Fri, May 16 2008, Sat, May 17 2008, Sun, May 18 2008, Mon, May 19 2008 - Backpack the West Rim Trail in Pennsylvania (View Original Event Details)
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This has been a tough event to pull off, both in preparation and during the trip itself. So it's very exciting to say we completed it successfully. Yahoo!
Six individuals arrived at the carpool spot. Some carried full backpacking gear, while others had a mix of backpacking and city gear. After a stopover at Tent City everyone had full backpacking gear and we were ready for the long drive to Pennsylvania.
The drive took us about 8 hours, with the slowest sections being the traffic jams around GTA and the foggy mountain roads around Allegany State Park in PA. We stopped for dinner at a nice Asian buffet at NY state. Just past midnight we arrived at the private Potter County Family Campgrounds and settled in for the night at the two reserved campsites. We woke up at 6:00am the next morning, quickly packed everything, had breakfast at a local restaurant and arrived at Pine Creek Outfitters (1 mile from the northern trailhead) for the shuttle to the southern trailhead. The shuttle driver was a seasoned backpacker and had lots of stories to tell before dropping us off. We now had 3 days to walk the distance it took the shuttle 40 minutes to cover!
The weather was perfect and we started off with a steep walk to get up into the canyon rim. During the walk we made lots of adjustments to the packs, many of which were new. Some of us were pleasantly surprised at how easy a properly fitted back can be to carry. Backpacking does not have to be painful! After doing 11 miles on the first day we were ready to set up camp. Just as we were setting it up the rain began. Perfect timing. It's much easier to handle rain at camp than on the trail. Jessie cooked an amazing dinner, we tied the bear bag, and settled in for the night.
We had crazy weather on the second day. One moment it was sunny all around and the next hail (yes, hail) was coming down. Let's just say everyone got their money's worth out of raingear, which stayed on for most of the day. We always knew where Maryam was because her rain gear was BRIGHT yellow. We've done 9 miles that day under some pretty tough conditions: in addition to the weather many sections of the trail we muddy, narrow and overgrown with vegetation. The map let us down a little in finding a campsite and we settled for one without a water source. Chetan kindly filled a container with about 20L from a water source a few hundred meters away and that proved sufficient for our stay there. We made fire to warm up, dry gear and cheer up.
We decided to start day 3 early because of the long drive back home. We woke up at 7:00am (those who know me know that's unheard of on my backcountry stays!) and broke camp. The entire process went much faster than on day 2, as the experience was starting to pay off. Some of the time gained was lost as I got confused by the trail markings and we made a 1-2km detour. Oops. With the correct trail markings finally back in sight we completed the rest at a very rapid pace.
The drive back went smoothly, with a stopover at a nice NY restaurant. Amazingly enough they let us in despite the smell and looks :) Special thanks to Chetan for helping me run the trip, to Jessie for preparing and cooking 4 group meals and to Kourosh for being the carpool driver. It was a great backpacking trip and I look forward to many more!
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.