vettech2112

I'm a solo day-hiker about to do a solo 2-3 (maybe 4) day trip to Hill Country SNA (and maybe Lost Maples).

I'm fairly new to this whole thing and need some help with some of the basics.

My biggest concern is not the gear, nor is it 1st aid or the critters (I'm a veterinary technician who is also a nursing student... got that end well covered ) Although, now I think about it, I really don't know much about locking down a camp to keep the critters away from my stuff while I'm out hiking.

My biggest question is actually a basic one - how much food/water do I need to figure on packing in for 2-3 days, with no available potable water. The trip will be mid-May and I plan to do 90% of my hiking on foot. I'm also 6'2", about 185lbs, if that's needed for some calculation.

Also, I'd like suggestions on how and what to pack in as far as food/water are concerned. As I'll be solo-hiking, I'm trying to avoid a cooler and/or a need for food that I'll have to cook but I'll pack a cooler in if needed.

(For those of you who read my bike/trailer idea... I'm still tossing around that idea vs this one.)

I have to confess, I caught a mild case of heat stroke at Enchanted Rock (2/3 of the way up the Rock, no less... a bit scary) this past August and I have NO desire for a repeat.

Thanks in advance!
Ed

lost_but_found

i believe you would want 2liters of water per day and 24oz of food per day (on average). i may be mistaken. there are some backpacker sites out there devoted to trail nutrition. i do know this though, the more trail time you intend, the more caloric intake you want to prepare for. on the trail, calories are fuel! that and carbs.

if you have an REI or other outdoor store near you, you can find some pretty good freeze dried foods (relatively good anyway - at least when you are hungry and have been hiking all day!!). i would recommend the spaghetti, chilimac with beef, and enchiladas. also, the bagged tuna, ham and chicken sold at grocery stores are surpisingly good. the ham with some cheese on a bagel is really tasty in the morning. toast the bagel a little with some butter on it and warm up the ham to help melt the cheese a little - good stuff!! ramen noodles are good too. power bars and gels are good for trail snacks to give a good boost of energy - the gels are faster. stick with carbs and calories during the day, then plenty of protien for breakfast and dinner. i have found this to keep my muscles from getting as sore and fatigued. this, plenty of stretching and taking a tylenol before bed will keep me fairly lose, relaxed and pain free most of the time.

this is backpacker.com's tips and hints about trail food/nutrition. maybe you can find something there of importance.
http://www.backpacker.com/nutrition
this is one of my favorite sites, recommended reading!!
http://www.backpacking.net/index.html

kai

i find that the sodium content of the ramen noodles is helpful to replace some lost salts- oddly it is incredibly satisfying at the end of the day

the packages of instant oatmeal are easy for breakfast as well. and the lipton pasta pouches are good as well

ploddinTod

Ed,
For a bread course, I'd pack bagels (they don't mash as easily as sliced bread) and/or flour tortillas. You can put anything on a tortilla--ham/cheese, tuna, scrambled eggs with potatoes, etc.
As for water, I believe there is a major stream running through the park and maybe some minor ones too. If you have a filter, of course, you don't have to worry about hauling all your water for the entire trip. Another option is to purify it with iodine tabs. Even Walmart sells them--Aqua Pure or something like that. You'll have that iodine taste after treatment but you can mask that by adding Tang, Crystal Lite or some such.
When you go to scoop water from the creek into your bottle, cover the mouth of the bottle with a bandanna, handkerchief or even a coffee filter to keep the floaties out.
The only critter I believe you have to worry about is the marauding raccoon. Bring a rope and string it between two trees and hang your food bag midway between the trees. Urinate around the base of both trees to mark your territory.
Hope this helps.

__________________
PloddinTod

kai

at least you guys dont have to worry about bears down here

mmm...iodine flavored water...mmmm.... but better than getting sick! gatorade or lemonade mix is what I used to use to help it along... but then, of course, I had iodine flavored lemonade. a little less subtle than in water, though put the dry mixes premeasured for your container in seperate ziplock bags.

[dont forget the bug spray/suncreen/afterbite/etc... ]

i dont know that I've ever tried to bring bread backpacking with me- bagels or otherwise. i really like the food you just have to mix with water. i think i would go for tortillas or pita bread (can you buy pita bread down here?), and bring some bag tuna. or bag chicken (like the tuna). the little applesauce cups are a nice pick me up (the motts 'healthy harvest' are 100% fruit, no additives like high fructose corn syrup), and although a little bulky are pretty light. oranges/tangerines travel well and are also nice. granola bars...lots of granola bars... a small plastic jar of tuna w/ a spoon (eat out of the jar). fruit roll ups/fruit leather (there are some good 100% fruit ones around- none of that high fructose corn syrup crap in them, either).

