A simple misconception.

When you think of  backpacking, you likely think of hiking  with 40 pounds on your back all day. In fact, 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 advocate a different approach to backpacking: Basecamp Backpacking. You hike in a short distance — typically under three miles, sometimes not even a mile — in full pack, set up camp, do day hikes — with a lightweight day pack — from there. Here are the two big advantages to basecamp backpacking:

• 

  Backcountry camping solitude at a fraction the cost of traditional backpacking. 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. That’s close to twice the distance based on pace alone. Then factor in the likelihood you’ll 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 and breaking down 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, for instance, 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 just 17 ounces — more, likely, than the distance-hiker’s tarp tent. And frankly, I balk at referring to it as 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 tepid 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. 

* * *

Intro to Backpacking

Now that you know what backpacking can be, you’re likely wondering how you can get into it. With our GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking class. And the next class begins March 16. Here’s how it works:

Session 1: Getting to know you, getting to know your gear. In this Zoom session we’ll spend a few minutes 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 hour. Wednesday, March 15, 6 p.m.

Session 2: 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. Saturday, March 18, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

* Graduation hike. Three-day, two-night trip to South Mountains State Park, a great place for your first trip. Friday, April 14, 2 p.m. thru Sunday, April 16, 1 p.m.

Learn more and register to join us here.

Next week

Next week we share some of our favorite spots to Basecamp Backpack.

The post Basecamp backpacking: The Best of Two Worlds appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

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!.

Or this, from a more contemporary purveyor of percipient thought:

“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!”

— W. Pooh

But it’s writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, inspired by his New England home, that we think best captures the sentiment of the season: “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.”

That’s pretty much how we approach fall, and why we, too, endeavor to spend so much of it “in the open air” — by backpacking. Warm days, cool nights, cloudless skies and lots of autumnal color make this the season to not just to explore the backcountry, but to live in it. And while that autumnal sunshine is indeed intoxicating, the shoulder periods of dawn and dusk, not to mention those brisk, brilliant night skies, make fall the true season of backpacking.

How are we planning to spend as much of this fall as possible outdoors? In a variety of ways. And ways that nearly every one of you can be a part of, regardless of your backpacking experience — if any.

For the more experienced

Got a bit of backpacking experience under your belt? We have two four-day trips on tap.

• Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock/Citico Creek Wilderness, Sept. 16-19. On this basecamp backpack trip we hike in 1.5 miles and establish camp, then spend three days day hiking these adjoining wilderness areas. $195. Learn more and sign up here.
• Appalachian Trail at Standing Indian, Oct. 28-31. We spend Thursday evening at the Standing Indian 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. $195. Learn more and sign up here.

For those short on time

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. Our three destinations for fall:

• Doughton Park, Oct. 22-24.  $105. Learn more and sign up here.
• Rock Castle Gorge, Nov. 19-21. $105. Learn more and sign up here.
• Birkhead Mountain Wilderness in the Uwharrie National Forest, Dec. 10-1. $105. Learn more and sign up here.

Backpacking for Non Backpackers

You’re an avid hiker but, for whatever reason, have yet to try backpacking. With our Basecamp Backpack option you can enjoy the best of both worlds: the solitude of a backcountry campsite plus 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 cookset, plus guidance on how to use it all and be a backpacker. This option is available on our Basecamp Backpack trips that require 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.

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

Backpacking for backpackers-to-be

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

Of all the seasons, fall is the last you can afford to waste. As noted horticulture writer Elizabeth Lawrence — the first woman, in 1932, to graduate with a degree in landscape architecture from N.C. State — put it, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”

The post Backpacking squeezes the most out of fall appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

Why do we backpack?

We could give you a bunch of words explaining why. Or, you could watch this quick video capturing our latest GetBackpacking! trip, the second weekend of May 2021, to the Shining Rock Wilderness Area of North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest.

