Appalachian Trail Days Festival 2016 – Damascus VA

I drove 6.5 hours down to the 30th Appalachian Trail Days Festival in Damascus, VA. The festival spanned May 13-15 this year. http://www.traildays.us/
I left early in the morning, around 2AM so I could get down there and find parking and then go get breakfast at the Fire House.  I spent the day there and left to drove back home at 5PM. It was a long day, but worth it.  I parked in the Old Mill public parking lot next to a bunch of people fishing. There was plenty of space early in the day. The town is really nice and I enjoyed being there early in the morning to walk around and take some pictures and video before the Hikers woke up and the visiting crowds arrived. The crowds did show up and I’d estimate a peak of around 15,000 or so during the parade.  I’ll update this official numbers if I see any.  The vendor exhibits were really good with lots of experienced personnel to talk to about whatever gear or cause they represented. I was especially impressed with the quality of the tents from Zpacks. http://www.zpacks.com/
Will Wood “Red Beard” was there to represent their product and was very experienced when it came to discussing the gear and his experiences on the Appalachian Trail. I’ve included a link to his YouTube video channel below. Another tent I was impressed with was made by Light Heart Gear. http://www.lightheartgear.com/index.php
I stopped by the Hiker Yearbook rolling Tiny House (Bus) and talked with them for a while too.  Over 750 people signed up to be in the next addition of the Hiker Yearbook. https://www.facebook.com/thehikeryearbook/?fref=photo
Also very cool, I ran into the Real Hiking Viking at the Appalachian Trials tent - http://appalachiantrials.com/
https://therealhikingviking.com/
https://www.facebook.com/therealhikingviking/
He recently completed an AT SOBO winter hike.  For a portion of his his hike, he carried Paul’s Boots (Paul passed away before he could do his through hike).  Learn More about Paul and his boots here:  http://www.ducttapethenbeer.com/paulsboots

I was also surprised I was able to actually find WolfPine and Tink, Friends and Family of someone I work with who did not complete the trail last year, and are making another shot at it this year.

Zebralight H52W Headlamp Review

I recently purchased a Zebralight H52W Headlamp to replace my cheap Energizer headlamp. My main reason for doing this was to decrease weight, increase output time, and consolidate to a common battery (AA) for all my electronics. I’ve posted a link to the manufacturer’s website below and have listed some of the important specs. The workmanship/quality of this light is very high and I think anyone would be pleased with its performance in many conditions. This is a really cool headlamp!!

Lamp Weight: 1.1 oz (31 grams)

Headband Weight: .9 oz (25 grams)

Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA (15 grams)

System Weight 2.5 oz (71 grams)

The brightness output is user selectable and has 3 main levels (High, Medium and Low).

Each main level can be programmed to one of two sub-levels. The second sub-level can be further programmed to different brightness levels.

Light Output vs. Runtime:

High:               H1 280 Lm (0.9 hrs), H2 172 Lm (1.7 hrs) / 108 Lm (3 hrs)

Medium:          M1 50 Lm (7.5 hrs),  M2 25 Lm (12 hrs) / 12 Lm (27 hrs)

Low:                L1 2.7 Lm (4 days), L2 0.34 Lm (3 weeks) / 0.06 Lm (2 months) / 0.01 Lm (3 months)

Beacon Strobe Mode: 4Hz / 19Hz Strobe at H1

    

The light can use 14500 batteries. Light output with this battery is 500Lm for the first minute and then it steps down to 280Lm.

Beam Type: 80 degree spill with 12 degree hot spot

Dimensions: Head Diameter: 0.86 inch (21.8 mm), Length:    3 inch (76.5 mm)

Waterproof to IPX7 (2 meters, 30 minutes) 

 http://www.zebralight.com/H52w-AA-Headlamp-Neutral-White_p_120.html

Watch my other hiking videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Appalachian Trail I70 to Washington Monument State Park 2016

I did a super quick hike to pick up a section of the Appalachian Trail I left stranded between two section hikes.  This section goes between the roadside parking on US40 Baltimore National Pike, over the I70 footbridge, to Washington Monument State Park. http://dnr2.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/western/washington.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_State_Park

http://dnr2.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/western/greenbrier.aspx

http://reservations.dnr.state.md.us/camping/greenbrier-state-park/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=MD&parkId=380506

I’ll eventually hike all the sections and claim the whole 2189.2 miles. At some point I plan to also do a complete through hike.  The Washington Monument is interesting and the park is nice with good restrooms, frost free water, and benches to sit on. There is a lot of history on this part of the trail.

