Overview:

Comfortable hiking in the whites and excited to try backpacking? Join us on an intro to backing trip this long weekend. We’ll start Sunday afternoon, aim to overnight at Eliza Brook tentsite (pending availability) and return late morning on Monday. Overall mileage will be ~8mi with 1600 ft elevation gain. We may decide to tag south Kinsman (without our overnight gear) which would bring our mileage to 12mi , 3200ft.

This trip is going to be heavily skill focused! Expect to spend more time in camp practicing skills than time spent hiking.

There will be a mandatory virtual pre-trip meeting Thursday night, either before or after office hours (5pm or 7pm). If you can’t make this meeting you can’t come on the trip. If you need gear you can rent at office hours 6-7pm or Friday Noon-1pm.

Disclaimers:

• The tentsite may be full, in this case we could 1) hike to another tentsite, 2) stealth camp, 3) return home early
• We currently have no cars for this trip, it’s likely a rental car will be needed

Fitness/Experience Requirements:

• You should at minimum be very comfortable hiking a 7-8 mile 2000ft+ trail on uneven, rocky, terrain with a day pack. (We’ll be adding on 10-20 lbs of packweight and doing two days back to back. A good rule of thumb for backpacking is that you should be comfortable with doing 2x your planned distance/elevation as a day hike)
• You should have been hiking at least one time in the White Mountains (the terrain and trails in the whites are drastically different than many other parts of the world)
• You should have been campground camping in a tent at least once in the past year, and understand what you personally need to sleep comfortably outdoors
• No backpacking experience required or assumed

Things you’ll learn:

• What and how to pack 🎒
• How heavy your bag is with all your backpacking gear 🏋️
• How to treat water to make it safe to drink 🚰
• How to cook on backpacking stoves 🍳
• How to manage food/scents to avoid bears & critters 🧸
• What to do with your poop 💩

Gear! A full gear list with more details will be sent in an email if you decide to join the trip.

Gear just for you:

• A 40+ Liter backpack with a supportive hip belt. Bags without some type of frame/support and a padded hip belt are not allowed
• A sleeping pad
• A sleeping bag (may be down to 40s at night)
• Refillable water bottles/bladders to hold up to 2 L
• Headlamp
• Whistle
• Your snacks/food for two days
• Toilet paper
• Hiking shoes
• Clothing & layers

Gear we will share:

• Tents
• Stoves
• Water purification systems (filters or tablets)
• Poop shovel (We’ll aim to use the AMC composting privy but this will be for - practice/backup)
• Bear can/hang bags (We’ll aim to use the AMC lockboxes, these will be for practice/backup)

Costs:

$15 in cash to pay for the AMC tentsite fee + $30-40 gas money for your driver (potentially more if we end up renting)

Questions:

Email the leaders!