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Does This Count as Camping? AMC Hut

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  • #16
    Re: Does This Count as Camping? AMC Hut

    Franconia Ridge was crawling with AT thru hikers this week, as was the hike I did last week up to Zealand hut and Zeacliff that is also on the AT.



    There was one thru hiker who spent the night at the Greenleaf Hut and four more who enjoyed a hot dinner and breakfast, but had to go pitch a shelter in the woods because they had a dog. Hardy bunch. i really can't imagine hiking from Georgia and then getting hit with the NH terrain. They were very, very lucky on the weather. I had the luxury of picking my hiking days based on the weather forecast!

    The 26 pound pack was OK. It's more than I usually carry with my day pack and probably slowed me down some, but it never really bothered me, except at one point on the descent when I started to feel it in my shoulders. I realized that I had forgotten to fasten the waist belt, so the weight was hanging on my shoulders. As soon as I clicked the waist-belt shut, it was fine. This pack is actually more comfortable than my day pack, for reasons that I don't really understand as they are nearly identical except for capacity (50L vs 34L).

    I stopped using sunscreen after reading Dr. Michael Holick's book on vitamin D and sun exposure:

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Vitamin-So.../dp/0452296889

    He's the world's authority on Vitamin D and has lengthy chapters in the book on figuring out where to draw the line on sun exposure. Basically, you want to avoid getting "pink" from sun exposure, but short of that, the more sun exposure the better. Essentially, everyone in New England (or similar latitudes) is massively vitamin D deficient because it is so hard to get enough sun exposure, even in the summer (impossible the rest of the year). By now (September), the sun is too low in the sky at this latitude for sunburn to be an issue. I'm not even the least bit pink from hiking all day on exposed mountain ridges under a cloudless sky. I've been getting my vitamin D tested and finally have it where it should be. I take 6000 IU a day of supplemental vitamin D to get there. It's big problem for people who live in northern latitudes (or who never spend a minute outside without sunscreen).
    Last edited by hwc1954; 09-12-2014, 09:30 PM.

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    • #17
      Re: Does This Count as Camping? AMC Hut

      Wow! That is somewhere that I'm going to need to visit. That looks like a spectacular trip
      Visit www.gearspoke.com for all of your rental needs!

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      • #18
        Re: Does This Count as Camping? AMC Hut

        You've got some pretty spectacular hiking out your way, too!

        I'm going back up for three nights of car camping and two days of hiking in the White Mountains next week. Supposed to be sunny, mid to upper 60s for daytime highs. Low 40s for night time lows. Should be good fall foliage.

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