First Backpacking Trip -- Wharton State Forest, NJ

**Ballantine** · 05-23-2012, 19:26

Hello all! I am going to ramble for some time about my first backpacking trip this past weekend and some things I "learned."

After spending far too long reading about sweet hammocking trips and being stuck in the big city I finally got to take a trip out to the piiiney woods with my pal Dave (Copperline). All my previous hangs have been on brief car campin trips or setting up for a little bit in nearby Prospect Park for a little while. I recently got my hands on a decent pack for a great price and arranged a little trip with Dave who recently got a hammock himself after tryin my Eno out at our last little barbeque session.

We parked at Batsto village in Wharton State Forest and made arrangements to camp at the Mullica River Wilderness Campsite around 4 miles down the trail. Now I know 4 miles ain't very far but boy was it an adventure for us having never before done any real backpackin or hiking and boy was it EVER an eye opening experience for me goin in there with what must have been a 50 pound pack weight! (This is a made up number, but it was really really heavy) Now I'm going to admit all this time I've spent reading HF I kinda thought all the gram weenies were... well, a buncha weenies. Let me just say I'm a convert now! My steel hatchet is staying at home from now on! At least I can lift my arms above my head again.

Despite having way too much weight on my shoulders I was surprised to find that the hike out and back was probably the most enjoyable part of the trip, and we had a blast the whole time going swimmin in the Mullica River and layin under the sun enjoying the fantastic weather in our hammocks. The scenery was much more beautiful than I had expected. Whenever I had heard the term Pine Barrens i had pictured something rather... barren, but it was a really unique and charming landscape that made for some easy, sandy hiking.

I got to try out a couple new pieces of gear that were both phenomenal. my KAQ New River fit my ENO DN like a glove; I tightened the cords got in and it was perfect right off the bat. My Wilderness Logics bugnet was also a great fit and I love the huge crescent opening, great for putting the UQ on and general lounging about with the door open. The UQ kept me toasty warm in the nights that got down to 42 and I loved being able to reach over and loosen the UQ suspension from inside the bugnet when I woke up to a nice, warm morning.

It was my first time putting a SRL on my Hammock and I probably need some more fiddling to get it just right. I had a pretty flat lay going on but the sidewalls of the hammock would get awful tight so as to make sitting back in the hammock and puttin my boots on rather uncomfortable.

Here's a picture of my setup our second night when we went out and did a little stealth camping after 3 troops of boy scouts showed up at the campground.

I would say my biggest mistake and learning experience of the trip was in my food choices. I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to do some real cookin out in the woods to get the whole rustic experience thing down. I also wanted to get plenty of use out of my new Nomadic Trekker Stove which is a Bushbuddy copy endorsed by Fritz over at bushbuddy.ca . Some of my plans worked out great like bannock bread for breakfast cooked using a double boiler. The double boiler idea came about after a few horribly burnt test runs at home and results in a really fluffy bread with nothin stuck to my pan, also leaves me with hot water ready to go for brewing in my MSR Mugmate which is also a champ.
My dinner plans were a bit overambitious. Cook the rice, set it aside. Saute onions, peppers, garlic and jalapenos. Add beans, heat up. Enjoy with hot sauce. It actually came out pretty great the first night but the amount of time spent cleaning in addition to the cooking was too much. The second night I suppose the pre-cut veggies had sweat a bunch as the temperature had gotten over 80 that day and I spent a very long time "reducing" all the liquid I had in my pot over the hot bushbuddy flame. When I was all done cooking I discovered about half an inch of pure burnt carbon at the bottom of the pot, guess I hadn't been stirring enough. Trying to clean that out with a spoon and a rag ended with me having a still horribly dirty pot but I had managed to transfer a good deal of the pot's outside soot to me and spent the night looking like a coal miner and smelling very burnt. Took an overnight soak in ammonia and hot water at home to finally get all that gunk outta that pot. My conclusion: I don't think I am going to attempt cooking anything more complicated than pasta out in the woods for some time.

All in all though I had a blast and can't wait to get out in them piney woods again. In case this rambling post wasn't long enough for some of you or you want to get a look at some of the Pinelands scenery I also made a really long and boring and shaky video chronicling the trip which can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEVc3k69g3s

Hang loose!

**juanbalboa** · 05-23-2012, 19:56

Good write-up! My first few trips involved lots of planned activities like cooking and whatnot, but since then I've realized that sometimes "simpler is better." Enjoy the fire, stars, sounds of nature, shutting the brain down for awhile (however short that lasts

). The bannock sounds good, though. I haven't tried it yet.

**grannypat** · 05-23-2012, 20:10

Enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

**mountainhanger** · 05-23-2012, 20:34

Awesome! i really enjoyed reading your report, and the set up looks sweet!

