Hiking Shenandoah National Park - Summer Backpacking in Virginia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
- For this episode we not only do a summer visit to Shenandoah National Park, but also add another member to the crew, Mike's 8 year old son. This will be his first hike, and hopefully we don't scare him off with the whole "endless walking and hard work" thing.
Our specific area for this backpacking trip will be the South District of Shenandoah National Park, in the Federal Wilderness Area along Trayfoot Mountain. The time frame is late summer, August to be exact, which is exactly why we chose this region. The North District tends to be the more popular area of Shenandoah, due in part to it's higher elevations, along with the close proximity to Washington, DC. To use an analogy, the North District would be Virginia's version of New Hampshire's Presidential Range, while the South District would be, say, the Carter-Moriah Range.
Okay, so what I'm trying to say is: I'm not messing with that in peak season, but I'll gladly come back in the Fall when I can have it all to my greedy self. In the mean time I'll stick to my favorite summer solution - less traveled Wilderness Areas. Skyline Drive, which runs the entire length of the park, provides convenient access to just about all the trails in the park. It also comes with a $15 admission fee for cars. Not bad for a scenic drive, but a little steep for some trail head parking. Thanks to my cheapness and a little research, we'll be entering the park via the terminus of a rural state road that butts up against the southwestern boundary with parking space for two or three cars at the end of SR661.
All backcountry camping requires a permit. These are free and available at each Skyline Drive entrance station, via self registration. We grabbed ours from the Rockfish Gap entrance station at 2:30 am. You can find the permits in a wooden drawer on the backside of the Ranger Station. Very convenient!
A big part of this trip was not just visiting the Shenandoah Valley, but also a bit of training and hopefully a fun first time hiking experience for Mike's son. We began at 6:30am by following the Paine Run Trail (a foot and horse trail) from the parking spot towards it's intersection with the Appalachian Trail, which would make up the first half of our loop hike. We passed up the only shelter on this trip, Black Rock Shelter, as a camping location, but it was much appreciated for it's excellent reliable water source. From there we trekked along on the Furnace Mountain Trail to link up with Tray Foot Mountain Trail. This would take us back towards the car along the ridge of Trayfoot Mountain. Running a bit heavier on mileage than anticipated, we finally set up camp at the Southern base of Trayfoot around 5pm. This put our total mileage for day one at 18 miles, and ironically, pretty close to the car. The upside was that we had a short and easy hike out the following morning, which gave us time to explore the entire length of Skyline Drive by auto. But you'll have to catch that in the next video...
Trail Head Parking Info via National Parks Service:
GPS Coordinates: 38.196763, -78.767869
PAINE RUN Rt. 661 Foot, Horse Trail
Fair access; parking for 3 cars at private turn-around at end of
Rt. #661; No public access from Rt. #614. NOTE No Parking in
turnaround weekdays, 7am to 4 pm during school year to
accommodate school bus turn around
My Hiking Gear List:
Nemo Losi 3p Tent (Split between Mike and I)
EMS Long Trail 70 Backpack
EMS "Stuffer" Jacket
EMS Pack Cover
2 ReVive Solar ReStore chargers for video camera, phone, etc
Osprey 2 liter Nalgene Bladder for hydration
Sawyer Squeeze Water Filtration System
1 Liter Disposable Plastic Water Bottle
Taurus 740 Slim Sub-Compact Pistol
Swiss Gear Trekking Poles (Cork Handle Model)
Therm-A-Rest Z-Lite foam sleeping pad
Sea To Summit Toaster Fleece Liner (used as stand-alone sleeping bag)
EMS Packable Pack (9oz Daypack that also makes a decent pillow!)
Sunscreen
Brunton Classic Compass
Beef Jerky, pop-tarts, trail mix, snacks etc
Mountain House ProPak Chili Mac n Cheese
'Light My Fire' Spork
Homemade Ultralight Cookset - video: • DIY Ultralight Cookset...
Instant Coffee!
1 oz bottle of Ben's Max 100 98% DEET insect repellent
Sea To Summit 'Insect Shield' Mosquito Head Neat (Luckily the bugs weren't bad though)
EMS Camp Cap (synthetic fast dry, & lightweight!)
