Spring starter

[jerdrb]

Well spring break is here, and I was in a house alone so I needed to do something. What better than head out for the first trip of the "warmer" seasons. I found my destination, and I was off.

The Smoky Mountain National Park. Always loved this place, closest to a vacation home I will probably ever have. This was just a single night stay only around 3 miles in at campsite #18 of the GSM. Forecast was around 60 for the high and 40 for the low. Perfect weather.

Got to camp fairly uneventfully. Passed no one on the way there. Love the alone time. Got to camp and found two trees perfectly space at roughly 12 feet using my walking stick that I found that was just my height.
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Got to hang out around camp and talked with some... interesting people from Oklahoma. Poor guys didn't even bring a tarp and apparently they packed in a stack of logs. Anyways whatever floats their boat.

Campsite was on a great river area. Very relaxing to listen to; not too loud nor too soft.
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That night however was something completely different. The low was definitely not in the 40s. It was probably somewhere near 35 or lower. The tarp definitely helped keep out the wind, but by around 4 to 5 am, I was shivering cold, even with my rain jacket and fleece on top and my thermals and shorts on bottom. Caught a little bit more sleep until around 7 in which I stayed awake until sun rose. I just wasn't able to get warm. That and the fact that I headed to bed at around 8 pm .

Got out of my hammock way before the guys from Oklahoma did, though I'm sure they had been awake for a while as it had either misted heavily or somewhat rained in the night according to the moisture on my tarp.

I packed up and was out on the trail back to my car by 8:15. Cool morning at first but once I got my blood going, not even the mist was bothersome.
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All in all I found the trip successful. I've learned that I really need to get an underquilt. Also, the Smoky Mountains aren't called smoky for no random reason.

[2ply]

Thanks for sharing the adventure. That's a nice looking site you had. Our Spring Break isn't for 2 more weeks and I'm looking forward to getting out for some hang time in the piney woods.

[SQWERL]

Nice! I hope to go to campsite 21 in May. My parents and I are going to camp at elkmont for 2 weeks! Hopefully with no gvmt. shutdown this time.

[TallPaul]

Looks like a great trip, well besides the temps.

But we all have to learn about cold butt syndrome at some point.

Did the guys from Oklahoma just burn their logs all night to stay warm?