17 Day Quest for a White Christmas

[Tipi Walter]

A Linville Gorge loop( a big W) taking in the M2S, overlooks(lots of climbing) and the bottom of the gorge could be had to. There are ways to legally get around the day requirement limit there. .

I pulled a recent Pisgah trip to the fringes of Linville Gorge and had a great 24 day trek in May 2016. My journey included big portions of the Mountains to Sea trail on both the west and east sides of Highway 181. I reached Buck Creek on Steels Creek right below Table Rock Mt and the Gorge boundary.

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Steels Creek trail by the Buck Creek crossing.

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Buck Creek/Steels Creek jct on the MST near the Gorge.

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There are several gorges on Steels Creek and this is the upper one.

You need a real Bozeman built Terraplane or Astralplane. Like the one in my garage. I took the Terraplane to Wyoming in September and met a lady on the trail with an Astralplane. Same vintage and color scheme as mine.
Good luck with the McHale adventure. I await your review.
Cheers!
Wayne

The McHale adventure is intricate and possibly exhausting but so far I'm tweaking my Demo pack and will probably use it for a January swaray.

I do have a DD Terraplane LTW which I used on dozens of trip before getting into the Mystery Ranch line---

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A trip into Bald River wilderness.

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With old backpacking buddy Johnny B.

The main problem with the big Dana loadhaulers is their tendency to sag with any weight above 75 lbs.

[Venchka]

“The main problem with the big Dana loadhaulers is their tendency to sag with any weight above 75 lbs.“
You would know more about that than I would. I just know that my hip belt is most comfy and doesn’t have any metal bits that might inflict injury.
Wayne

[Tipi Walter]

“The main problem with the big Dana loadhaulers is their tendency to sag with any weight above 75 lbs.“

You would know more about that than I would. I just know that my hip belt is most comfy and doesn’t have any metal bits that might inflict injury.
Wayne

I removed the hard hipbelt wings on my Mystery Ranch pack and slipped a Kelty hipbelt behind the pack's lumbar pad---works great.

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The Terraplane also uses plastic stiffeners but not nearly as wide and big.

[Venchka]

The LTW Dana packs were built after the K2 buyout in 1995. My 1994 model is different.
I still prefer my 1974 Jensen Pack for the 30 pound, + or-, loads that I can handle.
Sorry about the thread drift.
I do hope that Dan McHale can build a pack for your needs.
Wayne

[lesliedgray]

Lucky me but I'm both able to carry redundant winter layers PLUS have the ability to carry enough food for trips up to 24 days in length without resupply. The best of both worlds.

In fact one of my longest trips was a 24 day swaray in January 2014 whereby I was able to carry both my excessive clothing layers AND my ginormous food/fuel load--- Am I lucky or what? And during the trip I got to experience the so-called Polar Vortex of 2014 with temps on the Brookshire/BMT down to -8F---and 2 zero hunker in days in the tent. Clothing layers and overkill gear came in handy.

I pulled 105 miles on that trip even with my 100+ lb pack---so it was a very successful trip. Here's the demon anvil from that trip---



Trip pics here---

https://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backp...s-in-the-Cold/

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