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BeefofAges posted:Can you just give your dog an old sleeping bag?
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Oct 24, 2014 18:16
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I don't really have one handy that I can spare so I'd have to buy one just to turn it into a dog bed. I guess if I was handy I'd buy some material and down and do it but I'm honest with myself that I'd never get that project done
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Oct 24, 2014 18:41
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Look at something used on ebay or craigslist?
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Oct 24, 2014 19:06
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Levitate posted:at least she's probably about to be hit with a very large fine and jailtime (I don't know what felony vandalism usually brings but hey). People can be pretty self centered Hopefully, it's hard to say. Those boy scout leaders who knocked over those 170 million year-old boulders in Utah last year came away with nothing more than $2000 in fines. That's barely more than the court fees. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-scouts-leaders-who-knocked-over-ancient-rock-get-probation-n56596
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Oct 24, 2014 19:08
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Internet Explorer posted:How about people afraid of heights? I am afraid of heights.  I just do it anyway. That hike up Carthew, I was by myself traversing a narrow cliff band tilted at 30 degrees, with that view, and I had to jump over a couple small gaps. It's a steep scree slope below, and a cliff that drops to the lakes. My legs were shaking so bad I had to stop and wait for the anxiety to subside in case they gave out. I think I actually took that picture at that moment. Mt. Tyrwhitt was seriously terrifying too, because the IT band in my left leg seized and I was trying to climb down rubbly unstable cliff bands on one leg. I also have chronic patella femoral syndrome in my right knee and literally limp off ever mountain I go up. THAT'S how worth it summits are to me. I'm addicted.
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Oct 25, 2014 00:47
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Has anyone had success with getting space blankets to be any quieter? I've been trying to find an alternative lightweight groundsheet and I would love to use one of these as they are super light and super cheap but they could wake the dead. I've read some people saying they get quieter with use but I tried balling one up for ages as well as throwing it under my duvet at home for a couple of nights and it is still just as loud.
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Oct 26, 2014 03:35
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Picnic Princess posted:THAT'S how worth it summits are to me. I'm addicted. It is really addicting. I've gone out week after week, braving thunderstorms, thick fog, snow, bears, knifelike ridgelines, all to climb a mountain. I bought a truck just to be able to access more mountains. It feels good to stand on top of something huge, where few people have gone before. Also scrambling is just so much fun. And if my legs are scratched up from a climb, I figure it must have been a good day. Climbed Rock Roll Peak today, figuring there would be a decent amount of snow after this week so I picked a shorter mountain. But there wasn't really all that much  It was cold and windy at the top. Wore shorts anyway, no fucks given.
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Oct 26, 2014 04:14
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Over Thanksgiving break I'll be taking a trip either to Sawtooth Wilderness in Idaho, the Highway 395 Whitney Portal area again, or into Arizona wilderness. This depends on snow, and I have a feeling I'll be playing it safe and going to Arizona - anyone know of any amazing AZ trails? Also want to mention that I bought new Lowa hiking shoes. Hope that means I'm a pro. maybe not. Picnic Princess posted:Cirque Peak 
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Oct 26, 2014 07:17
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The Precious posted:Has anyone had success with getting space blankets to be any quieter? I essentially laminated it to my sleeping pad with Super 77. That cut down the crinkling some, but it's still noisy if I shift a lot.
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Oct 26, 2014 13:40
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It's not much by the standards of this thread, but yesterday I went to the highest point in my state, Mt. Marcy in the Adirondacks. The views were pretty good.     It was a little windy  And a little icy  ok it was a lot icy  I hit some of the nearby peaks but by then the weather remembered that it was supposed to be New York outside and fog rolled in. The approach to trail maintenance in the Adirondacks is interesting - they barely try to divert water at all. Almost all of the trail I saw this weekend was either an active stream or rockhopping across standing water/deep mud. To the more experienced hikers: how do you clean your pack to keep it from making everything else in the closet smell like a horrible armpitfootasshole? ploots fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 00:58
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turevidar posted:The approach to trail maintenance in the Adirondacks is interesting - they barely try to divert water at all. Almost all of the trail I saw this weekend was either an active stream or rockhopping across standing water/deep mud. That's basically everywhere in the northeast. It came up months ago in this thread, but the trails in this part of the world are either legacies of logging roads/carriage roads from bygone days, or foot trails built in the 1920s/1930s "man the gently caress up the mountain face" era. When I see a trail with a switchback or proper water diversion, I stop and gape at it. Gorgeous pictures! I wanted to get up Marcy this summer but I'm not in shape for it. Maybe next summer. Edit: It's blurry, but it's one of my best examples of a trail BEING the stream, July 2013 in the Catskills. 
