Bass Lake and Falls Lake Hikes - CS

September 5-6, 2020

I have wanted to try backpacking for a while now.  Something about carrying everything you need to survive on your back in to the wilderness is terrifying and exciting at the same time.  The problem with such goals is when you tell others about them, they push you to do them!  Such is the case with how we ended up in Raleigh on Labor Day weekend.

After a horribly sad funeral for a friends 3 month old son, we loaded up and went to Holly Springs to meet up with the Callaway's.  We arrived in the afternoon and headed to Bass Lake for a group hike.  As soon as we arrived, Ben was playing catch with Bob and his football ended up in the lake.  Bob hopped in the knee deep water to fetch the ball and we started on the hike. I carried Elliott on my back pack, Gina walked Finley and all kids took part in the 2 mile hike with no real fuss.  The weather was nice, low 80s and all shade.

From there, we split off with Leslie, Ansley, Ben, and Elliott heading back to the Callaway house for hot dogs, swimming, and sleepover.  

 Bob, Logan, and I headed to Falls Lake State Recreational Park, Sinleaf camp area.  We hiked 4.8 miles on the NC Mountain To Sea Trail before setting up camp at Site 36.  This evening we hiked to the west side of the camp parking lot. We carried our fully loaded packs on this section of the trail to get a real feel for future adventures. Our pace on this part of the trail was 23 minutes a mile.  It felt pretty quick pace, with Logan pushing (pulling?)

A dinner of Peak Refuel chicken and rice and chicken pasta alfredo.  The meals were good and easy to make.  Quick fire, then to bed.

Sunday morning we broke camp after a breakfast of Adventure Meals eggs skillet and oats. These were good, but seemed to not be as good as the Peak Refuel packs.  However, adding boiling water and waiting 5-10 minutes is hard to beat!

We stashed our packs in the car and headed out east on the same trail with the plan to 5-7 miles.  The weather was cool in the shade and there were few others on the trail.  We hiked to where the trail met Highway 98, then took in some water and turned around to head back.  We hiked about 10 minutes when Bob lost the sole of his shoe!  We can only assume that it getting wet the day before, then hiking so far on the wet leather must have loosened the glue. After a few different strapping varieties, we finally got one that worked using his shoe string and a string from our day pack.  Total we walked 6.3 miles this time, about 3 of it with a busted shoe.  We still had a 21:00/mile pace, so about 10% faster without the packs.

We headed back to catch up with L, A, B, & E who had watch church, went to get communion, and had ordered pizza for lunch.  We hung out for a bit then headed back to Harrisburg.

Moleskin

Logan is a beast.  He puts his head down and starts to churn through miles, pack or not.  

We must have looked professional.  Our camping neighbors came over to ask about our setup.

I'm not sure what happened to my lighters.  I thought I had them packed, but could never find them.

A more substantial day pack would have been nice for this hike.  But we planned to carry our packs both days.  

My pack ended up being 35ish pounds.  It was fine for the hike.  Logan's was 20ish and didn't seem to slow him down.

We will need more water containers if we go on a longer hike with limited water sources.  Logan didn't use his camel back, but could have. 

Overall it was a good weekend for hiking, we had great weather and it was good to get outside.  Also good to get up to Raleigh to see family.

Packing List