For our annual winter backpacking trip, my buddy, Coop, and I decided on Mt. Rogers Recreation Area. We’d been there in 2011 when we hit up Grayson Highlands to see the wild horses. It’s a great place with great views, and it’s also home to the highest point in Virginia. What makes Mt. Rogers Area a particularly good spot for the winter is the number of trails through and around the area. A must when weather forces routes to change. Something that often happens at Mt. Rogers where winds and temps are known to change in minutes.
Still, we opted to plan our trip ambitiously and play the rest by ear.
The Massacre Marathon is one of a few races that I look forward to each year. The race is a 16-lap marathon around a local park where the first lap is 2.2 miles and each of the following laps are 1.6 miles. While it’s open to solo runners, the majority of participants put together two, four, or eight person teams. To keep order, organizers have a couple rules. Four person teams must alternate laps. All other team combinations can run whatever lap configurations they choose provided each person on a team runs at least one lap. Got it? Good.
This winter, instead of running in the evening I’ve opted to get my run on before the sun (and my family) wakes up. One particular morning I rose from the dead around 5AM, got dressed, put on all kinds of reflective gear, and headed out the door where the temps were in the upper 20s and the wind was playing all of the neighborhood chimes. Having run the same route for the past several weeks I decided I’d try a slightly altered route to pick up a few extra miles.
I’m not a Krispy Kreme guy. I grew up outside of Chicago where the town literally ran on Dunkin and the four food groups were glazed, creme filled, cruller, and munchkins. Those were the days. Unfortunately, by the time I made my way to NC, got married, and had a kid, Dunkin’ took the fun out of getting donuts, which left me with Krispy Kreme.
A few months ago, while my wife slept in, I took my 4-year-old son to a local Krispy Kreme. We walked in and he made a B-line to the glass providing a panoramic view of an assembly line of glazed delectables. His mouth gaped as the donuts were dunked in oil, flipped, and run through “Sugar Falls” for a good glazing. From that point forward he’s been Krispy Kreme all the way.
Let me break for a second, flash forward a few weeks, and then I’ll jump back to more donut stories in another flash forward-back scenario.
John, Lakeside’s race director, and I went out for a run with a friend of his. We started at Bryan Soccer Complex, made our way 4 miles down the trail to Yanceyville Road, and then onto Blue Heron Trail. Just as we entered the woods John hit a stump in the middle of the trail and fell to the ground pretty hard. I laughed, he didn’t, and the three of us continued on. On the way back, John hit the same stump, I laughed again, he didn’t again, and the three of us made the 4 mile return trip to the car.
This year marked my fifth year running the Reindeer Romp 5K in Jamestown, NC. What makes this race particularly enjoyable is not the course or the post-race bananas. No, this race is my favorite because I get to run it dressed up in some ridiculous holiday-themed costume.
I’ve run as a Christmas present, the Grinch and his sleigh, a Christmas tree, and as a conductor pushing the Polar Express. Each year it has become increasingly more difficult to top the previous, which is further complicated by the increasing number of costumed runners who are vying for the top prize. If I was going to compete I was going to have to dig a little deeper this year.
To aid in the creative process, I called up my 100 song Christmas playlist and broke out my sketch book. After almost an hour and a half of scribbling to the tune of Christmas classics, Nat King Cole came on. At that point I knew exactly what I was going to create.
Just past the Northern Knoll of Three Ridges looking at The Priest
I’ve been itching to go backpacking since my July trip to Panthertown Valley. Four months later, and just two months after shoulder surgery, I got to scratch my itch in the Three Ridges Wilderness, located in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. My buddy, Coop, mapped out a sweet 20-mile hike with elevations ranging from 1,000′ to 3,790′ at the summit of Three Ridges Mountain.
Atop Little Green Mountain overlooking Panthertown Valley
I’ve been tent backpacking for several years and it wasn’t until a recent trip to Tsali Rec Area that I began to consider the alternatives. A list which includes: on the ground, on the ground with a tarp, or above the ground in a hammock.
I’ve slept on the ground in a sleeping bag. It was fine, but the conditions were ideal (i.e. moderate temps, no bugs, and we were on a bald with little wind). However, I had not crossed off tarp or hammock from my backpacking bucket list.
At Tsali, I noticed a lot of people choosing hammocks over tents. Curious, I asked one camper to let me give their hammock a try. It seemed comfortable enough that I thought I could use a hammock on a future backpacking trip. To the Googles!
Turns out, hammocks aren’t all that expensive. Prices ranged from $40 on up to $200 depending on material. I also found that most backpackers recommended using a bug net, rain fly, and sleeping pad along with a bag, quilt, blanket, or bivy. So let me back up. The hammock is between $40 and $200 while the accessories to keep bugs out, rain off, and heat in will collectively run you an additional $400-$600.
I also took a close look at the weight difference between a tent and a hammock. My REI Quarter Dome T1 tent with footprint, poles, stakes, and rainfly weighs 3 pounds 10 ounces. The ENO DoubleNest Hammock (19 oz), bug net (16 oz), rain fly (22 oz), straps (11 oz), and stakes (2.8 oz) weigh in at 4 pounds 4 ounces. Six ounces isn’t a lot, and in the winter months I’d be 16 ounces lighter since I wouldn’t need a bug net. Plus, factoring in how a hammock packs compared to how a tent packs, I was sold on giving the hammock a chance.
With coupon in hand, I purchased an ENO DoubleNest and the above accessories from the local big box store, and gave it a whirl at a family car camping trip a few days later. Set up was a breeze and sleeping was, in my opinion, better than in a tent. I took the hammock with me on a couple day trips with my son and he loved it as much as I did. The real test, however, would come in an upcoming backpacking trip to Panthertown Valley in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
My buddy found this huge hornet (paper wasp??) nest in a bush on his farm. Turns out they’d been mowing next to it for months and neither party noticed the other.
Back in the fall my buddy, John, asked me if I was running Pilot Mountain Payback again. I told him that I would run it provided I was able to train for it. If I learned anything from last year’s adventure it’s that the marathon isn’t really a marathon. It’s a come-to-Jesus journey in which you run up and down a mountain with the hopes that you don’t come to Jesus before you cross the finish line.
Flash forward to the first week of January when I found out I had a kidney stone. Pretty awesome, right? Well, a week later I ran a 15-mile trail race. Pretty smart, right? Over the ensuing few weeks I ran a grand total of 40 miles which averaged out to about “not enough to run a trail marathon” miles per week. That’s when I told John that I wouldn’t be participating.
