Strickler Knob
Introduction
The photograph above was taken from a campsite at the top of Strickler Knob. In this post, I'm going to share some of what went in to capturing that moment.
The George Washington National Forest is home to some spectacular woodlands and vistas. The woodlands themselves are a perfect example of what the Appalachian Mountains are known for: flowers and ferns in the undergrowth and spruce trees as you increase in elevation. All make for wonderful subjects. From the tops of the mountains you are rewarded with views of the rest of GWNF and Shenandoah in the distance. Even better, the valley between GWNF and Shenandoah is rich with photographic subjects, especially if you are fortunate enough for the valley to be covered in fog.
Since acquiring my new mirrorless system in the spring, I had been dying to backpack with it. I had done some backpacking with a DSLR between 2010 and 2014 and found it to be a less-than-pleasant experience. I was still fairly early in the process of reducing my base pack weight (gear without consumables like food/water) and was still regularly around the 15-20lb mark. Adding an additional 15lb+ of camera gear was just more than I was willing to schlep up mountains, as it was well north of 40lb with food and water.
Since then, I've made some significant improvements to my backpacking setup. Without camera gear, my base weight is a much more manageable 8-11lb (depending on the trip). Mirrorless systems also weigh considerably less than the DSLR systems that preceded them. Now I can carry a camera and two terrific lenses and keep the camera weight under 8lb. If my photographic goals are more ambitious, I can carry everything I'd ever need and still not have to endure what I did when I started out.
Which leads us to this adventure.
Goals
I had more goals on this trip than I would recommend. Somehow, this is a lesson I have never learned. My excitement to try out All The Things outweighed my better judgement. Below are the major things I hoped to get out of this trip:
Come away with at least a couple compelling sunset/sunrise landscape photos of Luray valley from the top of the knob. Hopefully, with fog in the valley.
Attempt a photo of the Milky Way over some of the distant mountains.
Test out a sizeable number of gear changes/additions:
Test my mirrorless camera system in general. (More on this in a future post.)
Optomize camera-carry techniques, while hiking.
Trail-test a new ultralight pack from that I hoped would make access to my camera gear a bit easier.
Use my star tracker! I've had it for a while and somehow haven't managed to be in a place to try it.
Sleep in a new ultralight tent. I've been a hammock camper for the past 5 years and have been meaning to have a ground-dweller option for when I need it.
Let's just say that when you have more sub-bullets than bullets that it may be time to rethink your plan!
Plan
The hike would take place over two days. I'd be making the journey with my friend Joe, who was testing out his own setup. We knew from experience that trips like this always require way more prep than you anticipate due to the volume of things being tested/tweaked. We aimed to complete a short hike with modest elevation so that we could afford to have a late start and gauge the impact of the additional weight from new gear.
We settled on Strickler Knob. The vistas at the top looked to be quite superb, with ample camping available, without the popularity. The only downside was the lack of water available during the hike. We planned to leave by noon on Saturday, be at the trailhead by 2:30pm, and arrive at the campsite well before sunset so that we would have a chance to scope out good compositions.
I checked the weather forecast obsessively for the entire week, and it looked promising for multiple reasons: the anticipated conditions included clouds for both sunset and sunrise, a good indicator for composition drama; scattered storms throughout the valley during the day Saturday, with the night predicted to be clear enough to try out my star tracker; and finally, it was going to get cool enough overnight that there was a decent chance of fog in the valley for the sunrise. The temperatures for both days looked warmer than I prefer, but would by no means be scorching.
With the plan determined, on Saturday morning we set out for Strickler Knob.
The Hike
The hike itself was wonderful. It was a bit warm for my taste, with temperatures in the 80's, but with shade and a breeze it was quite tolerable. Our only frustration was how buggy it was. The mosquitoes and no-see-ums were out in force. One of the best quality-of-life improvements made to my setup this year was the inclusion of a head net to my packing list, especially as we battled through the bug clouds. I'm a magnet for mosquitoes—one of the many reasons I prefer colder weather—but the net made all the difference. I just can’t believe it took me 20 years to come to this realization.
