Each year I try to work in a winter backpacking trip. This year, I waited up until the last minute to start asking around and couldn’t get any takers. Determined to still go, I looked into places for a solo overnight trip. To the north, near Mt. Rogers Nat’l Rec Area, the forecasts were calling for temps in the teens, winds between 20 and 30MPH, and 10+ inches of snow. To the south, in the Uwharrie National Forest, temps were forecasted between 50°F and 60°F and rain was a certainty. The latter got me thinking.
Since the weather to the south was forecasted to be mild, I thought maybe, just maybe, my wife would be OK with my son joining me on a winter trip. I asked. She agreed. I asked my son. He agreed. Thank you backpacking gods!
THE PLAN
Having backpacked Uwharrie with my son last April, I knew he was somewhat familiar with the terrain so I suggested that we look at routes starting from Yates Place Camp—a free campground which is located about halfway along the 20-mile Uwharrie Trail.
SON: Can we stay at the same spot we did before?
He was referring to a campsite off of Dutchman’s Creek Trail alongside Big Island Creek.
ME: I don’t see why not buddy. Let’s see if we can make it happen.
We pulled up AllTrails and measured the distance between Yates and the campsite; 4.6 miles with minimal gains and losses. Perfect. Next, we turned our attention to the second day. We looked at a bunch of options and settled on a 7.5 mile route that would lollipop us along Uwharrie Trail and back to Yates Place Camp. My son was optimistic, but added one condition.
SON: If I don’t feel like I can hike 7 miles the second day can we just go back the way we came?
ME: Absolutely.
We shifted our focus to the weather. Three days out, the forecast called for rain all day on Saturday and into the next morning with temps hovering in the 50s. With just a day to go, rain was limited to the overnight, and Sunday looked clear, but windy with temps gradually dropping into the 30s by late afternoon. I let my son (and wife) know that as long as we were off the mountain before nightfall we’d be fine (i.e. warm).
With route and weather information in hand, we built out the trip in a spreadsheet based on a 1.5MPH pace…
…created an elevation profile using Google Earth
…dropped in the route
…and packaged it all in a map I printed on TerraSlate paper.
PACKING IT IN
Since my son was coming along (and because Santa brought a new REI Half Dome 2 Plus) we opted for tent over hammock. For clothing we brought both cold and wet weather gear. Additionally, I purchased a pair of Columbia “Big Kid” waterproof boots for my son since I didn’t want him to have to deal with cold, wet feet that his other boots would subject him to. To sweeten the deal, I also picked up a few pairs of real hiking socks.
To help pass the time on the trip, I included a Tic-Tac-Toe board on the back of the map, and my son packed checkers and a bag of dice to play Yahtzee. He also brought along a few LEGO minifigs that he wanted to use to make a book.
In addition to a compass and map, I lent my son my Garmin 920XT so he could track his progress and engage with the hike in a different way. SPOILER ALERT: The watch worked wonders. My son called out mileage and time along the trail and even did a little decimal math to calculate the distance to our next turn/stop.
When everything was packed, my 50L Atmos weighed in at 29 lbs. 9.9 oz and his 38L ACE came in at 12 lbs. 13.2 oz.
Feel free to download a complete list of things we brought: me | my son
DAY 1 (4.52 MI | +669′ GAIN | -810′ LOSS)
We arrived at the campground around 12:20PM and were on the trail by 12:40PM. From the car we walked 10 minutes along Dusty Level Road to the Uwharrie Trail intersection (mainly because I didn’t know where the trail left the campground and hooked up to Uwharrie). We then turned left/south on Uwharrie Trail and then continued right/southwest at Yates Place Camp trail intersection a tenth of a mile later.
About a half mile down trail we hit Dutchman’s northern intersection with Uwharrie. I stopped, handed my son the map and compass, and asked him to tell me which way to go. He looked down at the map, stared at it for a bit, fiddled with the compass, and then correctly identified Uwharrie pointing to the white blaze, the map, and the compass, and said:
SON: It feels like we should go that way.
ME: OK. Let’s go that way.
The hike along Uwharrie between the north and south Dutchman’s Creek intersections is about 2.5 miles. It’s up and down, but nothing too intense. To pass the time (and keep his mind off the ups and downs) we played the creature game where one of us invents a creature and the other has to ask questions to learn more about it. My favorite creature of his was a dragon moth that eats stars and farts meteors. His least favorite of mine was the Pickled Feet Pirate Bug; a burrowing beetle-like creature that lays eggs in a human’s nasal cavity which causes one’s nose to grow like Pinocchio and whistle like the wind. After the Pirate bug, my son added a rule that only happy creatures could be created and I was no longer allowed to whistle while we hiked.
About halfway to the next turn we came across two dayhikers. Then, a couple of backpackers who looked to have camped the night before. After passing them, my son said he was tired and asked to stop and have a snack. While we did, I suggested we look for a new campsite and mentioned one that I had seen on a previous trip along Dutchman’s Creek (the actual creek, not the trail) about 2.3 miles from Yates Place Camp. He seemed to be onboard with the idea of stopping early. However, when we stopped at the site he commented on how it wasn’t the same as the Big Island Creek one which he “really liked.” I let him know that we still had a few ups including a somewhat steep climb before an awesome, long downhill to the campsite; showing him our current location on the elevation chart and what we had in front of us.
