"Man Camp"

[slowhike]

Guilty! I will admit that on my first trip my pack dialed in about 60 pounds. Didn't take much hiking to reconsider my choices of what to pack. What scares me now, is watching youth groups (church, scouts, etc) head into the woods with the kids carrying 50-60 pound packs. Of course, the leaders haven't been setting a very good example with packs that look like a packed seabag on their backs, plus coffee pots and dutch ovens hanging off the back. Hope that the kids on this trip have it a little easier.

Ha,ha... I remember my external frame North Face back pack weighing in at 72lbs on a 3 night, winter, solo trip
That was a few years back. I was in better shape & younger.
I parked at the bottom of Mt Mitchel, NC, at one of the campgrounds & hiked to my first camp, not to far from the top. Three days w/o seeing another human being... pretty nice!

[Doftya]

I remember my first hiking trip. I've done canoe trips for as long as I can remember, so packing things was easy, if it fit in the canoe, it came along. But hiking was a new thing. As we packed up our stuff, because I had a huge pack (140L), I volunteered to carry a few things for the others. I wasn't even thinking. Not a thought going through that empty head of mine. I ended up with a pack weight of around 110lbs. Three day trip, 20 km per day, and believe it or not, I was still the fastest hiker in the group. Too dumb to notice I suppose.

Still dumb, just the body notices stuff more and complains. Now all I have to do is start listening..... maybe tomorrow?

BTW - will there be a trip report posted?

[sclittlefield]

sclittlefield I think your mistaken there are always facilitrees you just spelled it wrong

I love it. Spot on there. There were more than enough trees to go around.

Trip Report:
I scouted out Tunk Lake with a couple friends the day before - it was a very good thing we did, as that was the plan on location. There is just absolutely no way to get there without a boat (though, we did get there with a compass and map, and kept thinking... once we get to the camp site we'll find the easy path that leads us back to the main trail). We learned what we needed to learn - it's a no-go.

We went to Donnell Pond instead, on Schoodic Beach, just to the west of Tunk. The place is spectacular. If you're ever in Maine, check it out. Sand is a real rarity on Maine waters, and this has a great sandy beach. It was only a half mile walk in from parking, so weight wasn't an issue, but I do want to continue to lighten their loads. One adult had an Osprey 65L with a pound per liter in it... he was feeling it in just that half-mile.

The cooksets worked as planned. No real accidents aside from one boy having a bad angle and his cookpot fell off the stove (he did great, just let it go and burn out). Other than that, the boys did great - cooked all they needed to with the SuperCats and mug w/cozy system I had them build.

We climbed Schoodic Mountain on Saturday, had a fantastic view of fog at the top. It was a short mountain, and a nice leisurely hike (though some would argue that point).

The neighbors were the only real bummer. A few early 20's come in each evening and leave by the morning. One girl had a mouth on her that would make a sailor blush, and she had a severe lack of social graces and volume control... there's nothing less attractive. Oh... and we got an overwhelming waft of pot sweeping through our site each evening as well. They'd been there well over a month and a half (14 days is the limit).

Oh, one other downside - I failed to seam seal my beautiful sil tarp. Turns out that's fairly important. I got a good bit wet Sat. night, and had to rearrange in the night so that I was only using one side of the tarp, like an 11x5 instead of the 11x10 that it is. That worked. I need to jump on that seam asap.

We packed up in the remnants of Bill, your friendly neighborhood tropical storm (severe enough here in Maine that it swept 40 people out to sea, and terribly one 7yr old girl drowned).

Thanks everyone for your comments, I appreciate you all.

[gargoyle]

Glad to hear things went good. A little silicone is priceless. Bad neighbors are a real bummer. Its crazy how rude some folks can be. Nice to know everyone survived the trip and stormy conditions, thanks for the report. where are the pics??

[sclittlefield]

Glad to hear things went good. A little silicone is priceless. Bad neighbors are a real bummer. Its crazy how rude some folks can be. Nice to know everyone survived the trip and stormy conditions, thanks for the report. where are the pics??

Here's some pictures. It was pretty foggy all weekend. You can see in one where I had to move the tarp over to get the ridgeline out from above me.

[gargoyle]

Nice. Just a wee bit foggy. Ummmm, the toothpick is a little extreme. Not a good thing to teach the kids.
That is a very nice beach, hope the water was warm.

[Bankheadboy]

Nice trip report! Believe it or not, Its the bad things that makes trips more rememberable! ( Rain , leaky tarp, bad neighbors) Five years from now you can ask the boys about the camping trip to the beach and someone is going say do you remember the loud mouth girl? Thanks for taking the time to teach the art of outdoor skills to our young men of tomorrow! Keep Man Camp alive!

[pineapplenewton]

It is the bad things that we remember and how we got past them. I know a guy that on his first trip sat on the bed of a pickup puting on his pack droped to the ground and fell over because of his pack's weight. When his pack was checked 5 pounds of Swedish fish were found