L.L. Bean leather belt. Men’s black.  Thick, top grain leather. Used but no damage, fully functional. Belt buckle holes size 44 inches to 51 inches.  Cost new $45.  Sale price $15

Folding wood stove.  Solid and sturdy. With carrying case.  New, never used.  8 inches wide x 8 inches deep x 10 inches tall.  Cost new $45. Sale price $20

Therma-a-Rest double sleeping pad.  Self-inflating.  Insulating foam core.  Used once, like new, no damages. 6 feet 4 inches long by 4 feet wide by 3.5 inches thick.  Cost new $125. Sale price $75.

Boundary Waters / Piragis Northwoods Company waterproof nylon tarp. Made by Cooke Custom Sewing. High quality.  Size 9 feet 3 inches by 11 feet 2 inches.  New; never used; excellent condition.  Tie-out loops at 4 corners, 4 sides and middle on upper and lower surfaces.  Nylon parachute cord attached to all tie-out loops.  Fabric pockets sewn into four corners.  With stuff sack. Cost new $160. Sale price $75.  

Black Diamond Mega Light pyramid tent.  Silnylon waterproof and windproof fabric.  Famous trusted tent on mountains all over the world for many decades.  Used but like new; excellent condition with no damages.  Super light-weight and easily packable into tiny, included stuff sack.  8 MSR Groundhog stakes. Nylon parachute cord tie-outs on 4 corners and 4 sides. No center pole and no floor with mosquito netting; both items can be purchased separately from Black Diamond, REI, Backcountry and other outdoor gear shops.   Cost new $400. Sale price $225.

REI Wonderland tent.  Lightly used.  Like new, no damages.  Canopy & rainfly.  4 persons.  21 pounds 11 ounces.  2 doors.  3 seasons.  Packed size 12 inches x 32 inches.  Floor size 100 inches x 100 inches.  69 square feet. Ceiling height 75 inches.  With poles, stakes and footprint.  Cost new $429.  Sale price $350.

For several years I have been missing outdoor trips and sports exercise from multiple surgeries with the associated disability and pain.  All along I have anticipated when I can return to solid exercise.  For several months now I have been working my way up to backpacking.  Many times, I walked the 1-mile trail around Smith Creek Park lake up to three times in a row for 3 miles, sometimes with a moderately heavy day pack.  After 3 circuits I was not exhausted, but I was plenty sore and tired.  Several times lately I have loaded a daypack or backpack for a real trip to the woods, and got dressed for cold weather, but each time I was stymied by some problem.

Finally, yesterday (January 17) the stars aligned, and I was able to hike part of the Neusiok Trail in Croatan National Forest.  My route was from the parking lot at the road crossing at NC Hwy 306, going 3.1 miles to Copperhead Landing trail shelter.  The shelter sits beside Cahoogue Creek, a tributary of Neuse River.  The creek is far enough upstream that the water is not salty and can be filtered for drinking and cooking. I was concerned that I may be biting off a little more than I could chew, since during the same day, I would have to hike from the shelter back to the trail head, for a total of 6.2 miles. I had not hiked that far in more than four years.

I navigated with three electronic devices.  First was my Garmin Montana 750i GPS, which performed flawlessly.  The flawless functioning may not sound like much, but I have owned the Montana for about ten years, using it frequently.  I never had a trip when I could figure out how to make all the function work.  Something always failed to appear correctly on the screen. It is a cussedly complicated and obstinate device with nothing intuitive about its operation.  The Montana also has many other satellite functions that I did not need, like sending a 911 call for rescue or sending a text to a friend. This was my first trip when everything worked to show my location and route. 

The second device was my iPhone app called Avenza. This trip was my first use.  It downloads maps from the Internet which are complete areas, like a state or national park or forest.  Even better, it is interactive, using the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to show the user’s location as he moves along, and can be programmed to set waypoints and routes. I also glanced at the All Trails app on my phone, which was working and correctly showed my location.

Thirdly, I invented a way to find maps on the Internet, download them from the website to my computer, move them to my iPhone as a PDF attachment, and then save them on the phone as a static document.  Several Apple technicians told me this process is impossible, but my son-in-law Steven Harris helped me set it up. This function is not interactive, but that map was the only one I had which showed the location of the shelter.

