Last week, we extolled the virtues of basecamp backpacking : that is, hiking in a short distance with your camping gear to establish a basecamp, then doing day hikes from there. You get the advantage of backcountry camping minus the burden of hauling 35 pounds with you wherever you go. 

This week, we take you to 5 of our favorite Basecamp Backpack destinations, including their location, distance you hike in in full pack, day hike options and recommended stay.

Doughton Park

Blue Ridge Parkway near Laurel Springs NC: Longbottom Road Access

Hike in full pack: 1.5 miles

Day-hike options: 2 (with three options on one hike)

Recommended stay: hike in Friday afternoon/evening, hike out Sunday afternoon.

After a flat 1.5-mile hike on on the Grassy Gap Fire Road (natural surface, closed to traffic) from the Longbottom Road Access, set up basecamp in the spacious primitive camping area along Basin Creek. From there you have two day-hike options. If you’re hiking the recommended two days, spend the first hiking up 4.4-mile Cedar Ridge Trail, which gains nearly 2,000 vertical feet (about 90 percent of the climbing on this hike). From there, hang a left and hike the Bluff Mountain Trail (which doubles as the Mountains-to-Sea Trail) for 6.4 miles through meadows and pasture before returning down Grassy Gap Fire Road to camp. (Note: there’s a water crossing just before Grassy Gap returns to camp; scout it beforehand to make sure it’s passable; if it isn’t, from the Bluff Mountain Trail take either the Bluff Mountain Primitive Trail [shorter, steeper], or the Flat Rock Ridge Trail. Total distance: 17.6 miles. Hike No. 2: From camp take the 3.3-mile Basin Creek Trail to the old Caudill Cabin at the base of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. 

Rock Castle Gorge

Blue Ridge Parkway near Woolwine, VA: VA 805 Access

Hike in in full pack: about a quarter mile

Day-hike option: 1

Recommended trip stay: Hike in Friday afternoon/evening, hike out Sunday morning

There’s only one day-hike option out of camp, but it’s a doozy. Hike the 10.8-mile Rock Castle Gorge Trail counterclockwise and you’ll start through a gorgeous old-growth forest; the hiking is mellow at first, then the climbing and a little rock scrambling begin. At the 3-mile mark reach the Blue Ridge Parkway and go southwest, through high meadows and pasture with some nice views. At Grassy Knoll, the trail descends back into the gorge, a rollicking, rocky drop that goes for about a mile and a half. You’re exhausted when you hit bottom — and you’re also rewarded with a downhill-trending 2.8-mile hike on gravel roadbed paralleling Rock Castle Creek. So why stay a second night if there’s not a second hike option? You’ll discover why when you finally drag into camp at the end of the day.

Wilson Creek/Hunt-fish Falls

Wilson Creek Wild and Scenic Area, Pisgah National Forest near Mortimer

Hike in in full pack: 1.2 miles

Day-hike options: 2

Recommended trip stay: Hike in Friday afternoon, hike out Sunday mid-day.

Wilson Creek is at the base of Grandfather Mountain, and as such serves as the drainage for the massive massif’s southeast flank: creeks, waterfalls and cooling pools abound here. In fact, head up early enough and after packing in the 1.2 miles to camp (pictured at top) and getting set up, you can hike 0.4 miles back to Hunt-fish Falls for some stellar ogling and swimming. The long hike — about 8 miles — takes you up (and in) Lost Cove Creek for a mile before a 0.6-mile climb that gains 900 vertical feet. That’s the big climb of the day, though: after topping out at Bee Mountain it’s a gentle descent along Timber Ridge down to Gragg Prong and the return to camp. On Day 2, don your water shorts and grab a towel for the mile-and-a-half hike up Gragg Prong and the series of waterfalls and pools where, on a hot summer day, you will find unparalleled mountain bliss.

