Big Schloss Backpacking!

OVERVIEW

If your favorite way to spend a saturday night is sleeping out under the stars, I have a trip for you! We’ll be doing a 12 mile loop over two days, with 2,329 ft of elevation gain. It’s a fair amount of miles and the first section is mostly up hill, so experience with longer or more challenging dayhikes may be helpful. Still it’s a very beginner friendly trip and we’ll go at whatever the groups pace is!

The plan:
saturday
1:30 – meet at Echols and head out to the trail once everyone’s arrived
3:45 – get to the trailhead and start hiking
around 6:00 – find a nice campsite probably near water and set up (probably around 3-4 miles into the hike but we’ll see how the group’s feeling)
whenever – head to bed

sunday
around 8:30 – wake up and pack up camp and head out (about 8 miles to the car)
around 12:00 – stop Big Schloss to admire the view and have lunch
afternoon sometime – get back to the car and head home! if people are hungry we can stop somewhere on the way home to grab dinner
(we’ll probably get back before 7, but that’s the latest i’d guess. If anyone needs to be back by then though we’ll probably wake up a bit early to make sure we get back in time!)

you bring:
food (snacks, dinner, breakfast and lunch!)
water (we’ll be able to filter some on the trail but i’d still recommend a couple liters)
layers (depending on the forecast you might want a raincoat/jacket/thermal leggings ect.)
this list (w/ the cold weather items! It’s looking like it will get down to the low 40s overnight)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b7pkxckbPRRok72xpcN-KGproZ8DBZiw2JQULhc16mA/edit?tab=t.0
(if you don’t have anything on the list lmk or head to one of the gear rooms that week!)

i bring:
same as y’all
first aid kit
bear canister/bear hand supplies
water filter
stove and fuel

text me (434-607-3322) if you have any questions/concerns about the trip! I’m happy to go with anyone to the gear room/make suggestions about stuff to bring backpacking if needed!

alltrails link: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/west-virginia/big-schloss-loop