EMS Convertible Camp Pants / Shorts
EMS 'Velocity' synthetic lightweight long sleeve shirt
Nike 'Pro Combat' synthetic tee shirt
EMS synthetic socks
Garmont Zenith Mid GTX Hiking Boots
4Sevens Preon 2 Flashlight
Princeton Tec Byte Headlamp
Leatherman Squirt Ultra-Light Multi-Tool
SOG Blink Spring Assisted Knife
Some of Mike's Backpacking Gear:
Gregory Palisade 80 Backpack
DeLorme PN-60 Handheld GPS
Therm-a-Rest Self Inflating Sleeping Pad
Big Agnes Sleeping Bag
....and other gear choices similar to mine, but different brands etc.
Serious props up to Mike's boy Nick. 18 miles in a day with full pack is serious legit, regardless of age. Kudos to him for sticking through it.
Well, it's been 2 months and his legs haven't fallen off, so I think we're good. :D
I'm not a medical professional, but I'm no stranger to research. There are kids only a couple years older than him who have completed the Appalachian Trail w/ their parents, doing 20 miles a day on more advanced terrain,... for months. Some kids grow up with surfers and do waves that scare the hell out of me. This kid's growing up with hikers, and chances are ... he'll hike. (and live to tell about it)
I just can't stop thinking how awesome this was for the child. And he did great!
You got to give it up for the kid, 8 years old and walking 18 miles with a 15 lb pack on, little dude earned my respect
Thumbs up to Nick for doing this hike and to you guys for taking him. Your videos are always awesome, thanks for sharing your experiences!
lol it's amazing how much a hearty meal can improve morale, especially Mikes!
Hi to Nick! He did good! We did that as kids in Colorado! Lot's of fun!
Yes, he gets a Gold Star for hiking, and a Platinum Star for putting up with our lunacy ;)
Awesome way to bond with the children. Great to see you two expose them to nature.
Hi, Shawn 👍🏻👍🏻 Awesome hiking and camping adventure and 👍🏻👍🏻 for Nick for hiking 18 miles on his first hiking adventure, y’all had some nice scenic vistas and the trails were very clean. I’m glad Mike decided to bring his son, great experience to enjoy the great outdoors !!! Thanks for sharing, enjoy and have a Blessed Sunday !!! Danny
I also gotta say that it was pushing a child's limits. But it was also great to see him complete the hike and not moan like kids his age usually do. Tough little booger!! (Great character for a child his age). Take him on shorter routes more frequently, and it will build up his legs and oxygen intake. He will enjoy it more. As for your hikes...cool. I enjoy watching your hiking videos, and also appreciate you posting your travel and gear information. Kudos.
I learned how to hike with kids his age, with my sisters kids. The trick is, to stop often, like every 20 mins and let them rest for 5 mins. They recover fully and fast! It's amazing! You can't push them to keep going at a steady pace like adults. It doesn't work. Stop for them often just for a couple mins and I'm not joking, they will keep fully recovering, like they haven't even been on a hike at all! Then walk circles around you. That's the trick to hiking with kids. I learned this real fast when I took a couple of them with me on a longer hike. At first I tried to keep them going cus I knew we only had so much time before daylight, but once we stopped for a few mins, I saw how fast they recovered and it was like they hadn't even been on a long hike at all. We kept doing that, and they remained fully refreshed while I was slowing slightly and they kept right full 100% of energy that way and that's when I learned you could take kids on pretty much any amount of miles like this because they will fully recover in just a few mins and only need 5 mins every 20 mins to keep walking right at your same pace. It was amazing once I learned what they needed. Totally different style than adults need so if you do what they need, they'll make any hike look like...child's play lol.
He did good and no whining. Bravo!
And that's why I love TH-cam. I knew if there was a such thing as a triple-blaze, someone would fill us in. I'll make sure to pass this along to Nick. Thanks for sharing!
This is awesome! Great age to introduce the backpacking scene. That look at 28:48 was priceless. I took my 8 year old nice on a backpacking trip that went up to 10,000ft. My brother and I both took turns carrying her gear just like Mike was. I feel for Mike!
Thanks for sharing all these awesome videos! By the way, your son asked about what three blazes would mean, and this actually does exist! Perhaps not on the AT, but three blazes on side trails and other park through trails signifies the beginning or end of a trail. One example I can think of off the top of my head is the Mill Creek Trail in French Creek State Park in PA. I've seen it elsewhere, too.
I think you guys did a great thing introducing the next gen to the outdoors. Great video!