Birkhead Mountain Wilderness

Uwharrie Mountains southwest of Asheboro

Hike in in full pack: 3 miles

Recommended trip stay: hike in Friday afternoon, hike out Sunday morning

The 3-mile hike in is a bit longer and a bit more challenging than most Basecamp Backpack trips, but worth the extra effort. From the Tot Hill Access to the Birkheads on the north end of the Uwharries, hike a mile and three quarters on the Birkhead Mountain Trail, to the Camp 5 Trail. Here, you can either take that trail for a mile and a quarter to Camp 5 (which has water) or continue straight on the BMT to Camp 3, which has decent views (in the winter). Your day hike is about 9 and a half miles, on a loop consisting of the BMT, Robbins Branch and Hannah’s Creek trails. The Uwharries may not be as grand as the Southern Appalachians, but they’re also not a 3- to 5-hour drive for folks in the state’s three major population centers. It’s a good spur-of-the-moment destination for people in Charlotte, the Triangle and the Triad, and a great option for testing new gear. It’s also more accessible and hospitable in winter than a mountain hike.

Panthertown Valley

Panthertown Valley, Cashiers

Hike in full pack: 1 mile

Day-hike options: multiple

Recommended trip stay: Whatever works for your schedule; there are enough trails here to sustain you for 3-5 days.

We hate to be vague about options for hiking Panthertown Valley, but when you see the trail map, you’ll understand why. First things first: from the Salt Rock Access off SR 1121, hike the Salt Rock Trail 0.6 miles to Panther Creek Trail and go left for 0.3 miles, then right on Mac’s Gap: in less than 0.2 miles you’ll begin seeing multiple camp sites near Panthertown Creek. You’re smack dab in the middle of things, with great hikes out the front of your tent. Some things you’ll definitely want to check out: Granny Burrell and Schoolhouse falls, the Great Wall, Big Green and Little Green mountains, Blackroot Mountain, Panthertown Valley itself. You’ll definitely need a map. The best for exploring the area’s 30-plus miles of trail: “Burt Kornegay’s A Guide’s Guide to Panthertown, Bonas Defeat and Big Pisgah.”

* * *

Details, details

For more information on each adventure, click the link:

• Doughton Park
• Rock Castle Gorge
• Birkhead Mountain Wilderness
• Wilson Creek
• Panthertown Valley

Be a backpacker

Like the idea of basecamp backpacking, but you’re not a backpacker?  We can take care of that, 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.

The post 5 of our Favorite Basecamp Backpack Trips appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

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!.

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!.

I drifted off to sleep realizing that the weekend of cavorting in the pools and cascades of Wilson Creek that we had planned might not come to pass. We’d been waiting weeks, in 90-degree-plus weather, for the chance to jump into these chill mountain pools, then sun off on the adjoining granite slabs, and repeat. Oh well, I thought, good thing we have a Plan B.

It’s not so much the unexpected that torpedoes an outing, it’s the lack of a backup plan. As Yvon Chouinard put it, “For me, when everything goes wrong — that’s when adventure starts.”

We may take issue with the word “wrong” (“askew”?) but I’m onboard with the overall sentiment. When things don’t go according to plan, go to Plan B.

Every morning I like to hike 3 miles before heading into the office. I have several standard routes that fit the bill, and I use this 45 minutes of meandering to mull as well: to think about the day ahead, to plan, to get organized. Every hike is different — cloudy one day, sunny the next, 71 degrees one morning 61 the next — but I like these hikes because they are predictable and don’t require much attention. While they are outdoors and generally in scenic settings, they do not constitute adventure. They are outings.

True adventure

True adventure, by Patagonia founder Chouinard’s definition, is hard to come by. Take a hike at your local State Park, for instance. North Carolina is blessed with 41 pretty darn special state parks, recreation areas and natural areas. But with few exceptions, it is hard to have a Chouinardian adventure in one of these playgrounds. The trails are well maintained, you’re rarely beyond sight of a blaze, there are restrooms. Sure, you might get caught in a freak snowstorm atop Grandfather Mountain, or momentarily misdirected in the rainforest of Gorges State Park. But by and large, these are safe, chaperoned excursions into the woods. The basic trail map available at most trailhead kiosks is all you need to safely navigate. Adventure? Mmm, no.

When Plan A goes askew

So what does constitute true adventure, when Plan A goes askew?

Let’s say you’re leading a backpack trip into the Linville Gorge Wilderness and a storm rolls in. It’s raining pretty good, causing everyone to look down, to keep their eyes on the rivery trail. The lead hiker misses a fork and takes the wrong tine, a tine that leads into oblivion. You eventually catch that mistake, rejoin the main trail, then encounter an area where the trail is indistinct (this is a Designated Wilderness, remember, where signs and blazes are frowned upon).

