Winter Hammock Camping in the Smoky Mountains - High Winds, Snow & Rain

in the Smoky Mountains right now it's winter you never know what you're gonna get just makes a huge difference to be up there on those ridges oh so now I have a bit of a decision to make here we go [Music] hey everybody syntax 77 here and let me tell you what the current situation is I am right now actually in the Smoky Mountains I'm right on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee and I'm about to do a three-day two-night backpacking trip out here near the Fontana Dam actually I'm not too far from that I'm about an hour west of Bryson City North Carolina and I'm at the 20-mile trail head right down there over right over there is the 20-mile ranger station and we're gonna do some backpacking now this is actually my second time here and it's kind of hard to believe I had to look it up but believe it or not it's actually been five years since my first time here when I did a backpacking trip video that I had a lot of fun doing that was actually in summer and I did three days two nights because it was warmer I had an ultra-light or I'll call it Sam I pretty close to ultralight backpacking gear rig and I did 57 miles in those three days in the summer because it was longer days I had less weight it just worked out that way this time around I'm doing three days again two nights but it's winter right now it's actually about mid-january and the days are shorter my gear is heavier and because in that first video I really pounded out the mileage I want to slow it down this time so I'm gonna try kind of the opposite of that trip we're gonna do three days but we're gonna only do about 6 miles per day should give us some more time at camp especially because it will be shorter days and whatnot and what kind of soak things in speaking of a slightly heavier pack there's my pack right there face weight roughly 23 24 ish pounds plus food and water so around a 30 ish pound loadout and then I have some camera gear and whatnot as well but we're gonna take our time and just kind of soak in the sights and enjoy the Smoky Mountains I'm really glad to be back here I'm super excited I drove down last night it was about a 10 hour drive to get here axe closer to 11 probably what stops and whatnot but stayed at hotel got here it's mid-morning right now and we're going to get on the trail I got a map over here trying to show you what we got going on we are right here right there is the there it is 20 mile trail head that's where we are right now parked we're gonna take the 20 mile trail to the Wolf Ridge Trail and we're gonna sneak our way up here and eventually towards Gregory bulb which should be pretty cool for the second day but our campsite is a little before it it's at campsite 13 and then we're gonna keep going now if you wanted to do a shorter route you can cut it short here with this was that the long hungry Ridge Trail but I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna go over here around to campsite 113 for night 2 and then hopefully a little excursion - shuk stack which is a nice fire tower with some great views from what I've read and then we'll continue along down here and back to the 20 mile trailhead and our vehicle I got my trusty GPS right there I'll be recording all my tracked native waypoints and various items like that so if you're interested in that you want to do the home game or do this hike yourself feel free to download that from my websites and tech 77 comm I got my campsite reservations now she'll be pointed out you do have to make reservations in the Smokies it's one of the most I think it's actually the most popular National Park in the country about 11 plus million visitors in any given year so you do have to reserve your campsites interestingly enough we're actually in the middle of a government shutdown right now or at least a partial government shutdown when you go to the website they make it pretty clear that normal services like bathrooms Rangers etc are not available and pretty much hike at your own risk but the reservation website was still up and running and they still gladly took my money it's only a few bucks a night so I was able to reserve I got my permit on me and printed out and we're gonna hit the trail and check things out because we're doing more of a backcountry experience as opposed to frontcountry I don't think it's really going to affect us too much unless something goes wrong and I need medical attention which mr. probably not would not even say I don't think it's really going to affect this that there's no Rangers out and about we're just going to be safe and careful and go about our business and have a good hike I actually did recently I think it was my most recent video I put out a winter backpacking gear video kind of an essentials list of things you can add to your kit so you can get out there and whit's a backpack if you're only used to three season backpacking so if you're interested in my gear I'll show it and get into it as we go but if you really want the nitty-gritty I'll link it right here and you can check that full gear video out but right now I'm just going to get this thing on lock the Jeep up and get on the trail here alright so into the woods we go the drive down last night was pretty windy it's actually a lot colder back home windchill was like negative 2 when I walk my dog the other morning so going south sounded kind of good right now it's only like 40 degrees might go down into the maybe the 20s possibly the teens tonight and right there we got our first trail sign so 20 mile trail warf Ridge Trail like I said that's what we're going for so a half mile from now and we'll get to that Junction fishing regulations I've been told multiple times by people that I should do some trout fishing down here I'm not really much of a fisherman but I have some friends that are and I've told them over the years we need to come down here and do some fishing just hasn't happened yet maybe one of these days but this is obviously a solo trip other than the fact that you're joining me of course so no fishing but hopefully we'll get some good views Gregory Bald super popular especially campsite 13 where we're going tonight but that's in this summer right now it's winter so the fun thing about booking in advance on the website is you can see exactly how many people have already booked that spot and you can kind of plan accordingly or at least know what you're getting into and I booked a month ago or so I think that's about as far in the future as you can book 30 days and when I checked the night before coming up still nobody had booked my campsite so I think we're gonna have both of these spots to ourself which for the Smoky Mountains in summer would be a near impossibility and when I've read I am up here middle of the week I did that on purpose to try to cut down the crowds even in the winter there are occasional people to come down of course but it's mostly Friday Saturday Sunday maybe a Monday oh pardon me it's uphill right now so I'm already getting up a little winded I have to adjust to having the pack on here this initial leg of trail right here the blonde the 20-mile trail is actually formerly at least an old logging road from the 1920s so nice and wide fairly mild grade it's not too bad it's not a terrible way to start a hike that's for sure and we got this water right next to us is rushing by pretty cool and like I said temperature not that bad actually right now I don't even have my puffy coat on I have my base layer a t-shirt a long-sleeve shirt which I probably could do without and my hardshell so even after a tenth of a mile okay I'm already heating up a little bit might have to shed the layer it's nice and dry and clear right now very sunny tomorrow potentially might have some rain from what the weather report said no internet in here so I won't be able to get updates on my phone that is I do have a weather band radio that I'll bust out later I've never used one in the Smokies before so I don't know if I'll be able to get reception or not I know when we are out in Colorado it worked pretty well and believe it or not without an app or a cell phone you can still get weather go old school get a weather band radio powered by some double-a batteries and you can get some weather reports they discard 24/7 they just run on a loop but I think mostly tomorrow is going to be the day that I might get wet I have a full hardshell not just this top but also bottom pants rain cover for my pack hopefully at higher elevations maybe we'll get snow instead of rain that would be awesome because I'm looking at local weather forecast for Gatlinburg Tennessee but I think Gatlinburg elevation is 900 feet our first campsite tonight it's going to be 4,600 feet so usually lose three degrees Fahrenheit per thousand feet of elevation three point