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For the last
couple of winters Jeff and I have been making attempts at winter
camping/backpacking. Last winter we both bought houses, so no trips
were made. We were almost through this winter when I asked Jeff if
he wanted to try and make a trip this year. Schedules were iffy, but
if everything came together the first weekend of March would
work.
It wasn't until Friday of that weekend, we were
completely sure we were going. Not only was it a last minute
decision to go, but then I got the great idea to try some gear sleds
or pulks as they are called. It kinda sucks hauling 50+lbs on your
back with snowshoes for four miles. With the pulks, we could put the
weight in the sled and ski our way in. I found this very helpful website and called Jeff with the
plan. He agreed. If I could actually find some sleds and get the
other supplies, we'd try it. I left work and went on the hunt. I
found some sleds. They weren't ideal, but what the hell, they were
cheap and just might work. I got home and started building them. The
website had instructions for a few different versions of
the ski pulk all being more advanced and better then the previous.
With our limited time and supplies, we went with the most basic
design. Here's Jen and Jeff putting the final touches on one of the
sleds. When the sleds were done, I still had to pack and get to bed.
Planned departure was 4am the next morning. I got to bed a little
after
midnight.
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All our gear packed in the
car. For as annoying as I find the idiosynchracies of the
Subaru, it's an excellant resource for these kinds of
trips.
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Here we are at the Adirondak
Loj parking lot with our gear loaded up and sleds ready to
go.
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That's a lot of crap isn't it? There's a whole
lot of gear you need for the winter. In the background there's a
snowmobile. There was a ranger
running around grabbing a bunch
of gear and getting the snowmobile ready to go. We later found out,
there was a "recovery" on the trail to Mt.
Marcy. Apparently an
older out of shape gentleman had a heart attack while snowshoeing
with
friends.
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So
the pulks didn't work. Because we used the most basic design, for
the flattest terrain, there's no way it was going to work in the
Adirondacks. There was too much slack in the yoke. The pulks
would track left or right behind you, ride up the edge of the trail
and flip. We
got about fifty feet down the trail and decided we'd
pack it in
instead.
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By the time we
got to the interior, all the lean-tos were taken, so we had to make
a campsite. The first thing to do is pack down all the snow.
With
our packs still on, we walked in circles around our campsite till
everything was packed and
smooth.
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Unpack the gear and setup the tent.
GSP
Coordinates: N44 08.641 W73 57.187
Elevation: 2677ft
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Notice how clean
the tent looks? Jeff was afraid that due to our mild winter the
Adirondack's wouldn't have much snow. It snowed the
entire time
we were there. On the ground was a solid three feet of snow.
Everyday we were there, it snowed another six to eight
inches.
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Once camp is setup, it's time to make water.
Usually in winter we'll camp next to a stream or pond and either
melt ice or dig down through
the snow and ice to the stream and
simply boil water. The stream we were next to this time, didn't have
enough flow under the snow. When I
finally dug down through the
snow to the ice, it was just over rocks. There were no pools ( that
I could find) of water under the ice. We melted
snow instead.
Normally I hate melting snow. It takes forever and you usually
end up with debris in your water. This time we hauled
in a single
burner propane stove, that melted snow very
quickly. And because there was so much fresh snow around, we didn't
really have to worry about
debris and contamination. It's only
when the snow sits around for a while, it gets stuff in it and then
in your water. It's nothing to kill you or
make you sick,
but I prefer not to have pine needles in my hot
chocolate.
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Remember the tent? Within a
few hours it was looking like
this.
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