lost_but_found

use vitC to to neutralize the iodine. they sell it with the iodine now, but call it neutralizing tablets. but if you look at the ingredients, it is ascorbic acid (vitaminC). you want to wait 30 minutes after the iodine has been applied before applying the vitC.

works pretty good too. i forgot the vitC tablets one time and had to drink the water after treated with iodine - nas-ty!!! yuk! they also sell chlorine based purifiers. viral stop is what i am now using with my sweet water filter. and yes, i use both. i am into ultralight now, but i will always sacrifice weight to bring my filter and purifiers. i can't stand floaties in my water, and i do not want to take any risks when i am out on the trail when it comes to my body's health.
one time i had to get some nasty stagnant water - i filtered it, boiled it, and treated it with the iodine. i'm a wuss!! but at least i own it.

kind of funny because i like to boulder and test my balance a lot when i am out on the trail, but i won't drink water that has only been treated in one way! oh well, we all have our quircks!

ploddinTod

I bet that water was on the Lone Star Trail. I've always thought that it looked very questionable for drinking. But, believe it or not, the iodine taste in purified water by tabs doesn't bother me. I guess anyone who likes freeze dried backpacker entrees (me ) has at least a slightly warped sense of taste.

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PloddinTod

toejam

Ed, I’m about your size and I gotta have a gallon of water a day. That makes a real heavy pack in places like Big Bend & Guadalupe – one of the big reasons I’ll usually stay on the road a few extra hours to go to the Rockies for serious backpacking trips. I don't mind the iodine taste, but I hate waiting to drink it and iodine is not effective against one of the prevalent bugs in the Rockies.

The gallon of water includes what I use for cooking, and my cooking is just boiling water. I have instant oatmeal for breakfast and for dinner I have the Lipton pouches of pasta or rice with tuna or canned chicken dumped in. I tried a pouch of ground beef earlier this year and it wasn’t very good – I’ll have to try it again with macaroni & chili powder. I’ve used the freeze dried just-add-water meals from the sports stores but they are just so expensive that I never get them anymore now that tuna and chicken come in foil pouches.

For lunch & snacks I bring bagels, beef jerky or summer sausage, cheese sticks, dried fruit, trail mix, granola bar, cliff bars if I can find ‘em (the best!). I also like to bring little tubs of apple sauce that can break open in your pack and little snickers bars, but these are my self-indulgences and not recommended.

Your diet probably needs to change on a backpacking trip because you are probably a lot more physically active than normal. Fat in your food is a good thing on the trail for energy, and plenty of dried fruit will keep the plumbing clear.

kai

mmmm....beef jerky.... its been awhile. thats the one time i let myself eat beef jerky

I had a thought... yogurt may be OK your first day out. I used to work in the field up in Boston and I would frequently have those tubes of yogurt for lunch. I've heard that they are OK to eat unrefridgerated up to 24 hours - and I never had one explode in my bag or in my pocket- even after dropping equipment on them (although I wouldn't TRY to break one- i may just be really lucky).

of course, in Boston it doesn't get nearly as hot as it does here. The temperatures we've been having in san antonio for the past few weeks are just about summer temperatures in Boston- so maybe yogurt tubes wont last so long down here.

i like the gu energy gels. more so than the cliff energy gels. I actually will get cravings for the Gu's...its kind of sad. I find when i am really tired (esp. biking, not so much hiking)- chewing is sometimes more effort than i can handle... and then swallowing is down right revolting. But the gu's go down quick and easy and I feel so much better...

vettech2112

Then I guess the big question is about the "pond" on the map near Wilderness Camp. I have to admit a bit of trepidation in trusting the purification pills. I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to haul in all that water!

To save myself some weight, I don't plan on cooking and plan to keep cold items to a minumum... if it won't fit in my lil' soft-sided lunch cooler, its not going. You know, I may wimp out and just camp by the creek and try the primitive route next time, once I have a better feel for what I'm doing.

Shannon

Everybody's provided wonderful food options, including many I use on long dayhikes and my car camping trips. I hadn't tried the energy gels ("goo") until a triathelete friend gave me one to try out -- cinammon & apple -- not bad at all, once you adjust to the foreign consistency (uhm, gooey!) I am also a fan of Cliff bars, though I don't mind Powerbar or the variants. I like raisins or dried apriocots when I'm at home, and those make good snacks on the trail as well. Same for pistacios and other nuts -- even the salt, as others have mentioned, would be welcome on the trail.