I had two purposes for this trip. The first one was to get to, and assess, the shelter with its water source, to prepare for a backpacking trip there in the near future. The second purpose was to test my body and see if I could hike a little over 6 miles.  When I come back, I will have the disadvantage of carrying a heavier pack.  But I will have the advantage of only hiking 3 miles to the shelter, with a night of rest in between, and then 3 more miles back the next day. 

The first half of the trip went well.  I had no problems. In my itinerary, I had allowed for going slowly, and taking 3 hours to cover 3 miles, for 1 mile an hour.  Happily, I surprised myself by arriving at the shelter in 1.5 hours, for 2 miles an hour.  I checked out the shelter, explored the trail to the creek and ate a spartan trail lunch.  Everything was fine to come back and spend the night camping.

Hiking back to the Jeep was a different story.  My pinched sciatica nerve causes two problems.  The intermittent pain has never gone away despite my surgery last year.  My surgeon says the pain will gradually decrease, but there is no guarantee it will totally disappear. As I walked 4, 5 and 6 miles the pain gradually grew. The second problem is the major nerve from my spine to my right leg is damaged.  My surgeon says it will eventually recover, but the nerve is taking plenty of time to do so.  The damaged nerve is not quite able to control my leg muscles, so occasionally I lose my balance and stumble slightly forward. Each time I was able to catch my self and not fall to the ground, but the incessant stumbles several hundred times was wearing and tiring.

Another factor was that I was using muscles in my hips and thighs which had not felt this form of exercise for 4 years.  As I progressed, they began to hurt. By the last mile back to the trail head I was considerably tired, sore and in some pain. 

I had my single wood  hiking staff, but it was not sufficient. With only one pole I was not fully secure and balanced.  And with no wrist strap, I got a blister on my hand from gripping it.  Next hike or backpacking trip I will use my two trekking poles with straps.

Astoundingly, when I arrived back at the trail head, I was amazed to see that I covered the final 3.1 miles in 1.5 hours, at 2 miles an hour.  The same speed as the first 3 miles.  I frankly don’t know how I did it.  Next trip, I will go slower and try to spread out the wear and tear on my body.

A good time was mostly had by me.

On January 12, Angela Marshal, owner and operator of Kayak Carolin Wilmington, organized a kayak paddle trip with invitations through the MeetUp website. We met at Newby’s Landing near Kelly, NC, on the Black River in Bladen County, NC - not to be confused with several other Black Rivers in NC and SC.  We had eight hardy paddlers. At the put-in, besides the  usual business of unloading boats from vehicles, attaching equipment and getting into water clothes, we all, but young man guide Jared, put on extra layers of neoprene, wool and fleece to protect against the cold. The temperature ranged from a low of 28 degrees the night before to a high of 47 degrees that afternoon. When I left home there was frost on my Jeep windshield.

Some of the paddlers know each other; and some knew the river. Some of  us did not know all the other paddlers or the water.

When we got on the river, we formed a loose collection and paddled upstream against a mild, barely discernable current.  Jared, a guide with experience and a sleek boat, paddled ahead and became the unofficial leader for a while.  Angela was near the middle and kept track of all the boaters, based on her 26 years’ experience.   The river is surrounded in some places by long distances of swamps.  Driving to and from the river, the road passes more miles of swamps.

A few miles further upstream, the river’s edge became less straight and defined, with inlets of water which we explored between the trunks of large, ancient cypress trees. The main channel also narrowed, which quickened the current.  After a few miles we came to a stop to wait for some boaters to catch up from behind us.  To prevent having to paddle constantly against the firm current, our group split up and found slack water eddies up and down the shore.  A couple of boaters ventured further away from the river to explore into the swamp.

When we all got back together, we turned down stream towards the put-in / take-out.  Some boaters mostly drifted with the current.  I was too cold and had to paddle ahead to use my muscles, burn energy and try to warm up my body’s extremities.

