Backpacking in Time

Introduction

I started backpacking in 1963 against my will so to speak when the resident camp I attended outfitted us in wooden frame packs as shown in this album and hiked us off for three days and two nights into the rural western Virginian mountains. It was extremely uncomfortable in the July heat and the pack did not fit my 5'8" frame. But I tried backpacking again and grew to prefer it over any other type of outdoor activity for many years.

Backpacking took me to the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, and the entire AT in the state of New Jersey. I also crossed the beautiful Delaware Water Gap from side to side as you'll see a little bit below. I backpacked on the Loyalsock Trail in PA and so many lovely side trails of the AT I've lost count over the 40+ years.

I carried my pack with me along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, on Isle Royale in Michigan, to Dolly Sods in West Virginia, to the Rockies in Colorado twice, with me on portages on canoe trips in Maine and took it nowhere, for weeks at a time as an adult at Boy Scout summer camp. The longest I lived out of a backpack was for 23 days when I went to Outward Bound in North Carolina in 1980. So I guess this album is my mini-salute to places I've backpacked in times past!

Images

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