three something like that so I'm thinking we'll be 10 to 14 degrees below the forecast in town we'll take it as it comes right now though quite nice it's a bridge here's our first intersection which I think I might use as an opportunity to shed that layer because I am weirdo I'm sweating right now despite the icicles I'm warming up so this front pack with all my camera gear and it has definitely heat me up to ribs front pack if you have a lot of electronics or place for snacks those are pretty nice but I think the gloves are gonna have to go as well they'll definitely come in handy later but not right now I'm just gonna roll this up and I don't know tuck it somewhere on my back here it might be a little overdressed but attack and as you can see from the sign here if we went that way to the right counterclockwise for the loop we would hit the Appalachian Trail we're gonna hit that on the way back right now we're gonna do towards Gregory bulb so six and a half miles - Gregory bald like I said the campsite is a little before that so around six miles today going to the left clockwise loop oh man almost busted my butt there that is solid or at least a thin layer of ice as mentioned in that gear video that I've pointed out I do have some micro spikes for added traction but I don't think it's necessary quite yet but I do have those as an option right now I just got my garment gcx snow boots on the vortex so they are breathable what you can keep dry if I go through some occasional snow or even ankle deep water but I'll just be careful as I navigate this ice and leaves and keep on movin look at that water rush combined pretty cool hmm all right I got a little nervous when I saw this water crossing peak interview but luckily and as I've read and I did my research I don't think we're doing any water crossings that require our feet to get wet she's gotta be careful of the ice on here of course murders like this throughout this loop to take our time be careful and not luckily they're docile Ahmad yeah it's actually more traction on the trail so far which is nice although I should probably keep moving you spent often water above 32 I suppose that you know anything so far though to trail after that icy area it's been pretty dry almost like a fall vibe that is over there well I'll shoot but you ever just cruising I'll take the dry leaves nice crunchy decent traction usually make their way along I'll tell you what though I'm getting a little hungry for lunch I know I just got here but uh I got some ramen noodles I got my white gas stove in the summer I do alcohol or as bits toasts are nice and lightweight and minimal but oh look another Bridge right up here but uh yeah for winter trips low temps more hot meals just makes me feel a little better to have a heavier but more robust though system so I can probably bust out some noodles in five minutes or less when we got here another crossing so I'll just keep making my way along the trail here and when the mood hits me it will stop mixing my module soup all right got my white gas stove going here hooked up to the Polaris Optimus stove system Oh ramen noodles chicken just bring that up to a boil just a little bit more and then I'll cut the heat and just let it steep a little bit but this is definitely the opposite vibe of my first trip where I was cranking out 20-plus miles a day eaten Clif bars and just keeping it going but this trip six miles for today why not relax a little bit have some hot noodles slow things down a little bit have a nice meal on the trail in fact that's pretty close to boiling which is more than I need so if I turn this off by flipping it over there we go that'll cut off the fuel this should be hot enough to finish off the noodles and I got myself a lunch set pad here which I showed on that gear video my but kind of a little insulated although to be honest right now it is 57 degrees didn't expect a temperature that high but that's fine according to my weather report and it could still very well go down to the 20s if not the teens tonight I got long johns under here or a base layer I'm a little bit warm right now but that's alright we'll keep on trucking and just keep the layers kind of light enjoying the sights I got the river right here right back over there that's where I got the water for my soup I brought it to a boil so I'm not worried about that I have my water reserves still intact over here I got a two one liter bottle so I'm only carrying two liters maximum at a time I do have a collapsible water bottle that might not work so well if it goes below freezing but I have that as a backup but in these things right now I'm not too worried about it I do have to be careful though despite the fact that I'm only doing six miles today it's gonna be dark in about four hours and as usual I'll probably get to camp on the cusp of dark Holi seems to be the case for me I'm actually right at the junction with the 20 mile loop trail I'm gonna go left towards cabe site 95 as marked on the sign here but I'm not staying there I'm gonna towards campsite 13 which is a bit beyond that but once we get there hopefully before dark but we'll see we'll set up camp and you're good to go hmm been a pretty steady uphill and we're to another Junction here so campsite 95 which is pretty prominently marked around here whatever reason it's apparently down there I know that campsite 13 which is what we're on is on Wolf Ridge so I think down there's probably just a spur trail to campsite 95 so we're gonna go right towards parson bald and Wolf Ridge up there more uphill well that's alright and just keep on keepin on it is 3:30 p.m. forty nine point eight degrees so it's dropped a little bit in temperature part of that might be because we're going up at elevation but I think mostly because we're getting later in the day but we're getting there you've been doing a switchback game for a while it's actually wherever we came from down there kind of snaked back and forth on and around down here looks like it curves up around there a little bit so basically just kind of following the terrain in and out of these little ravines and mountainside runoffs I would like to get to camp with an hour to set up and daylight but it was nice to have that lunch down there relaxed by the stream so we'll see what happens enjoying your sight as we curve around the side of this Ridge though on to the opposite side definitely some increased presence of snow that's for sure son must not hit quite as much over on this side and definitely am starting to hear Oh actually it's right there starting to hear some drainage there's a little stream right there I think I'm good on water but that would be a good opportunity I'll try tag that on my GPS it looks pretty reliable [Applause] believe it or not some way or another I've been just hiking along but it is o 5:22 p.m. we don't have a lot of daylight left hopefully soon just terranes gonna level out cuz I'm a little tired but I'm keeping it going as you can see it's alternating between wet leaves and snow but we're getting there and just looking forward to getting the camp setting up and getting a fresh early start tomorrow but one step at a time so for now I've got some pretty cool views over here Sun is slowly setting over there and we're just making our way along first day at least for me is always the this toughest just kind of adapting to this is what you're doing now walk walk walk carry stuff on your back [Music] so it looks like there might be some night hiking in my future it was nice to kinda take my time relax have lunch sit look at the sights but this is the flipside of that especially in winter next thing you know today is over in terms of daylight at least [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning everybody can't tell if I'm in focus or not camera lens is a little fogged up huh it was and still is very windy last night I did read trip reports I ended up night hiking as you saw obviously I got here after dark so I'll show you around once we get up but I have read trip reports about this campsite 13 that say it's pretty much a perfect wind tunnel even in normal conditions and for us we actually have there windy conditions so it's it's been ripping through here kind of tossing me around I'm on some decent trees but it still blowed me around it's just actually pushing my tarp right up against me and rocking the hammock a bit so that was waking me up here and there plenty of dreams of jumping out of airplanes and going skydiving and wind sailing and all that that's what I feel like I've been doing but I got you last night just had some dinner didn't make a fire or anything just hopped right in the tent I think with the wind it would have been crazy so rather than collect firewood I just ate dinner and hopped in here luckily the lowest temp I saw when I woke up around 4 a.m. it's 8 a.m. now