Well… the weather forecasters sure got it wrong this weekend!
I had planned a 3 day 2 night jaunt to Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky, but that wasn’t what happened. When we arrived it was raining rather heavy. We knew this might be an option so packing rain gear was definitely a smart move on our part. When we showed up at the ranger station to purchase a topo, we were informed that while they had 28 boxes of them in the back room, they couldn’t sell us any because the lady who does procurement for the station went to the hospital before signing over ownership to the rangers. What a joke.
After making a few calls, the ranger agreed to sell us a topo and filled out a couple of forms. Our brand new, first one ever sold, waterproof topo map of the area was now in our hands and would definitely come in handy over the next day. So we drove to our starting point with map in hand and ready for an exciting trip. It was already getting late and we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get far in, but 2-3 miles would be enough for that night.
As we camped close to a river, it turned real cold and windy. I was testing my hammock for the first time in cold weather and found that while I was a bit uncomfortable, I was alive. Temps that night were supposed to drop to roughly 26 - 28 F, but we found that they were closer to 18 F. With my 15 F sleeping bag and pad (Big Agnes bags don’t have down on the backside and rely on a pad for insulation) I found that my back cooled off quite a bit throughout the night. I was glad that I took an extra down coat to slip into as I was able to stay a bit warmer. On a positive note, I found that the MontBell parka that I am testing worked real well at keeping my feet warm throughout the entire night. Something tells me thought that if I plan on using this hammock more during the winter I’m going to have to get a 0F bag with back insulation.
Sleep was not going to come easy during the night though, even without the cold factor. As I mentioned before, it had begun raining as we were trekking in. You can also guess by the temperatures listed above that it didn’t stay liquid for long. When I finally got into my bag it was roughly 7 pm and the rain turned to sleet and snow. Now, while I enjoy the sound of sleet on my tent and hammock as well as the next guy, the sound of falling trees all around me was quite an experience. I have to admit that I have never been so scared in all my life. I know there were at least 15 trees that uprooted all around our campsite that night due to the weight of ice and snow. Dad even got a pic of a snow cloud that developed after a 2 ft diameter tree uprooted on the adjacent hillside. Having nowhere to go as trees were falling all over the forest, and not knowing if the trees that I was anchored to were going to be affected, thought of my wife and kids were more abundant than sleep.
That next morning we rose to find about 1.5 inches of snow in the valley where we were, but on the ridges that we needed to hike there was around 5 - 6 in of snow. We ate some breakfast and marched on. Big hills are hard enough when you can climb them in dry weather, but without some sort of crampon they become downright dangerous when icy. As we weren’t expecting ice and snow, we didn’t have any sort of foot gear and stumbled up and down the sides of mountains all day. Hiking was nice and fast on the ridge tops, but I’d say we were averaging .5 mph up and down hills.
In the end, we decided to cut our trip short as we were simply not prepared. Most of our gear was still wet and/or frozen from the night before, we knew the weather was going to be colder that next night, and it was already snowing. Neither of us was looking forward to spending another night in the woods with cold, wet, and potentially dangerous conditions. As we made good time on the ridges, we arrived back at the jeep about 2 hours before we thought we would and decided to bug out. Six inches of snow blanketed the jeep and the thermometer was showing 28 F, almost 15 F colder than we were expecting.
In short though, if we knew the conditions were going to be as such, we both agreed that we’d do it again. So I guess the trip was a success. Next time, maybe a few less falling trees, a warmer sleeping bag, less ice, and a better weather forecaster.