As I hiked along, I got several decent photos of the plentiful wildflowers and surrounding woodlands. All of my gear was carrying well, and while I noticed the extra weight, it was bearable. When Joe and I got up to the ridge, we snapped some late-day photos of the ridge lines across the valley from us. The three miles passed quickly and we were soon at the campsite right next to the best vista. We set up camp and snacked while we explored the area and scanned the view for possible compositions.
Taking photographs of the sunset, I experimented with super wide angle compositions involving one of the closest spruce trees and the valley. Having scoped the nearby composition spots, I hiked up to the highest point of the knob with a minimal amount of camera gear to determine if there were any other views worth considering (there weren't). The combination of humidity, clouds, and moonlight effectively killed my hopes of taking any photos of the Milky Way. After some pleasant time spent talking and snacking, we hit the tents and slept.
Morning brought with it some unbelievable views. The entire valley was covered in dense fog, and the humidity coupled with some low hanging clouds caused the sunrise to be a dark red. It was truly better than I could have hoped.
Fog is magical because it helps to simplify the landscape while simultaneously adding drama. The light from the rising sun played across the fog in the valley, adding contrast and texture. I kept my eyes peeled for structures breaking through the fog while I focused on some of the small, distant hills that were just breaking through the top of the fog bank. I tried a number of wide angle compositions of the "islands" in the fog before swapping to my telephoto lens to look for some simpler pieces of the landscape.
I took the best shot of the day when Joe yelled "BARN" and pointed frantically (he was capturing a time lapse at this point so was acting as a second set of eyes on the quickly changing landscape). The red barn I'd spotted the night before had just broken out of the fog and was catching the first sunlight. Already thinking that this photo set was likely to be my favorite from the trip, I snagged several different shots of varying styles, coupling in valley panoramas before we started to lose the best of the morning light.
After a breakfast consisting of Snickers and a couple sips of water, we took stock of our dwindling water supply;we had badly estimated how much we would need for the trip. The humidity coupled with the (admittedly mild) elevation had caused us both to consume more water than expected—thankfully we had noticed this the night before and had begun to carefully ration what was left. After a thirsty hike back to the car with minimal photography, we both gorged ourselves on the extra water which would have been of far more use in our packs, and declared the trip a success.
Notable Gear
Given that this trip was primarily intended to test things, it should not come as a surprise that I have more than the usual number of gear notes. For this post, I'm going to focus mostly on what photography equipment I brought and how I carried it, but if there is interest I'll happy write up thoughts on some of the various backpacking gear used.
Photography
Since the purpose of this trip was photography focused, I carried way more than I would normally recommend. I was keen to test out how some of the lenses performed for night sky photography (which sadly didn't happen!). I also hadn't yet managed to get my hands on the new RF 70-200. So instead of sharing exactly what I carried, I'm going to share what I should have carried instead.
Clipped to my shoulder straps was a Hyperlite Mountain Gear Camera Pod containing my Canon EOS R5 with the RF 24-70 f/2.8. It's very important to me that my camera is readily accessible, yet also is at least a little bit protected from the elements. The Camera Pod delivered. The only downside is that it does impair your visibility when looking straight down. On the plus side, it is balanced and weights both shoulder straps equally. It can also be clipped to your waist-belt if having something on your chest doesn't work for you.
In my pack I had two F-Stop Gear Micro Tiny Internal Camera Units (ICU) containing my other lenses. Knowing what I know now, for this trip I would have taken my Canon EF 11-24 f/4 and my Canon RF 70-200 f/2.8 lenses alongside the RF 24-70 f/2.8. While the EF 11-24 is a bit heavy, the ability to shoot at 11mm adds a lot of creative opportunities. As long as I wasn't planning to do significant hiking mileage, the extra pound over my RF 15-35 f/2.8 isn't that big of a deal. I didn't have the RF 70-200 at the time of this hike, so I was shooting with my RF 24-240 (a fantastic do-it-all lens that is very affordable). I find telephoto lenses to be especially useful photographing from vistas—by zooming in you're able to pick out many different compositions within your view, and, in my experience, this forced simplification tends to result in more compelling photographs.
