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Newbie backpacker

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    • Newbie backpacker

      This coming Friday and Saturday my wife Kathy and I will be taking a friend on her first ever backpacking trip.
      It's something she asked us to help her with, we didn't talk her into it.
      We've worked with her on things to bring, and not bring, and have lent her our Tarptent Rainbow.
      We'll drive north a couple hours and park where the AT crosses route 302 in New York and then hike 7 miles northbound to the RPH shelter.
      We picked that route and destination because it's 7 miles with a few ups and downs but nothing crazy and there's almost always water available at the RPH shelter.
      I'll be carrying our winter stove, an MSR Simmerlite and a pot large enough to make a simple dinner for 3. If that isn't enough for her pizza can be ordered, and delivered to, the shelter. Not only that, if there room the shelter has bunks and we won't need to use the tents, and that's a good thing since the forecast is for thunderstorms and rain both Friday and Saturday. I hope the weather doesn't spoil it for her. Wish us luck! :thumbsup:
    • LIhikers wrote:

      This coming Friday and Saturday my wife Kathy and I will be taking a friend on her first ever backpacking trip.
      It's something she asked us to help her with, we didn't talk her into it.
      We've worked with her on things to bring, and not bring, and have lent her our Tarptent Rainbow.
      We'll drive north a couple hours and park where the AT crosses route 302 in New York and then hike 7 miles northbound to the RPH shelter.
      We picked that route and destination because it's 7 miles with a few ups and downs but nothing crazy and there's almost always water available at the RPH shelter.
      I'll be carrying our winter stove, an MSR Simmerlite and a pot large enough to make a simple dinner for 3. If that isn't enough for her pizza can be ordered, and delivered to, the shelter. Not only that, if there room the shelter has bunks and we won't need to use the tents, and that's a good thing since the forecast is for thunderstorms and rain both Friday and Saturday. I hope the weather doesn't spoil it for her. Wish us luck! :thumbsup:
      I love helping new comers, kinda like fishing, I'd rather take a new comer and watch them catch fish any day than catch fish myself.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • Drybones wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      This coming Friday and Saturday my wife Kathy and I will be taking a friend on her first ever backpacking trip.
      It's something she asked us to help her with, we didn't talk her into it.
      We've worked with her on things to bring, and not bring, and have lent her our Tarptent Rainbow.
      We'll drive north a couple hours and park where the AT crosses route 302 in New York and then hike 7 miles northbound to the RPH shelter.
      We picked that route and destination because it's 7 miles with a few ups and downs but nothing crazy and there's almost always water available at the RPH shelter.
      I'll be carrying our winter stove, an MSR Simmerlite and a pot large enough to make a simple dinner for 3. If that isn't enough for her pizza can be ordered, and delivered to, the shelter. Not only that, if there room the shelter has bunks and we won't need to use the tents, and that's a good thing since the forecast is for thunderstorms and rain both Friday and Saturday. I hope the weather doesn't spoil it for her. Wish us luck! :thumbsup:
      I love helping new comers, kinda like fishing, I'd rather take a new comer and watch them catch fish any day than catch fish myself.
      It's like reliving the joy you felt the first time you hiked...or caught fish.
      Lost in the right direction.
    • Putting my pack together for tomorrow's departure.
      It's amazing how little you need for a summer overnighter
      My pack is so empty that I'm tempted to bring clean clothes for the second day, but I won't cause then our newbie friend won't have a chance of smelling authentic hiker funk :D
    • Our little 2 day trip went well.
      We picked up our friend Friday morning about 9:30 in a heavy, heavy pouring rain.
      She said she was willing do this hike even if it rained all day so off we went to park where the AT crosses NY's route 302, in Fahnstock State Park.
      It took longer than usual to get there because of the rain and we put one foot in front of the other starting at 12:40 in the afternoon with a cloudy, but dry sky.
      The temperature was in the 70s but the humidity was as high as it could be without it raining.
      We set off northbound for a 7 mile hike to the RPH shelter.
      After an hour, or maybe an hour and a half, we took a nice long break for lunch, and to let our friend rest her feet as she isn't used to hiking on rocks and roots.
      After lunch we marched on and took a few more breaks along the way until we reached the shelter at about 6:30PM.
      The rain had started again about a half mile before the shelter but we didn't get very wet due to the cover of trees.
      At the shelter we met a SOBOer named Wes (no trail name) who wasn't feeling well thinking he might have Lyme disease.
      We each claimed one of the bunks and then made dinner and sat at a picnic table under the pourch eatting and talking.
      About 9PM the rain came back and it poured cats and dogs for a while so we went inside and called it a night.
      The next morning dawned a beautiful day and was a usual hiker routine of eat breakfast, pack up, make a trip to the privy and then head up the trail.
      One mile southbound from the shelter is Shenandoah Tent Site which is very nice with lots of level, cut grass, a covered patio, water pump and privy.
      Kathy says she and I have camped there before but it didn't look familiar to me at all.
      After looking around it was back to the AT and southbound back to the car.
      Our friend had a much easier time this day now that she knew what to expect.
      Hours later and we were back at the car, changed into some clean clothes and drove home.
      Our walk had some rocky sections but most of it was easy, smooth walking with some ups and downs, nothing crazy.
      Our friend said she really enjoyed herself and will probably want to go again some time.
      That makes this trip a success :)

      Kathy took a few photos, I'll add them once she downloads them from the camera.
    • Hopefully you'll implement some of the ideas and techniques featured in this forum. But you're correct about the 'expert' hiking nonsense on social media.

      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC
    • Here's a couple of photos from the newbie we took backpacking....

      For those of you who have never been to the RPH shelter in New York, here it is.
      It's what remains of a house that was on the property when the National Park Service got it.
      Cement block wall, open on one end and a door on the other with windows in the walls in between.
      The interior is painted Sheetrock and there's bunk beds, a table, and a large garbage can.
      Just outside the opening you are looking through is a covered patio with a pick nick table and several other chairs.
      The place has a hand pump for water, a privy, some new tent pads and poles to hang hammocks from.
      There's also a couple flower gardens that the maintaining club keeps up.


      This is a picture of what greeted us when we arrived, click on it for full effect.
      I tried to assure our friend that not all hikers are crazy, or was it that hikers aren't all crazy?
      I'm not sure she believed me after seeing this 8o
    • Dan76 wrote:

      Hopefully you'll implement some of the ideas and techniques featured in this forum. But you're correct about the 'expert' hiking nonsense on social media.
      Yeah I will, and I'm certain the majority of my fellow man/woman can sort out all the BS as well and not listen to a bunch of blow hard WBzers who insist they are the supreme almighty hiker authoritarian guru top dogs. It really is just walkin' and at that pace it's very forgiving.