That opening to the video is so funny....
Young Nick did a great job!!!!
good on you for letting him come with...
Great job nick !!!! Awesome video thanks for sharing.
Been watching all your videos man.. from NH myself... thanks for all the great hiking videos
Great hike boy did great.
Love this one!
Mike looks pissed! Haha
he kinda always does though :D
We survived! Very enjoyable but tough on two, VERY out of shape, paramedics! Thanks for the videos....it gave us our destination. We needed to get away from all of the 911 calls for a few days.
I LOVED going there as a kid :)
Good job bringing the lil guy out there!
Far to many parents just leave their kids infront of a TV
I'd never heard of that model before, but it sounds and looks pretty legit. Plus it looks reasonably priced. I've been exploring the idea of secondary camera options for a bit now. Thanks for the tip! Stay safe out there.
Nice Upload
Especially with little ones on hand keep yersour ability the smell things that are different. Musky smells, the
Smell of warm cucumbers indicate that copperhead snakes are very close. Be extremely careful reaching into berry patches snakes can be just about anywhere. See with munchkins it's better to be safe than sorry.
Great job Nicky no more a Noob. Now you need a trail name
That is my backyard dude, love that park have some great water falls and is under one hr. for me to the park. A+ to the kid.
Great video! Awesome kid! Cool father!
mike seems all pissed off lol. classic dude. he looks like a young Chris Cornell. love ur vids man
Hey Nick good job bud, thats a big accomplishment, keep it up.
That was a great bit of Parenting there....
To many kids spending the best years of their lives sitting on their butts with a game controller in their hands, Keep him in the woods, Push em hard, Next time Mike make him carry your pack lol... great video guys...
Feel free to link it here in the comments as a video response. I always enjoy seeing new footage of locations I've visited before. Enjoy the trip!
Thank you and good looking out on the trail suggestions! I'll have to look further into it when a get a chance, but I took a quick look at the Chuck Keiper Trail and it looks pretty promising considering that the opening lines of the first description I found were "The only access to the trail is via PA 144, through the eerily unpopulated and lonely plateau between Renovo and Snow Shoe...." Sounds good to me ;)
Yes, sir, it was definitely a fun trip. I'm looking forward to exploring some of the Northern section later this year. We were a bit too loud to see any black bears on the trail, but we did see some cubs on Skyline Drive on the drive home. I'll probably try to whip up a little video on Skyline next week.
More dads should do this! Nice trip, thanks.
3 is the start or end of a trail. Nice vid, great to see t
Nice hike!
Awesome vid!
Newer Hiker here, but I was told not to bush-wack on trails to cut out switchbacks because if people do that it creates new trails and increases erosion. Just wondering your take that cuz I hate all those s-curves (switchbacks) too.
Good Luck towards that and stay safe.
Thank you, sir. It's much appreciated ;)
I use the Topo 9 software that came with Mike's DeLorme PN-60. I can custom set the area & scale and print it to plain old printer paper that I keep in a ziplock.
For this trip I also used a NatGeo trail map as well. They're beautiful maps for finding & planning trips, but weigh a lot compared to print-outs. Plus carrying a full region is usually overkill compared to a more zoomed-in map specific to where you'll be. (I still take them for filming purposes though)
The little guy out with you!
Dude you have awsome videos, im amazed that you dont have that much views you rock!!
sintax77 Hope you guys have started eating those pack-it gourmet meals. Those things are soooo good!
***** Man, I gotta get on that...
Also, let me know when you swing through VA again. Would love to talk gear on cam while hiking/backpacking.
No worries, I've still had a decent amount of oppurtunities to try it out and see it in use. I'm pretty happy with it, but if I had bought one I probably would have looked at some comparable models by Garmin, etc first. It funtions well, but I'm not totally blown away by the interface (again kind of unfair, because I haven't done a legit comparison). This Delorme model (PN60) is the standard one usually in stock at EMS, so that probably contibuted to why Mike picked it up.
My license indicates 31, my actions indicate 13.
I use a Samsung H-300. It's far from high end, but it's affordable and gets the job done. I love the optical image stabilization (important for filming while hiking!), but it does lack the ability for an external mic, so I have to clean a lot of the sound up in post production. My dad recently picked up a Sony that does nice video and has great sound, you may want to check them out as well. Above all else though I'd test out some models at the store and prioritize the image stabilization.
