So i gotta go into the maine woods for 8 days without a tent...

word good point. I really am greatful to be here. You should see a lot of the kids here - they bitch about how much they hate it all the time. I guess I just want to go home as its been almost 3 months.

Oh wel least its gona make me appreciate the comforts of modern living a lot more that we all take for granted
 
Going out in the woods is not that bad, I spent 11 days out this last summer in the PCNW and we only used our tent once, 5 miles is not that bad the first day will hurt unless you are used to this sort of thing. If you are useing normal shoes or new ones you have not used much the rest of the trip will suck too because of blisters, take care of them duck tape or mole skin work well, if you dont you will get blisters inside of blisters, and that really hurts. But if you dont get blisters after the first two days you will be fine. You get used to it and your pack gets lighter. As for tolit paper leaves work so much better and you dont have to cary them out. A fun way to pass time is to try and remember as much of a song as possible. other then that you will be fine. make sure your bag is at least good to 0 F and all your cloths are synthetics. if you need to dry out your socks throw them in the bottem of your sleeping bag at night. Dont over pack, one pair of clothes is enough + a flece and shell for both upper and lower. Have fun.
 
I don't know, 8 days in the woods during winter with no weed would kind of blow. But it's true, this kid has things pretty good.
 
Sound alot like the Mount Cardigan trip that i had back in middle school. Anyone who went to McKelvie in Bedford will know about it. Its normally really fun... but the year i went they were rebuilding the lodge, so we had to camp out in tents. It sucked, but it wasnt as bad as the shit you have to do... damn man that really sucks balls
 
dude, that sounds tight, i'd fucking love to do that. Just make a shelter outta trees, I've done it before, and ti's super tight and actually a lot fo fun to build.
 
yeha id much rather be out there then sittin at home all this week doing nuthin like i have, then i go back to school next week, id rather miss it n be in the woods, hope ur havin fun
 
I got back today.... it was the most fucked up miserable 8 days of my whole life. Sure its easy to look back on it now warm inside my dorm as a 'good experience' but when it was happeneing i made myself promise I wouldn't forget the pain.

We hiked a total of like 25 miles with 40-60 pound packs and snowshoes at an average of about 1 mph. Every step was tourture something always fucking hurting me so bad. Through deep snow, up mountains, over rivers. And the whole time all i could think of is this is so fucked up this is so fucked up. I got real minor frostnip but Im so happy to be back i cant even explain it. Im probly in mad good shape now but Im not going outside for a long time except to ski. I woulda much rather gone to classes and write like 5 essays and study for 6 exams then ever do that again

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this is the ditch where i spent my first misierable freezing my balls off night. I rolled off the pads into the snow like 5 times. was nothing compared to the second night..

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next day we hiked like 5 miles with our godamn 60 pound packs i just did it 1 step at a time for hours. It hit me pretty hard going from smoking ganj and skiing everyday to this military death march

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i spent the most miserable night of my entire life under that rock. i rolled off the ground tarp and so i woke up about 12am in the morning soking wet with the strongest winds ive ever seen blowing blizzard snow all over me. I was so cold i couldnt stop hyperventalating. my sleeping bag wasnt doing shit and this huge dead tree fell right over our heads and i could hear it creeking waiting to fall and crush my head. i had to piss so bad but I would of died if i got outta my bag so i had to hold it all night made it even worse. I dont care about being pussy or not I cried myself to sleep that night and the tears froze on my face right away. i just sat there dying for 6 hours waiting for the light to come

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waking up was almost as bad as the night. putting on my boots that were filled with ice and froozen sucks so bad. Then we hiked down this steep ass mountain side with my huge heavy pack that kept making me flip over and eat shit down the mountain side.

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sweet lets go across semi frozen rivers with 50 pound packs that is really safe. it started cracking when i was going across it i freaked out and sprinted for the shore and dove into this thorn bush and got all cut up

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trying to go down shit like this is death with snow shoes. I ate it so many times im supresd no one got seriously hurt

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my friend was loosing it to. I spent like 3 hours making a sick shelter but the snow blew in anyways and i was cold as fuck anyways

this was the coldest day ive ever been outisde. it was legit -20 without windchill and the winds were crazy strong so it was around -40. It makes you so miserable i cant even explain it. Cold like that eats away at you and makes you feel like nothing. i just wanted to lie down and die its not like you can just go inside and get warm. I started to loose it around this time and just walked in circles around this tree muttering stuff trying to not get frostbite. The instructur had to calm me down

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the hiking never ended. this asian kid was so funny he was about to hanghimself im serious he was even more fucked then me. He is a heavy cig smoker so every step in our death march was even worse for him.

