Micro Trip Reports

[Vegan.Hiker]

My first real backpacking trip of the season won't be for another 2 weeks but I've been itching to get out so I went out for a quick overnight with the pup last weekend in my nearby local State park. Trees weren't leafed out yet so it was a bit drab but sometimes you just need to take a walk in the woods.

I hiked a trail along a ridgeline with a few small overlooking cliffs.


I planned to stay at the Tom Jones shelter but it was occupied when I arrived.


Here's a link to an article from 1927 published in the New York Times announcing the building of this shelter.
http://www.myharriman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/96676673.pdf

Since I didn't really feel like company, I passed by the shelter and just kept hiking well into the sunset. When I'm in familiar woods I don't mind setting up camp in the dark.


I set up on the ridge near the top of a few cliff overlooks. I got this night shot which I've already littered all over BCP. While not that great, I was overly proud of it because it was a first for me.


A hazy sunrise from near camp the next morning.


Another small cliff overlook further down the trail.


Much of the rock on the ridge has glacier carved striations.


My dog relaxing on a boulder.


This was almost 2 weeks ago and the leaves are just starting to come out now, so I should be back in business soon.

 

[Nick]

Great shots, John.

 

[steve]

Nice! Your pictures just keep getting better and better.

 

[WasatchWill]

I like to see trees with leaves on them too, but sometimes the views really open up when the trees are leafless, as apparent in some of your shots.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

My friend Mike asked me to do a quick overnight with him this past weekend. I had to catch a plane to Pittsburgh for work early on Sunday morning so we decided to head out to the Catskills Friday night after work, set up camp a mile or two up the trail and do most of our hiking Saturday.

It was a wet slog as it rained pretty hard for most of the drive to the trailhead. When we got to the trailhead it was still raining but we were pot committed after the 2 hour drive so we put on our rain gear and headed out. We tried to look at the positive that we wouldn't be seeing any other people because of the weather. When we got to the campsite we were fortunate to have the rain stop for about an hour and a half while we set up our tents, cooked our dinner and ate, drank a few cans of beer, and built a half ass fire with a 2" thick slice of duralog that I brought in a ziplock sandwich bag.

Once we each went back to our tents it began to rain again and came down hard all night. I was dry and comfortable in my tent so I found the sound of the rain to be really relaxing and I slept well. The rain was supposed to stop by 5 a.m. the next morning and break into a clear sky. Unfortunately, the forecast was off by a few hours and it rained until around 7:30 a.m. We slept in until the rain stopped and were on the trail by 8. However the fog and heavy overcast never broke so it was muddy trails, deep puddles, and zero visibility from any of the viewpoints or summits. The sky finally cleared up and the sun came out later that afternoon right as we arrived back at the trailhead. Oh well, it happens. As we were leaving we passed a few group of people who timed the weather much better than we did. No biggie. I'd rather be backpacking in the rain than in the office on a beautiful day.

I didn't bother taking any pictures on Saturday, but I took a couple on Friday evening before setting up camp right before the sun went down. It had stopped raining for a bit and there were some interesting low hanging cloud formations.

A pano from about 100 feet from our campsite


My buddy Mike. Wet but still smiling.


Okay now get out of my picture Mike!


Looking out the other side of the ridge a few feet from our campsite.

 

[12trysomething]

Very nice - there is a certain allure to low mist, clouds and a good vista. Nice pictures!

 

[Blake Merrell]

Beautiful! I really like the pictures. Sometimes I enjoy the small trips as much as the big ones.

 

[Nanda]

Did my very first Uintas backpacking this weekend, overnighter with campsite at Ostler lake. As we were all newbies, we didn't push ourselves to visit Amethyst lake.
Bad: Forgot to pack my food, broke my fly rod, didn't bring my camera
Good: Buddies had food to share, Not much mosquitoes, awesome campsite

Dogs had a great time too.

 

[Nanda]

Did another overnighter on Granddaddy basin this past weekend. It was a tough one. Mosquitoes were out on full force everywhere. Worst thing was we lost my dog, Hope, just as we were searching for campsites. I thought she was with my friends and they thought she was with me, it was an obvious neglect on my part. Me and my friend went back and searched for few times until the night, but we couldn't find her. Suffice to say it was very hard for me to sleep at night in tent knowing she was out there, on her own.

Thankfully 6AM next morning I woke up to barking and howling in distance. I immediately took off in general direction with scooter and after a while did find her. She was probably within half mile to a mile of campsite. She had chewed off her leash, I had expected that she was going to get stuck sooner than later with all those hanging branches everywhere. Her pack was also missing(so no food for my dogs). But it was biggest relief for me to find her, she had some injuries/rashes on her body, but she survived the night out in wilderness. Rest of our time there we just spent relaxing, fishing and watching spawning cutties on streams. Dogs enjoyed fresh fish for lunch as well.

I was too bummed out to take out my main camera, but did take this picture of lake on my phone.

 

[Nick]

Oh I bet that was a stressful experience. Glad to hear you were reunited. I never let my dogs roam with a leash attached. Too much to get hooked on! It's scary enough with a backpack. My friends dog lost his in the Winds one trip in some thick brush. He reconnected with us right away but the backpack was never seen again.