Over several decades, many years ago, I wore a single wetsuit while paddling my canoe in the NC mountain creeks, in weather colder than today, with no problem.  But now my age is 72 years, and my physiology is changing. Amont other things, my blood circulation is not as good as it used to be. In cold weather, my body has trouble moving enough blood to my hands and feet to keep them warm.  Today, as a precaution, I wore two over-lapping wet suits, the bottom layer being a full suit and the top layer having short sleeves and legs.  This was the first time I have tried this combination.  I was concerned that the top layer would be too tight to get on, but fortunately it slid smoothly over the bottom layer. They worked fine to keep my torso and head warm.

But, my hands and feet stayed cold; not enough to be disabling, but uncomfortably so.  When we turned the trip to head back down stream, my fingers were getting numb.  I have decided that I will do more winter paddling trips, but I believe that I will need to limit my outings to weather  50 degrees or above.

At the take-out, a few of the paddlers like me were quick to disembark, load up equipment and get inside their vehicles to start the motors and warm up.  While driving home, just a couple of miles from the take-out, I parked beside the road to enter some information in my GPS.  Three of our paddlers passed me, and all three stopped their vehicles to ask if I needed help! What a nice group!  Thanks, Angela, for arranging and managing everything.

A good time was had by all.

For many years, backpacking was my main outdoor sport, along with tennis, snow skiing, scuba diving and others.  Due to my pain before, during and after arthritis, right hip joint replacement surgery, left hip joint replacement surgery, and pinched nerve spinal surgery, I have not backpacked for about five years.

I have now recuperated to the point where I have practiced carrying a pack for three miles around the path at a local county park. With significantly reduced pain, I think I am able to handle a backpacking trip.

For several weeks I have been planning an outing today, January 8, as my first post-surgery backpacking trip. The plan is to hike on the Neusiok Trail in Croatian National Forest, from the trail crossing at NC Highway 306, going northwest to the Copperhead Landing shelter near the Pine Cliff Recreation Area.

Unfortunately, today we happen to be in the grip of a major winter storm that is covering most of the country. The weather report for this trip was predicted to be high of 43 degrees and low of  23 degrees. I have camped in weather colder than that, so I believe that I could stand it.

The weather at my mine and Janet's house last night got down to 27 degrees.  So, I brought my electronic devices like GPS, cell phone charger and headlamp into inside the house overnight to prevent the cold from sapping the batteries’ energy.

This morning, I went out to my shed to finish loading my backpack.  I had forgotten about the water in the pack.  I was disappointed to see that the water in my hydration bladder and drinking tube had frozen.  It would take me a while to thaw them out; or replace them with canteens which I could insulate and make stay liquid..

Another problem was I had on most of my winter clothes. They were sufficient to make my torso warm enough to be slightly sweaty. But I was not wearing gloves because I was doing small tasks with my gear. The cold had such a strong grip on my uncovered fingers that I could not get my body to push enough warm blood there. Within about 15 minutes my fingers went numb and I could not do the work.

These problems bothered me enough that I looked at my phone to check the weather. I was surprised to see the National Weather Service sent me an alert, warning of abnormally severe cold tonight. The prediction changed to a low tonight of 11 degrees. At the same moment, I received a message from one of my Facebook hiking groups giving me the same warning.  It advised to stay indoors. If I had not seen those warnings and gone on the trip, I would have been in significant danger and severe discomfort.

I decided that wisdom is the better part of valor. So, I have rescheduled the trip to sometime in the next week or two when the weather is more cooperative. 

A good time was not had by all.

There is an old, large, arboreal cemetery near where Janet and I live next to the Historic District in Wilmington, NC.  It is appropriately named Oak Dale.  The grounds are full of big, old live oak trees, some with Spanish moss and ivy draped on their limbs.  It is a most pleasant place to be, so Janet Smith and her golden retriever Gracie and I walk or ride our bikes there nearly every day.

The lanes are mostly circuitous rather than straight, and mostly grassy rather than paved. It is a calming and soothing place to get some moderate exercise.  Several sides of the park-like area are bounded by swamps, which adds to the natural atmosphere.

Some of the gravestones show birthdates back in the early 1800’s.  Quite a few Civil War Confederate veterans are buried here.  And, some more recent well-known persons are interred here, like Graham Keenan, who donated the funds to build Kenan football stadium at UNC Chapel Hill University.