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then they dropped me of in the middle of the woods alone. Of course i lost both the fucking games to see who gets the green shelter tarps and the 3 shovels. So all i had was a piece of plastic and some string. I made a pretty ill shelter though and went in at 3pm and didnt come out until 7 the next day. I fishbowled my sleeping bag and the whole tent. It was so funny the teacher came to check on me right before it got dark and i was in my sleeping back and he knocks on the tent and i unzip it and a huge cloud of weed smoke comes up. haha he knew what was up but didnt say anything

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so yea it probly made me 'stronger' or whatever but I will never do anything like that again. ever. Trying to take a dump in -40 degrees with wind blowing is something i dont want to ever experienec again. i hate the cold and the woods and the snow so much now. Im gona take my first shower in 8 days and spark this time being able to feel my hands
 
damn dude, you had a shitty time to do it too, cuase it was fucking freezing the whole time around here. But well, at least you're alright and back, and just try to look at it as a growing experience, if nothing else, you know you will never do that again.
 
Well i agree that would have been pretty rough and would have sucked buy you should not have had such a bad attitude going into it.
 
WHOa dude crazy stroy with pictures. Sounds like an insane trip. I would wera soooooo many layers before going to make sure I was sweating under all the clothes stayin warm.

I would have my herb in a pouch in my boxers.
 
i remember my schools winter camping trip, it was awesome... why didnt you just build a quinzhee. they are crazy warm and you eazilly had enough snow to do it. one day i want to do some remote touring and build snow shelters every night to live in, i think it would be awesome.
 
so from what I've put together is that you get to ski EVERYDAY and go to school away from your parents (and i'm sure this isn't cheap) and your bitching about roughing it for a week? suck it up man you have such a fuckin sweet set up i woulda killed for an oppurtunity like this one. and knock off all this drug shit you can make it for a week in the woods being sober.
 
That's the stupidest thing ever. You DON'T want to sweat on a winter camping trip like that. First off, it's a bitch to dry wet clothes, secondly, you may be warm while you're hiking and sweating, but as soon as you stop, you have nice cold, wet clothes up against your skin.
 
Man that sounds like a ton of fun. Go buy a small survival book and bring it with you. There are so many fun things to do while you are in the backcountry- build snares and catch and eat animals, build a really good shelter (it is so satifying if you build a good shelter and it works nice) build a HUGE fire to keep warm at night. IF you know what you are doing it is going to be fun, not gay.
 
ALWAYS PUT YOUR BOOTS IN THE BOTTOM OF A SLEEPING BAG!!!! It does seem gay that they didn't teach you more survival skills befoe they sent you out alone. You are supposed to build up a snow wall to protect yourself from wind and they should have let you build a fire. Birch bark will burn no matter how wet it is so you could have gotten a fire going no problem. I think I would have enjoyed it, but thats probably because I go winter camping in here in Colorado a whole lot so I know how to get by pretty well in the backcountry.

Again, I can't believe they didn't teach you more about how to survive and be comfortable in really cold winter conditions. You could have even made a snowcave by piling up snow into a big mound (didn't look like there was enough snow for a standard snowcave)and then digging it out.
 
i did see a bunch of tarps... and i would assume every one on the trip had hands... thats about all you need to make a quinzhee
 
haha oh adrian. that would've been fun if you did it in the summer. I did something like it over the summer and it was reallly fun, even speneding 2 days in the forest by yourslf was fun. I would've had a rough time with it in the winter though. soo coold. i'm glad you came back alive though. that's always good
 
YEA ADRIAN!!! YOU COULDA BUILT A TREE HOUSE, WITH SHOWERS, AND MAYBE EVEN A MONKEY POWERED ENGINE!!!

LOL... that shit sounds like the Family Robinson....

I know adrian has a lot of money and shit... and hes a lucky ass kid who gets to go to boarding school... but even without money this trip sounds like it was a bitch. No toilet paper? Wtf are you gonna wipe your ass on? Snow? Shit... maybe if you love the wilderness... this is your thing... but what I know of adrian is that he loves skiing, filming, blazing, and just chillin... and that doesn't make him any different than a lot of you. Maybe with his parents money he coulda bought some amazing camp/snow gear.... but who the fuck knows? Also... to the quote: How the fuck is he gonna set up snares and catch animals in -20 + Wind Chill? Sounds like the kid could barely walk!

Anyway... I give adrian mad props for documenting his experience... even if it was a piece of shit... it was HILARIOUS TO READ!!! LOL.....
 
Wish I'd seen this thread before you left, I could have imparted unto you the magical knowledge of hiding things in backpack/pant/sleepingbagcase/anything else liners. Get a knife, small incision, hidey hidey, sew it back up. Ta da.

Having to do that probably would have resulted in me actually beating the shit out of at least half a dozen people. -10 is cold on the west coast. -40 is like... I will use my companions' butchered flesh for warmth this night.
 
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