Hannah and I decided to finally get the gear necessary to do overnight backpacking trips. This is our first trip together!
New Gear Tested:
- Kelty Ignite Down 16 Sleeping Bag
- Therm-a-Rest Neo Air Trekker Sleeping Pad
- Lowa Renegade GTX Mid Hiking Boots
- Salomon Quest 4D GTX Hiking Boots
- REI Merino Wool Hiking Socks
- REI Half Dome 2 Plus Tent
- MSR Titan Kettle
- Sawyer Mini Water Filter (Point Two)
- Mountain House Beef Stroganoff with Noodles (2 Servings)
- Mountain House Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (2 Servings)
- DIY Rocket Stove
GEAR:
All of our gear performed extraordinarily well. I have no complaints whatsoever with our bags, boots, socks, tent, kettle, filters, freeze-dried meals or even my stove (other than better stability). All of the items we purchased held true to the reviews on REI.com. The tent was very roomy as you can see from the pictures. Our bags were great in the low 40’s and we didn’t get blisters from our brand new boots which I think is pretty amazing. The water filters worked great inline and the flow was good using gravity alone. I didn’t need to use my DIY Fire Starters because we found some dried and frayed yucca leaves along the trail. Dried yucca leaves work amazingly well as tinder. I use a firesteel.com fire steel (ferro rod) and striker combo and have never had an issue getting a fire going when I’ve had good tinder to work with. My stove worked very well and only had issues for one of three meals cooked. The granite slab I decided to put the stove on was just not an ideal place to cook as far as even surfaces go. I may decide to work on the stove’s design to get it to be more stable on uneven surfaces.
TRIP: Duration (Total) 6h 5m 14s, Distance 6.9 mi
This is the first backpacking trip my girlfriend and I have done. We are both pretty out of shape and managed to do the hike relatively easily with 20lb packs. We are in our 20’s though. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to try an overnight backpacking trip. We camped further upstream from the Hot Springs because of how many people were there the particular weekend that we were there. In my opinion the spots upstream from the spring are much nicer to set up camp in. There is an area towards the end of our trip where we went off trail and followed the creek looking for sites but ultimately scrambled up the hillside back to the trail. I’d recommend staying on the trail as the climb was steep and fairly dangerous when carrying a heavy load. We dawdled and are out of shape so the trip took twice as long as it should have. We were able to do the hike back in half as much time.
TIPS:
There isn’t much shade in the morning and afternoon and it can get very hot in the Summer so it’s best to do this trip during the late Fall or Winter months. There is plenty of drinking water available most times of the year if you have a filter . One note of caution, N. fowleri (Brain-Eating Amoeba) has been found at the hot springs. I would very much advise against getting your head wet in the springs and warm areas of Deep Creek at all times. The amoeba travels up your nose and into your brain and is usually fatal. On the bright side, you can’t get it from drinking the water and it’s pretty much bound to warm water areas.