Time Cowboy fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 02:15
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 Tried to head up to Jasper yesterday for some astrophotography and a short hike, took the high elevation highway and nearly drove off several cliffs after losing control multiple times in a full on blizzard. We nearly gave up trying to get anywhere after struggling with tire chains that were actually the wrong size, and were starting to prepare to spend the night in the car on the side of a mountain in below freezing temperatures, hoping our car wouldn't end up sliding down the slope. We eventually decided to try and turn around, nearly ended up in a 6 foot ditch, and just went home. Got in at after midnight, but did get to see some Northern Lights on the way home.I think I spent a good 4 hours white knuckled in abject terror on that loving road. The Icefields Parkway is one of the most amazing places on Earth, but drat can it ever scare the poo poo out of you when conditions are ugly. It was breathtaking beautiful, before we hit the storm. 
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Oct 27, 2014 05:30
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No offense but it's a good idea to test/practice your safety gear before you actually need it.
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Oct 27, 2014 11:09
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Yeah, and we should have assumed a forecast of rain actually meant snow. It is October in the Rockies. Next time I'll find out what elevation snow line is at before heading out on that road.
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Oct 27, 2014 15:53
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Picnic Princess posted:Next time I'll find out what elevation snow line is at before heading out on that road.
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Oct 27, 2014 15:56
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Alright need to do this next summer http://www.adventurealan.com/WRHR/
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Oct 27, 2014 16:05
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I'm heading to Kauai to backpack the Nepali coast in about three weeks and I haven't hiked more than a couple miles in a few months. It'll be around 40 miles over three days, so it's going to be awesome and terrible at the same time. I'm loading my pack tonight to make sure I don't overlook anything, and I'm going to load it up and walk to the gym with it in the morning for the next few weeks. That should at least get me used to the weight on my back. Getting new shoes tonight too, three weeks should be plenty of break in time if I'm using them every day! I expect it to rain off and on while we're hiking so I ordered a packable rain coat, and I have a pack cover. Has anyone done any hiking on Kauai? Any tips?
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Oct 27, 2014 19:28
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Astonishing Wang posted:Getting new shoes tonight too, three weeks should be plenty of break in time if I'm using them every day! I expect it to rain off and on while we're hiking so I ordered a packable rain coat, and I have a pack cover. Has anyone done any hiking on Kauai? Any tips? Rain pants are good too - make sure to pick out a pair with zippers at the bottom so you can get them on quickly without taking off your shoes. I've been let down by pack covers in the past. Now I keep my clothes, bag, and shelter inside of a trash compactor bag in my pack. It works great and is tough enough that you can use it for several trips.
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Oct 27, 2014 20:05
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I went backpacking in Waimea Canyon and did the Nepali Coast Trail in April of this year. Really fun. Rained on and off but it was still pretty warm and I preferred to just get wet and let the sun dry me off. If I had used anything it probably would have been a backpacker's poncho to keep my pack dry and still have a lot of breathability. The trails get really muddy but it's beautiful hiking. What are the 40 miles of backpacking you're doing out there?
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Oct 27, 2014 21:12
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turevidar posted:Rain pants are good too - make sure to pick out a pair with zippers at the bottom so you can get them on quickly without taking off your shoes. randoark posted:I went backpacking in Waimea Canyon and did the Nepali Coast Trail in April of this year. Really fun. Rained on and off but it was still pretty warm and I preferred to just get wet and let the sun dry me off. If I had used anything it probably would have been a backpacker's poncho to keep my pack dry and still have a lot of breathability. The trails get really muddy but it's beautiful hiking. I'm pretty sure this (Kalalau Trail) is what we're doing. My gf planned the whole thing and I usually just tag along and get blown away when we get there because I haven't even looked at pictures.
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Oct 27, 2014 21:24
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I was at REI last night with an arm-full of food, and decided to try online to save some money. I ended up spending about $80 on mountain house meals at Amazon. I managed to get two of the best-seller packs in damaged boxes, for $33 and $35 each, then I added a couple singles to make sure every meal for two people for three days was covered: 1x Biscuits and Gravy 2x Fire roasted veggies 2x Beef Stew 2x Beef Stroganoff 2x Chicken Teriyaki 2x Lasagna with beef 2x Scrambled eggs with ham 2x Raspberry Crumble That comes out to about $5.30/pack, which is WAY better than I would've done at REI. Have any of you fine folks been able to do better than that on freeze-dried meals, short of making it yourself?
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Oct 28, 2014 17:59
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Astonishing Wang posted:
The desserts and breakfasts are artificially lowering the apparent price-per. But yeah, anything less than 6.00 apiece is good if you aren't getting the cheapest rice & beans meals. I think Backpackers' Pantry has one veggie meal for 5.50 and the next lowest is 6.50.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:04
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I got myself a Osprey Talon 33 for my day hikes and is very happy with it. My question is if the bag will be enough for me to try overnight (only 1 night) hikes. I don't want to have to get another bag when i am far from sure overnight hikes is something for me.
