Hercules Glades Wilderness

My mileage for the trip was a very modest 12.95 miles. Around half of that distance was covered with five to seven inches of snow on the trail. Elevation climbed 791ft.

What worked

Generally, everything worked fine, but here are a few ‘special mentions.’

• Waterproof socks over Merino wool socks with my regular trail runner shoes. My feet stayed warm no matter the trail conditions.
• Hammock, 10°F quilts, and winter tarp were great in the conditions.
• Once more the Fancee Feest alcohol stove, needs a special mention, it kept on working even when I abused it (see Lessons below)
• My spare parts ditty bag. I misplaced the top of one of the water pouches and had a spare in the bag (I found the missing top several minutes later!).
• Using Aquatabs instead of my water filter.

What didn’t work, and what I didn’t use

• Deciding not to pack my spare base layer top. I needed it after I soaked the top I was wearing on Day Two.
• I’ll never buy Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki again. It was truly awful. I had to force myself to eat it. If I hadn’t needed the calories I would have trashed it after a couple of mouthfuls.
• Firebox Nano wood stove. I used it as a base for my Fancee Feest stove, but despite collecting wood for it never actually used the wood stove.
• I’m glad to report I didn’t need any of my emergency supplies or equipment, though the Garmin InReach was used to ‘report in’ at home when I camped where there was no cell phone signal.

Lessons

• Try a ‘shower test’ of my rain shell to see if it leaks, and see if I can find out what caused my top and down jacket to get wet. I suspect it was because I had the pit zip open on the side I was using to reach up and brush snow off of low-hanging branches. I’ve had my eyes on a replacement for my down jacket for a while. I’ve ordered a jacket with insulation that doesn’t fail when it gets wet. We’ll see what I think of it when it arrives.
• Invest in some micro spikes if I’m going to be hiking a lot on ice.
• Don’t put water in your alcohol stove. Yup, I did it. I fixed it by emptying out the water (Duh!) putting some alcohol in the stove, and lighting it, and letting it burn until it had boiled/dried all the water out. It took a while, but it worked.
• Snow on the trees can completely disguise the trail.
• Knock the snow off of overhanging branches before walking under them.
• Setting up and breaking down camp takes a lot longer in the snow.
• Pay more attention to my water bottles to ensure they don’t freeze overnight.

Being out in the snow was great, especially with warm feet! When the sun came out, it was wonderful to see. All in all, it was an enjoyable ‘first’ trip. I think I will be going out in the cold more often.