Winter Nantahala camping trip ends in no deaths, no lost toes

The crew was out at Nantahala again, a few miles outside of Highlands, North Carolina, and this was a cold trip. While Stan did not fall into the fire pit this go round, he did manage to attract more smoke than anyone else, with Steve coming in a close second.

It snowed, we froze and good times were had by all. I arrived late as usual and my portion of the trip after setting up camp started with a climb up the side of the mountain by our camp site to a hidden waterfall. The pics are, of course, included in the gallery link below. I almost destroyed my camera in a slip n’ slide on the mountainside. The weather at the time of our ascent was hovering around 38°F.

By the time we were cooking our steak dinner, the temperature had descended to 26°F. Snow flakes were coming down as we wolfed down our food to keep it from freezing. The wind was whipping all around us and quite a few tears were shed as the smoke attacked randomly.

I spent the night in my 0°F sleeping bag in one single position, face down with my body in a straight line to keep my face warm. The wind woke me up several times and caused strange dreams, one of which included being fired from my job for a reason I can’t remember although it was probably a stupid one.

We skipped breakfast at morning campfire because the temperature was 11°F. We speculated that it was probably several below zero with the wind chill factor included. Less educated men would have characterized the weather as “cold as hell,” which has never made sense to me since hell is supposed to be a place of fire and brimstone and several below zero isn’t part of the whole fire and brimstone environment.

Overall, the trip reminded me why I like indoor plumbing, hot water heaters, mattress beds and most of all, being reasonably warm. More importantly, and as always the reason for making the trip in the first place, it reminded me it’s good to get away from your own busy life for a little bit on a regular basis.

Here is the photo gallery.