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Oct 28, 2014 20:45
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Astonishing Wang posted:I was at REI last night with an arm-full of food, and decided to try online to save some money. I'm not sure of your experience but have you tried this stuff before or is there a specific reason you are going for all freeze dried meals? They can be convenient but they aren't cheap and they don't always taste great. I really like the beef stroganoff, mac and cheese, chicken fajitas, apple cobbler, and blueberry granola in milk. I'm not going to lie but some of them have been tough to swallow, others went down with ease. Look up and read the reviews for each of the meals. When in doubt, give them more time than you think they need to hydrate. My biggest things to look at are how easy they are to prepare. Some of them require cooking covered for XX minutes, letting sit for a while, cooking on low heat (impossible on a lot of camp stoves), using two pots etc. I remember some of the desserts being overly complicated and we ended up just not eating them. For that reason, I've been going with more grocery store foods. It tends to be easier to eat, tastes familiar, and you can get a bunch of different stuff to mix together and experiment. Tortillas, bricks of cheese, pita bread, peanut butter, honey granola, cereal, nuts, instant potatoes, instant pancakes, instant stuffing, Ramen, etc. Pouches of chicken for protein as well as jerky. And get a few different kinds of jerky. After a while it gets really boring only eating one flavor. Remove everything from its packaging and toss into ziplock bags with the instructions/name written on the outside so that it packs up small and has less waste. I also really like red beans and rice as a meal. Rice is super easy, the red beans require a spice blend which you can pre mix and put into a baggie. Combine when you want to cook and enjoy the extra warmth in your sleeping bag later that night. The mountainhouse/backpackers pantry version just wasn't the same as regular red beans and rice. Seriously though, mashed potatoes and stuffing are like loving heaven on one of the last days of a trip.
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Oct 28, 2014 21:32
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Verman posted:Seriously though, mashed potatoes and stuffing are like loving heaven on one of the last days of a trip. Downside being you have to eat quite a bit of volume to get enough calories and stuffing takes up a whole lot of space if you're already short on it
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Oct 28, 2014 22:32
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Verman posted:I'm not sure of your experience but have you tried this stuff before or is there a specific reason you are going for all freeze dried meals? I think I've probably tried all of the types of Mountain House meals by now. I really like most of them, but almost everything tastes awesome after a long day of hiking! I'm using a tiny folding stove and esbit tablets, just to save weight over the jetboil. We buy the freeze dried stuff just because it's so much lighter than real food. Thanks for the awesome recommendations!
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Oct 28, 2014 22:42
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22 Days on the Grand Canyon - two devices I want to keep functional. Iphone 5 - recommend a waterproof case that I can take decent pics through - plan on running in airplane mode for photos - on hopefully around 8hr a day Little cheap mp3 player - I can't sleep without dumb music/podcasts in my ears - very low power requirement as it has a sleep mode. I'm thinking of recharging these devices with a AA/AAA based charger. Will I need a shitload of them to keep these things alive? Don't want to fuss with a solar charger - too fragile/expensive. Recommend something that would work.
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Oct 29, 2014 01:13
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Verman posted:I'm not sure of your experience but have you tried this stuff before or is there a specific reason you are going for all freeze dried meals? I think I've tried almost every different Mountain House and most of the Backpacker's Pantry. They're great, super easy to cook for the most part (the most complicated I can think of is remove this oil or whatever package and add it to the pouch), and are usually pretty calorie dense. I usually pack a few on multi-day trips. Between them and candy or granola bars I can get my food down pretty light. Usually I just skip breakfast or get a late start and boil enough water for oatmeal and coffee.
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Oct 29, 2014 04:35
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I finished my Trans-Zion hike recently. Spent 4 nights and 5 days to go from the Kolob Canyons to the Eastern Rim trailhead and then took a day hike up the narrows and another day hike to all of the little side hikes in the main canyon. Was a great experience. As cool as some of the things in the main canyon like the Court of the Patriarchs and Emerald Pools were I enjoyed the backcountry hiking a lot more. Way more enjoyable to be back there immersed for hours then to fight the crowds to see something a mile away.        It was my first time hiking in a desert area. Can't say that I enjoyed the thought of being a days hike away from water. Bought an extra 2 liter bladder to carry with me between springs. Most of the western side was dry it seemed so the usable springs were pretty far out.
