• Stock pond and pines

    Stock pond and pines. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    The picture really doesn’t do the scene justice. Without 3D vision it is a bit of a jumble. Note to self — remember the trick of looking at the subject with one eye closed. It also loses the scale of the pines which must be 100 feet or more high.

  • Backpacking Selfie

    Gary on the Lake Trail at Piney Creek Wilderness. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I don’t feel 64, even after hiking up-hill in temperatures in the nineties. But I suppose I have to concede that I’m starting to look older.

  • Hiking out

    Washed out campsite. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Dry Falls. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    That’s lake not creek in the distance. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Bushwhacking my way out wasn’t easy. It took me three-quarters of an hour to hike less than a mile from my campsite back to the Farm Track Trail. Back near the trail junction, the lake had dropped enough for parts of the trail that had been underwater on Friday to now be visible again. Of course, the lower parts of the trail are still underwater (and yes you might have seen the pictures above before, I used them to illustrate my hike in when I couldn’t use my cameras because of the rain).

    All of this was flooded on Friday. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Back at the Farm Track Trail, and I was already soaked to the skin in sweat. I was tempted to just dump myself in the creek to cool off (it wouldn’t be the first time).

    Gary on the Lake Trail at Piney Creek Wilderness. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Continuing the tradition, I took a selfie by one of the downed trees on the Farm Track Trail. As I’ve pointed out before, this is not representative of what the best-dressed hiker/backpackers would be seen wearing, but my choice of clothing is comfortable in the 90°F weather I’m hiking in. And of course, as always, “It’s my hike.” 🙂

    Not the same tree – but it is sort of traditional to take a picture here, somewhere. Note that my shirt is completely soaked again. Sweat, not rain this time. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Stock pond and pines. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Back at the trailhead, and I’m the only one here, though the trash scattered around suggests some uncouth people have been here while I was on my hike.

    The only vehicle at the Pineview Trailhead. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Breaking Camp

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    Technical note. The velcro tape on my mini tripod (Ultrapod) is too short to fix the tripod to big trees, so I’m noticing some slight movement in the time-lapse images. Musing on this I think using a long webbing strap might secure it. Something else to pack, take up space, and weigh me down.

    Ultra-Pod – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    And just to show that the fire ring now looks like it is used, rather than being abandoned.

    Campfire Ashes. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Morning Swim

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    That’s the last of my Ursula Andress impressions for this trip. 10 points if you get the reference.

  • My current backpacking cooking kit

    Summer 2020 Backpacking cooking-kit.

    My current cook kit looks like it’s a lot, but it packs down very small.

    • Toaks 850ml Ti pot.
    • Firebox Nano stainless steel wood burner, with cotton wool & Vaseline fire starters.
    • Toaks 450ml double-walled Ti cup.
    • Pot cozy.
    • Ti long-handled spoon.
    • Small washcloth.
    • 12oz fuel bottle (I should probably carry a smaller 4oz bottle in the summer).
    • Fancee Feest cat-can alcohol stove.
    • Ti windscreen for the Fancee Feest.

    And as you can see, the wood burner packs away into its base, and most of the rest nests inside the the Cozy. It’s like one of those Russian dolls:

    • The Ti windscreen goes inside the Fancee Feest stove.
    • The fire starters and cloth go inside the Fancee Feest stove/Ti windscreen.
    • The Fancee Feest stove fits inside the 450 ml cup.
    • The cup sits inside the 850ml pot.
    • The pot goes in the cozy.

    Update

    It’s worth noting that I’m still using the same basic setup five years later (2025). I’ve not found anything to beat it so far.

  • Preparing Breakfast – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three

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  • Day Three morning tea.

    Day Three morning tea. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Morning mist on Table Rock Lake

    Morning mist on Table Rock Lake. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I woke at around six am and wasn’t totally surprised to find mist drifting down from Piney Creek. I ‘d witnessed the same thing in much colder conditions in January. I checked the water temperature and it was still warm(-ish) so I had a swim. Who could turn down such an opportunity?

    Morning mist on Table Rock Lake. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Three. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Camp fire. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two.

    Campfire. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Campfire. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Campfire. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Buck Hollow in the evening light

    Buck Hollow in the evening light. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Sunset at Piney Creek Wilderness

    Sunset at Piney Creek Wilderness. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Evening light on Buck Hollow

    Evening light on Buck Hollow – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Preparing dinner

    Preparing dinner – and the campfire’s ready for lighting once dinner is over. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Chicken curry for dinner, the wood stove’s up and running, and if you look closely you’ll see that the campfire’s all ready for lighting once dinner is over. Added bonus for the cooler evening air, my clothes are finally dry. I had to bring everything in under the tarp at one point when we had a small rain shower. With the high predicted temperatures, I wasn’t going to bother to bring my fleece. I’m glad I did.

    Heating water for dinner. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Afternoon swim

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    Two or three steps back from where I am standing in the last picture above and it’s six to eight feet deep. And I should add a thank you to physics — okay optics and refraction — for the no visible genitalia win 🙂 The drop-off is very sharp (as I found out), and was why I couldn’t get any decent pictures from the water. Here’s the best I could do.

    Signs of much higher water levels – it looks like it was another 5 feet or so higher at one point. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Notice how much higher the lake has been. It dropped six inches or more a day from what I was observing. Checking the records, the lake was at full flood capacity on May 31 (931ft), and around 5 feet deeper than it is here (926 ft). The normal level of the lake is 915ft, so it’s up 11 feet at this point.

    Useless facts.

  • Camp life (cont.)

    Camp Life. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Heating some water on my Fancee Feest cat-can alcohol stove. I was being lazy, and couldn’t be bothered to light the woodstove just to heat up some hot dogs and boil water for a cup of tea. It is nearly one p.m. and my clothes are not dry yet. The humidity is way too high for quick drying.

    Camped by Table Rock Lake – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Camp life

    Relaxing in Piney Creek Wilderness – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Confession time. I put on clothes just for this picture. My shirt was still soaking wet from the previous day, and the shorts are a pair that were reserved for the drive home. Somehow they ended up in my pack instead of being left in the car.

    With temperatures in the mid-eighties and frequent dunkings in the lake, who needs clothes anyway?

    Relaxing in Piney Creek Wilderness – I put my wet shirt and a pair of shorts on for this picture. They came off as soon as I’d taken it. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Gear-rack Tree – It’s what every good campsite needs. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Drying Tree – The humidity was so high it took all day to dry my things. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Keeping some wood dry – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Mossy

    Mossy – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Morning tea

    Morning Tea – Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

  • Table Rock Lake from the water’s edge

    Table Rock Lake from the water’s edge. Piney Creek Wilderness – Day Two. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Gary taking in the view (and enjoying a beer) – Table Rock Lake at Piney Creek Wilderness – May 2020. Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I slept like a log, once I got off to sleep that was. I got up around seven, starting my day with a swim. The lake is so still in the above picture it’s difficult to tell where it is on the trees. To put it into context, you can get a rough idea of how much more water there is, by the height of the lower branches in a picture I took last time I was here.

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