Out of the Woods

As my last post said, I went camping on Saturday morning at Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, NC. I knew going into it that the weather was going to be kind of rough. The forecasts were calling for 1-4" of snow and sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts to 60. I was looking forward to the snow but was kind of worried about the wind.

I arrived at the park around 12:30 on Saturday. It was bright and sunny but it was a day Winnie the Pooh would have been proud of, it was quite blustery. Stone Mtn State Park is 13,000 acres and has a road that winds through across trout streams and through rhodedendron patches and has several trail access points. After scouting the park I found a campsite, campsite 90. The individual campsite pads were really nice and provided a good place to base camp, the only downside was that they were all exposed in a valley with no trees. Perfect conditions for a wind tunnel and the end of which was my campsite. I should have known better but I always try to get as far away from the motorhomes and campers as possible to avoid generator noise. After much frustration I got the Clip Flashlight set up and in the process cracked a pole that was then further damaged by the heavy wind. I then proceeded to lash it together and that held for all of five minutes. I then splinted it with two extra tent stakes and that held until 3:30 AM (more on that later).







By the time I got everything set up it was about 3 and I figured I should get the Explorer organized with room for me to sleep if the conditions turned unbearable at night. I decided to attempt the hike up Stone Mtn. in the morning as it was getting late and was way too windy, so I took a break and did a little reading in the back of the Explorer. After a little while I was looking out of the window and saw something moving up the hill about 50 yards into the woods. I soon realized it was a group of turkeys. There were about 5 or 6 wild turkeys and one that appeared to be domestic because it was all white and was the initial reason I saw the group. I immediately grabbed my cameras and started stalking the group but they caught onto me and walked quickly over the ridge. In the woods it was much less windy so I did some exploring and enjoyed the time in the trees. After some time walking around I noticed the sun was starting to set so I decided it was time to figure out what I would do about dinner. I had planned for two dinners with some chicken and then pasta for another. I knew the pasta was out because the Whisperlite would have been blown away while boiling the water, so I decided to get some charcoal and a fire started. After about 10 minutes on the fire my pan was still cool to the touch due to the wind so I gave up and ate a PB&J pita pocket and some carrots in the back of the Explorer.





It was then time to get ready for bed since I wasn't going to sit outside in the wind and it was all of 6:00. After I got changed and in my sleeping bag I was actually pretty warm so I thought it was going to be a good night; although it took me awhile to fall asleep since it was only 6:00. At this point you've probably noticed that I've mentioned it was pretty windy and you're asking "So, how windy was it?" It was so windy that it blew my cooler over, blew my hat off my head when I had my back to it, during some gusts I had to lean backwards to stand up, and it was as loud as sitting next to the engines on an airplane for the sustained wind and even louder during the gusts. I wish I had a wind speed meter (whatever those are called) so I could be more precise but suffice it to say it was windy.

About 3:30 this morning I noticed the tent was flapping more and I looked through the vent panel and saw that my pole repair had partially failed. Luckily it was still holding somewhat because I was relatively warm in my sleeping bag and didn't want to get out and into the Explorer so I just stayed put and dug deeper into my mummy bag. I got up about 7 and the wind had partially weakend though the gusts were still strong. I struck camp and broke my tent again. In my frustration with setting up my tent on Saturday I got out my heavy duty stakes and hammered them in with my hand axe (yes I know you shouldn't do that) and this morning the ground was frozen and required pulling on the stake loops to remove them. One of the stakes was so far in that I couldn't see it and when I was pulling one of the loops broke. Needless to say, I'm going to find out how much Sierra Designs will charge for new poles and for sewing on a stake loop, I may just buy a new tent since I got that one for a good price at the REI Scratch and Dent Sale in 2003.

Anyway, after a breakfast of trail mix, again didn't feel like struggling with the wind to make oatmeal, I started driving to the trail head but before I got there I was stopped by trees that had fallen across the road during the night. The rangers were already working on cutting them up but I figured there could be more past them and it probably wasn't meant to be. On my way out of the park I saw 3 deer eating breakfast. After that I just drove around the mountains for a little while and then back to Raleigh.



There were a few flurries on Saturday but nothing stuck because, you know the answer, the wind. The temperature would have been perfect but with the windchill it was kind of unpleasant but I was prepared clotheswise so that wasn't too bad. Overall I'm glad I went because it's always good to get out in the woods. I wish I could done some hiking but I'm already planning on taking another trip out there probably in March.

More pictures here: Stone Mountain Camping Trip. More to come when I get the film developed. I'd forgotten how much I like taking pictures with a real camera.

P.S. All in the Family's 35th anniversary is this year and TV Land is having a marathon this weekend. It is a great show and was definitely before its time.