SON: I want to keep hiking.
ME: Are you sure? We still have three ups.
SON: What kind again?
ME: Two little. One big.
SON: How big?
ME: A hundred feet or so.
SON: OK. Let’s keep hiking.
ME: (after hiking a few more feet) We can turn around and stay at that campsite. I’m totally fine with that.
SON: No. I like the other campsite better.
So onward and upward we went. Up and over the first climb. Across a little creek and up and over the second climb passing Quartz Town on the way to the final climb of the day. When we reached the top, he stopped and said, “Take a picture dad. I made it to the top! It’s all downhill from here!”
Back on Uwharrie Trail we continued towards the intersection, passing a group of backpackers who were settling in for the night just shy of the Dutchman/Uwharrie intersection. When we reached the intersection my son looked at his watch and said as he pointed to the yellow-blazed trail, “Just about 4 miles. We’re close!” I then put it into perspective by using streets near our house to show how far we still had to go. “Wow! That’s not far at all,” he said. “Let’s go!”
On our way down Dutchman’s to the campsite he stopped shy of Woodrun Road and said, “Here!” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until he pulled out his LEGO minifigs and started setting them up on top of a rock. He asked for my phone, took a photo, packed everything back up, and said, “What are you waiting for? Come on!” Not wanting to keep the little guy waiting, we finished the last of our hike to the campsite arriving in just under 3 hours.
To say he was excited to be back at the campsite was an understatement. He pointed to all the things he remembered and then picked out a site for us to set up our tent. Once the tent and fly were set up, the sky opened up for about 5 minutes, causing him to abandon his post and take refuge in the tent. A short time later I heard, “Ahhhh…this is the life.”
While he relaxed, I prepped dinner and gathered wood. At some point he exited the tent to say he hung the MtnGLO lights and asked me for my phone so he could take more photos. For the next hour he took photos and videos of his LEGO guys. I rang the dinner bell and we sat by the fire. He ate all his food (a whole bag of Mountain House Mac ‘n Cheese) and chased it down with water and freeze dried ice cream. It was impressive. Honey, if you’re reading this, the trick is to feed him freeze dried food and let him sleep outside. After dinner, we sat by the fire for a little while longer before dousing the flames and retiring to the tent for games and a movie. By 8:30PM he was out cold. Day 1 complete.
DAY 2 (5.05 MI | +896′ GAIN | -738′ LOSS)
I woke around 6AM and read for an hour. Eventually, and since he wasn’t showing any signs of waking, I started packing things up ’bout 7AM. I had half the gear in our bags before he finally arose from his slumber. He helped get everything else taken down then took off to take a few more photos with his LEGOs while I cooked breakfast. As we ate, I brought up our discussion from the previous night where I suggested that if he was tired in the morning we could just hike back out the way we came in. Well, he was tired in the morning, so we decided to hike back out the way we came in; leaving the campsite just past 9AM.
While our hike in took about 3 hours. The hike out took 4, followed the same route, and was about a half mile longer on account of my son’s desire to capture the perfect photo of his LEGOs, the perfect photo for his little sister, and the perfect photo for his mom. The extra time spent didn’t matter in the least. We were out in the woods and we were enjoying ourselves.
After several photo ops and ridiculously funny stories we made our way to the Yates Place Camp trail and hiked it a half mile back to the campground where we arrived about 1PM. Trip complete.
TOTALS (9.57 MI | +1,565′ GAIN | -1,548′ LOSS)
FINAL THOUGHTS
What a blast! I’m so glad I got to spend time backpacking with my son. He learned from his first trip and took the steps to make this one his own. He stopped when he needed to stop, helped when he needed to help, and overall he had a great time. The weather turned out pretty good to. While it rained, it was limited to the wee hours of the night and the temps were perfect…especially for a winter trip. As for the photos, he put them to use as soon as he got home in a story he called Adventure in Uwharrie (and he has since made several more).
ADVICE FOR MOMS AND DADS
I shared advice previously and I’ll reiterate my advice for moms and dads looking to take their kids out into the wild.
- Kids want to be involved. From planning to carrying gear to building a fire, let your kids help. My son really wanted to be involved with planning, choosing gear, games, and other activities. Not only was letting him help helpful to both of us, it helped him create ownership of the trip.
- Practice makes practice. We regularly hike trails near our house and the weeks leading up to the trip were no different. The practice hikes helped him prepare for the trip, and helped me gauge his ability. They also provided the perfect opportunity to set expectations and talk about safety.
- Take your time. My son stopped when he wanted to stop, went slow when he wanted to go slow, and went fast when he wanted to go fast. On our way back, he stopped a million times to take photos and it didn’t bother me in the least.
- Activities are a must. Hiking is only a portion of the trip and my son knows this. For this trip he suggested we play the creature game and the A-B-C game. He suggested taking photos of LEGOs. He did a great job keeping us both busy when we could’ve just sat around and stared at the fire (which we also did).
- Have fun. This goes without saying, but I’m saying it. Have fun.