Watch my other hiking videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Check out these other great channels by RidgeWalker and Smell-N-Roses:
https://www.youtube.com/user/PeakbaggersForCancer
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmP-VRHOb6jtRkfA3Dx4zmg

Kelty White Cloud 4500

This my retro tech upgrade to a Kelty White Cloud 4500 backpack from around 2000. In its day, this was the pinnacle of packs. All spectra construction, Kevlar stitching, and removable internal frame made for a very light strong pack, even by today's standards.  I've not had it out yet, but hoping it will be "the one" for when I do an Appalachian Trail through hike.

https://photos.google.com/share/

Watch my other hiking videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Review: Toaks 550 Kit by Zelph with Trail Designs Ti Sidewinder Cone

Toaks 550 Kit by Zelph with Trail Designs Ti Caldera Sidewinder Cone and Starlight Burner Ultralight Combo:

Just received a really cool kit in the mail from Zelph at Zelph’s Stoveworks.  I saw this being discussed over at https://backpackinglight.com forums. Zelph has produced a clever mod to the Toaks titanium pots that allows them to cleanly mate with a Trail Designs titanium Sidewinder Caldera Cone. It’s a pretty nifty setup.  The titanium pot is machined to form a bead around the perimeter to hold the pot on the cone at the correct height to work with the Starlight burner. The cone rolls up and fits sideways in the pot, along with room for the modified Starlight Burner and a fuel bottle inside the cone.  The Starlight burner has been modified with a smaller aperture so it works well in an enclosed space like under a Caldera Cone. Also included in this “experimenter” kit is a Brian Green Esbit Tray (BGET) made from stainless foil, a mini-Esbitmizer burner, and three cubes of Esbit fuel.

The Toaks Ti 550 light version without handles weighs in at 43g. The Ti lid weighs 18g, and the stuff sack weighs 12g.
The Trail Designs Titanium Sidewinder Cone for the 550 weighs 18g.
The modified Starlight burner weighs 13g and the lid Weighs 2g.
The Brian Green tray weighs under a gram and is stored in a 10g tin.
The mini-Esbitmeizer weighs 12g.

I plan to carry the 550/cone with Starlight burner @106g.

I did a performance test outdoors in 55F breezy weather and 2 cups of water comes to a full boil with 16g of fuel in about 16 minutes. The burner burns about a gram a minute.

http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/
http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/toaks-550-kit.php
https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/92988/page/10/#post-3399039
https://www.traildesigns.com/
http://briangreen.net/2011/11/titanium-foil-esbit-tray-stove.html

Watch my other hiking videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Gathland State Park to Rocky Run Shelter - MD Appalachian Trail

Decided to complete the section of the Appalachian Trail between Gathland State Park at Crampton Gap, South Mountain in Maryland to Rocky Run shelter near Boonsboro, Maryland. The total section distance was 5.4 miles.  We hiked this as an in and out with some blue blaze for a total of 11 miles and one night at Rocky Run shelter. Gathland State Park is a beautiful park with public restrooms, piped water available in winter, and a picnic pavilion.  There is a neat museum there and the War Correspondent’s Arch.  Information about the park can be found here: http://dnr2.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/western/gathland.aspx

The trail starts north near the remnants of a large stone foundation and is marginally steep. Once up on the ridge, the trail is relatively flat until you reach Lamb’s Knoll, where there is a slight ascent up to the site of the old fire tower which has been torn down and replaced with a commercial tower that is not accessible to the public.   As the AT passes to the south of the summit, a side trail that the maintainers try and keep covered with fallen limbs leads to the peak and the tower facilities. Also at the summit is a really neat “former” Federal military microwave communications facility and concrete tower, now used by the FAA.

Some interesting history on the facility may be found here: http://blog.historian4hire.net/2010/07/15/coldwarsites/

http://www.coldwar-c4i.net/Corkscrew/index.html

The paved access road is used by bikers and hiker shortcut to Reno Monument Road. Nearby is a wonderful view from White Rocks.

This time of year, the hike is very beautiful, with oodles of May Apples that look like Smurf umbrellas growing everywhere. Just past the peak, the trail winds down, crosses the access road, and then descends steeply and eventually meets with the Rocky Run Shelter side trail (blue blaze).  The shelter is quite nice and fairly new.  Down further by the water source which was very plentiful during this hike as well as last fall, there is the old shelter that is still functional. The privy at the new shelter is far better than the one at the old.  Lots of space for tenting in this area. During our overnight, we met up with Flip Flop hiker “Travelin’ Tom”, who was very interesting to get to know, a die hard hippie from years gone by with a knack for playing the recorder. We also passed another Northbound flopper “shoelace” who was moving along at a quick pace.

Watch my other hiking videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa

Visited Harpers Ferry for the 2016 Appalachian Trail Conservancy Flip Flop Festival.  There were a bunch of great talks discussing everything from beginning hiking to through hike strategy and tips. A lot of great people with a bunch of experience to talk with made for a great time and we learned a bunch.  There was food, music, and a few local vendors with tents set up.  It took place behind ATC headquarters on the grounds of the Odd Fellows Lodge #1. After lunch during a long break, we decided to take the blue blaze down to the AT and hike to Jefferson Rock, just a few tenths of a mile away.  On the way back we walked through historic Harper Cemetery. 
As always, be on the lookout for the Yeti! 

Watch my other hiking videos:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdxYynz7DmRoLfGNWYRI5wsvPi-WJ_OIa