Jason Lancaster

My friends Ed and Adam are both fair weather campers. This weekend’s camping trip (which I was not a part of because of house renovations) has been canceled due to 100% chance of rain on Saturday morning.

My point of saying this isn’t to rattle the cage too much, it’s more to talk about the unknown (or known) and how challenges are sometimes the thing we remember and appreciate most in life. I won’t lie: The idea of a dreary Saturday searching for wood while I get poured on isn’t the most attractive idea ever. Yet, with the right outlook, it might end up being one of the most rewarding things you could end up doing. Out of all the adventures I’ve taken, it’s the ones with some kind of adversity that I remember best. It really makes you appreciate when everything is “just right.” It brings a little sense and modesty to an individual.

Some of my trips have been relaxing and smooth. Others, not so much. That’s just the gamble you take. But regardless of what is given, I hope I can continue to appreciate and take the opportunities that are given.

All that to say, once I’m done my home renovations and I plan a trip, you two aren’t getting off so lightly. Have fun this weekend, come help me with my house if you get bored, and definitely make sure to invite me along next trip.

I briefly mentioned the complications of layering clothing in my previous post, however it’s hard to explain why you should have wicking layers in the cold until you’ve experienced it. Primarily, the issue is that standard cotton clothing can’t dry out quickly, leaving you colder than you would have been if you had just left the shirt at home.

I happened to come across a blog entry over at Trailspace that I thought I should share that talks about the importance of wicking layers. Without it results in the following:

I now have a small, red, blistered patch of skin on the middle of my torso—mild frostbite. Next time it’s so cold I’ll leave the heart rate monitor at home.

Continue reading “A Lesson on Wicking” »

Last weekend I did a guys camping trip over at Green Ridge State forest again. Quite cold, and quite fun.

Camping in the cold is a pretty interesting experience. I’m glad to do it and would do it again, however there are a lot of things you have to consider. For example, how do you keep your water from freezing? What do you do if you run out of firewood? How to keep your toes warm once you get a little perspiration? How do you dry out your shoes and socks? And how many layers and sets of clothing do you need?

The temperature varied between 15 and 25F night and day. I used a combination of a 10 degree down sleeping bag and inside of that a 20 degree down sleeping bag, along with two roll-up air pads from REI. I also got to use my one-person tent for the first time and boy was it small once you have a lot of sleeping bag area and padding! I think next time I’ll lug along my two-person tent for a similar endeavor.

I’ll be a bit more prepared next time, but there were some great things learned this time. For one, I know that longer treks aren’t so good in as many layers as I had, because they really impeded on my ability to move properly. They did keep me warm though.

Also, I learned a lot about how a dog is an awesome companion. The guys had some dogs with them and taking the dogs for a really long hike with me was incredibly fun and almost serves as reason enough to have a dog. Last thing I need right now is something like that taking up my time, but if anyone ever wants to lend me a dog to go camping with I’ll gladly take your dog temporarily. He just better listen and be big enough to scare away the bears.

Emily and I spent our weekend camping at Big Meadows in Shenandoah. Each day had a point where it rained, but overall the trip was relaxing, fun, and adventurous. The rain was good too because we didn’t know you had to/or could make reservations at Big Meadows, which meant we didn’t know where we were staying on Saturday night because they were booked full. Luckily, space opened once the rain started so we were able to stay at the campground.

I was surprised at how cold it was. I know it’s fall now, but the weather was much more like winter. Each night lead to a low in the low 30′s, and each day was only about 50 or so. Very surprising, and something I’ll need to plan for next time.

I was able to start a matchless fire on Sunday night, something that might sound hard to do on the face of it but little do you know I actually found a fire pit that someone had recently cooked on with charcoal. Placing my wood on top with some kindling soon started a great fire for cooking. Food always tastes better when you’re camping and this time was no exception.

I packed my climbing shoes with the rest of our camping gear and scoped things out the first day, looking for some good climbs. There is a great 50 foot rock face about 1.25 miles (or a 35 minute normal paced hike) north of the Big Meadows Amphitheater going north along the Appalachian Trail. After seeing it the first day and snapping some pictures, Emily and I took some rope, my new hammock, and some other gear to spend the day on these new-found rocks. There are some great climbing routes there and I’m really hoping I can convince some climbing friends to come back there and backpack/camp there with me to check things out further.