Strapped to the outside of my pack was my reasonably lightweight, yet unbelievably sturdy, tripod setup. Huge shoutout and thanks to Hudson Henry for putting this system together and posting a video about it. The integrated leveling adapter means that any tripod head that has the ability to pan can be used to easily create panoramas, without needing to level the tripod by adjusting the leg lengths.
All told for this trip, I was carrying around 20lb of camera gear. If I were to do it again without testing everything all at once, it would come in close to 13lb.
Backpacking
As far as backpacking gear goes, I have a fairly sizeable collection. I've been backpacking and hiking since I was 8, so I have had time to accumulate a lot of random odds and ends. Rather than detail everything I carried, I'm instead going to focus on parts that I adjusted, specifically because I was intending to bring a significant camera setup. As mentioned earlier, I usually favor a hammock for backpacking. Hammocks are more comfortable (in my opinion!) and more adaptable in the forests of the east coast, since it's usually easier to find a pair of trees the right distance apart than it is to find suitably-located flat ground.
That said, tents still have their place. Sometimes you're going somewhere without an abundance of trees. Other times, you just want an easier to use shelter. In my case, you want a shelter that has an "inside" that you can share with your camera gear.
I decided a while back that I would go with a TarpTent whenever the need arose. I chose the Aeon Li for its size, weight, and footprint. It has just enough room for me and my gear, with two sizable vestibules. This means one can house some gear while the other is used for ingress, egress, and cooking. A fantastic choice, indeed.
The other adjustment I made this trip was to my pack. I have been using an ULA Ohm 2.0 for a while, and have been quite happy with it, but it has two downsides. First, it does not handle heavy loads particularly well (it's only rated for 25lb). Second, the interior volume is lacking. While the first issue is really only a problem for me when camera gear is factored in, the second has caused frustration when carrying a full winter load consisting of many puffy items. So the new pack that fulfilled the two requirements that my Ohm 2.0 couldn’t needed a lot of interior volume (handy in the winter, even without the camera), and had to have a zipper opening for the main compartment.
Normally, a zipper would be a bit of a concern.—they introduce both weight and a point of failure—but with heavy (at least compared to the rest of my gear) camera equipment now coming along, I wanted a more flexible means for getting stuff in and out of the pack. Heavy items are best carried down low in the pack and against your back. In a normal backpacking load out, this would be things like a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc. In short, heavy items are all things that you only need when you set up camp.
However, I now wanted the camera gear down there, which meant I needed a way to get to the lower portion of my pack without having to unpack the entire bloody bag. So yea... Zipper.
I went with the new ZPacks Arc Air Zip ROBIC. So far I'm quite pleased. It handled the very heavy load of 40lb fairly well. While my hips were a bit bruised after the hike, I can hardly blame it on the pack, because I was pushing it to its weight limit. On the bright side, it was more than roomy enough for everything I carried, and the zipper seems like it'll hold up well, as long as I don't abuse it. I'll share more detail on this after hiking a few more miles with it.
Lessons Learned
I take pretty extensive notes after every trip to try to reduce the number of times I need to learn a lesson before it sticks. This trip had one important lesson: carry more water.
On the photography side, I relearned the importance of having a telephoto lens when working from a vista. I also learned that it is utterly futile to try to shoot the Milky Way when there is a sizeable moon and humidity (not really a surprise when you think about it, I just clearly didn't think).
Lastly, on this trip Joe was testing the use of a fanny pack worn over his waist belt to store some photographic odds and ends. He was able to carry a second lens there along with filters, extra battery, etc. This proved to be a great idea. While I needed to shed my pack to change lenses, he could do it while standing in the middle of the trail. I had my filters and spare batteries in one of the waist-belt pockets, but I had nowhere to put a second lens. Before the next trip, I'd like to find a good way to keep a second lens reasonably accessible, while moving.
Future Posts
As I mentioned above, I'm going to add posts discussing more of my gear choices, in depth. I've noticed a distinct lack of good backpacking-photography content. So I'm going to try to share the lessons I have learned (and am learning) to try to make it easier for other people.
Hope you found this helpful! See you in the next post.