Backpacking in Shining Rock Wilderness

 Last weekend, armed with a rucksack of borrowed outdoorsy clothes and some trusty supplies of the dairy milk variety, I set off for Shining Rock Wilderness (how much does sound like something out of Lord of the Rings?) in North Carolina.

 In America, areas of Wilderness are, officially, 'areas where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain' and Shining Rock is the biggest one in NC. It really was beautiful; very bleak but in a good way.

We left early Saturday morning, and after a very early lunch consisting of my first ever subway - now wondering why I've never having had this in england as it was pretty good - we reached the car park for the trail. The last hour or so of driving had been through a noticeably different area, small houses tucked up in the woods, tiny shops in cabins and lots of people wearing camo and dungarees. Compared to the wide open roads of Columbia lined with chick-a-fila, walmart and endless other huge stores, it made a pleasant change.

We got out the van and used the truly hideous toilet - sneaky as it looked like your conventional loo but was actually just a hole above a large pit of rankness. After this, it was time for my pack to first meet my back and for me to realise that it wasn't just going to be a stroll around a pretty forest. Back in the day, I was a weirdly enthusiastic scout for quite a while and had not thought the hike would pose any problems but I totally underestimated the weight of half a tent and a sleeping bag. Once we were all strapped in I felt how I imagine a horse feels when they are made to pull a ridiculously large cart. Up a hill. Things got a bit better when I discovered how helpful the hip strap could be and after a while I did get used to it but i still don't know how people walk for weeks with these things on!
 

unfortunately we didn't get to climb Old Butt Knob

The first days hike was pretty short and we arrived at our camping spot quite early. Seeing icicles on our walk up had left me feeling even more confused about current American weather. In Columbia it will be pretty chilly when I leave for class in the morning but hitting 20 degrees by the afternoon, so I wasn't really expecting ice. After we put up our tents we climbed up to Shining Rock, the rock that the whole area is named after. The views from up here were pretty amazing and we got to watch the sunset from up there too. It felt like that bit in twilight when they are chilling up the massive pine tree just without any glittery vampires.

As soon as the sun went down, it got dark obviously and with this the temperature dropped biiiiiiig time. After collecting a giant pile of firewood we crowded round the bonfire and enjoyed some mac n cheese (or in my case endured - seems I need to learn to love this abominable dish as its pretty popular round here). However, fortunately the best was yet to come as it was at this point that I experienced my very first authentic smore. I've faked it with a digestive/marshmallow sandwich in the past but this was the real deal: graham cracker, hersheys and giant melted-on-a-twig marshmallow. Lushcious.

After a bit of fireside chilling we were told about toilet arrangements which I have to say made the smelly pit job i mentioned earlier sound positively delightful. As much of a lover of the outdoors I profess to be, the idea of digging a foot-deep hole with a trowel and pooping into it is something I don't think I'm ever going to be doing by choice. Especially not in a pitched-black wood that looked waaay too reminiscent of the blair witch project forest for my liking.

Once we were in our tents I realised just how much the fire had been responsible for keeping my body at a slightly warm temperature and it dawned on me that i was BLOODY FREEZING. Apparently it got down to about minus 1 overnight and as someone who requires an electric blanket even in the summer months, I did struggle to sleep. Fears of freezing to death were added to by my newfound anxiety regarding bears as I had absolutely no idea that bears existed in North Carolina until earlier that day. We had to put anything smelly, even toothpaste, into a bear sack so they wouldn't be tempted into our tents but I still couldn't help wondering what exactly I would do if I heard something in the night. Basically, by the time sunlight began to filter into the tent I was already wide awake and wanting to get up just to get moving and warm up. First time in maybe my life that I've been relieved to hear a 7am alarm go off.

After packing the tents up, we enjoyed a breakfast of oatmeal tinged with the previous nights mac n cheese, and then began our second days hiking. Before we got going properly we filled up our water bottles from a nearby stream using this pump thing to make it drinkable. Bear Grylls eat your heart out.

The second day was a lot hillier and quite hard at some points. This led to major layering issues as you would start off pretty chilly but by the time you reached a peak, the hat gloves, fleece and 3 tops were a little too much and so there were lots of clothes-changing breaks.

The trail we followed on Sunday was the Art Loeb trail, and again had some pretty amazing views, especially at the end. Most of the trees there had lost their leaves already, which was very different to Columbia where a lot are still out in their full greenery.

After some rather strenuous climbs we successfully made it back to the bus and headed back to USC. On the way back we stopped at probably the most southern place I've been to since I got here. It had a stuffed dead turkey on the wall and everything. I got the absolute bargain of  jacket potato with cheese (loaded cheddar tator y'all) with a side of green beans all for $4 which is about £2.50....If there's one thing I'm going to miss about the South it's the food prices!

Anyway we arrived back at the Strom, unpacked the bus and our kit and traipsed back to campus. It was such a lovely weekend in a beautiful part of America but I can honestly say my bed has never felt so comfy!

xxxxx