Tough Times at Copperhead Shelter
Backpacking used to be my one of my main sports, along with tennis, telemark skiing and a few others. The pain from hip arthritis and a pinched nerve in my back; three surgeries; and multiple recuperations kept me off the trail for many years. Last weekend, Friday January 31 – Saturday, February 1, went on my first backpacking trip in four years.
This trip was my fifth attempt in two months to backpack to the Copperhead Landing shelter on the Neusiok Trail in Croatan National Forest at the NC coast. The first trip was stopped by a pack too heavy for me to carry. The next trip was cancelled by the cold weather forecast. The third effort was prevented by bad GPS directions which kept me from getting to the trail head in time to complete the hike before dark. On my fourth effort I carried a small day pack and successfully hiked to the shelter. This trip was with a full, but lighter, backpack and I made it.
The Copperhead Landing shelter name is misleading. There is no landing, and thus no place to kayak in to the camp site and disembark. The nearby Cahooque Creek is actually surrounded by swamp.
I navigated with a Garmin Montana 750i GPS and the Avenza map app on my iPhone. Both devices worked correctly. I have the Avenza figured out. But the Montana is a long-term complicated work in progress. I have had it for many years, and I am still figuring out how to use some of its features. It is non-intuitive, not user-friendly and the graphical user interface is primitive. But it is powerful and can do things not found in any other hand-held GPS on the market.
My pack was heavier than average, since I have sleep apnea and must carry a CPAP machine with a big Transcend battery; and a hearing aid charger with a heavy Anker battery. I found that the Anker can charge the hearing aids, cell phone and GPS for two nights. My pack also carried a bulky set of winter clothes and a heavy water filter.
The hike from the parking lot to the shelter was 3 miles, which I made in 1.5 hours, for 2 miles an hour. This trip was done with a full, heavy backpack weighing about 40 pounds. Somehow, I traversed the same trail, same distance and same speed as on my hike two weeks prior with a light day pack. I did not feel like I was pushing myself particularly hard. I am not sure know how I did it.
This trip I took two trekking poles which were quite helpful. I did not have the stumbling and falling forward, nor hand blisters, that I experienced on my prior hike.
To save weight, I only carried a quart of water in my backpack, just enough to drink for the hike in. When I got to the shelter, I went to the creek / swamp to get water for the weekend. I used the best camping water filter pump on the market, an MSR Guardian Purifier, which costs $400 and removes everything, including viruses, that get through most other filters. The water I pumped from the swamp was safe to drink and cook, but it tasted rotten.
Do not depend on obtaining water from this source. It is sometimes unavailable. The trail to the creek goes through a thick stand of reeds which have to be stomped down. Then you reach mud which gets progressively softer and wetter. There is no defined river bank. Eventually you get into mud so soft that stepping in it would cause you to sink to your thighs, like quick sand. I know, because I tested the mud with my trekking pole, which sank about 3 feet. Trying to walk through it could be a life-threatening situation while trying to crawl back to the bank.
Beyond the quicksand, the water is only an inch deep and full of silt, mud, plant scum, leaves, sticks and insects. The clear water was beyond that. Standing on the last firm mud, I flung my pump filter intake hose as far as it would reach. The intake filter immediately clogged with silt and would not pump. After many efforts to wipe the silt off the filter, I got about 2 quarts of water, which was only about half of what I needed.
Friday afternoon I whiled away the time smoking my pipe with some Virginia tobacco and sipping some Kentucky bourbon. I soon realized that my body has changed since my last backpacking trip. I can no longer get by sitting on a log or rock. My low back pain demands that I have a chair with a back where I can lean. Since I failed to bring a chair, I had to suffer the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Later that evening I returned to the creek to pump more water and found that the wind and current had shifted. The pumpable water was now about 10 feet beyond the reach of my hose. I was stuck for the rest of the weekend lacking 2 quarts of water to be enough. I just suffered with thirst for another day.
Many years ago, I spent a considerably large amount of time, money and effort to buy a new full size Ford Bronco, the biggest SUV on the market. I ordered it directly from the factory to get features not available form the local dealer to make it more rugged. I added larger wheels, larger tires, deeper mud tread, snow chains, front bumper guard bars and a lifted suspension. My plan was to drive it anywhere that I pleased. In just a few months, my home in Wilkes County experienced the deepest snow fall in over 50 years. The depth was up to the top of my hood. I could not go! That deep snow was a lesson.
Trying to pump the swamp water on this trip taught me a similar lesson. Having the strongest and most expensive filter on the market does not mean I can go anywhere and get clean water. I have to know the conditions. The silty Cahooque Creek was a condition that I did not know. I learned a similar lesson.
Friday evening the sun went down at 6 p.m. I had nothing to do to occupy my time, so I went to bed at sunset. In the middle of the night I learned that my CPAP battery is only good for 9 hours. It expired at 3 a.m. In the future, I must remember to start sleeping about 10 p.m., so my CPAP will run until 7 a.m. For the rest of that night, I could not breathe correctly nor go to sleep.
Around midnight a heavy wind blew heavy rain past and under the large front porch awning and into the open side of 3 sided shelter. So, my down sleeping bag wet. Another source of discomfort.
The next headache was that sometime during the night my air mattress very slowly went flat. I blew it up again, and it lasted long enough for me to get to sleep. Then I woke up with it flat again. I had a patch kit with me, but the leak was so small and slow that I could not find it. I was left lying dead flat on a hard wood floor. This situation caused me huge back pain. Another source of discomfort for the rest of the night.
The final insult to my body was that my sinuses were stopped up. I had a bottle of Afrin nasal spray for that purpose. But after one squeeze, even with more liquid in the bottle, it went flat and refused to squirt any more. Sigh. Oh well. I just suffered another injustice for many dark hours.
In 60 years of camping and backpacking, I have never had any of these problems occur. Then, last Friday night, all 6 of them occurred at the same time.
Saturday morning the hike back to the parking lot took two hours, for 1.5 miles per hour. With a heavy backpack; and with the tiredness and soreness from the hike in Friday afternoon; this speed exceeded all my expectations. I felt like my hiking was painful and slow, but I was passing landmarks at a decent rate. I stopped to sit on every available log and stump, but the rest stops were not long enough to recuperate; and the little water I had left to drink was not enough to rehydrate Plus, it still tasted rotten.
When I was younger, I had been on other trips for 5 times more days, with heavier packs, for 10 times more miles; climbed up and down 12,000 foot mountains; and at a faster pace. But at the end of this trip, I was more tired and sore than ever before. Being 72 years old changes your body.
I believe that I am done with backpacking in swamps for the rest of my life. In the future, I want to backpack in the mountains; camp at the coast in the front country near my Jeep; and kayak camp on saltwater islands.