Not a stupid question at all. I checked with Mike - It's a Sea to Summit AlphaLight Long Spoon. Aircraft grade aluminum, clocking in at .4oz (12grams)
really impressive, I remember my first hike on the at was 7 or 8 miles with the boy scouts when i was 12 and a lot of us were pretty miserable haha
Great video! I have a really idiotic question. Do you have little silly bloopers, and If so, could you perhaps show them in the video? Thanks for the all the great videos!
Crazy to think Nicky is 16 now!
Thanks brother.
Thanks!
My EMS partner and I are getting ready to hike this very same trail this weekend! I'll be videoing the adventure and will tag you when I post it. (mine will be pretty raw and not as nice and edited like your videos. I would love to learn how to do that one day.)
Honda Pilot !!! I use to be a pilot in a bakery ! I use to take the bread from one corner and pilot in the other !!! Lol !!!! Sorry ! Love your video !
Yeah, it was a good time. It's not my kid, he's Mike's son, so I'll refrain from further debating his previous day-hiking experience or how to raise him at all, actually. It's something they decided to do based on the terrain and abundance of Summer sunlight. Not my call, but I'm glad they came along because it was a great, memorable trip that I'm sure will resonate with his son for a long time.
When taking kids I find it wise to take more than one. This way they can entertain each other and also utilize the buddy system. In other words, be less if a burden.
Hey cool. He needs to get his boy out more often. I guess if he was 8 then he must be 16 or 17 now, 8 years latter.
10:31 "Kill the boy, Jon Snow" LOL Nice job you guys.
I've been following for a few months, just am getting to this older videos. I haven't seen Mikes kid in any other videos so I'm assuming you guys scared him off lol. Hope not. 18 miles awesome job for the kid
Hey sintax77 I've been watching your videos recently when I finally stumbled across this one which is in my own backyard it takes me 30 mins or so to get the skyline drive/SNP and I'm not trying to hate but I thought you couldn't have a fire there?
Also check out the water falls near South River Outlook. We hiked one yesterday and it was simply amazing. Love your videos and I'm subscribing after I finish writing this!
nice son mike !
Stupid question for you. What kind of long handled spoon is that Mike was using? I've been looking for a titanium fork and spoon so I don't have to plunge my hand in the Mt. House bag. Thanks! :)
Gotta give credit to the kid!! He's just 8 yrs old (I think...)
working on all they videos guys.! "move-it" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like you had alot of fun down south Sintax?
The problem with being in the zone is you miss a lot of scenery which is why you go on these isn't it? Unless you're a hard-core hiker who is only there for milage and to say you did the trip.
could you recommend a backpacking trail that's about Miles with places for a tent, places where you are allowed to fish (with or without permit), and preferably have a fire (but its not 100% necessary) either in the White Mountains in NH or Shenandoah in VA. thanks
It's far away from new england, but you should backpack Big Bend.
+Luke Denham Texas, right? I believe I've looked into that before. The tricky part was that it seems to be quite a drive from even the nearest airports, but it was pretty intriguing.
Tree around 17:30 probably a lightning strike
that pointy hill might be a ancient pyramid
Way to go Nick!
PS Mike looks too jacked to be 180. Maybe its the camera.
That was way too much for anyone unconditioned, let alone a little feller, guys.
Hey what source do you use for your maps and route planning?
My old backyard
Heck I know some grown adults who would moan and groan during an 18 mile hike. That kid did real good.
hey, how do u like the Delorme GPS?
Hey I would love to go camping with you two sintax77 I would learn a lot thanks for your tips on camping hiking
hey sintax! how was the cell phone service on the trail?
Just wondering what type of camera you have that zooms out so far?
Must be a cam recorder.
How old are you and Mike?
No cheeseburger time?!?
Do you always carry a gun?
oh sorry the other guys is the one that has the Delorme, Sorry ;)
What type of camera were you using?
Samsung H300 For more info check out my post here www.sintax77.com/about/#comment-17
sintax77 I was wondering if you still use the Rav Power 10 for a charger as I saw you also use the lantern charger?? Great vids and TY
what is mike's channel called
Daniel Porter trailkilla
bushwalking is discouraged in no trace philosophy ...
Great video! I was there just last weekend and did a video too! Maybe you want to check it out ☺️