, when the whistle blows at 5, hop into your loaded car and drive to a trailhead requiring a short hike in to basecamp and two days of hiking in daypacks. 

GetBackpacking! Weekend Quick Escape: Doughton Park

• Oct. 22-24
• $105

It’s a flat, 1.5-mile hike to basecamp along Basin Creek. Saturday, it’s a long hike up Cedar Ridge Trail to the Bluff Mountain Trail and back down; Sunday, we hike 3.3-miles up Basin Creek to the Caudil Cabin at the base of the Blue Ridge Escarpment.  Learn more and sign up here.

GetBackpacking! Weekend Quick Escape: Rock Castle Gorge

• Nov. 19-21
• $105

The shortest hike in to basecamp, at just under a quarter mile, followed by a 10.8-mile loop Saturday on one of the iconic trails in the Southeast. Sunday on the drive out we stop at Fairy Stone State Park for a 4.5-mile hike.   Learn more and sign up here.

GetBackpacking! Weekend Quick Escape: Birkhead Mountain Wilderness in the Uwharrie National Forest

• Dec. 10-12
• $105

A great end of year trip, taking advantage of warmer Piedmont temperatures and a shorter drive to the trailhead. Basecamp is a 3-mile hike, followed Saturday by a 9-mile loop day hike. Sunday, we take a short hike to the best mountain view in the Uwharries. . Learn more and sign up here.

Backpacking for Non Backpackers

You’re an avid hiker but have yet, for whatever reason, tried backpacking. With our Basecamp Backpack option you can enjoy the best of both worlds — the solitude of a backcountry campsite and the ability to hike miles on end without 40 pounds on your back. We supply the basic backpacking gear — backpack, tent, sleeping pad, cook stove and coolest, plus guidance on how to use it all and be a backpacker. This option is available on our Basecamp Backpack trips that require on a short hike — between a quarter mile and 3 miles — to camp in full pack. We provide a list of everything you’ll need to bring.

• Backpacking for Non Backpackers: Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock/Citico Creek Wilderness, Sept. 16-19. $295. Learn more and sign up here
• Backpacking for Non Backpackers: Weekend Quick Escape: Doughton Park, Oct. 22-24. $195. Learn more and sign up here
• Backpacking for Non Backpackers: Weekend Quick Escape: Rock Castle Gorge, Nov. 19-21. $195. Learn more and sign up here.
• Backpacking for Non Backpackers: Weekend Quick Escape: Birkhead Mountain Wilderness in the Uwharrie National Forest, Dec. 10-12. $195. Learn more and sign up here.

Intro to Backpacking

Not a backpacker — yet? In just three sessions you can become a bonafide backpacker in time for the prime fall hiking season. We start with a gear session via Zoom, then meet for a 5-hour in-field training session before our weekend graduation trip to South Mountains State Park. Some loaner gear is available on a first-requested basis. We have four sessions scheduled for the fall. Click the appropriate link for details and to sign up. $225.

• Intro to Backpacking: Charlotte. Sept. 8, 11, 24-26
• Intro to Backpacking: Triangle. Sept. 8, 11, 24-26
• Intro to Backpacking: Triad. Sept. 8, 11; Oct. 1-3
• Intro to Backpacking: Greenville. Sept. 23; Oct. 9, 22-24

The post GetBackpacking! Fall 2021 appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Because you think you have to hike with 40 pounds on your back with every footstep you take.

Well, you don’t. If every backpack trip we took involved lugging a full pack for days on end, we wouldn’t backpack, either. 

That’s why we promote a different approach to backpacking: hike in a short distance in full pack, set up camp, do day hikes — with a day pack — from there. Basecamp Backpacking, we call it. Here are its two big advantages:

• 

  Back country camping solitude at a fraction the cost. The physical cost, that is. You’d be surprised at how short a hike it can take to achieve camping solitude. For example, one of our favorite basecamp trips is to Doughton Park along the Blue Ridge Parkway. From the Longbottom Road Access it’s a flat, mile-and-a-half hike in full pack to basecamp, a spacious backcountry site served by two creeks. From here, you have access to about 30 miles of trail for day hikes. It’s an even shorter hike — maybe a quarter mile — to the primitive site at Rock Castle Gorge in Virginia (pictured at top), from which you can day hike the popular — and challenging — 10.8-mile Rock Castle Gorge loop. Short hikes in full pack, access to miles and miles of hiking in a day pack.

