January 10, 2025 13:28.Gary camped here

Gary camped here

Gary camped here. There was a fair buildup of snow around the edge of the tarp from where the snow kept sliding off. Copyright © 2025 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

My first lesson of the day was that everything seems to take twice as long when it is cold and there is snow around. It takes time to ensure the snow is brushed off of everything and to keep wet items away from my dry gear.

My second lesson of the day was that, in my opinion and experience, Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki is almost vomit-inducing and only fit for the trash. You might wonder why I was eating Chicken Teriyaki for breakfast. Well, I wasn’t planning on going out so soon, and my new order of freeze-dried food hadn’t arrived when I left, so I had to make do with what leftover packets there were.

With constant snow and/or snow falling from the branches it was a full wet weather breakdown of camp. That requires keeping the tarp up until last and working in the confined space under it. At least it kept the snow off of me and my stuff.

My trail clothes for the snowy conditions were:

  • Cap with a wool hunter orange beanie, and a buff to keep my ears warm.
  • Merino wool top, with my shemagh, light down jacket, and my rain shell over that.
  • Ginger’s gloves. 🙂
  • Bass Pro base layer bottom with Bass Pro rain pants over, and these were both tucked into my Sealskinz socks.
  • Inside my Sealskinz socks, I wore a pair of Marino wool crew socks. The Sealskinz socks are normally cold, probably because of the moisture evaporating from the outer fabric. I thought adding a pair of socks inside them would help keep my feet warm. Spoiler alert — I didn’t have cold feet at any time with this arrangement. It worked perfectly.
  • My Xero trail running/gym shoes.

By one-thirty, I had everything packed away and was ready for the trail. I worked out a rough compass bearing and off I set.

Copyright © 2025 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

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