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i have a couple weeks off coming up and i'd love to do a long distance backpacking trip... unfortunately it is loving cold outside! anyone have any suggestions for areas or routes? ideally i'm looking for something around 100 miles in length. i can deal with light snow but i definitely dont want to have to bring snowshoes or anything. e: oh yeah, US only. not tryna leave the states on this one. Kind Friend fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Nov 25, 2018 |
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Nov 25, 2018 06:28
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 05:27 |
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Kind Friend posted:i have a couple weeks off coming up and i'd love to do a long distance backpacking trip... unfortunately it is loving cold outside! anyone have any suggestions for areas or routes? ideally i'm looking for something around 100 miles in length. i can deal with light snow but i definitely dont want to have to bring snowshoes or anything. I'm not so familiar with the east US so I'll just address the west, and mostly CA since that's where I'm from. But if 100 miles without a lot of snow are requirements, you may have more options on the east side of the country. On the west, your snow requirement eliminates pretty much all of the mountainous regions where a lot of long distance backpacking is done. Coastal areas can be a good option in winter, especially around CA where persistent rain is less likely, but coming up with a good 100 mile route might be difficult. The Ventana wilderness near Big Sur is one option, though it involves lots of bushwhacking (and poison oak). I've heard great things about the Lost Coast further north in CA, but I think you'd be hard pressed to come up with a reasonable route longer than 50 miles there. Probably some good options in the coastal/forested regions of the PNW, but it might be pissing rain the whole time. Henry Coe Park in CA is pretty huge and you could definitely come up with a long distance route there. Although it's nicest Jan/Feb-May after there has been some rain and the hills are green / flowered. It's mostly chaparral and oak woods which imo aren't that scenic when dry. Desert areas are fantastic to visit this time of year, and I always try to make at least one such trip around midwinter. But the logistics of obtaining water can be challenging or prohibitive for a long distance trip, so I usually stick to dayhikes or overnights. Death Valley, for example, has an absolute poo poo ton of really scenic places to explore and the weather & temperature in Dec/Jan are usually perfect. But there are extremely few reliable sources of water. and a trip of your distance in DV would likely require both caching water and carrying huge amounts of it. The same goes, to a lesser extent with regards to water, for Red Rock Canyon in Nevada, which is also really nice this time of year. You could, of course, just section hike part of the 700 mile desert section of the PCT. Water availability is a big challenge here as well but nowhere near on the same level as Death Valley, and the excellent PCT Water Report can give you plenty of good info ahead of time. Just note that the mountainous parts of the "desert" sections like around Mt San Gorgonio can have snow and require snowshoes etc. Parts of Utah and Arizona can be really good, and water is generally less of an issue than the desert in CA/NV (though it still is an issue). The lower altitude sections of the Hayduke "trail" can be suitable for winter. Same goes for the Arizona trail. Grand Canyon is great in winter but getting permits on short notice might be impossible and I dunno if there is an elegant way to make a 100 mile long route there. One issue with a some desert/canyon areas is that flash flooding can be a problem if it rains a lot, as it sometimes does in winter. If you are going in December, especially the first half before most of the big snow dumps happen, and if it turns out to be a light snow year, then some mountainous regions might be an option. The Marble Mountain Wilderness in CA is really nice, and at relatively lower elevations of mostly 6000-7000ft has has been easily accessible and hike-able into December during some years. A ~90 mile stretch of the PCT goes through here, and there are lots of other trails for long distance loops/routes. But for a longer term, long distance trip the forecast reliability more than a week out might not be so good, and you don't want to be in the middle of the mountains with no snow gear when a big storm comes...so if considering an option like this a solid weather window is important.
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Nov 28, 2018 00:23
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