Date: 2006-04-24
To: Updates
Miles today: 0.0

WOW, I haven¢t updated this in a longgggg time. Don¢t worry faithful readers; this won¢t be the case when I am Thru hiking. Over president weekend on 2/17-21, I accomplished what I dubbed the Grand Harriman Loop. I took 4 days and 4 nights and I circumnavigated Harriman State Park. I brought my GPS along with me and clocked the trip at 43.7 miles with an Elevation gain of 10,480ft. Nothing too crazy went down; the biggest hardship I had to endure was COLD temps. Every night the temperature was in the low 20¢s and the days didn¢t go above freezing. This was the first trip I have been on where I had to take freezing water seriously. I use Polar Pure (an iodine solution) for my water treatment, so that had to remain in my pocket the entire trip to keep the solution warm. During the day I moved around enough that my water bottles didn¢t freeze, but at night I had to sleep with them to keep them from freezing. The second night was the coldest by far where the temps got down to 9* according to my Suunto watch. It was so cold that I couldn¢t leave my sleeping bag for more than a couple of minutes before I would start to shiver. Need less to say when it is that cold in the morning it is very hard to get out of your bag. I didn¢t come out of my sleeping bag before 10am on any of the mornings. I spent two nights in the hammock (20* is no simple feat for hammocking) and two nights in shelters. I was by myself every night, no one was crazy enough to be out that weekend. I was impressed with how well my cold weather hammock system worked. I used the Exped Down Airmat 7 short with the Speer Segmented Pad Extender 4x4. I used my down jacket as a pillow and 3 sections of Z-lite for under my feet. My WM Alpinlite bag kept me warm from above. All in all an excellent trip where I learned the ins and outs of cold weather backpacking. I think the biggest lesson learned was to put warm water in my sleeping bag before I went to bed instead of ambient temperature water. I saved body heat this way because the water kept me warm instead of me keeping the water warm. I spent another night in Harriman a couple of weeks later on 3/26-27. I night hiked up the Timp and hung my hammock overlooking the Hudson. You can see a picture here that I took with a timer. This was probably the coolest hammock site I have found to date. The next day I woke up early and did a huge loop back to the car. I spent a night twice in Harriman before the Grand Harriman loop on 1/21-22 and 1/28-29. Don¢t remember many details¢¦I spent two nights in Harriman (man I can¢t get enough of this park¢¦) on 4/13-16. This was a beautiful spring hike and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I started on Thurs night and night hiked up to Smith¢s den. I scared the crap out of a bunch of college kids hanging out up there. The next day I trekked in the pouring rain on over to the SBM trail and stealth camped near the third reservoir. This was such a surreal night. I decided to stop there around 530pm when the rain was starting to pick up again. I hung my tarp and relaxed under there just watching the forest get ready for night time. It was so cool hearing the rain on the lake and watching the water foul come in for the night. As soon as the sun set, a dense fog rolled in which reduced the visibility to near zero. I felt like I was in the most secluded part of Maine. I hadn¢t seen people all day and this campsite was quite far from any roads. When I woke up the rain had cleared and that Saturday turned out to be one of the most beautiful days of the year. I started walking at 9am in shorts and a t-shirt and continued until 6pm. I ended up looping all the way back to Smith¢s Den. I must have done like 18 miles because I was walking for 9 hrs and I average 2mph with a pack on. That night was super windy, but my hammock saved the day. I woke up early Sunday morning and drove home to a HUGE family Easter dinner. What a way to end a hike!!!So I think I am caught up on my hiking endeavors to date. Now you know that I wasn¢t being lazy all this time. Well I was being lazy because I didn¢t write any journal entries, but I just made up for it. I have to start writing in a journal while I am out hiking. Anyway, this weekend coming up I plan to hike the NJ Batona Trail. This goes 50 miles through the Pine Barrens. There is no elevation gain so I plan to get this done in 2 and a half days. I love walking in the Pine Barrens. There is something magical about that place. Anyway, I will try and write an entry for that when I am done. Till next time¢¦