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Oct 29, 2014 04:43
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BaseballPCHiker posted:I finished my Trans-Zion hike recently. Spent 4 nights and 5 days to go from the Kolob Canyons to the Eastern Rim trailhead and then took a day hike up the narrows and another day hike to all of the little side hikes in the main canyon. Was a great experience. As cool as some of the things in the main canyon like the Court of the Patriarchs and Emerald Pools were I enjoyed the backcountry hiking a lot more. Way more enjoyable to be back there immersed for hours then to fight the crowds to see something a mile away. One of my favorite places on earth, thank you for sharing the photos. FYI: There is a 100 acre lot of land for sale in the kolob valley, if you have a cool 995k it can be yours. Just to be clear - I would kill for that house.
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Oct 29, 2014 04:58
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n8r posted:22 Days on the Grand Canyon - two devices I want to keep functional. For your case, get a Lifeproof. I've used one on my Galaxy S3 for over a year, have a friend with one on his Iphone 5 that performs very well, even with underwater camera operation.
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Oct 29, 2014 05:04
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n8r posted:22 Days on the Grand Canyon - two devices I want to keep functional. I know you said you didn't want to go with solar, but Goalzero's kits are pretty amazing and would suit you perfectly, a lot better than carrying a poo poo load of batteries. http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Zero-19006-Adventure-Batteries/dp/B004OHIYLW
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Oct 29, 2014 05:08
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Definitely not spending $120 to charge a phone. Upon doing some more research AA batteries don't charge a phone enough to be efficient at all. I've got an older cheap digital camera that uses two AA batteries, I'll just use that without a waterproof case and toss it into a little pelican case I have. I'll prob just use a AA charger to charge my little mp3 player as it doesn't take much juice.
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Oct 29, 2014 05:16
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n8r posted:Definitely not spending $120 to charge a phone. Upon doing some more research AA batteries don't charge a phone enough to be efficient at all. I've got an older cheap digital camera that uses two AA batteries, I'll just use that without a waterproof case and toss it into a little pelican case I have. I'll prob just use a AA charger to charge my little mp3 player as it doesn't take much juice. I bought a 10400mah USB charger to take on trips like that. It was about $20 on amazon, I'll link it tomorrow if anyone wants. You charge it fully at home and can use it 3-4 time to recharge the phone. They make bigger ones too, but they get heavy quick.
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Oct 29, 2014 05:32
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Astonishing Wang posted:I bought a 10400mah USB charger to take on trips like that. It was about $20 on amazon, I'll link it tomorrow if anyone wants. You charge it fully at home and can use it 3-4 time to recharge the phone. They make bigger ones too, but they get heavy quick. The Wirecutter has a couple of guides on the same subject: * http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-solar-battery-pack/ * http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-battery-pack-travel/ Personally though, I find that phone on flight mode (usually still allows GPS use) and a big battery keeps it available all weekend.
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Oct 29, 2014 05:53
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Heners_UK posted:The Wirecutter has a couple of guides on the same subject: Yeah, I've got the RAV Power one they have listed as a runner up... great battery for like 1/4 the price of a mophie at the apple store. I particularly appreciate that is has 1a and 2a ports so I can charge an ipad pretty quickly with it or an iphone even faster. I take this with me on flights now and will be taking it with me on weekend camping trips and such.
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Oct 29, 2014 18:29
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Just picked up an enlightened equiptment 20* quilt to be used as my main sleep system in winter/fall/spring. Cant wait to try it out on the AT early next month
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Oct 29, 2014 19:13
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More expensive, but I've got the Zendure Gridder which is IP65 rated when closed up, so it should survive heavy rain when not in use. 8000 mAh is good for a few charges of most phones, and its a high speed charging port, so you don't need to connect up for long.
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Oct 29, 2014 20:19
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DholmbladRU posted:Just picked up an enlightened equiptment 20* quilt to be used as my main sleep system in winter/fall/spring. Cant wait to try it out on the AT early next month Where on the AT? I'm probably getting out somewhere in the Shenendoah's in a couple of weekends but I haven't decided where yet
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Oct 29, 2014 20:37
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Astonishing Wang posted:I'm pretty sure this (Kalalau Trail) is what we're doing. My gf planned the whole thing and I usually just tag along and get blown away when we get there because I haven't even looked at pictures. That's an amazing hike. Beautiful views all the way over, but the real highlight is the valley itself. If you have the option, schedule a couple of days to just hang out in the valley and go explore. There's a beautiful camping area (with a small transient local population) in a grove of trees right on the beach, a waterfall for fresh water, and if you follow the valley up you'll find swimming holes all over the place. Also, what up fellow San Diego backpacker  Levitate posted:Alright need to do this next summer I did that exact stretch as part of a much longer backpacking trip last year - basically one of the most spectacular stretches of backpacking i've ever experienced. Standing on top of Texas pass looking down into the Cirque of Towers and the hike up Knapsack Col and down into the Titcomb Lakes both took my breath away.
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Oct 29, 2014 21:04
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