{"id":763,"date":"2014-08-17T10:41:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T17:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/?p=763"},"modified":"2014-09-04T18:18:14","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T01:18:14","slug":"oh-shenandoah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/?p=763","title":{"rendered":"Shenandoah – Backwoods Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_5519-0.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Made it to Shenandoah National Park around 4:15. The nice older woman at the gate broke the news that the campsites are full, but if I am equipped for backwoods camping, that is an option I have besides camping outside of the park.<\/p>\n

You need to fill out a permit to backwoods camp, so getting to the visitor’s office by 5pm is crucial. The caveat of backwoods camping is that fires aren’t allowed. What’s camping without nature’s TV (as my friend Ben calls it)? \u00a0The other condition is that you need a bear-proof solution for food; they make special bear-proof containers or you can hoist food between two trees (something like 10 feet in the air and 8 feet from the tree).<\/p>\n

I did not expect the park to be this big! I knew Skyline Drive was 105 miles, but didn’t realize it’s all destination as well. On Matt Richard’s recommendation, my aim is White Oak Canyon trail. It’s about 8 miles if you do the loop. That’s mile 45 on the Skyline. A highway of hikes; amazing.<\/p>\n

On the drive, I find another car stopped. \u00a0A mama black bear and her four cubs are crossing the street. \u00a0Snapped a quick photo of the last cub with my 7D, which I’ll upload when I get to civilization. This definitely supports the ‘bears every two miles’ statistics I read earlier. Note to self: whittle spear first!<\/p>\n

I reached the trailhead at 7pm, an hour before sunset. Took 20 minutes to pack my essentials: hoodie, sleeping bag, tent, hammock, lantern, knife, Camelbak, hatchet, dry-bag with map, paracord, DSLR. \u00a0I headed down a horse trail by the Hawksbill parking area (mile 45), where I was told it was okay to camp. It’s a very steep and rocky area, not the type of place I would have chosen for myself. But the night was quickly approaching and I had to choose my campsite while it was still light enough to see most of the possible hazards.<\/p>\n

About 10-15 minutes of walking and 1\/2 mile from the road, I found a relatively flat clearing situated before a 20′ rock face. In retrospect, it’s nice to be by a cliff. Limiting the possible directions of attack serves as nice illusion of safety. The ground way too rocky, I hung the camping hammock (thanks Mick) between two trees – one of which was dead and festering with centipedes. \u00a0 Luckily the dead tree could support my weight, as it was dark by the time I finished tying it off. \u00a0In the hammock I could perfectly see the valley below and yet remained hidden from the higher area above.<\/p>\n

\"backwdsCamp\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Between the centipedes and variety of insects that greeted me in my first ten minutes, I was happy to not be sleeping on the ground. \u00a0I made a nearby sapling my night stand, hanging my lantern and sunglasses. \u00a0I hadn’t realized how important it is to have a lantern that will last through the night until the moment I was camping without a fire in unknown woods. \u00a0My Black Diamond Apollo lantern<\/a> claims a 96-hour runtime on low led setting, which was the perfect level for working on a task or falling asleep.<\/p>\n

I ate dinner by headlamp, but I shoveled it down. Part hunger, part bear anxiety, I had no idea what the forest looked like as I only spent about 20 minutes in it before dark. I put the remnants of my kale salad, quinoa side & hazelnut Ritter chocolate bar back in a sack and made my way through the dark forest to find a tree to keep it from bear mouths.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Headlamp<\/a>

Headlamp Dinner<\/p><\/div>\n

Following my knot app, I made a lazy variation of a noose, which I tightened to a rock and threw over a thick horizontal tree branch. Once I retrieved the swinging rock-end of the rope, I hoisted the bag up to the tree and tied off to a sapling. Viola! \u00a0The pics below were from the morning (it was a little trickier in the dark).<\/p>\n

\"Bearproof<\/a>

Bear-proof food storage solution<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Tying<\/a>

Tying off the food bag<\/p><\/div>\n

I was somewhat relieved once the food was removed from my campsite. \u00a0I say ‘somewhat’ because the next thing I did was sharpen my grandpa’s bowie knife. \u00a0This type of knife looks like the one Rambo carried, but with a compass on the tip of the handle. \u00a0Inside the handle there are water-proof matches and a tiny fishing lure & monofilament. \u00a0I’ve had this knife tucked in a drawer for most of the time it’s been in my possession. \u00a0I’ve only recently started carrying it, as my hikes have gotten longer and riskier.<\/p>\n

Side note: I’ve become more serious about being prepared for the outdoors. \u00a0The last hike I’d gone on ended abruptly with a\u00a0bad MCL\u00a0sprain. My friend Margueritte and I had journeyed off-trail on Devil’s Path in the Catskills. \u00a0We\u00a0unknowingly walked through a field of stinging nettles, which set our skin on fire, and were desperately trying to make our way back to the trail as fast as possible. \u00a0Climbing over fallen trees and large boulders at a frenzied pace, I took a shoulder-height step up and popped my knee out of place, falling backward off of the rock. \u00a0I was soon back on my feet but limped the 45 minutes on a steep mountainside\u00a0to the trailhead. \u00a0The entire return trip I\u00a0wondered\u00a0the outcome of a more severe injury so deep off trail.<\/address>\n

Back to the knife sharpening. \u00a0Here I have this dull-ass 6″ blade and a 1\/2″ x 3″ sharpening stone. \u00a0I\u00a0spent a good fifteen minutes trying to put an edge on it. \u00a0It was crude, but I could stab it into a tree trunk with far less effort than before. \u00a0The long day of driving was finally taking its toll, so I ditched my idea to whittle a spear (or even fasten the knife to the end of a branch). \u00a0The camping hammock had a large enough to store\u00a0the\u00a0hatchet so I was set for sleep-defense.<\/p>\n

Literally anything I put down on the neighboring rock ledge would have a centipede or giant spider on it upon retrieval. \u00a0After flicking off the critters, I carabinered my things to the hammock straps. \u00a0The temperature was noticeably dropping from the day. \u00a0I threw on my faux-fur-lined hoodie and unfolded my sleeping bag into the hammock. \u00a0I was still wearing shorts, so I zipped my legs into my\u00a0sleeping bag before passing out. \u00a0I woke up to what felt like low 50 degrees and huge gusts of wind swaying the trees in a swirling motion above. \u00a0It was in the eighties during the day; I’d almost left the sleeping bag behind! \u00a0I giddily zipped myself fully into the bag. \u00a0Suddenly I felt the sensation of a hundred tiny legs on my side. \u00a0I grab – pinch – threw that sucker off me so quick, you’d think it was a rehearsed movement. \u00a0At the time, I wasn’t sure if they were poisonous, so definitely added a little drama to the occasion. \u00a0Crisis averted. \u00a0Back in the sleeping bag. \u00a0So glad I brought that thing. \u00a0Thinking about it, exposure to the elements is the primary cause of death in the outdoors. \u00a0Always overpack people!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Made it to Shenandoah National Park around 4:15. The nice older woman at the gate broke the news that the campsites are full, but if I am equipped for backwoods camping, that is an option I have besides camping outside of the park. You need to fill out a permit to backwoods camp, so getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mikelberman.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}