• More miles, more scenery (and less aching). Most of us hike a mile and a half, maybe two miles per hour in a full pack in the mountains. After six or seven hours, we’re done. In a day pack — bearing only the 10 essentials and weighing, what, five pounds tops? — you’ll cover closer to three miles in an hour. So that’s close to twice the distance based on pace alone, let alone the fact you’ll likely be able to hike longer with a lesser load. Who wouldn’t rather hike 15 miles as opposed to 7?

Here are some other advantages to Basecamp Backpacking:

• One home, not several. Show of hands: whose favorite part of backpacking is setting up camp and breaking camp? With Basecamp Backpacking you set up camp once, you break camp once. You get a chance to settle in, to make camp feel more like home.
• It’s cheaper. If your goal is to add up miles getting from point A to point B, then you’re going to quickly become obsessed with weight, and as every backpacker knows, to trim weight you have to spend more, way more. With Basecamp Backpacking, you can get away with a $100, 5-pound tent. If you’re doing a section hike or thru hike, you’re looking at at least halving that weight, which means tripling or quadrupling the price. And that goes for every piece of equipment you have.
• Luxuries. Ask a thru-hiker what “luxury” he’s indulging and he’ll sheepishly admit to bringing a stove. This as opposed to saving the 2.6 ounces ounces his stove weights and — yech! — cold soaking. Ask me about my luxury and I’ll reply, without hesitation, it’s my Helinox Chair Zero, a camp chair that weighs in at 1 entire pound — more, likely, than the distance-hiker’s tarp tent. And frankly, I balk at referring to it a “luxury” — it’s my dadgum right to sit comfortably around camp and I will not be denied!
• Campfire. One of the saddest things about distance hiking, in my book, is that after hiking  15 to 20 miles in one day these bedraggled distance hikers just want to eat their porridge that’s been cold-soaking in a Talenti container since noon and fall asleep. I know, the campfire has been under a lot of criticism of late, but if there’s a better form of therapy out there, I’d love to hear about it. Sitting around a campfire in the evening with your people, talking about anything and everything that doesn’t have to do with work or politics or civilization is my favorite part of the backpacking experience. I love the hiking, I love nature, I’m even pretty good with inclement weather. But it’s those campfire conversations that keep me coming back.
• Don’t fret the wet. I like hiking in a light to moderate rain. What I don’t like is setting up and breaking down camp in the rain. If you’re section hiking for 10 days, that’s 20 times you need to hope it’s not raining. With a basecamp trip, it’s really only once, when you set up your one and only camp, that it needs to be dry. Set up dry and, barring an issue with your tent, you’ll stay dry.  
• In fact, embrace the wet. If it rains when you return from a day hike, you’ve got a dry place to hang out and read, nap, listen to music.
• Quick bug out, if need be. If something goes wrong on a basecamp trip, you’re likely just a short hike from your car.

Backpacking has long been romanticized as the one true way to escape into the wild — but at a price. With Basecamp Backpacking, that price has dropped considerably. 

* * *

Basecamp Backpack with us

The price of basecamp backpacking drops even more if you sign up for one of our Basecamp Backpack trips. If you’re an avid hiker, you likely have all the key hiking gear you need: clothes, boots/shoes, daypack. What you likely don’t have is backpacking gear, and that can be pricey, especially if there’s no guarantee you’re going to like primitive camping.

That’s where we come in. For all of our GetBackpacking! basecamp trips, we’re now offering our Basecamp Back package. In addition to hikes, we’ll provide the following key gear:

• Osprey backpack. We have high-quality packs that will fit most hikers comfortably and will hold all the gear you’ll need for the weekend.
• Backpacking tent. If you’ve got a tent, great. But if you need one that’s a little lighter, more compact and will leave room in your pack for more gear (including a “luxury” or two), we can help you out.
• Sleeping pad. A sleeping pad insulates you from the ground (providing a little more heat) and gives you a soft, more cush night of sleep.
• Sleep sack. Again, if you have a sleeping bag, great. 
• Stove and cooking kit. We provide a lightweight, classic gas canister stove, the gas canister, a pot and cup, and an all-purpose eating utensil.

Our next Basecamp Backpack trip is to the Wilson Creek area of the Pisgah National Forest the weekend of Aug. 6-8. We hike in Friday afternoon a little more than a mile, set up camp, then do two days of hiking in day packs. Learn more about this trip and sign up here.

GetHiking! Southeast Podcast

This week on the GetHiking! Southeast Podcast we distinguish between a National Park and a National Forest, and look at two efforts to get a wider array of people into the woods. Give a listen here.

The post Backpacking for the non-backpacker appeared first on GetGoing NC!.