Thanks to Going Gear, I haven't overnighted in the woods in over a year. The last trip we did was last January to Cumberland Island, and calling that roughing it is a stretch. Now that I have lackeys, I mean employees, I finally have the ability to take a couple of days off to get outside. The wife and I are going to head up to North Georgia in the middle of the week next week and wander around in the woods for a bit. We might even take our mutt, which would be his first overnight trip ever. I'm sure he is drooling with anticipation.

We are able to go on hikes every now and then, but that's just not the same. Having a store full of all this new and high tech gear that I never really get to use has been driving me insane, so I am highly anticipating dragging way too much stuff through the woods, eating freeze dried meals, wishing swift deaths upon Georgia's insect population, wondering if the bear on the trail is going to get in a fight with our dog, and all that other fun stuff. Hopefully I do not keel over due to my lack of exercise.

Anyone else been out of the outdoors for too long?

Me!! I've been training for my triathlon so my weekends have been full of running (urgh) and biking (um...) and swimming (yuck). I'm desperate to camp!! Soon, hopefully.

We've had a pretty good "getting out" year so far. But I was just recently lamenting the Northwest's short backpacking season. You've really only got July and August that you can count on for good weather. Otherwise, June you still have too much snow in the mountains, and September you start getting freezing temps at night in the mountains, and riskier weather conditions.

So I start panicking about now as I can count down the rest of our camping opportunities for the summer. I guess I could "grow a pair" and attempt snow camping or colder temps...

I haven't done as much camping as I usually have by this time of year - just a few camping wekeends in the kayak, and one bike weekend in tents. There will be a few more kayak camping trips before the end of it - it's going to be fall before I want to backpack and camp.

Okay, so in January I kayak camped in the everglades & the keys. That counts as this year

Can't you do beach or lower elevation camping? I thought it was relatively temperate up there.

sounds tempting.

since I am pregnant I haven't been out camping at all; the doctors really don't want me to. I'm ok with it, though.

Car camping!


When I did bike virginia, since they were shuttling my camping gear for me - I took a 3 person tent for myself and a twin size inflatable air mattress. It was absolutely decadent 'cause i'd never actually carry all that just for myself.

thats a good idea, Cat. Thanks. I'll look into it

The coast is usually one of our "early" season camping spots - June is good, but the weather there is usually at least 10 degrees cooler and much higher chance of bad weather. Lower elevation camping - yes, I could do that... it would just be cooler during the day and evenings. But there wouldn't be nearly as many people to deal with! I'll check in again in October and let you know what I did.

The only camping I"ve done since the wife became pregnant was for whitewater trips and that's car camping. I'm also looking forward to some day in the future when I can break out my backpack again...

One of my favorite things to do is go to sleep and wake up as far from a road as I can manage for where I"m going.

Lo and behold, we actually went backpacking last night. The trail was kind of brutal, with about a 20-25 degree rocky incline for half the trail, so we stopped about 4-5 miles in and set up camp in a big cleared out area where a couple of trails meet the river. We were the only people on the trail, which was great. The wife wanted to bring a tent so our dog would not be eaten by a bear or whatever she was worried about. I love my dog, but I had no desire to sleep with his farting and scratching self, so I took my Hennessy hammock. She slung up her ENO to rest for a bit and realized how awesome hammocks are, so I rigged the tent's fly over her hammock and we left the tent in her backpack. It didn't rain, but bugs like to kamikaze you from the trees in the middle of the night, so any kind of overhead protection is nice.

We were set up right next to the river. At that point, it's nothing you could put a boat in, but still nice to be near. We didn't see any critters other than the regular stuff. I saw some bear poop and heard coyotes, but both stayed far enough away from us that we never saw them. Our dog stared intently at something that seemed to spook him in the woods a couple of times after sunset. I tried lighting it up with my Olight M30 and didn't see anything or any eyes peering back at me. Since that light is way, way too bright for the woods, I could easily see everything out there. Knowing him, it was probably a squirrel or something equally ferocious.

Since I don't sell Gregory, I figured I should ditch my old Gregory pack and switch over to an Arc'Teryx. I took the Axios 50, which was AWESOME. Super light, plenty of pockets, and really comfortable. The air mesh that they used on the back did not look all that substantial at first glance, but it worked great. My only complaint was the lack of a pocket on the hip belt, but a Maxpedition pouch quickly solved that.

Overall, it was a great trip. We missed spending nights outside, so it was a relief to be able to start doing that again. Hopefully it continues.

Sounds really nice! I hate sleeping in a tent with my dog also, but he whines if we leave him out of the tent, and it does drop below freezing in the mountains even during the summer, so at least he keeps our feet warm...

He needs a doggy tent!

Now that he has his own pack and could possibly carry his own tent, we might have to get him one!

Someone on here once mentioned that they made a tyvec bivvy for their dog. I don't remember seeing pics of it, but it seemed like a smart way to get him out of the elements. I haven't seen any commercial solutions that did not weigh twice what a crappy 3 person tent weighs.