I got out for a weekend backpacking trip & tested my cold weather skills (I have none). I had hoped to get to the Grayson hang this year to get a crash course from the deep freeze experts but that wasn't meant to be (cancelled due too much snow).
Instead I got to learn a few things the hard way - but I'm betting those lessons stick.
Temps got down to 18* with some wind, though not terrible. The snow had melted off from the storms a few weeks back.
My route took me up Big Creek trail in the dark & camped at #37 Walnut Bottom. Next day hiked up Swallow Fork then over to Mt. Sterling & site #38. I came down Baxter 4,000' drop to finish up. My legs are still recovering from the downhill part days later. If you do the same route, definitely try & hit Big Creek during the day - it is a lovely hike by the river and the waterfalls are beautiful.
And I should mention the fire tower was great as always. I went up at sunset, in the dark & sunrise. Climbing it in the dark with the wind blowing - well, I definitely had a firm grip on the rails.
I tested out my peapod sleeping bag setup. I had to add a "wedge" to the peapod to give it some additional width, and got lucky I had a synthetic bag that had zippers to match my other sleeping bag. Probably even luckier was Shug posting a video the week I was figuring all of this out on this very topic.
Enjoy.
For those that use the BackCountry Navigator app on their Android phone.. here's a quick tutorial on loading the parks trails, campsites & other locations.
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