Backpacking Fail in West Virginia

[Music] hey everybody it's frozen from the future of this video so i'm gonna throw this out to the youtube and the hiking community this is one of my failed backpacking trips i had gotten to a trailhead pretty late set up for camp and the next day i realized that there was no way that i was going to make it back to my car before i had to return to work and it's okay to have these types of trips i didn't have a lot of time to do a lot of planning plus i was catching the end of hurricane irene the mud on the second day will speak for itself but for now i hope you enjoy the video [Music] hey everybody it's frozen and thank you for joining me on another outdoor adventure i cannot wait for this we got three days two nights 32 miles i am on the pocahontas trail in north fork mountain trail gonna make a loop out of it about 32 miles it's gonna be a lot of thunderstorms a lot of rain tomorrow but you know what i found time to get out and i'm going to enjoy it now specifically i'm located just south of the dolly sods and just west of the cranberry wilderness to kind of narrow it down for you guys i'll leave some info from mid-atlantic hikes which is where i got this hike idea from down in the description below but let's get started it's already 3 45 and i need to just need to get to camp now unfortunately my planning of this whole trip was centered around the wrong parking lot and i noticed it just as i pulled in so i don't know where i'm going tonight i don't know where i'm going tomorrow but we sure as heck we'll figure it out let's get to it i was on my way to go get a nemo tensor sleeping pad for the tent based on the recommendations you guys left in the old loggers path video thank you guys so much but rei doesn't have them in stock anymore you got to get them online so oops should have got it earlier but uh we can do a hammock trip haven't had one of those uh since november wow yeah november yeah it's definitely time for a hammock drive anyway walking this road for a mile and hopefully we'll find the trail here i'm not sure if you can park up here or not i don't remember going through a gate but i did play it safe i parked where they told me to park the shelter right over there behind those trash cans and right here welcome to the cranberry back country pocahontas trail right here now the pocahontas trail is also down that way uh we're kind of making a loop out of multiple trails it must have rained really hard here i'm going to check the gps just to make sure i'm on the right track after i get a little ways in since i kind of turned around a little bit from parking at a different parking lot i had this all dialed down to plan to a t was gonna show that i actually do some research on my trips and then i kind of blew it out of the water by uh not researching the right parking lot that's funny oh well i'm just gonna fill up a bottle here not sure when my next water source is but this should blast me for tonight tomorrow and i have an extra layer on my back right now there's gonna be these rock formations like this pretty much the whole trip from what i'm reading i can't wait i love that i'm just going to find whatever works for tonight stealth it and we'll see so starting tonight thunderstorms as a result of more than likely hurricane laura i can't believe there's been two hurricanes this like back to back hurricanes that's crazy that's nuts this is very peaceful here very quiet let's hope that continues hold on oh my gosh trail's a bit soupy for sure so on this trip i got the light af multi-day 20 liter pack i was able to fit two and a half days of food in here and that's probably about the limit for me with a hammock up you could definitely do three and a half days with the tent it's just with hammocks it's just more volume it's just the way it is you're carrying not only a quilt but you're carrying the underquilt as well plus a tarp and the tarp is definitely a high volume item so i was able to fit it though and it's really comfortable so far we'll see how it goes still testing this guy um great so far great pack so far look how big that food bag is we'll take a closer look in a minute after i get set up all right it's been a long time but here's my hammock dream hammock darian i got two different color chords oh boy that's thunder anyway real quick see i got two different color ends on this guy we have black and then we got blue over here hopefully you can see that but i do that to distinguish the head and the foot ends so you can always set up correctly you know what i'm not going to waste any time i hear that thunder rolling then i don't see any clouds in the sky actually we're we're pretty clear up there maybe that's something else sounds like thunder though either way i'm gonna get set up now just in case what i usually do when i set up a hammock is i i sit down in it make sure it's about i don't know about chairs height make sure my feet can uh get on the ground without really any pressure on my under my knees and right now it's really good i also like to keep my foot end about six inches higher than my head end which kind of keeps me centered where i want to be in the hammock instead of me sliding downhill all night similar to camping on flat ground in a tent in a sleeping pad if you camp on a slant you're always going to be sliding down so same kind of same kind of deal only this one you elevate the foot end a little bit so all right i'm going to get my well let's get the underquilt on for now don't worry about the tarp last that way you guys can see what i'm doing got my 40 degree three-quarter length under quilt with