If you’re not a backpacker but watch the video and think you might want to be, we have an Intro to Backpacking class scheduled for June 2021. Learn about it and register here.

If you are a backpacker but are just starting out and appreciate a little direction, or you’ve been doing it a while and aren’t keen on the planning, check out our upcoming GetBackpacking! trips here.

The post Why backpack? Here’s why appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

First, if you’re curious about backpacking but don’t have any experience, we have two courses designed to get you started.

• GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking. More than 200 backpackers have come through this comprehensive intro course since it launched in 2013. We start with a two-hour gear session, going over the gear you’ll need, the gear options available, and how to get that gear into your pack. Next we have a five-hour, in-the-field training session in which we hike two miles in full pack, scout campsites, set up camp, cook a meal, break camp and hike out. Finally, we take a weekend trip to South Mountains State Park. Loaner gear available.
• GetBackpacking! Overnight Sampler. Intrigued by backpacking but not ready to commit to our Intro class? This overnight session gives you a taste of hiking with a full pack and of spending the night in the woods. Backpacking gear and food provided.

Now, let’s get into our trips! Unless otherwise indicated, our backpack trips accommodate folks with a range of experience, from recent graduates of Intro to Backpacking through experienced backpackers. Newer backpackers learn from experienced backpackers. And, since we do all the planning, experienced backpackers will be able to get in more than a trip or two a year. Here’s where we’re headed the first half of 2019:

• Appalachian Trail: Max Patch to Hot Springs, January 19-21. Get a taste of winter camping on one of the more winter-friendly 20-mile stretches of the AT in the state. Trip includes shuttle, and for folks with minimal winter camping experience, we will have a pre-hike winter-preparedness training session.
• Croatan National Forest: Neusiok Trail, February 8-10. If it’s too cold for you to backpack the mountains in February, you’ll love the milder weather on this trip in the coastal Croatan. This 20-miler isn’t entirely flat: the northern six miles has some mildly rolling terrain,  including a patch or two hinting of the mountains. The Neusiok Trail in winter is our most popular backpack trip.
• Uwharrie National Forest: Dutchman’s Creek Loop, March 30-31. This is a good opportunity for warm-weather backpackers to shake off the winter cobwebs and get ready for the backpacking season. We’ll hike in 5.5 miles on Saturday, camp, then complete the loop Sunday with a 6.5-mile hike out. This trip is for women only.
• Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E, April 5-7. Mile-for-mile, trail doesn’t get much more scenic than this 21-mile run that starts with three balds in the first couple miles, encounters two more about 8 miles in, and throws in additional great views along the way. We’ll be on the cusp of the spring wildflower bloom as well.
• Intro to Linville Gorge, May 17-19. Full immersion into Linville Gorge can be overwhelming for the first-time backpacker: the trails are steep, rocky, rugged. On top of that, the gorge has a way of generating its own weather. In this introduction, we establish base camp on the east rim, atop Shortoff Mountain, then don daypacks to drop into the gorge itself. 
• Going Solo in Wilson Creek, May 31-June 2. In this weekend class, we hike in and spend the first night together. The second night, backpackers spread over a mile-long stretch of trail for their first overnight solo (with the trip leader not far away).

Make 2019 your year of backpacking.

Happy trails,

Joe

For more info

Classes

Intro to Backpacking

• Session 1: Training: Feb. 23, Graduation: March 1-3. Info here.
• Session 2: Training: April 13, Graduation: April 26-28. Info here.

GetBackpacking! Overnight Sampler

• Session 1: March 9-10. Info here.
• Session 2: May 4. Info here.

Trips

• January: Appalachian Trail: Max Patch to Hot Springs
• February: Neusiok Trail, Croatan National Forest
• March: Uwharrie National Forest: Dutchman’s Creek Loop
• April: Appalachian Trail: Carvers Gap to US 19E
• May: Intro to Linville Gorge
• May: Going Solo in Wilson Creek

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