Since I was in the Appalachains for a friends wedding and had a few days off afterward, I decided to test a new pack that I bought. I did so by hiking and camping in the Mt Rogers National Recreation Area with Nugget. Mt Rogers is the highest point in Virginia. I knew it was going to be cold and windy with a few snow flurries, but was prepared with plenty of food and gear.
This is the area where I was hiking. Mt Rogers is beyond the distant mountains. It was 30 degrees when we left in the morning, which was about as warm as it got all day.
Nugget had a pack to carry his food and water. A few of the snow flurries are resting on his back. He didn't seem to mind the pack once I put it on him. He did a great job of pulling me up the hills too.
Here is a cool waterfall on Quebec Branch Creek.
This is looking back toward where I started, the low spot in the distant mountains. I first arrived in the Recreation Area by driving 40 min up a 4x4 road to that spot, which was a old cattle staging area but is now a fairly nice camping area.
Nugget is toughing it out. He was pretty cold the night before and shivered most of the night in my tent. He was much better when we were moving. My new pack is on the left. It probably weighed around 50 lbs with all my gear.
I hiked just beyond these mountains, known as Wilburn Ridge, and set up camp just beyond Rhododendron Gap at around 5500 ft. It was pretty early at around 4 pm but I was exhausted after hiking about 8 miles with full pack and it was also cold and windy. I wanted to set up camp and eat before it got dark. I found a fairly flat grassy area near a grove of trees that protected me from the strongest winds.
As you can see from this picture it was pretty clear in the afternoon. But as I got to Rhododendron Gap it was getting pretty cloudy, and by the time I got into the tent for the night, around 6 pm, it began to snow and graupel. Through the entire night winds were gusting over 40 mph at the tree tops with snow and graupel continuing to fall. Nugget shivered all night again and I tried to keep him warm by putting some of my extra clothes on him. I was getting pretty worried about whether I would be able to find the trail to get back to my truck and was contemplating holding up in my tent until the storm passed. I was also worried about Nugget shivering all night.
I finally ventured out of the tent around 9 am and there was about an inch of wind blown snow on the ground. It was still windy, snowing and graupeling, and the visibility was about 100 ft. I found the trail and decided to pack up camp and attempt to make it back to my truck. There was a horse trail that was fairly wide and rocky and easy to find even with snow on the ground. The horse trail was also a shortcut making the trip back to my truck about 3 miles, which took about an hour.
I wish I taken a picture of the snow but had my digital SLR camera in my pack. I really wanted to get off the mountain and didn't feel like digging it out. I need to get a thin digital camera to carry in my pocket to get lots of pictures in these situations.