As an electrical storm joins the rain, you find the trail but somehow end up taking it the wrong way — in the direction you came from. But because it’s 10:30 at night, dark and raining, you don’t realize that. That is, until you realize you’re back to where your initial fork-inspired adventure began. It’s 11:30 by now, you say to heck with it and advise everyone to find a spot to pitch camp. You do likewise, then set out to find water, because everyone now, ironically, is low on water. Your adventure continues for several more hours as you become even more disoriented and end up sleeping under a rock (a rock that you discover in dawn’s early light is maybe a half mile from the parking lot you started from 18 hours earlier).

Enter Plan B

Our resulting Plan B? The next day we hiked to our intended destination for the day before and pitched camp. Our plan to do a loop of the gorge was scuttled, but likely would have been anyway: the heavy rains made a necessary river crossing too dangerous to try. We eventually dried out and spent the rest of the day sunning on an outcrop overlooking the gorge. Not the trip we envisioned, but pretty darn swell all the same. And an adventure we’ll be sharing for years.

Friday night at Wilson Creek I had little trouble sleeping because I already had a good Plan B in mind. While 49,000-acre Wilson Creek is best known in summer for its refreshing pools, it also has some mature forest that makes for great rainy day hiking. We ended up doing the mellow North Harper Creek Trail under thick, rain-absorbing canopy, then the Lost Cove Cliffs Trail, which lead to an eerily cloud-shrouded overlook. We didn’t get the spectacular view we sought, but it was pretty cool being in the clouds as they formed and parted. (We would get our view the next day, when Part II of Plan B, took us, under clearing skies, to Big Lost Cove Cliffs, pictured above.)

We always hope that our trips go as planned. As a result we generally don’t form a Plan B before heading out. Which is why Plan Bs typically are formed on the fly. Which shouldn’t be a problem if you’ve done your homework during your original trip planning. In determining the route you’ll take, you should also be evaluating nearby options. Take a map — yes, it’s old school, but it helps you see the bigger geographic picture — and see what’s around you. If you’ve chosen a particularly challenging route, then get injured or discover you aren’t in shape, are there less challenging options nearby? Check for trails where the topo lines aren’t as tight, then look for trail reviews on alltrails.com, hikingproject.com, or your favorite trail app. Or maybe you come down with the sniffles and would rather bask in the sun than labor up a mountain. See if there are campsites near (but not too near) trailheads that are also near a nice feature. (At Wilson Creek, there are several good — and little used — campsites adjoining Big Lost Cove Cliffs, just a 1.7-mile hike in.) 

It may take some extra digging to spot these options, but isn’t planning a trip part of the fun? Besides, if Plan A falls through, your outing isn’t over. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re in for a true adventure.

* * *

Adventures in backpacking

One of the many things we love about backpacking — of strapping everything you need to your back and heading into the backcountry — is that while you always want to have a Plan A, there’s a good likelihood you’ll have to resort to Plan B. Because of the planning and forethought required to backpack, you’ll likely be better prepared to conjure up a Plan B. Provided, that is, you learn the ins and outs of backpacking before hitting the trail.

That’s the goal of our GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking program, designed to make you a competent, confident backpacker in three sessions. 

• Session 1: Getting to know you, getting to know your gear. In a Zoom intro meeting we learn about each other, about backpacking and how the class will unfold, and about gear.
• Session 2: In full pack, we hike hike a couple miles to a campsite, set up camp, cook a meal. You get a sense of how to properly pack a pack, how to carry weight, how to assess a campsite, how to pitch camp, how to eat on the trail (well, by the way).
• Session 3: A three-day, two-night graduation trip to South Mountains State Park. 

We have two sessions scheduled for the fall. Click the appropriate link for more information and to sign up:

• Triangle area, with in-field training at Eno River State Park on Oct. 3 and the graduation trip Oct. 23-25. Details here.
• Charlotte area, with in-field training at Morrow Mountain State Park on Oct. 3 and the graduation trip Oct. 16-18. Details here.

The post Have a Plan B, and you have an adventure appeared first on GetGoing NC!.