Backpacking the Smokies

Last week I went backpacking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park with my family. My brother and I were surprised when we heard that our mom was coming. She has never really wanted anything to do with camping let alone backpacking. In all there were 7 of us including my parents, brother and his girlfriend, two nieces and me. In summary we covered about 30 miles in 4 days and 3 nights.

Left to Right (Natasha, Brianna, me, mom, Andrew, dad)


My mom and nieces had no experience at all. We planned a route that would be mostly downhill and also along rivers a lot of the way since the temperature was in the 90s. Our route took us from Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the park at 6,643 feet about sea level, to the trail head at Tremont in Tennessee.

We got off to a rocky start. Because we had to drop a car off, we didn't get started till 2:30pm the first day. A couple hours into it my niece Brianna sprained her ankle on a rocky downhill portion of the trail. My brother and I traded off carrying her piggyback while the other carried both backpacks. This went on for a mile or so until she was able to hobble at a decent pace. We made it to camp with enough light to put up our tents, eat and get settled in.

Although struggling and complaining a lot, she was able to hike the rest of the trip (with a lightened backpack) which is pretty impressive especially for a first timer. My mom did very well and never complained.

Another scary moment was when my brother got stung by a bee. He is allergic and nearly died once. He had epi-pens on hand, but we were probably 5 miles from a car at the time. He applied his homemade plantain salve and we waited to see if he was allergic to that particular sting. Thankfully he didn't have a major reaction. His arm did swell up pretty big though.

4 out of 7 of us got stung by some form of flying insect over the course of the trip. I took one upside my head. They were everywhere. There is no worry of CCD in the Smokies!



Laura, my brother's girlfriend


Here you can see Brianna hobbling along using two walking sticks.


The weather was pleasant while we were there. It was supposed to be really hot, but we only really felt the heat a few times. There was of course a lot of sweating on uphill sections, but not so much from the heat or sun. 95% of the trails we were on were shaded. Being a temperate rain forest, the vegetation is very lush even in a drought year. It rained but a few drops while we were there.

My brother and I thought it would be a pretty nice place to be if/when TSHTF and MZBs (Mutant Zombie Bikers) are running a muck. A month ago I happened to be looking at population density and precipitation maps for the US to see what places would be good for this scenario.

On this US precipitation map I noticed a circle of area around Tennessee and the Carolinas that got a lot more rain than most of the country. I didn't investigate further to see what cities were in that area. As it turns out, the Smokies comprise the northern portion of that rainy spot.

On the same map you can see the brownish-red area in southern California where I will be spending 8 months starting at the beginning of October.

Running Barefoot

This summer I've started going barefoot as much as I can. I'm required to wear shoes at work, but once I get home, off they come. There are several blogs I read about the topic of walking and running barefoot that inspired me starting with Torjus's. Next I read "Learning to Walk" at The Anthropik Network. Finally my brother pointed me to http://www.runningbarefoot.org/ which finally gave me the urge to give barefoot running a try.

Yesterday I ran barefoot. I ran my usual course through the park. It was a hot day so I took of my shirt as well. It felt very natural until I got cat-calls from a couple girls. "Hey sexy!" "I love a man who runs barefoot!". I asked them to join me but they didn't. Anyway, the run was more exciting since the course I ran was suddenly brand new. Instead of thinking this is the part by the playground, it was this is the part over rocks and sticks. As usual when I got to the forested part, I concentrated on running without making a sound. It was way easier when I was barefoot. As I left the forest the path was covered with broken glass so I had to watch my footwork.

I felt light weight and more agile. I felt like my legs weren't as tired as usual. I was still out of breath but my legs weren't as tired. The only negative was the blood blister on my second toe. It took up pretty much the whole bottom of the toe. I guess I still have some work to do on my technique.

A New Beginning

After graduating college, I went to work doing web programming. My life was very much about computers and electronics. I spent my free time playing computer/video games. I went so far as to hack my xbox so that I could have nearly unlimited free games on it. I always enjoyed nature but never really got to know it.

After my brother introduced me to the book The Tracker and got me to the Tracker School I began to change. In the last four years my free time has become devoted to learning skills of survival and self-sufficiency. I still play the occasional video game but try not to let it take over my life. This was all done to the detriment of my career in computers.

I grew less and less interested in what I was doing at work and found myself daydreaming of being outdoors instead of at my desk. On occasion I spent my lunch break sitting in a small patch of trees and bushes listening to the birds. It was my private oasis.

The day was approaching where my lack of passion and dedication for my career in programming was going to cost me my job. I finally got serious about looking for a new job/career. My main requirement was an outdoor job. I could no longer be in an office at least for awhile. A friend suggested the Student Conservation Association.