 

[Nanda]

Oh I bet that was a stressful experience. Glad to hear you were reunited. I never let my dogs roam with a leash attached. Too much to get hooked on! It's scary enough with a backpack. My friends dog lost his in the Winds one trip in some thick brush. He reconnected with us right away but the backpack was never seen again.

Stressful indeed. I keep scooter off leash, but Hope is just a different beast all together. To put it mildly, she will go after anything and everything that moves out in the backcountry(squirrels, deer..). Chasing after her with heavy packs on my back is not fun. Normally she is always attached to one of us with a carabiner, but this time somehow we totally forgot about her, and she was on her own. We didn't realize she was missing until a good 20/25 mins after, enough time for her to go explore on her own. Anyway lesson learnt.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Glad you found her and that she was okay. Beautiful picture of the lake.

 

[Mike K]

@Nanda,

I loved the Ostler area when I did it for my first time a few years ago. Great views looking up at Ostler Peak from Ostler Lake. Do you have any more pics you can post? =)

Crazy about Hope getting lost on your Granddaddy trip. I couldn't help but smile as you described hearing her bark and howl in the morning...and how you bolted to the rescue. Glad it turned out mostly well. Maybe she'll think again about going off on her own since she had to spend the night all by her lonesome and came back battered and bruised. Or...maybe she'll keep doing what she does best...chasing anything that moves. Haha.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[b.stark]

Did a one-night car camping trip with about 12.5ish miles of hiking at a reservoir in the north-central part of my state on Sunday and Monday.

Arrived at sunset and set up camp in the fading light.

Was a bit rushed in getting to sleep, so I only spent a few minutes trying for some night shots with my new camera (went mirrorless). Not perfectly satisfied with the results, but they weren't bad for a first try. They were a bit dark, just like this one.

The night was wonderfully calm and still. There's a lot less humidity out in this part of the state, so even though it was fairly warm overnight it was not unpleasant at all. I slept well to the occasional serenade of coyotes.

An extreme backcountry campsite!

Morning was still and beautiful. I wasted little time getting breakfast and packing up camp so I could get my hike in before the heat hit.

The plan was to hike along an arm of the lake to where the river feeds into it. There are 4wd trails all over, and I followed one for almost the entirety of the hike.

Lots of wide open space

Made it to my destination, an oxbow of the river that caught my eye on Google Earth. It wasn't quite as impressive as I had hoped, but was still worth the hike. The horse flies were terrible on the hike out, and the ticks were simply unbelievable on the hike back. Probably found over 50 ticks on myself. Usually I get under 10 a year! For the hike back I stowed my camera in my pack and just pounded out the miles as a bit of a training exercise. After arriving back at the campground I made lunch while ticks continued to rain on me from trees, picnic shelters, they may have been just condensing out of the air for all I know! Headed back home afterward, making for a very short but worthwhile trip.

 

[Artemus]

Did my very first Uintas backpacking this weekend, overnighter with campsite at Ostler lake. As we were all newbies, we didn't push ourselves to visit Amethyst lake.
Bad: Forgot to pack my food, broke my fly rod, didn't bring my camera
Good: Buddies had food to share, Not much mosquitoes, awesome campsite


Dogs had a great time too.

Dogs had a good time because they don't NEED packed food, fly rods or cameras.

 

[Artemus]

Made it to my destination, an oxbow of the river that caught my eye on Google Earth. It wasn't quite as impressive as I had hoped, but was still worth the hike. The horse flies were terrible on the hike out, and the ticks were simply unbelievable on the hike back. Probably found over 50 ticks on myself. Usually I get under 10 a year! For the hike back I stowed my camera in my pack and just pounded out the miles as a bit of a training exercise. After arriving back at the campground I made lunch while ticks continued to rain on me from trees, picnic shelters, they may have been just condensing out of the air for all I know! Headed back home afterward, making for a very short but worthwhile trip.

Great pics. So what IS your state and what lake is that. I want to go but I don't want tics.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

@b.stark this is beautiful. So this is Nebraska? What's the name of the place if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Nick]

That there is very full trip report worthy, @b.stark. Very nice.

 

[b.stark]

Yes, it's Nebraska, thought I had that on my profile but I will have to look into that(EDIT: It does show up for me at least!). Merritt Reservoir is the location (I really don't like giving away all my spots but this one is reasonably well known, at least within Nebraska). Maybe next time I will go a bit longer and do up a full trip report.

(Added because this post needs more parentheses.)

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

That first trip back home after returning home from a distant trip always has that nice familiar feeling you get when putting on your old favorite tee shirt. This weekend Tyne and I did a quick overnighter on the Delaware River (border of NJ/PA) with our longtime friends Rich and Alexis. Just a relaxing 20 mile paddle with a cooler stocked with Summer Shandy, plenty of swimming breaks, and a calm but steady current that did most of the work. There are a few sections with some minor class I/II rapids to keep things interesting but we were mostly kicking back and putting our feet up.

Hitting the river late afternoon around 3 on Saturday




There are free first come, first serve sites along the river. I've paddled this river countless times and even in the height of summer on the weekend, you never have a problem finding a site.


After a fun night of just hanging out around the fire it was back on the river Sunday morning


It was a lot less dramatic of an experience as when George Washington crossed the Delaware in this famous painting