before a.m. it was only like 36 I think it's up to 38 or so right now so with my zero degree quilts which are pretty overkill for that I've been fine because despite it only being in the 30s that wind is just constantly so I can heat off of me or at least trying to but with these zero quilts even though I don't have a winter sock or a top cover or anything like that I've been fine although when I reached out to grab my camera this morning I did feel that underquilt is a little wet from some blowing rain that's going on in even though I tried my best to cover up my pack it looks like my front pack is soaked and so are portions of the outside of my backpack so hopefully I was able to pull down a quick weather report I got a spot of 4g up here you can see a town in the distance so I got some weather report it looks like it might rain after 5 p.m. today but it should start to brighten up and dry out as the day goes on that's what I'm hoping for so I think I'm going to get myself out of the hammock here get my rain gear on probably just pack up I don't know if I want to mess with cooking gear and as I get blown around I think I'm just going to get on the trail maybe and find somewhere a little more protected to cook although we will be a coaching Gregory ball pretty shortly so it might be a while before we have some shelter from the wind but let's play it by ear for now I got to convince myself to get up because it is nice and toasty in here and it does not sound like it out there [Applause] oh man it is foggy and chilly and windy that there's my hammock gear coupe and hex fiber full 5 ounce tarp stretched out over my I can't really see it right now but my hammock gear hammock leopard bug net hammock not that bugs are a problem right now but you'd be surprised that bug net actually maintains a decent amount of warmth it's certainly better than nothing it would have been a nice time for me to use a sock though which would be the thing I've shown before it it completely envelops the hammock to hold in heat also would have protected me from the elements because this weight has just been blowing and getting everything wet including like I mentioned I guess I just didn't have this completely covered and it's just been blowing a constant mist so the bags a little wet here's where I had dinner last night the stove obviously sat right there within the camp's pool which actually did bring with me luckily it didn't blow away this little fire of me try light stool came in handy but I think I'm gonna pack up and get myself out of here out of this wind this is what I've been listening to all night it's been crazy the weather report I pulled down actually said there could be gusts as high as 40 miles per hour today and I am not sure if that's taking into consideration it's probably talking about in town the elevation I think for about weather stations like 900 feet and we're up at 4600 so we could get some serious gusts now it looks like I just lost a tent spike came off finally maybe I might have tripped over like anyway whoo I got to get my gloves back on my sealskin gloves that I showed in a gear video like I mentioned that video they're usually fine down to 30 degrees once it goes under 30 I need to layer up with like a mitten overtop but for this weather I've been flying with just the seal spins if I can find them in my pack they're a nice breathable yet waterproof or heavily water resistant glove whoo cold over here hopefully you didn't blow down oh my god it did Barney here's the bear hanging system they have it's very easy and I had my food double bagged and tied on there a lot of times I'll put it in my pack cover but I wanted to keep it on my back last night for the rain and wind reasons this blew right off now one thing I will say about these is you notice they're just hooks like this and I should have carribine did on there this is not the one I use the worst mine is way up there but I should have carribine dick luckily nothing attacked it so there's my bag of food still intact I just keep it on a grocery bag it's all in one spot so I can easily put it on the hook when I get to camp course it didn't really matter last night I guess but I just throw that right in the pack right in the top of my pack makes it easy to get my food and go Bridget look with these zero degree quilts are around I think 24 25 ounces apiece and there's definitely taking up some room in the pack but so warm I have a 20 degree set that I could have brought but actually because I write about the wind I figure I would bulk up the insulation I just felt like doing something different it's the last few trips I have done the sock where I can get away with the lighter quilt because I have that soft containing light just a bit of a trade-off I bought some more weight in quilts but less bulk in weight from leaving the sock amiksak ago the interior of the bag is wet I didn't even put on my thicker socks I had these four around camp but didn't even feel the need for lastly there's like gloves got trying to shake some hands for sure also this under 12 before I pack it up I'd like to leave it out and breathing a little bit but oh it's moving it's soaking up more this mist its spitting through here the hammock here damn it the stuff sack is integrated stuffs right into the couch right there but I find that's nice at night you can stuff like a flashlight or a knife or whatever I have stuff sack here with my phone my battery charger also a little weight on the hammock is nice to keep it from blowing all over it was a mess setting up last night I'm directly broadside to the wind which was good for my tarp to block some wind instead of it coming straight down you know my back but until I got set up as you can see right now it's weighted down and it's still trying to get away it's been interesting this is a breathable fabric believe it's Oregon so it is breathable but the outer material is slightly water-resistant it's going to get wet and but you guys clean up a little bit so if they shake it it's coming off and the other side I decide to drive so I'll get it set up tonight and air it out a little more hopefully if it's drier tonight as I sleep in it should warm up and evaporate out all right welcome along here that's Mike I had 16 spikes when I set up I got four left now two of them are somewhere in the mix hopefully I'll be able to find them these little titanium guys are great they're only point two ounces but they are hard to see versus awesome am I more like orange a little mistakes they have so that's all right we're down to just the wind sail or hammock here just got to put that stuff sack take my key beetle buckle straps down by the way it pains me to admit this but it probably should you wanted to see an example how not to set up a hammock as far as the tree selection goes my only excuse I'll go ahead and make one that I was totally over it I guess by the time I slugged in here from my night hike yesterday but that's really no excuse check this out yeah I probably should have paid attention look at that tree that's not great it's completely rotted out inside thing just feels not not healthy not would you want to hang your weight from in a hammock in any condition let alone in the middle of heavy winds like we're having now I mean look at these trees just going crazy can't imagine what it's going to be like up that way I'm Gregory bald but we'll find out thankfully I survived the night but again that kind of scares me that I did that no wonder I was getting woken up this thing was moving all over the place and trees will do that even when they're healthy I don't think that's why I was bouncing around so much but boy that doesn't make me too comfortable that is the definition of rotted wood alright so before that falls down I'm gonna pack up my hammock and we'll start heading this way get back on the trail - its Gregory bald all right we're back at it I sure hope you can hear me I apologize but there's not much I can do about this wind but making our way back out towards the trail there's already a lot less snow on the ground last night there were none of these patches of leaves and dirt and brown and whatnot there was a lot of melted since last night here's our trail intersection Here I am the nice thing is there is a water source around here somewhere and I have it written down on my phone from some notes that I found online but thanks to the snow last night I just showed up and I melted some snow you know it's not the fastest thing in the world but I didn't really have much else to do so I just hung out melted snow man this win it's crazy I mentioned in my gear video that I only bring or recommend widemouth bottles for winter trips so that less incident of a freezing shot but in my case I do I got to give a huge thanks to lend in Washington State he sent me a little Christmas package little