Happy Campers

Where to go camping this fall ... and how not to prepare for it

By Chris Gigley
September, 2009

Darren Schwartz seems to know a lot about camping. So does Dave Cook. But so what if Schwartz, a manager at the Great Outdoor Provision Company in Thruway Center, has encyclopedic knowledge of camping gear? Or that Cook is the superintendent of Hanging Rock State Park, where I reserved a campsite for the family this fall? I had a sixth sense about travel planning.

So, I paid passive attention to their advice after reserving our campsite online (nc.reserveworld.com). I had a week to make a packing list. Plenty of time … except that ballet lessons, homework tutoring, and a couple of birthday parties ate up all the time I thought I had to get ready. I blinked, and suddenly it was the morning of our departure. Uh oh.

Camper’s Haven

Four gorgeous state parks are within about an hour’s drive of Winston-Salem. Hanging Rock, Pilot Mountain, and Stone Mountain state parks showcase the mountains. Lake Norman State Park is all about the water.

“My personal favorite just to get out of the city is Hanging Rock,” says Schwartz. “I like the facility, and the campsites are nice and private. It’s also easy to walk down to the main area and get on a variety of trails.”

Those trails lead to a lot of beautiful places, including five waterfalls. “If I were only to go to one waterfall, it would be the Lower Cascade,” says Cook. “It’s our largest waterfall but it also flows from an overhanging cliff face.”

From the crest of Hanging Rock, a strenuous 1.3-mile hike, campers can see Pilot Mountain — the centerpiece of the closest state park to the city. Pilot Mountain is less than a half-hour away and offers 49 campsites set among the oaks and hickories on the lower slopes of the mountain. A semi-strenuous 3-mile hike on the Grindstone Trail leads to the crest of Pilot Mountain. The reward for screaming hamstrings is a breathtaking view of the Piedmont, including the distant Winston-Salem skyline.

Schwartz says he also enjoys the park’s river section, which is almost separate from the main part of the park. It surrounds a shallow portion of the Yadkin River that includes several uninhabited islands. The entrance is past Horne Creek Living Historical Farm on Hauser Road.

“You can’t camp on the island, but there is camping along the embankment,” says Schwartz. “It’s a really wonderful section to kayak that’s easily done in about three hours. There’s also great smallmouth bass fishing there.”

Set along a fingertip of land jutting into Lake Norman, Lake Norman State Park features 33 campsites within easy walking distance of the water. The five-mile trail shadows the squiggling shoreline of the peninsula. A cutover on the Short Turn Trail makes the loop a more manageable 3.4 miles.

Ironically, a favorite spot at this park isn’t Lake Norman. Anglers, boaters, and swimmers love 33-acre Park Lake at the north end of the park. In the fall, however, it offers great scenery and a quieter, more peaceful ambiance.

Meanwhile, at Stone Mountain State Park, the action peaks in fall.

“We have a south-facing slope, so it gets pretty hot in the summer,” says Edward Farr, park superintendent. “A lot of people wait until it cools off in the fall. We get a lot of rock climbers. Fall is a good time to fly fish, too, because after October 1 the main stream goes back to catch-and-release.”

A visit to this park, which has 47 camp sites, must include a hike to the top of the 600-foot granite dome. Rock climbers love to scale its face, but a short, 0.6-mile hike gets campers to the summit relatively safely. Another great thing about the park is that it touches the Blue Ridge Parkway, which offers a fitting way to cap a fall camping trip.

Packing Fiasco

What started as a nice, easy morning of packing evolved into a last-minute frenzy. The back of the car was suddenly stuffed with clothes, gear, and food. No square inch was spared — an effort that took the greater part of the morning and early afternoon. Eager to hit the road, we didn’t double-check anything. We hopped into the car and sped off for Hanging Rock State Park.

About 20 minutes into the trip, however, my mind started racing. Do we have charcoal? What about matches? Do we have enough ice? Did my wife pack our toothbrushes? We stopped on the way to buy everything we’d forgotten, and somehow, I stuffed even more into the back of the car. I didn’t exhale until we reached the park. But then, disaster. As I prepared to pitch the tent, I realized I’d forgotten the tent poles.

“The tent poles should fit in the same bag!” I muttered to no one in particular.

