Finishing a crossing of the Linville River at the bottom of the Linville Gorge south of Table Rock, Nick Bush uses his trekking poles for balance.
went on a few times, when suddenly a hunter draped in camouflage came out of the bush sporting a muzzle loader in one hand and a turkey call in the other. We both shook our heads at our close call (so to speak) and walked off in different directions. More than one friend later commented, “It’s a good thing you don’t do a better turkey call!” Another thing about bringing your canine companion: not all dogs can handle long distance hikes. Like you, they all need to be brought up to speed by gradually increasing miles per day. Too often I’ve seen and heard of people having to carry their worn-out pooch out of the woods. Trails can be especially hard on a dog’s bare feet if they are not conditioned to it. Bring enough food and water for your companion, remembering that during exertion a body needs more than usual of both. A one-night trip can be a great way to see how much you may enjoy backpacking. Wes Wisson, an Appalachian Trail (AT) shuttle driver in Georgia who Bill Bryson wrote of in his classic A Walk In The Woods, once told me of all the folks that he drops off at the start of the trail in Springer, Ga., expecting to hike the entire AT, and how many call him after a few miles or days and want out. Rather than starting off with a long-distance hike (the AT generally takes six months from Georgia to Maine), try a one-nighter after a short hike to a great campsite.
Last summer I invited my brother Bruce, who hadn’t backpacked for years, on a trip to the Wilson Creek area with a few other experienced backpacking friends. We all agreed to a laidback trip just for the fun of it. No high-mileage bagging was intended, so we strolled a leisurely 1.5 miles to a campsite along South Harper Creek. We set up tents and explored the area, taking in a swimming hole, roaming the nearby trails and scrambling up a hill, discovering a fantastic overlook of the falls. We made friends at camp with two fun-loving medical students from the Triad area who shared a riverside evening meal with us. After dusk,
we all laid out on huge water-smoothed rocks as the river rushed around us, an ideal open area to view stars. Dozens of bats buzzed us, adding to the essence of our brief but blissful time in nature. We had the area to ourselves, and after a few moments of enjoying each other’s company in such a special space, retreated to our campfire and finally to our tents, smiling and content. A current trend in backpacking is to use ultra-light gear. Ultra-light backpacking is a way to spare the body the rigors of heavy loads. You carry less weight and by the end of a day are less fatigued. Most of the ground hiking in the mountains is far from equal or level, and backpacking is a real workout. Using trekking poles is helpful to minimize body strain by distributing some of the load off your legs onto your arms and help with balance as well. My first backpack was a K-mart external frame model with a green and white ecology flag design. As an early teen, I had a rather foolish notion that the heavier your pack, the more likely you were to gain the respect of your peers. Toting a fully loaded, more-than-50-pound pack,
Gathered beside camp on South Harper Creek are (back row, from left) Steve Blind, Nick, Bruce and Todd Bush; and (front row, from left) Adam Zurkey, Brittany Collins, Jessica Vincent and Brandon York. 94
High Country Magazine
July 2011