surprise and it was these here I got a cell phone holder got my sunglasses in there hopefully I'll actually need them and a water bottle holder up to a one liter water bottle for me I just have a narrow mouth Mountain Dew bottle and have it used in some of those mio drops or the electrolytes in it to try to keep myself properly hydrated but big thank you land I actually like these a lot he's he doesn't make him he's not affiliated but he said he enjoyed them I'm liking them they don't weigh anything and they're working good I believe you found him on Etsy I'll put a name up here I think it was Justin ul or something to that effect and they're pretty cool check them out anyway which way am I going here well let's look at the sign Gregory bald half-mile Gregory Ridge Trail Appalachian Trail that's all us and it's all down here let's do it took my time a little bit but not too much I realize in retrospect yesterday I was a little too comfortable at the timing and I don't think I really got started until like nude I took that lunch break and kind of took my time but next thing I knew I was doing that night hike and who just felt like forever all uphill I don't think I remember any times where was downhill for sure maybe there was but they didn't feel like it it barely felt like there was any flat sections it was just constant elevation gate did about 3,000 plus feet of elevation gain and we're still going up hill right now so we'll see but we'll make our way along got the mix of mud and snow now and we'll try to just find somewhere out of the wind and have a little brunch I think I'll have my scrambled egg Mountain House meal that was gonna have for breakfast that's more of a towards one time thing if I can find somewhere I could go for a cup of coffee whoo-hoo all right flatland I'll take it and I probably means we're gonna get some heavier winds that sign used to be but look at that it's open it up it's no joke let's do one clouds rolling by and blown around up here oh cool I can if I can stay on my feet I can actually see but I think it's going to go away soon as these clouds come in so I would have to assume this is Gregory bald it's definitely a bald it's been about half a mile so I think I think this is our first kind of wait 40 of the day now I've read some conflicting info before when researching what creates these bolts down here in the Smokies but the best thing I could find and come up with that makes the most sense to me who as we get pounded with wind here is if we were in a colder climate at higher elevation this would probably be an Alpine zone but because we're down south here at lower elevations and a higher average year-round temperature Alpine growth can occur the type of plants and trees and stuff that you would normally see in an outline zone but because of the brutal wind and what not change soon it's windier than usual today but it's probably often very windy here so you get kind of a dead zone where nothing really can grow so it doesn't look like an Alpine zone it's not now pine zone but it's still kind of barren it's pretty neat pretty wide-open you can't actually camp here the closest you can camp - Gregory Bald is actually the campsite I did last night campsite 13 which is why it's so popular in the warmer months but wasn't a soul around yesterday I haven't seen anybody today either we'll see anybody's day hiking in this this stuff here and now it looks like we're right back into the woods which at least is cutting that wind down a little bit still got my eye open for somewhere to have breakfast slash brunch or whatever it's gonna be but uh it would have been nice with the view out there but again it would have been wouldn't have been any better than back at camp as far as Wingo's and I did use a decent amount of fuel last night compared to I what I would have because I was melting snow I'm fine I brought a whole 450 milliliter bottle of white gas for safety because I figured I might help some snow like I did but that wind is whoa speaking of wind that wind it's not gonna treat the fuel efficiency too well on my stove either even though I do have a windshield and everything for it windscreen so keep looking button to descend now lose some of that precious elevation gain I worked so hard for dipping it into the woods here a little slippery and take my time being cautious still haven't had any need yet for pool on micro spikes which I have with me that's like a traction device did I showed in that gear video as well but it's just been bushy snow mixed with mud it's all slippery but if I encounter solid ice or sheets of ice here in there then with the Micra spikes on if I put one now honestly they would just do what's commonly referred to as snowballing which means that they'll start to just pick up all that sticky snow and end up with these balls these snow balls on the bottom of your feet basically it's no fun to walk in you end up going slower and a little less safe than probably without them because might roll an ankle or something you have to keep kicking them off so we're just gonna stick with the regular boot tread and tread lightly all right we got ourselves some sort of intersection here let's see very great ball trail you can use on this way loading the hungry Ridge Trail putting one miles up here I believe that's that trail that would circumvent and get the shorter loop with me one on one we won't be taken that Appalachian Trail Junction 2.2 miles yeah here we go the wind is not giving up ground is getting sloppier it is at almost 40 degrees at this point so not cold at all I don't have my puffy jacket on I didn't hike with it either yesterday I do have my vest on I brought a fleece vest to supplement my warmth last night around camp and I just slept in and I ended up keeping that on you might have to shed that at some point but this constant wind is kind of keeping me cooler than I normally would be for 40 degrees if it was if it was in the teens right now I could be painful with this constant wind so luckily we got kind of the right combination that it's not too bad which is nice in fact didn't take long at all a tenth of a mile there's the junction right there for on the hungry Ridge down that way you can see 20 mile ranger station that's where I'm parked at so we really wanted to we could go this way probably well definitely be back to the vehicle today in seven and a half as a single night or in the summer with a longer day you could do this whole little peasant aggressive day hiking but we're gonna stretch it out a little bit hope for a little Sun to as I go along I'm having a feeling that this ball got here is kind of taking the taking the views away from me a little bit that I would possibly get on this normally but that's alright Gregory ball was cool at least at least it was opened up a little bit when I was up there that was good timing those clouds started to roll in just as I got there and they seemed to be stuck on the ridge now working up an appetite that's for sure at this point like two and a half miles in so I'd say we're close to halfway which is nice I would really like to get there before this afternoon rain because that rain mixed with this wind just doesn't sound like a good time if I can avoid him but we'll see I've been feeling a couple drops here and here but I don't think it's here and there I mean I don't think it's actually well I don't know I'm not gonna say it but so far it's been holding out back to the uphill here I can fit down trees messy in here that's what sure I guess this is the trail just kind of following the wreckage here precipitation is coming down I think it might be like [Music] hopefully I pick up too much temps 41 we'll see [Music] this is definitely some slow going in here how wise there's another major storm recently - did all this or if it's always just doesn't get a lot of maintenance I don't but we're getting there got ourselves the junction let's see what's going on here very bold trail it's where we came from parks and branch road Appalachian Trail Molly's Ridge shelter Russell field trail up this way oh and we finally see a way please you know I almost came on a minute ago before I realized we're at this Junction come to think of it I haven't seen any blazes of any kind all day but white blaze is now that we're hooked up with the 80 so I'm just gonna double-check what we're doing here lost cove trail Fontana Dam trailhead so I'll double check my GPS but I believe we're going this way and eventually get the campsite 113 not to be confused with campsite 13 which was last night little confusing all right know what do you know we had a light drizzle back there for a bit still haven't cooked any food but I did have some trail mix I got from Target actually it's like that whatever their house brand is it's like a tex-mex mix I like it it's like a chili flavor and there's