They should, but the nylon bag full of tent poles sat in our shed 50 miles away. I looked at my wife, who laughed uneasily. I knew what that meant. If our kids weren’t around, she’d strangle me with her bare hands. Daylight was quickly fading. I looked at the mess of clothes, food, and camping accessories we scattered on the picnic table and tried to figure out what to do.

Cold Comfort

Fall camping is a lot like spring and summer camping in North Carolina. Daytime temperatures hold steadily in the 70s and occasionally even reach the low 80s through October. The evening is another story. Temperatures turn cool — bordering on cold. The average October low at Hanging Rock State Park, for instance, is a frigid 43 degrees.

“You want to have good insulation between you and the ground,” warns Cook. “A lot of campers use big air mattresses for comfort, but it’s hard to insulate your body with those. Foam-filled self-inflating air mattresses or foam pads work better.”

Schwartz says Great Outdoor Provision Company sells the foam-filled self-inflating mattresses.

“A sleeping bag won’t give you the temperature rating you’re looking for if nothing is between you and the ground,” he adds. “All the insulation on the bottom of the sleeping bag is being compressed. There’s nothing deflecting your body heat.”

But Schwartz says a good inflatable mattress is fine for campers who have a sleeping bag with plenty of loft, or fill, and who are dressed in insulated underwear. He also says sealing off ventilated areas in the tent and attaching the rainfly helps stave off the cold.

Lessons Learned

Thank goodness for Jay Sinclair. Lucky for us, the photographer met up with us to document our camping adventure, and he loaned us an extension cord and two tripods. That’s all my wife and I needed.

Together with Jay, we channeled our inner MacGyvers and created a makeshift shanty we attached to the back of our car. It was a modern engineering marvel. Fellow campers on their way to the bathhouse stopped and stared at it. A few even thought it was meant to be that way. I beamed with pride.

I do admit, however, to following some of Schwartz’s and Cook’s advice. Although I cheaped out and didn’t buy an insulated, self-inflating mattress pad, I did grab a couple of queen-sized foam mattress pads to lay under our sleeping bags. Those kept us warm enough.

And Schwartz offered this genius suggestion: “I like to bring a little bit of kindling or tinder wood. A lot of campgrounds provide big pieces of wood, but it’s hard to start a fire with that. So a couple of nights before I leave, I fill up a grocery bag with sticks I find in my yard.”

After grilling burgers and Italian sausages on a charcoal flame, I kept the fire going with the kindling I’d collected in our backyard. The flames kicked up, and we were able to roast marshmallows for S’mores.

Despite my packing nightmare, the family and I had a great camping trip. We hiked and picnicked and played games in our shanty tent. But the one moment that stands out is all of us huddled together, devouring our S’mores in the soft glow of the campfire. We saw the stars twinkle through the canopy of trees as the rest of the world fell silent. No television. No Internet. No cell phones. Just sharing the simple joy of chocolate and marshmallow smashed between two graham crackers.

For me, at least, that is what camping is all about.

BONUS WEB MATERIAL

Coffee Talk

There was a bear sighting the morning we awoke at Hanging Rock State Park, but that was no bear. It was me, howling in anger after seeing I’d forgotten my French press coffee maker. A decaffeinated me is much more dangerous than any old bear.

A week or so later, when planning more thoroughly for another family camping trip, I learned that a number of gear manufacturers are there to help campers like me who need their coffee. Better yet, they understand we are now a nation of coffee snobs, particular about the strength and flavor of our brew.

GSI Outdoors’ Java Drip portable drip coffee system, for instance, brews exceptional coffee. It’s also simple to use — a key for those of us who require coffee to concentrate. A reusable fabric filter fits inside a durable silicone drip cone, which fits atop a lidded 50-oz. carafe. Put medium- to fine-ground coffee in the filter, pour boiling water over the grounds, and within five minutes you have a deep, rich brew that rivals the work of professional baristas. I loved the Java Drip so much I started using it in my natural habitat — home.

The Jetboil FLASH is another impressive camp-side coffeemaker, although it can do more than just brew coffee. It combines a burner and cooking vessel in one compact unit. Everything stacks conveniently inside the FLASH’s one-liter vessel, which can also function as a drinking mug. The system lights up with the click of a button and within two minutes provides two cups of boiling water for cocoa, coffee, instant soup, or a freeze-dried meal. The coffee kit is sold separately but is oh-so-worth the investment.

For more information:
Jetboil FLASH ($99.95) jetboil.com
GSI Outdoors Java Drip ($29.95)  gsioutdoors.com