me today it's kind of like my summer under quilt it takes the place of a sleeping pad i just find it more comfortable than a sleeping pad i know i'm kind of going back to basics but there's a lot of new subscribers here and i know i'm gonna get a lot of questions about hammock setup i mean there's a ton this channel is really uh blown up recently and i'm actually having a hard time keeping track and answering all the comments so please excuse uh my reply times i've been really busy recently i'm just glad i found time to get out this weekend all right everybody i got a camp all set up now um for the most part that is i pushed over a little tiny tree that was kind of leaning toward my hammock it was completely dead it was just being held up by a little tiny pine over there actually and then while i was doing that i heard a giant tree fell down that way which is where i was looking for a camp before i actually passed on a campsite because there was a huge dead tree that i didn't want to deal with it was actually a pretty good campsite too i made my way over here but i'm all set up now so i'm not going back but anyway looking forward to some rain tonight hopefully i love the sound of that on my tarp anyway i'm gonna start dinner this is like three days of like through hiker food at this point you can see how big the meals are the pack of gourmet meals there's a little better one so they started this packaging they used to be like real real nice small packaging and then they just made them like mountain house meals uh i don't know if they increased their servings maybe that's why they did it but uh and paco gourmet is really really good so can't complain about that anyway i'm doing all-american burger works it looks like i thought i was doing kicking chicken because i had lower calories because i didn't hike a lot today yeah 340 calories compared to 500 so kicking chicken hot wings all right freeze-dried fruits too i thought that was a thunder again all these nuts and stuff and honey buns and coffee and breakfast essentials and snickers a whole bunch of stuff this trip here's my tortillas okay while i'm thinking about it i'm actually going to hang my bear line up here so i can just pull my food back up real quick if it starts raining um one or two inches of rain is quite a bit so let's get this taken care of let's see that's definitely thunder it's just way off in the distance right now so we can stay right there for now come on man all right let's try this branch this branch looks dead but i'm hoping this is the only thing i see in the immediate vicinity i missed nope wow i'm failing hardcore on this trip guys i got it over two lens that time there we go all right all right and that'll just stay there until i'm ready to hang the bag kicking chicken hot wings all right let's see four ounces of cool water okay four ounces [Applause] all right for a garbage bag i just bring along a gallon freezer bag these we use once at the house and then we put them away just for camping you know what i mean so um i think i had bacon frozen bacon in here at some point i don't know but i'll just start the bag off and that'll get rolled up and then that gets uh tossed in my food bag at night and during the day when i actually need this i have it in my mesh pocket man i can hear crazy thunder i hope that's coming across on the camera there's some planes flying over too but there's definitely definite thunder happening here so we'll see if it's a crazy night i haven't had a crazy night in a long time i didn't see this guy right here that guy's dead you know i worry about that i really do but if you were worried about every single little dead tree in the woods you wouldn't be able to camp anywhere there's always going to be a dead tree that you don't know about um i probably look around way more than i should but you know you try to be as careful as you can out here but at some point you do just have to have fun so i know that guy's there it is leaning this way so it would avoid me but uh yeah it's just in the back of your mind i can't believe how quiet it is here tonight there's no birds there's no crickets there's no water all i can hear is thunder every now and then right there and the trails actually right here um when i planned this trip see i always plan my trips without looking at the weather i look at the weather last um and i only cancel a trip based on weather if it's going to be like ridiculous wind or something like that with rain there's no reason to cancel your trip on the rain in fact i think going out hiking in the rain is a great way to figure out anything and everything that could possibly go wrong with not only your gear but yourself and uh i always look forward to an opportunity to you know just hike in the rain like what's the big deal it's just water it's just water but you do have to take some certain precautions like for me i know that my feet don't really get blisters but they do um they do crack so i have that foot bomb in there and i make use of that on the trail anyway enjoy this all right moment of truth see this branch breaks ah we're golden ah i don't have covet i promise don't you hate doing it at the grocery store actually while i'm showing this i may as well talk about it this is that a guy named jeff meyers meyer's hammock labs i believe meyer's tech hammock lab something like that he's on facebook i'll actually leave a link to him uh in this video description but he makes stuff uh for those familiar with like dutch wear and things he does kind of the similar things but he gets away from metal hardware he does uh plastic stuff and a lot of stuff with am