no like candy in it so it's actually no sugar lots of carbs but no sugar by the way where am I supposed to get right as you can see still fighting with terrain here good lord enough about the trail mix where am I going up over maybe yes that's the best route Manas big old tree that came down all right see what I can do with this big old winter pack not fall on my face done that before ah but anyway it started drizzling a little bit my footing here but it never really opened up and now I can hear the wind back in the distance over there but I feel like it's calmer I don't know if the whole system is coming down or if quite simply this side of the mountain is better but either way as I carefully get back on the trail here I'll take it there we go and kind of a nice be endearing trail right now what I remember the smoky spoor before you know unfortunately like we saw earlier a lot of fog and whatnot so probably missed out on some views but it's been a good time now hopefully this site from what I read not as prone to wind as the previous campsite last night still have not had any running water and there's no snow around now if I wanted to melt although it's been pretty thin so not the best snow from melting has a bunch of debris in it one night there's nothing right now so it may be all the way from campsite 13 to 1:13 there may be no water options maybe I shouldn't have been so lazy this morning and I should have hunted down that water source however looks like right now we just got to a junction we got here BIRT spring gap and captainkira pardon me down here we're not going towards that that might be our car camping lot I guess Appalachian Trail 20 mile trail 0.9 miles over yeah and Gregory bald is where we came from and there's the wind again so that's nice doesn't say anything about our particular campsite 113 but I would say we're within a mile range now or so just keep following these white blazes and see what happens no actually a quick look at my GPS reveals that at least what I tagged as the area for campsite 113 I just went past my at the backtrack to that intersection reread that sign get a better idea what's going on here hopefully I didn't overshoot it too much we'll figure this out well on second thought birch spring gap is the campsite 113 so that means we're a tenth of a mile away from home for tonight that is see what happens oh is that a bear bin right there okay okay well we're here already it's a 1:32 not bad that is to me looks like a food locker for keeping the Bears at bay so I guess they might have that here instead of the cable system that I've messed up last night let's take a look and see what we got here bar full push Oh touch I should be able to pick himself lock were unlocked or push it must be some sort of IQ test that I'm failing something at oh I don't feel too intelligent right now well I'll come back and mess with it later working for me notice where is this true campsite 113 is closed due to aggressive bear activity this wasn't hanging up sitting over here and they let me book the site of course it is a government shutdown right now so well I wouldn't put it past any government entity actually to have a website that's a little off but there were no warnings when I booked I don't know if somebody just sat this here because it blew off of a tree or if it's for real all of these sites are pre reserved so it's not like anybody at least is supposed to just walk up and use these campsites all willy-nilly anyway so this is kind of confusing this one says pear management in progress so there's two different types of signs here please do not disturb unlawful removeable of this sign may result in injury to others I wouldn't want to cause that I don't know if this is legit or not and I don't know if that is why this won't open because there is a lock on this right there look here's the deal I'm in the middle of nowhere they let me book this site I got my own bear bag line and it's the middle of winter I know they do wake up occasionally so they could always come out of hibernation it's not like they sleep the whole way through and I think it's late January or February that mothers will wake up and actually have their cubs usually in pairs 2 or 4 minutes what mid-january anyway I'm a I'm not going anywhere else sorry I know I like to set a good example on these videos and do the right thing but right now I think I am I don't know if there's a miscommunication I don't know why this is locked probably has something to do with the sign that's not really hanging up I don't know but I'm not hiking all the way back to that Junction and then another seven and a half miles just to sleep in my vehicle after booking this site and paying a hard-earned what four bucks so we're gonna go down and check it out and we're just not gonna do anything dumb with food and whatnot no no I'll say this campsite looks like it takes a couple more steps to see fire pit right there and actually there's another pulley system there the bin we just saw is up there on that crest of the trail I'm not really sure what's going on you I say we just use the cable system tonight and figure it out as we go I guess see if we see any more signs I'm not try and break any rules here but it's a little weird see that this sign here says welcome to Burt Spring campground food storage I must be what we went past campfires are allowed only in the metal fire ring that's fine with me I would like to have campfire tonight I think that'd be nice especially because I didn't get one last night it was just a little rushed and like I said the wind and everything but where can I set up a hammock is the real question actually first things first I want to get up a tarp start cooking and then at least if it opens up rain wise I'll be good for a little bit kind of a cool area with the wall back there and we'll put our stool over here do our cooking here try to keep it away from wherever I select for the hammock so just going to take a look around see what I can find from looking at the website nobody else booked this site but me so i can pretty much confidently take any site i want and it should be good all right I think this will do it this is one of the pre established campsites around here there's about like a half dozen or something like that not all of them are great for hammocks so keep that in mind if you're a hammock camper but this spot right here I have my pick of the litter because nobody else is here and I don't think there's gonna be this spot right here has two trees pretty decent distance apart so I should be fine getting my hammock in here my hammock has to 15-foot betta buckle straps so I can get a pretty decent distance between trees but first things first I'm just gonna do the tarp so right now all I have up so far is my continuous ridgeline which is basically just twenty five ish feet of zing it line and if one end it has a Dutch hook you just wrap it around clip it to itself the other end as has a wasp I don't think they make the wasp anymore it might be a collector's item I think now they just have the fleas which are even smaller but basically it's just the tensioning device wrap around the tree and I can tension it down and then I have my two it's either a prusik or a larks head I think it's a prusik loop these yellow guys right here if you could even pick that up there's two of these they slide back and forth pretty easily until you put tension on it and then it doesn't go anywhere that allows me to adjust my tarp once I have the line set up I don't have to fiddle with the knots or detention I can slide it back and forth however I want I do usually put my line up first some people have asked why I bother to do that the simple real reason is I find it easier when walking around looking for a campsite now right now I have to pick from the pre chosen campsites but a lot of times I'm walking around looking for suitable trees I find it easier to just walk around with this line I marked it with permanent marker to show me the minimum distance between trees so I can easily tell this isn't going to work in my case I'm really far apart so it's fine and then once I get a right location on these they're called soft jackals they're actually a really fancy kind of woven knot situation going on there and you can disconnect and attach your tarp right to it but that's nice and it's super lightweight but I'm lazy I just take some micro carabiners a couple grams and I keep that on my tarp and then I can hook it up and really quick and easy and later on we'll get the hammock out but for now just in case it starts raining I want to get the tarp up so I just slide these along get the right tension my line could maybe be a little tighter but sometimes I like to actually have my continuous Ridge align a little bit loose so that it has some play some sag in it and that allows me to get the