This was a 3-day, 17-mile trip which turned into a 2-day, 17-mile trip. You can read the full trip report at the Canyon Man Blog, but here is the summary.

This was my wife's first backpacking trip.  She and I went into this trip not knowing what to expect of the Smoky Mountains. Neither of us had ever been to the Smokies, nor any other mountains east of Arkansas and Missouri. I was assuming it would be somewhat like the Ozarks and Ouachitas, only bigger.

God just told me loud and clear that he doesn’t want me to be a hammocker.

Sure enough about 10:45 tonight, I could see lightening in the distance.  I didn’t care much because lightening is pretty typical on these humid nights.  Besides, the sky looked clear to me.  Well, the wind picked up and thunder joined the lightening, then it started raining a bit.  My tarp flopped here and there, but I figured the storm would pass and didn’t much care.  At this point my wife came out to tell me there were warnings of tornados touching down and that I should come in.  I told her that I needed to test the hammock.  She literally started crying, reminded me of our two kids, and went back in.  I stayed in the hammock.

Elk Trail to Hickory Creek Trail 911 Search and Rescue
March 16-18, 2007
Who:  Beartooth, GT, Imre, JonW, KevBro, nd, Storymaker, Trailhead

Day 0 – Friday, March 16, 2007

Our planned hike was the Elk Trail just north of the Quehanna Trail.  By Wednesday, March 14 the reporting stations in this area showed no snow pack remaining.  On Thursday morning the forecast was for cold conditions and occasional flurries.  When I came to work Friday there was now a winter storm warning for central Pennsylvania.  The forecast now predicted 12” of snow.  (This forecast proved to be accurate) 

My family and I just spent four days at Grayson Highlands State Park. This has become our favorite park of all time! One day was spent hiking the Rhodedendron Trail up to the AT and then toward Mt Rogers. The goal was to reach the summit. However, we ended up spending a lot of time checking out the wild ponies along the AT and the weather started changing for the worse. Other days were spent on several other trails. I highly recommend this...

Just got my first adventure into the world of alcohol burning stoves. I have previously been using a MSR Pocket Rocket. I ordered my Solo UCAB on 6/29/09 and got it 7/6/09. That was one “Speedy Delivery.” My first impression was “Wow that sure is small.” And after weighing it, it is really small and light weight...