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March 10, 2003 |
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Winter Camping
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Ok, so we admit that we’re a bit crazy - crazy enough to go winter camping on one of the coldest nights of the year. We planned our camping trip months in advance with friends, timed for the long President’s Weekend and the full moon. When the time finally came, we decided not to let a run of sub-zero temperatures stop us, but it did mean being very well prepared and taking extra precautions to stay warm, dry, and safe.
Saturday was sunny with a high of 15 degrees, and we drove with Amy, Justin, and Kevin to the DEC parking area and trailhead at the end of the Claryville-Denning Road in the Town of Denning. We buckled our snowshoes and shouldered our huge packs, loaded with many layers of clothes, extra hats and gloves, winter sleeping bags, tents, cook stoves and fuel, lots of good food (including Justin’s amazing homemade venison jerky), headlamps, maps, first aid kits, and other sundry items. We hiked 1.2 miles on the yellow-blazed Phoenicia-East Branch Trail, then turned onto the blue-blazed Peekamoose-Table Trail for 0.25 mile, crossing carefully over the half-frozen East Branch Neversink River on a single flat-topped log. Our plan was to set up camp halfway up the East Branch Neversink Valley from here, so after crossing the river we followed the river upstream for approximately 2.0 miles. In the summer, hikers here follow an unmarked trail called the Fisherman’s Loop, however with the snow cover and little to follow in the way of previous tracks, we largely made our own route along the river edge. The route passes through a large beaver meadow and several nice hemlock stands.
It was under one of the shady hemlock stands at the foot of Lone Mountain where we decided to set up camp, elevation 2,500’. Now that we weren’t hiking and carrying our heavy packs, we had to change into dry, warmer clothes. We all stomped around in circles with our snowshoes, trying to pack down flat areas for our tents. The snow was grainy and slippery, like sugar, and it was difficult to pack down, but eventually we got our tents situated. Standing still meant getting cold fast, so we spent a lot of time moving around gathering dead firewood. In the afternoon we dug a small pit in the snow, about two feet across, and lit a small fire using flaky birch bark peels from dead trees to start it. As daylight faded away, a magnificent pinkish sky to the west captured our attention for some time. The bright full moon came up, and we all huddled around the fire for warmth, moving away only long enough to cook dinner on our stoves. The campfire gave us wonderful warmth for both body and spirit, and we enjoyed it and cared for it well into the night until it was finally time to crawl into our sub-zero sleeping bags. The low temperature that night was 15 degrees below zero, and we had to sleep with our water bottles and peanut butter sandwiches to keep them from freezing.
We awoke warm and dry in our sleeping bags, but our breath was frozen on the roof of the tents and it was tough putting on our half-frozen boots. Surprisingly, there were still a few warm coals in the fire pit and we were able to have another small fire while we ate breakfast. Originally we had intended to camp for two nights, but with an impending snowstorm on Sunday night we had decided to pack up after one night. We broke down our camp and stashed our big packs by a tree while we went on a day hike to the top of Lone Mountain (3,721’). It was a bushwack straight uphill for about 1.0 mile. After signing in at the summit canister, changing into dry clothes, and eating lunch, half of the group went back down the same way and hiked out, and the other half bushwacked from Lone Mountain over to the summit of Rocky Mountain (3,508’), and then back down. This second mountain had much thicker spruce-fir cover and hiking was very slow going. There were many beautiful rock ledges and caves, and great views of Slide and other nearby mountains. We were back to the parking area just before dark, and home safe and sound before the snow started to pile up again - another great trip to remember!
- Chris and Aaron
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