steel but this is one of his uh products right here and this is just like um this takes the place of a wasp or a dutch or a whole bunch of other things and this just allows you to twist this right and then you just wrap the line around and you can actually hear it click on this when it locks it into place i'm also still using these these are evo loops right and they take the place of a dutch clip which i love the dutch clips until it started wearing a big um hole in my lines uh i've switched over these these button knot evo loop things uh for the at and this is the same loop that i had on since the beginning of the at so it has a hundred and something nights on it and they're still going strong he actually sent me another couple pair whenever i got back for free he says hey i think your evo loops could use replacing but i haven't had i haven't had any wear and tear on these guys at all it has well over a hundred nights on it though um it's getting dark here guys about 7 30 probably going to hunker down storm's getting closer thunder's getting more consistent now that's coming from that direction over there which i believe is south which makes sense that's where the storm's coming from and i already took the porch mode off so i pulled the trekking poles out and kind of locked the tarp down and hoping for a quiet night i would love some rain just because it's so quiet here it'd be nice to hear some pitter patter on the tarp tonight but anyway that's winter that's a lot of rain coming let's see i think that's rain that's that's gonna be a nice nice little sound on the tarp hasn't gotten here yet but it's really really close here it comes i can see it i can see it coming here comes it's getting closer let's hit that tree right there there it comes there we go all right guys well that'll about do for me i'm gonna listen to my audiobook which i have the witcher tonight i actually got them all on amazon the other day and i figured i enjoyed the game and the netflix series so much why not take a look at the actual books that started it all anyway everybody have a good night i'll see you in the morning good morning everybody i was up pretty late last night i forgot that my mio had caffeine in it i had a whole bunch of caffeine right before bed i'm so stupid uh anyway um provided the the trail is really soupy like it was yesterday i can only imagine how bad it's gonna be today i'm thinking about heading up to the dolly sogs this just to the north of me and get another night in there um charles is gonna dictate what i'm gonna do today primarily i'm out here to enjoy myself and i think that's why most of us come out here i know some of us come out here to make videos and that's on my mind too but um yeah if the trail is gonna be like it was yesterday i can only imagine it's gonna be 10 times worse today because it rained all night it's gonna rain all day and then we're gonna get cleared up um sometime sunday morning i don't know i might have just drove four and a half hours just to do an overnight trip three or four miles in but it don't matter as long as i'm out here i don't really care uh sunday i might uh if if i end up do going home after all this and keep in mind this thunderstorms all day today dully suds is pretty high in elevation i'm not sure i want to be in the open fields either i should have just waited two weeks to be honest with you to come down here and not do it in the midst of a hurricane i don't know what i was thinking i was i was i think i was just wanting to get out again but i don't know we'll see anyway let's go have some breakfast maybe i'll change my mind let's see and let's see oh man i don't know how to get across maybe i go this way there's like no solid ground okay here's something i can stand on that let's hold on to this log this is ridiculous man this is absurd i can't believe it's this wet feels good on my feet i will say that so if i continue today we're going to do probably 15. that's what i'm going to have to do i don't want to do any more than that tomorrow i still got to drive home um all right well it's not so bad here my goodness this is uh well at least i have a story to tell right this is crazy maybe i'll try again whenever it's uh yeah you think by august this would uh clear up oh well you know what at least i'm having fun and i got to sleep outside it's supposed to be like this all day guys all right we're calling it i can't believe it's just washed out to be honest with you uh i've never seen the trail like this before i'm gonna have to ask on instagram to see if this trail dries out i don't know this is nuts for august wow it's august like this should be dry as a bone right now you imagine this in the spring about halfway through the first couple miles of the second day i realized that based on my average miles per hour which ended up to be 0.8 i wouldn't arrive at camp until about 9 30 that night so i had to do the following day about 18 miles to get out to my car then drive home and be back to work on monday it's just one of those trips that just didn't happen for me but i'm happy to share my experiences with you all i hope you enjoyed the video and i will see you on the next adventure

Channel: Outdoor Adventures

Views: 27,094

Rating: 4.9403973 out of 5

Keywords: appalachian trail, at2019, thruhiking, thru hiking, camping, backpacking, reviews, gear, outdoor adventures, frozen, hammock, mountain, hike, camp, backpack, trails, ultralight, hammock camping, solo hike, west virginia, backpacking west virginia, backpacking fail

Id: u1VrwNty1cg

Length: 24min 2sec (1442 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020