tarp down lower towards the hammock but the connection point to the tree is still up high so it doesn't interfere with the suspension on the handle pretty good once I get the hammock up it's very easy to move it so I could always recenter it but for now in case it starts raining I'll have some shelter and I'll be good to go actually right back behind us maybe 150 200 meters is that communal campfire area where we can have a campfire later and ideally we'll do our cooking over there to keep the food smells and whatnot away from camp and then we'll walk over here after our campfire tonight assuming we get a campfire everything's pretty soggy around here but we'll see but for now I just want to have this up in case it does open up and start raining on me so I'll undo this I know from this morning I packed this up pretty quick and the winds were blowing it all over the place I usually don't like to do this but when I packed it up it was I know these lines are all tangled up but we'll deal with that so pull the snake skins out of the way this is actually an original or a first-gen I guess you could call it snakeskin from hammock gear with the two parts nowadays they have a single sleeve that just goes from one side and I hear it's actually more convenient and people like it more but I still got the original it's actually similar to the Hennessy snake skins that you see that in fact that's probably why they switched because that guy is uh he doesn't mess around when it comes to the patents so I think you might have had a patent on that so yeah that's a rat's nest right there so I'm gonna work on untangling this mess I got my tenth spikes I did manage to find some more tenth spikes before I left the other campsite so I think I'm only missing one yeah I think I got five out of six of them which is fine worst-case scenario you can just use any old pointy stick or even tie it to Iraq a lot of hardcore ultra lighters actually go without tent spikes at all which me personally there point two ounces a piece for titanium that's one point two ounces for even six of them I don't mind that but I will get by so if I have to fashion one I'll be cool so I'm just gonna get this set up and then finally make some hot food but first things first let's get the tarp out all right well it seems like that may have been the right decision because it's drizzling a little bit right now let's come down a little heavier slowing down now hopefully it'll just kind of pass but I won't worry about the hammock till later I am definitely starving it is 250 all of a sudden somehow just from I guess walking around and trying to select a good site next thing you know it's closing in on three o'clock so I probably have breakfast I got my food bag here get my stove out and I think I'm gonna do my scrambled egg I have two different scrambled egg meals waited to the last minute to think about ordering more food from Paquette gourmet which I love but it wouldn't have got here in time so I just went to a sporting goods store and got a bunch of the mountain house old-school classics my bag of food let's see which one I want to do my choices are a breakfast skillet with hash browns and scrambled eggs mixed with pork sausage patty pepper onion or breakfast hash potatoes shredded beef green chilies black beans and corn that sounds pretty good I think because within a matter of hours I'll be eating dinner now believe it or not I've gone the whole day on just some of that trail mix I was talking about the tex-mex and a half of a slim jim which I have to remember to take out of my bag and hang up tonight I'm gonna go with whichever one of these has the least calories save room for dinner so this one's 350 times two and this one's 250 times to the breakfast hash the one without the sausage or whatnot so black beans pouring shredded beef and green chilies that actually sounds like a good lunch to me anyway and there's a nice pipe stream over here a matter of fact I'm going to take advantage of this break in the rain run over there and grab some water super convenient cookpot it's a little muddy under here I do have a piece of tie back three by three foot square that I'm sitting my bag on that's convenient only weighs a couple ounces of the most something like that jewel bottle yeah that feels nice plenty of that left and we'll get this water and probably fill a pot as well as my water bottles because I'm using a SteriPEN system which is nice I can just fill up the bottles and then sterilize them over here no pump in there anything like that so let's go do that all right then get much more convenient than that right there nice little pipe in the ground or in the stream whatever you want to call it so - 1 litre bottles fill these up first - down and I need one and a half cups for that meal so I'll just fill this halfway and we'll be good to go all right it's not raining right now I think we'll still go under the tarp first things first my SteriPEN is here now I have two types of stair pens I have a stair pen ultralight which is about half the size have to wait does 20 liters on one battery charge and this one is the SteriPEN ultra it's about double the size and weight but it does 50 liters on a single charge I can recharge either one of those with my USB power block that I have with me for my camera gear and stuff anyway the nice thing about the ultra is it's bigger but it has a nice full screen on it so I can actually see little instructions there not that I can't figure out how to use it but it does give me a battery meter and just a little more feedback so this is real simple on the ultra as opposed to the ultra light I can actually choose one liter or a half liter as well as the rain picks up here so take off the protective cap and I'm just gonna set it for one liter and that should take about 90 seconds if I had a half liter I could do it in half the time of course and I just want to make sure usually when I do these videos and show this I don't pay attention to stirring enough you want to make sure to agitate the water so that it gets all sides 360 degrees three dimensions around any bad stuff in there and after 90 seconds the light goes off and I'm good to go the reason I usually do this well I shouldn't say usually I started in the last year or so taking this on winter trips because I just don't want to worry about my filters freezing anymore they don't work if they're frozen because or camp flow and then on top of that they can actually get damaged and you can never quite tell they might not be doing their job going forward after they get frozen so easy fix for that just put it in your pocket keep it warm but since I have these systems at my disposal I find it convenient just to bring one of these and there's no parts to fail or anything like that as long as I keep it charged up I'm good to go it's been working out pretty well so far so I'll sterilize these two one liter waters do some more electrolyte and then bring my pot of water to a boil and finally have breakfast this is probably still pressurized from last night turn that on and then just a little like one-second spurt there you go and I've been carrying a Zippo recently because I'm tired of fighting with butane it doesn't want to light and cold let that prime up so that liquid fuel in there will obviously it's burning it's going to heat up the heating tube in there at which point I will unleash the gas and should start vaporizing and I can cook some eggs and black beets long blue flame not quite windscreen on there to get my efficiency going my water we're rolling look at that all kinds a patch brownie goodness in there they look bad I've never had this one before it smells good all right I see steam so we'll flip this over cut off the fuel look at all that mud just let that burn off so I don't get too much pressure in the line dump that in give it a quick stir ten minutes from now we live in a dream this is up let's see what we're working with here see how this black bean hash is doing hmm that's hot out of the rain got shelter chill little camp area enjoying a nice little meal ah can't complain maybe I can its might have to cool down a little bit put it in my backpack to rehydrate it man it stayed hot which is nice I do wish I have remembered to grab a packet or two of hot sauce I think that would be amazing with this hmm there's a train I did check my weather radio this guy right here weighs a little bit but weather bands coming good so they got a Smoky Mountains forecast it's on channel 4 here comes in pretty good so to seven but I think they might be technically different areas channel 4 is gonna be some good info basically says could go down into the 20s tonight tomorrow we could get wind chills in the tens something like that Friday when I'm out of here single digits but tonight could go either way I think it'll be rain because it's 