I did a short and simple mid-week overnight trip this week…I just wanted to camp and trail test a few pieces of new gear.
I started at Unicoi Gap in north Georgia and hiked north on the AT to Tray Mountain, then back to Unicoi the next morning. The temp at Unicoi was 43°F then dropped to an overnight low of 28°F possibly lower with gusting winds 30-35mph maybe more and sounding like a freight train coming up the mountain.
Self portrait at the Tray Mountain summit
Camp for the night MLD DuoMid, GG Lt4’s, GG Mariposa pack, GG ThinLight for additional insulation, soft sided Nalgene water bag.
Simple winter cooking kit, Soto OD-1R stove, Evernew 0.6 Ti pot, the always controversial among LW and UL backpackers the hard sided Nalgene bottle it’s my choice for hot drinks in the winter, Ziploc baggie filled with condiments and toothbrush, long handle spoon modified to a spork and cozy for FBC meals.
Water source at Tray Mtn.
Someone else packed it in…I packed it out…besides it has a cool label.
Early morning I heard sleet pinging against the sides of the Mid
Morning view from camp
Was a cold and very windy hike back to Unicoi Gap…it was GREAT!
In the following weeks and months I’ll be reporting on the new gear I tested.
Like that tent and I can’t believe you braved the temps this week…but then again, you are cool like that.
What’d you use to modify the spoon?
Dremel tool with grinding wheel
Glad you got out this week! Loved the photo of the icicles!
As usual, great photos… glad that you had a great trip, and got to test some new backpacking gear (particularly that DuoMid…)
The 3rd picture down…do you recall if at the very bottom of that photo, probably just under you and out of the photo, was there a marker there? The reason I ask is cause that spot dirt bowl looking spot looks an awful lot like where my foot slipped and my LT4 broke…
Again, I love the Duomid… I may have to pick the same one up sometime… what are you using for the pole extender? The supplied one (one comes supplied, right?) or maybe the GG pole extender?
I really want to get the Soto stove… I really need to sell my Jetboil Sol Ti and use the $$ to pick one up… For cold weather, I would be ok using the Soto…
That is a beautiful view that you got from camp…when we were there 2 weekends ago now, we say absolutely natta! Zilch, zero. Just fog and rain…
And I wanted some of that ice…
Great report, thanks for sharing!
~Stick~
Hey Stick, yeah there’s a survey marker embedded in the rock, actually it was to my upper right. I stepped down a little bit so my shadow would cast vertically against the rock.
I’m using the pole extender that comes with the DuoMid, but I have a few sections from carbon fiber poles that I want to see if I can make one, but the aluminum extender from MLD is very light, sorry I didn’t weight it.
The Soto is great for winter, this is the second winter of using it, I kept it going inside the Mid to heat water for hot drinks.
What is insulating your fuel canister? Did you construct that yourself? During my last winter trip I had noticeably less fuel pressure to my stove even after placing it in my sleeping bag for the night. It still got the job done, but took longer to boiler than usual. Also – Great Pictures!
Chris- it’s a scrap piece of WalMart blue foam and duct tape, yes I made it and fairly easy to do.