I went on an overnight backpacking trip this weekend with my oldest niece and nephew and my 10-yr-old son. I had gotten a ULA Circuit backpack and wanted a good chance to try it out. After having lunch at Genghis Grill we drove over to Oak Mountain State Park. They don't allow reservations for the backcountry sites so we took a chance and, fortunately, they had one left open. It sounded like we got lucky and won't go so late in the day next time. Our plan was to leave one car at the south trailhead and hike the white trailhead all the way north and then shoot over to the blue trail up to the north trailhead where our second car would be parked. However, they told us they don't allow overnight parking on the south trailhead anymore so we were forced to change our plans.
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Considering the one site they had open, we changed our plans to take the yellow trail out to the yellow/white connector (where our site was located) and then hike the white trail back in - total hike of 8 miles. We started out at the north trailhead and took the white trail to the Maggie's Glen area, basically an open area with a bunch of rocks where a nice stream flows through. We had planned to filter water for our trip so we loaded up here and continued along the yellow trail. Some people say this trail is boring but we really liked the scenery as you hike along the rim of a lake with an old dam and then trek through some old forests.
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The hike was pretty mild but we almost missed where the yellow trail turned at one point. I will say the park's official map, which I linked above, is helpful but not entirely accurate. We took the yellow/white connector to backcountry site #4 which was by a little stream we could filter our water for the next day's hike. It was about a 3.5 mile hike the first day to our campsite. We found some trees and set up our hammocks for the night. Good thing because, with our late start, it was beginning to get dark!
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We had a great night. The sounds of the nearby stream combined with the wind in the trees made for a great natural sound machine! Surprisingly, we heard few animals during the night but had hung our food to be safe. Temps got down into the low 50's but I was warm with using only a windshield visor as my under-pad and my 30-degree UGQ top quilt.
The first part of the next day's hike was the hardest of our trip. The first mile included close to 600 ft ascent in elevation up the side of the little mountain there. After the first mile, we connected to the white trail and hiked along the ridge for a couple miles until reaching the peak called Shackleford's Peak. There is a geographical mark nearby. This is typical ridge walking with some open areas but, unfortunately, no real views.
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There is actually no overlooks for most of this trail and you have to hike another mile to get to a decent overlook. We kept looking to our left and right along the ridge looking for more but were disappointed that we didn't see but maybe a couple good vantage points. Here is a pic from the best one (although the pic doesn't really do it justice.)
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After this overlook you essentially begin a sharp decent along the white trail back to the Maggie's Glen area and then we followed the same 1.2 mile trail we started on the day before back to the north trailhead. Once we finished, we had hiked approximately 4.5 miles the second day for a total of 8 miles for the trip.
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I highly recommend Oak Mountain for some backpacking but just be aware that they don't allow reservations and I imagine they fill up quickly on the weekend as there are only four backcountry sites. I know a number of people stealth camp but It would be hard to do so if you can't get a backcountry site to say you are staying at for the evening. Next time we go over there we will be trying the blue trail which I understand is the steepest trail but offers the best views of the park.
I thought my backpack worked really well on the hike but I am going to need to look at getting some different socks as I gained a couple blisters, both on the outside of my big toe, on the 2nd day of hiking.
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