Crag Camp

Hello all,

It's nice seeing some familiar names on here after moving to Key Weird almost 7 years ago! Dang I miss this site and especially the Whites!

I am escaping the sandbar for a trip to the Northern Presi's! Wooo-Haaa!!! It's been a while since I stayed at any of the RMC spots. I noticed the RMC site recommended bringing a sleeping pad for Crag Camp. I know I've often had my Ridgerest on winter trips, but why is this suggested? Are there a limited amount? Or are they overly...ummm...pre-loved and kinda nasty? Please let a brother know!


A water filter will be a good idea, tho' I know I have refilled there in winter without one more than a few times. But times change, tummies change; and I ain't been there overnight in a while! Should I dust off and thoroughly clean my forsaken MSR Sweetwater or bring the fancy new UV Wand that has been supa useful with South American travel and trips lately?

Thank you kindly for any help and long live the RMC!

the starchild
Chilly Willy!

I don't recall Crag Camp having sleeping pads but I may have forgotten. Gray Knob does have mattresses in the sleeping loft. Overnight temps are getting down close to freezing or below in the valleys and are probably below freezing pretty reliably up at Crag and Gray Knob. I would avoid a filter in those conditions as it might freeze up overnight - unless you want to sleep with it. If you have another water treatment, bring it.
Have fun!
-vegematic

Last time I was a crag camp (a few years ago) the bunk rooms were hard surfaced sleeping areas. If you don't mind sleeping on a wooden shelf a pad is not needed but due to its lack of heat much heat is lost under a sleeping bag without a pad as most of the fill of the bag is crushed.

As for water, the standard recommendation from RMC has been to filter or treat the water as if they officially advocate that its safe to drink they are liable and most likely would need to institute a testing regime. That said numerous caretakers over the years have personally not treated. Aqua Mira doesn't weigh much and is fairly easy to use compared to dealing with filter and its associated freezing issues.

The Higher Summits Forecast is hinting that a filter freezing won't be an issue, but mountain weather can very quickly change significantly! Thanks for the reminder and pads shall be packed!

Was there in September 2014. There were pads. Didn't seem "nasty".

Was there yesterday (Sunday, Oct 11) and I think I only saw a couple of mattresses in the bunk rooms. I did see a bunch of foam pads laying under the building outside. The caretaker said it was overflowing on Sat night (Oct 10) and that some folks slept outside and on the floor. Also the water at the camp is now turned off, so you need to hike over to the spring to fill up.

Thanks for the recent reports, I'm super excited to be back and be remembering all of the little things. I forgot about the excitement of the commencement of winter weather reporting from the caretaker status huts!

Temps are dipping again so I'll be bringing a pad, I can't remember how late I used to push bringing just my campchair and using my pack for under my legs! My blood has thinned being in the tropics, but I'm still a very warm sleeper, but it's weird not feeling far more in tune and intuitive about gear....

VTskier, there was water at the camp?!

Peakbagger, ya, I've cooked with and drank untreated water from there many times with no ill effects, tho' mostly with a solid snowpack, which always at least made me feel better about the water quality. My concern was having lost my "local knowledge" and being out of touch with the community, that I may have missed some important changes! Like, does the 19 Mile Brook Trailhead still get lots of break-ins and vandalism?

the starchild said:

VTskier, there was water at the camp?!

Click to expand...

There was a jug (red plastic gasoline jug) filled with water when we got there. I take it the caretaker or others staying at the hut filled it at the spring. I'm not sure how far the spring was, though the caretaker did make it sound as though it was at least a quarter mile away. The convenient water spigot at the back of the building was shut off. We just took 2 cups of the water so we could make hot chocolate. I filtered the water, I have the little Sawyer filter, which is one of my best investments. Since we would be passing numerous streams on the way down, I knew we could just refill at those.

The news has been very quiet on break ins this year. Doesn't mean they are not happening but are not at a level that they are rising to the level of newsworthy.