40 degrees right now believe yeah 42 some areas could get some snow showers but it's a hundred percent chance of precipitation tonight so it's going to be a wet one I don't know the prognosis on whether or not I'll actually want to go out in the rain and collect firewood and then sit in the rain and have a fire I think I might rather be under here I'll set up the hammock at some point but I got a nice little nice little shelter I'm just going to hang out maybe listen to an audio book enjoy the sights and just relax I'm gonna act up well we got a little break in the rain here so I figured might as well come over and at least play with a fire I don't have much else to do got a little wet fire fire starter just putting some little little pieces of that in there feeding it some twigs trying to get a teepee going but everything around here is pretty saturated it's just a question of can I get a hot enough fire going in the beginning there's a ton of wood left here by previous people because this is a big campsite this is probably all from three season or summer hiking it's been sitting here soaking up water for probably quite a while but if I can get a base going and it doesn't open up again rain wise maybe I can start feeding it some of these stockpiles sitting here I'm not in a survival situation by any means I got my hammock sitting over there that looks real comfortable I'll put over I'll put a little effort into this but it's not the end of the world and as you may be able to tell by the patter of raindrops on my Cuban fiber or hex tarp here the rain has returned the skies have opened back up I was getting somewhere I really was with my fire over there but it was on the cusp of catching and then this opened up again so I made a hasty retreat back to the tarp here I think at this point I'm gonna refocus my attention to cook some dinner and then I'll string up the hammock shed the rain gear I'll hop in the hammock the radio said it's gonna go all night but hopefully hopefully we get a little break in the morning [Music] no I think it sounds like you finally stop precipitating hmm it's about 7:30 in the morning here and it rained all night and I got my buff up on my head cuz I couldn't find my hat in the middle of the night it's lower 30s right now I'm not quite sure how cold it got overnight but once again I stayed toasty and super comfortable this hammock here hammock it is nice I've been super comfortable in this but man it was raining in heavy last night at periods then there'd be times where I'd think okay it's gonna stop and no I'm gonna warm up a little bit more cuz my hands are getting cold from being outside the hammock here it'll warm up a little bit get dressed up and then I don't know if I'm gonna eat breakfast here terribly hungry right now I might just hit the trail we'll see um as is customary for these trips I do have a a little post hike cheeseburger of my future so that'll be nice to look forward to so I won't eat too heavy today if I don't have to all right I need to stop dreaming about hamburgers and get out of this hammock get warmed up hmm definitely colder today in fact it switched from rain to a little bit of snow coming down I thought I could hear that on the tarp earlier before it stopped it's got a bit of a different sound when the snow hits the kuben fiber torque I got my gloves on my hands are freezing right now I had a bit of a mud pit that was stuck sitting on last night so I got mud on pretty much all my gear luckily right now it's starting to harden up and freeze so maybe won't be quite so messy as I walk around to pack up my hammock and my quilts and all that stuff but it's rusty out here this morning and it's for sure hmm okay I'm gonna get some gloves on hardshell try to get some of this mud off my hands and figure out what I want to do next get warmed up I think a hot cup of coffee actually sounds great cuz I'm not in a super rush to get out of here because tonight I'm getting a hotel and a burger okay keep talking about that but um yeah so it's not a super Rush's should be six seven miles to get out of here oh my god look at all that so I'm gonna relax and have a cup of coffee warm up a bit i smartened up this time I put the open-ended hook attached to the tree and the carabiner up top plus there wasn't nearly as much wind down in here so luckily my bag is intact today and not on the ground though got my food fill up some water bottles almost coffee time all right stove came back to life nicely so that's good I got a nice pot of water on I'm just doing a full almost full 750 ml pot full of coffee got my military surplus cold weather hard shell pants on a little mud covered from last night but that's all right these will keep some warmth on me retains a lot of warmth actually in their gore-tex so they breathe out but they repel moisture on the outside because this light snowed it's coming down it's cold out it's 30 ish but as it was hitting my hiking pants it was kind of melting and I didn't want to be all wet for the hike out so make some coffee I got to give a big shout out or a thank-you rather is in order to bill C in Massachusetts he sent me a little care package and some fun stuff from up here and he also sent me because a lot of times I do the Nescafe or similar instant coffee because it's just easy out here on the trail but he sent me some premium stuff the Starbucks via Columbia blend they taste pretty good so I think I'm gonna play all three in the 750 pot get a little coffee going just enjoy you the sights and try to stay kind of dry done see if it's too hot to drink still oh yeah much like my dinner last night that's gonna need a a moment to cool down huh well thanks bill for the hot cup of coffee speaking of viewers that are just way too nice to me I actually got a package recently from viewer M down in New Mexico she sent me a dog leash that she makes herself for Denali I haven't done a video on that yet but she also threw in a couple fun things kind of local items I think this here is a t AO s Taos Mountain energy bar I think this might be an indigenous to New Mexico snack caramel pecan and it's probably frozen sorry maybe if I dip it in the coffee it'll simultaneously cool down the coffee and warm up the bar or it'll just end horribly see if that falls it out a little bit adds a little flavor to my coffee - probably pecan coffee mmm not work oh man all pecan some cranberries in there nice little breakfast and some coffee Thank You M a New Mexico I'm gonna get fueled up warmed up get a little energy break this down then we'll start heading towards shucks tak now I think about I can't remember if that has stairs on the way up or a ladder if there's a ladder involved I don't think I want to be climbing up that in the ice and here it's pretty tall I want to say someone said 60 feet but that sounds crazy tall for a fire tower but could be oh now we'll see when we get there but one thing at a time [Music] all right we're back at that junction where I mistakenly went a little bit down this way before I figured out that's the campground I'm looking for so back up on the Appalachian Trail towards Chuck stack by going this way it is certainly a nice dusting of snow that's accumulated since I got up this morning that's for sure it's super foggy we're gonna have to play it by ear I don't know if we're even gonna be able to see anything from the fire tower a chuck stack or not but let's play by ear [Music] more trail destruction right from the gate here this stuff I love it actually looks pretty pretty fresh as you can see from the color of the wood they're all over the place and this is the actual Appalachian Trail so I'm thinking this is some recent damage of course people don't really do the Appalachian Trail this time of year the long gone through this area oh my gosh that is but I imagine by the beginning of the next season which usually starts April if not late March that they head out from down in Georgia clean back up they have some pretty good volunteers I keep the 80 good shape but it's not on this church whoa that was a little creepy and unexpected just had a meeting with I believe a coyote on the trail here just basically looked like a dog but it was not a domestic dog he took off down this Ridge here it was like a brownish color this quick you wanted no parts of me which is fine with me yeah that's cool so no bear sightings I saw a ton of bear and wild pigs when I came down here five years ago in the summer but so far that is my first wildlife encounter and the first time I've ever stumbled upon a coyote in the woods that was pretty cool I don't see his tracks there's not enough snow on the one on the ground here but that was cool pretty cool so we're just making our way along here as you can see trails mellowed out a little bit in terms of we're gently going downhill now enough to check the topo I'm