**nothermark** · 05-23-2012, 21:11

thanks for sharing - this is the kind of trip you will look back on. ;-)

**SilvrSurfr** · 05-23-2012, 21:24

Great trip report - looks like you guys had tons of fun. You two looked happier than pigs in poop to be out in the woods. You both smiled so much I'll bet your faces are tired.

You're not the first hikers I met who ignored the "bridge out" sign on the Mullica River trail. I met several who saw the sign, and ignored it, when my son and I hiked Batsto to Mullica River Wilderness Camp last month. I must be a slave to authority - I took the detour.

Since I started hiking in earnest last August, I've hiked quite a bit in the Pine Barrens. It's a great place to get your legs in shape before tackling the elevations you'll find on the Appalachian Trail. I'm probably gonna head down this weekend to hike the Batona Trail - gonna see if I can't do 15 miles in a day! Besides, I have a kidney stone to pass so what better place to pass it than in the Pine Barrens?

I don't remember the dollar amount, but the fines are hefty if they catch you stealth camping in the Pine Barrens. I've done it myself, but only when I got lost, hiking at night (put that on your to-do list). And I happened to hang in the middle of a road and almost got run over by offroad fourwheelers in the middle of the night.

Looks like you've got plenty of opportunities to reduce pack weight, like the radio. Seriously, you carried a radio out in the wilderness? Also, if you resign yourself to dehydrated food, you can save a lot of weight on the cook set and food.

And was that cotton clothing you guys were wearing? That's a no-no! Head out to Walmart and get some polyester - quick drying.

Keep hiking dudes! See you on the trail.

**Ballantine** · 05-23-2012, 22:32

Our plan had been to stay at the Mullica River site for two nights but we hadn't made reservations. When we got there they told us that the site was booked up the second night so we got permits for Mullica the first night and Lower Forge (3 miles further down the trail) the second night. The second day we were dubious about the claims of the site being booked as were the only people there and didn't really want to move on to Lower Forge as it didn't have a water pump and we didn't have any purification means other than boiling. When the 70 boy scouts showed up en masse and we knew we had to leave we decided it would be more convenient and fun to just head east into the woods. We were a bit worried about the ~ $70 fines (or so I've read) but the adventurous notion of camping in the woods rather than at a site was too much to pass up.

The music was just an Altec Lansing portable speaker weighing in at about 8 oz., not necessary but I've got plenty of other weight I could dump without missing it so dearly. This trip was more of a "camping out of a backpack" trip rather than a hiking trip, proving to ourselves we could live happily with what we can carry before we plan more challenging excursions.

I know I've got to get on that synthetic clothing thing, spending my money on sweet hammock gear is just always so much more appealing!

Posting on HF is so delightful, I've been conditioned from years on the internet to expect responses to a post of any nature to be unbelievably hateful and cruel. Hammock campers are the finest people!

**Deadphans** · 05-23-2012, 23:31

Its all good man, I made mistakes like that too, its all about getting out, experiencing it, seeing what works and tweaking gear around. I can't believe you dragged out a radio too lol. But hey man whatever you gotta do you gotta do. You guys were definitely, uhmm how did surfer say it, "happier than pigs in poop" to be out in those woods.

Ya know, being from north east/central east NJ and doing about 99% of my backpacking outside of NJ, I never realized how beautiful New Jersey really is/must have been till I backpacked in the Pine Barrens for the first time last year. Pretty nice! I thought it was pretty cool how the state dug out all those ditches (that I had mistaken for a trail once till I realized I wasn't seeing blaze any more lol) to control fires.

How were the trail conditions? When I was there the end part of the white trail was horribly overgrown. And I am not picky, in fact I like somewhat overgrown trails, but this was beyond....which also made the ticks so much worse. I pulled over 40 ticks off me that trip which was just an overnighter. There were many blazes that were fading and practically non-existent. I hope the budget was fat this year so they can tend to the necessary trail maintenance needed...

I am glad I did not get caught stealth camping. I wasn't sure how strict they were/if they would check. But I definitely had the advantage of not getting caught thanks to hammock

Needless to say I am definitely headed back there this season, just only the legitimate campsite way.

**fallkniven** · 05-24-2012, 12:21

I've stealth camped for many years in the pine barrens. In fact, out of the many hundreds of nights I spent in the woods here, the only time I was ever caught and was forced to pack up and leave, was the one time I went to an actual campsite, paying the fees and doing things right. The rangers waited until dark and then drove in and told us to immediatly leave because we accidently ended up a couple hundred feet away from the actual campsite trying to follow unmarked trails. That teaches me for trying to do things right in NJ.