My 10-yr old and I did an backpacking overnighter this weekend at the Noxubee Trail System in central Mississippi: Trail Map
It was a pretty remote location for these parts. We had to travel by gravel road for about 6 1/2 miles to get to the trailhead and then hiked 3 miles before setting up camp. We set up about 50 yards off the trail which was approximately 100 yards from a large field and 200 yards from a small stream.
It was the first hike with our hammocks and only the second time we have set them up. I have a Warbonnet Blackbird which is actually the newly updated version. You can see pictures if you are interested in this thread. My son has a Hennessy Scout Zip.
The trails in the Noxubee trail system are very well maintained with an abundance of markings and signage. We took Sheep Ranch Trail to Log Jump Trail before setting up.
The trails are mostly used by mountain bikers but we saw two groups of hikers and I know there is some hunters that use the area. We took advantage of the "camp anywhere" policies and enjoyed being in a remote area by ourselves.
Here are a few pics from the trail. Its hard to tell but the last one is a pic by a huge area of ferns.
We used the PCT method to hang our garbage bag of food. Since we don't have bears in our area I put it about 9-10 feet off the ground. Even though it survived the night apparently that was not high enough because the bag had puncture marks the next morning. I initially thought it was a mouse but couldn't see anything on the inside disturbed. I am thinking that maybe a raccoon tried grabbing it by jumping from a neighboring tree?
There is an abundance of wildlife and during the night we heard deer, raccoons, coyotes, and maybe even a fox. I think the field we were by is used as a food plot during hunting season and I am sure a lot of animals were headed toward the stream. In the morning we found fresh deer scat within 10 feet of our hammocks.
The stream proved to be pretty puny and it was difficult to get a significant amount of water in our Sawyer bags. I wish I would have brought some type of scooper so will learn from that next time.
The only downside of the trip is that the temperature dipped well below the forecasted 44 degrees. In fact, it got all the way down to 35. My 40 degree top quilt was not quite enough in a hammock despite my BA insulated air core sleeping pad and a windshield visor. My son got cold too and got in my hammock with me at about 3 am. So now we have a better idea about our limits with cold (until we get new gear that is).
Otherwise, we were both extremely comfortable in our hammocks and even comfortable when he moved over to mine. So overall it was a GREAT trip and just wanted to take some time to share!
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Originally Posted by gargoyle
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