not sure how much we give up and then have to back off again to get the shucks stack but actually I see a intersection right here give us an idea of our progress so far without bothering to look at my GPS lost cove trail and lakeshore trail speaking of my summer trip years ago I did a big old 57 while loop part of it was the lakeshore trail but we're gonna go looks like it crosses this way because 20 mile ranger station is five miles away huh not bad at all so now I have a bit of a decision to make ultimately we're going towards the 20-mile ranger station over there but up here continuing on the 80 should be about a half mile this shucks stack this fog is crazy and a really doubt that's gonna see anything I'm not on a super time crunch though so I'm just gonna go for it so over here hopefully not too much elevation change we'll get the shock stack at least see what it looks like for any of you to plan on coming out here and better weather for reference and then we'll backtracked at an intersection it looks like it's a decent amount of downhill after so here we go my staying on the 80 a little long a little clearing looks like kind of a junction but no official sign looks like we're coming to a tea actually I see a white blaze down there pass some more tree destruction so the 80 continues that way and according to my GPS it does make a right-hand turn right here so I'm assuming because I also have the shuk stack tagged on my GPS as a waypoint it says it's right around here I'm assuming this is a spur trail to it it's just not more certainly a frozen winter wonderland today that's for sure doesn't make it pretty cool looking around here shut off my got an outdoor vital synthetic jacket which is nice I have to worry about getting it wet which I have but finally I have to take that off it's steady around 26 degrees yeah it's been holding that 26 this whole morning I'm certainly comfortable it's probably actually good that it's 26 because I want to be able to keep my hardshell pants and top on I've had to do some crawling underneath of some of these trees that are down and stuff and that's keeping me dry but if it was a murmur Prive you overheating pretty good well you know I can barely make out some stairs right there so it is stairs not a ladder that's nice kind of ominous I can't see the top of it lost in the fog the remnants of an old building that used to be here long ago and now we're at the base of the tower there now I can see the top through the trees there there we go yeah that's just an old chimney all that's left of this building well we're here reminds we'll do it probably take the pack off for this no reason to take that up there knows for sure for a little bit anyway let's calm down hope it's not slippery little ways to go sure yeah all this for no view why am I doing this again maybe we'll go halfway yeah it just keeps going and going and honestly I can't see anything this thing is slippery I mean there's my view folks I don't think it's gonna look any different from the very top and I just don't like how I see these stairs are so I'm not gonna bother going up there but if you come here and better weather I can never seem to say that correctly better weather say that eight times fast or whatever it is if you come up here and better conditions just know this is here you probably have amazing views but right now I can barely see past those trees right there so I just have a nice view of the smokestack over there pretty much so yeah there's Chuck stack and it's not a total loss I got a nice morning workout we'll make our way carefully down because even looking at that first flight of stairs there it uh yeah going down that doesn't look fun so I'm gonna do that carefully all right the snow has finally slowed down a bit so I don't have that in my face anymore and I even got some nice lost to walk on for a little bit which is nice this trail I'm down past that intersection again and making my way towards 20 mile ranger station this trails pretty gradual pretty decent if I was going up it well basically similar to the beginning of the hike in now I'm just doing it inverted going downhill now if it's like this for the next 4 miles probably wouldn't complain wouldn't mind a little view here or there but I don't know that that's really in the cards from here on out some people might say it's a heck of a drive to take to not get any sweeping Vista views but you never know what you're gonna get especially in the winter and also I mean take a look around I got views yeah they're not the stereotypical Instagram photos of a mountain top in the distance and a Sun setting on it and whatnot but I'm still out here in some pretty beautiful sites and you know the drive and everything is part of the adventure for me not gonna necessarily include it in the video would probably be kind of boring for you but that doesn't bother me even doing a single overnight trip with like a seven hour drive part of the drive through these beautiful parts of the country is a big part of the allure for me so I'm fine with how this played out and I kind of like when you don't know what's gonna happen you know what do we got here finally got a water crossing without a bridge on the way out let's see am I gonna finally get my feet wet I don't think I can pull this off I have my boots come up to right around here and they've never failed me gore-tex wise yet but let's see if we can navigate through it here it's always nicely the only way out come to go nope that wasn't deep at all all right well not quite as dramatic as it may have seemed like it was gonna be but it's really starting to flatten out in here now it's going on one o'clock yeah just got to figure out where to get a hotel I didn't actually book anything because I didn't know when I would be getting out of the woods so depending when I get to the car I'll kind of choose how far I want to drive but the nice thing about backpacking like this is especially in the winter you can book yourself a fifty dollar roadside motel somewhere and it feels like the Taj Mahal always makes you really appreciate things a little bit more when you're out here for even a few days like I am twenty mile ranger station three miles home stretch now here's our original Junction where we split off on day 1 to start the loop we went up that way returning from that way so we are practically back to the vehicle this wasn't here before huh definitely I'll have to check my footage I do not remember all this being did that happen the last couple nights oh man yeah I think I would have remembered that interesting definitely been windy very interesting trip I'm wrapping it up and sure enough I do believe I see the trusty Jeep over the hill there so we made it we're back feeling pretty good right now a little tired about ready to get this pack off but this was pretty fun you can see how it's completely fallen out and green down here now hey the weather system changed a little bit but for the most part it just makes a huge difference to be up there on those ridges went from a pretty decent snow cover to just wet and soggy in matter of miles so I enjoyed this I want to thank everybody out there for coming along and joining me on this one I also want to give a big thanks to those of you out there that support trips like this by bookmarking and chopping through my amazon link right up there it's an attack 77 calm slash Amazon it'll just redirect it and you can shop as normal I do appreciate that it helps a lot doesn't go unnoticed also speaking of my website I do want to point out that as I mentioned before if you're interested in the GPS data I've been recording all of it I'll clean it up I'll add some notations some waypoints and I will put that on the GPS data section of my website make sure to release that the same day that this comes out so it should be there now and yeah other than that great trip huge variety of conditions right we had rain we had snow we had high winds we had no winds it was awesome really really enjoyed it Smokey Mountains I'm glad to have gotten back but right now I am starving so until next time I'm syntax 77 and right now it's cheeseburger time [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: sintax77

Views: 433,336

Rating: 4.8385692 out of 5

Keywords: sintax, sintax77, winter hammock camping, winter camping, winter backpacking, backpacking, winter hiking, hiking, Smoky Mountains, Gregory Bald, how to go winter camping, winter, snow camping, snow, backpacking in winter, hammock camping in winter, camping in winter, winter survival, camping in the winter, camping in the snow, camping in the rain, hammock camping in the snow, hammock camping in the winter, hammock camping in the rain, Great Smoky Mountains, Appalachian Trail

Id: 9mgeTfiJDtA

Length: 99min 1sec (5941 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 04 2019