Night Five – Poplar Stamp Gap Campsite
After waking up at Neels Gap to a bit of snow I was moving really slow. It is hard to convince your body to haul around a pack under good conditions but getting going in the morning with questionable weather was tough. I was a mile into the trail before hunger struck and I realized that in the commotion of checking out and mailing extra gear I wasn’t using home that I had forgotten to get the breakfast sandwich I had been craving. But there was no turning back so I marched along in my hangry-ness.
I knew worse weather was on the horizon so I pushed until just before dark to get to Poplar Stamp Gap campsite. Usually “Gap” indicates a low point between two mountains. I’m not sure what was being smoked when naming this place, but it was absolutely not a low point. In fact, shortly after stopping the wind picked up before I could get my tarp set up and I had to sit in a half erected tarp bundled in my down quilt waiting out the worst of the wind and trying to get feeling back in my hands. After quite a bit of effort I finally got my tarp up and staked down close to the ground to give me the best wind and cold protection. I’m guessing the temps were in the high teens or 20 max. After getting water boiled for my beef stroganoff mountain house meal I shoved the whole bag up my top to do double duty of rehydrating and keeping me warm while I tried to gather up all the stuff I needed to sleep with to keep it from freezing.
The amount of stuff you have to sleep with to keep from freezing is ridiculous, but here is the list: battery packs or anything with a battery including headlamp, cell phone, SteriPen or water filer, water bottle, fuel canister, and zip lock bags of wet clothes you don’t want too frozen to put on tomorrow. So I snuggle into my hammock, which at this point feels more like the bottom of a purse, to eat my dinner. Yes, I know it is bad practice to eat where you are sleeping. What is even worse practice is unzipping your puffy and wool sweater to find out that your mountain house stroganoff zipper busted and has leaked stroganoff sauce all over your two warm tops. Seeing as I’m going to smell like a hanging hot pocket either way I might as well be warm while I eat. So I licked my clothes clean and dug in.
All things considered I was feeling remarkably warm with my set up and even managed to get cell service to check in with my parents and lurk about on social media.