I checked out the website and applied for some internships. Last Thursday I interviewed for a position. The interview went well and I was offered the position at the end of the interview. The next day I accepted. August 31st will be the last day at my current job.

So starting October 1st I will start my new job. It will last for 8 months ending May 17th. At that time I don't know what I'll do. I think a lot will depend on my 8 month experience.

The job
I will be working in a group with 4 others in the Mojave Desert area. We will be backpacking/camping in the wilderness and working on conservation projects. Our three main tasks will be trail maintenance (rerouting, erosion, drainage), resource monitoring (assessing water sources, vegetation) and restoration of areas damaged by vehicles and similar problems.

We'll be on 9-10 day trips with 4-5 days off. My hope is to learn as much as possible about the desert which I've never really experienced. It should help that I'll be there for 3 seasons and experience 4 distinct ecosystems. I also hope to practice and learn new survival skills while there. I can do this after work and on my days off but it seems probable that I can even do it while working considering what our tasks will be.

My plan is to continue updating this blog during my days off. I imagine I'll have lots to say after 9 straight days in the wilderness.

I think my house is going up for sale this weekend which will mean soon I will have my free time back for working on skills. There are many things I'd like to do before moving out.

New friends

I'm still too busy working on my house to work on many skills, but I wanted to give shouts out to two friends who I've added links to on my site. First, under my "Links" section, I added a link to "Practical Primitive". This is an organization headed up by former Tracker School instructor Eddie Starnater. I most recently saw Eddie at the Baltimore Bowman event. He had a tent there teaching flintknapping and the bow drill and giving out free shirts. He offers mentoring sessions which is hard to find.

I also added a new link to my "Friends" section. Matt Bukowski, a former Tracker School caretaker/intern, started a blog. He lives with my brother in D.C. I last saw him at the Baltimore Bowman event as well.

Here's what little I've done since my last post. I went to a Gun and Knife show. I bought a new back pack there that is pretty dope. I plan to use it as my "Grab n' Go" bag in case TSHTF. I have it stocked with most of my gear presently. When I get it all stocked up maybe I'll do a post about it. I also bought a nice Spyderco folding knife for $60 since I didn't have a folding knife. Finally, I bought a magnesium match to play with. It took me less than a minute to get a fire with it the first time I tried it.

As I predicted, I ended up breaking the biface I pictured in the last post. The lesson I learned was, warm up on other rock before starting on a nice piece. Instead, I tried to take important shots right of the bat.

Finally, I started playing around a little with knife throwing. I only have one knife and I don't really have a good set up to practice with, but so far I can stick several in a row sometimes. It's probably not the most practical skill, but it is fun and cool.

My Second Baltimore Bowman Event

Last weekend I attended the Baltimore Bowman Traditional Classic for the second year in a row. Like last year I rented a car and drove from Indy to Washington D.C. and then to Baltimore. I hung out with my brother and some other friends. The focus of the weekend was shooting 3d targets. I didn't take pictures of shooting because it was basically the same as last year.

Learning wild edible and medicinal plants was an added bonus of my trip. My brother taught me many. All of them were ones that could be eaten raw. To me there is something cool about being able to feed yourself on plants as you're casually walking through the woods. I think it's the instant gratification. It's food that's free and the energy exerted is just that of grabbing a leaf. There is also a scout aspect to it. You can travel long distances without stopping. You don't need a fire that could give away your location.

I took pictures of some of the plants I tried out last weekend. Each name is linked to a external reference for more information.

Wood Sorrel - This has a lemony taste. According to the reference, it is more a medicinal plant than an edible. I guess you wouldn't want to eat too much of this at one time.


Black Locust - According to the reference all parts of the tree are very poisonous except the flowers. Luckily the flowers were the only part I ate. They are very good. They have a slight sweet taste to them. I ate many handfuls of these throughout the weekend.



Cleavers - I ate the whole stalk. The link says that the seeds of this plant often end up in cereal grains because they are hard to filter out so you may have already eaten this plant and not known it. It also says that the plant can be used to treat skin diseases.


Garlic Mustard - This is an invasive species. It has an effect on the soil that makes it harder for native species to grow. I ate the leaves of this plant. It tastes like it is named. The first picture is the plant in it's first year. The second picture is it's second year.



Tinder Fungus - While gathering black locust flowers, I noticed a fungus growing on the tree. This fungus can be used as tinder for making fire by friction. After reading the linked article I found out that this isn't "true" tinder fungus. When I lit it, it did burn for awhile before going out so I think it's good stuff.


Finally, I made my first quality biface on the trip. The stone is dacite which is a little bit harder than obsidian on the lithic scale. I mostly used small stones to take this from a big chunk of rock down to this form. I wanted to get a picture of this before I try to take this down to a nice point in case I make a bad mistake.