I'll leave it up to those more experienced about finding water at Hill Country SNA, since I can't for the life of me remember water flowing anywhere near the Wilderness Camp. Nearest water that's reliable, in my memory, is West Verde Creek and that flows through the "front" of the park and behind the West Verde Creek campsites (aptly named, no? ) -- park map, for reference. From my GPS track of my hike past Wilderness, I should have seen the pond since it's quite near the junction of Trail 6 and Trail 1 near the camp... yet I have no memory of water there (else I would have taken photographs -- water's a great tool for photographers, what with reflections and wildlife that it attracts!)

Like I said, I have a ways to go before I can trust my own water observation and locating skills. Until then, I'll be hauling more water than I'd like.

As for critters, I always get visited by armadillo and raccoon when I'm camping at Hill Country SNA. The racoons are wily and you'll definitely want to stow your food and other fragrant items so they can't rip and prowl through them.

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vettech2112

I guess I've gotten a bit nuts over this whole water issue. I've never done the water purification route and that, plus my bad experience at Enchanted Rock last August, has me being overly cautious. What I'm figuring on doing is packing in my 1.5L Camelback + 3-4 liters more in 1 liter bottles. Likely the remainder of the case of water will be at the car.

As far as trail chow is concerned, I heard Whole Foods Market (dunno if you have 'em in SA) sells raisins, nuts, dried fruit, etc in bulk. Should be interresting to see what combinations I can come up with.

BTW, what did you think about Hermit's Shack and/or Butterfly Springs camp areas? I also have questions about where the primitive camers will need to park? (Trying to judge distance from the car to the site)

I like the idea that was given about roping the pack between 2 trees. Arrgggggghhhhhhh, the wait is killing me! Ah well, I'm a college student (nursing) and this trip is my post-semester from hell reward to myself.

Shannon

Hopefully, someone else has camped at those or seen them and can provide first-hand commentary. I'm afraid I haven't hiked by either of those or checked them out. My experience is limited to checking out the Wilderness Camp site last May, and my relatively frequent (for me, anyway; 1-2 times a year) camping trips in the West Verde Creek sites there. Parking for the Wilderness Camp and most hiking in that area of the park would be at the Trailhead Equestrian Camp. It's a large enough gravel lot to accommodate folks who are camping at the equestrian camp, as well as folks day hiking or heading for Wilderness Camp for overnight use. You'll have a vehicle permit from the park headquarters, so they'll have no problem knowing your car's supposed to be there overnight. The ranger lives on site, in the old ranch house, btw.

I think you're approaching this the same way I'll approach my first backpacking trip, so no worries. The way I look at it, planning is always a good thing -- I've done my share of "D'oh!" misadventures outdoors, and the result has always been learning to be more prepared and better informed. I hope your schooling wraps up smoothly and quickly and that you enjoy your trip immensely!

P.S. If you got in any kind of jam, there are usually at least several horseback riders in the park on weekends. One reason I did my solo trip out there was I knew if I did something stupid or somehow got hurt, I wouldn't be far from assistance. The park has a relatively new (2-3 years old) friends group called Hill Country State Natural Area Partners that's currently comprised mostly of equestrians, but they've been doing a lot to help the park -- including serving as spotters during some of the events at the park (such as a recent 24 hour foot race... goodness only knows who would want to RUN the trails there, but apparently there are folks who do that! )

For that matter, you might have good luck writing the folks at HC-SNAP via their website for more info on current conditions at the various primitive campsites. They're out they're more often than most of us, and might have some good info for your upcoming trip!

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Your Host @ WildTexas.com
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lost_but_found

hermit shack is cool, i prefer wilderness because there is a pond not far from it that you can get water from. plus i like the hills all around it better too. hermits shack isn't as glamorous. i have never camped at butterfly springs, but i think it is nestled up on a hill or something. you go right by the trail to it on the way to hermit shack.

hints about bping:
the first timw you go you begin to understand what you really want and need out there. you will most likely carry too much stuff you don't need and not enough of the stuff you really need. encouraging, huh? i know i did. but the more you do it, the more you will refine it. it is all about scrutinizing your gear to the max. "do i really need this?" and you start looking for multipurpose stuff real fast because that weight is a fun killer!

i really suggest you look into water purifiers, at least as a safety precaution if nothing else. water is essential! but it is also VERY heavy! They also sell very small and light bping stoves you could use to boil the water. hcsna is very upscale because they have fire rings at all the primitive sites and allow you to gather fire wood. so the stove is no necessity out there.

ploddinTod

Ed,
We're all excited for you as you prepare for your first trip. It sounds like you have all the basics covered--food, water, shelter, first aid. Don't forget the flashlight.
I have to chuckle at the faux pauxs we made on our first trip. I carried a camp stool with wooden legs. But my partner topped that by packing a director's chair with iron legs!!
Oh, well. The learning curve is steep. Enjoy your adventure and let us know how it went.

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PloddinTod