Weekend hiker

Allegheny Front Trail -- Southern Section

2011-12-11T11:02:00.001-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving Chris and I set out to explore the Allegheny Front Trail. This trail is relatively close to where I live in State College and my understanding is that it is a fairly new trail.

State College itself is in the ridge-and-valley part of the appalachian mountains (some of the ridges are really sharp as I've noted in a previous post. But just to the north and west of us is the Allegheny Plateau. The boundary between these two regions is an escarpment known as the Allgheny Front. It's easily visible in google maps if you look at Terrain view. The trail is partially in the Black Moshannon State park which you can see in the map below.

View Larger Map

One thing I wasn't prepared for was that much of the plateau is upland bogs. In places there are boardwalks as you see below. But they weren't everywhere so I ended up with wet feet.

One of the reasons we decided to do the southern part of the trail is that that the trail passes near the escarpement and there are views into neighboring Bald Eagle Valley. These "views" are actually places where they have cleared the trees to allow for views. They've been given names too. Here's Chris posing by one of them.

The first day we did about 12.5 miles. Then we set up camp and had dinner. Chris was nice enough to make a hot water bottle to warm up my wet feet (he had read up about about the trail and knew enough to wear waterproof footwear). We had decided to try camping on the ground rather than doing hammocks. Below you can see me having breakfast in the morning from the sleeping bag.

On of the interesting things about this trail was how many spring we came upon. In fact our camp was just 30 feet away from a quite substantial one. You may not be able to tell from the picture but a pretty substantial flow starts from this small spring.

Despite the views and springs though I'm afraid my opinion of the southern part of the AFT is not very positive. A few years back insects destroyed a huge swath of the forest and for several miles the trail goes though this wasteland of dead trees and open areas where the dead trees have been removed and are being replaced by less desirable foliage. It's pretty bleak for several miles and just depressing. But I suppose that is the way with almost any trail of significant length. It can't all be good.

We're going to go back and do the northern part of the loop at some point. We hear it's very different from the southern section.

Comfort on Long-distance Hikes

2011-07-14T11:43:00.001-04:00

Backpacking provides many uplifting sights, sounds, and experiences. However it also brings its share of irritations and adversity which can detract from the experience if we let them. So it's important, especially on a long-distance hike, to provide enough comfort for yourself to keep your spirits high.

Meals

We don't use the term "comfort food" for nothing. Eating, and the satisfaction you get from eating, is one of the most important things one can do to maintain a happy feeling on the trail.

Sometimes hikers get obsessed with things like calorie density and getting the thousands of calories you would need to replace the calories you are burning. I, at least, can't eat that much. Thru-hikers apparently get a big appetite after a few weeks on the trail but for most people, even on a hike lasting up to a week, that's not going to happen (see a related post by SectionHiker here). I find that I eat about as much on the trail as I eat at home, perhaps just a touch more.

I think we need to worry more about WHAT we eat. Basically you are happiest if you eat very similar things to what you eat at home. On my West Rim Trail hike I brought pop-tarts for breakfast. Many hikers favor them because they pack a lot of calories. After the second day I could hardly face them. My hiking buddy Chris was eating cold cereal for breakfast with powdered milk that he mixed-up. That was really what I wanted because cereal is what I normally eat. So on my Susquehannock trail system hike I brought powdered milk and cereal and was much happier. I took some Archer Farms granola single servings like Brian recommends on his blog (tastes great and provides lots of calories) but also some stuff I just had around the house.

I also think the evening meal should be a warm meal. Won't energy bars provide as many calories without the fuss of a stove? Perhaps, but there is something nice about eating a warm meal before bed, even in the warmer seasons of the year. It's what we do at home so we should do it on the trail to keep our minds and stomachs happy.

Hygiene

Perhaps our ancestors, who went months without bathing, would not be distracted by dirt and sweat. But for us modern folks it's pretty distressing to be really dirty. Now we have to be practical here. We can't bath every day on the trail or pack clean clothes for every day. But we can do a few things to help us feel human.

Chris and I had wonderful weather on our hike. But even at 69 degrees F you are going to work up a sweat on a steep climb. It's not so much the sweat that is the problem, it's the layer of salt that builds up on your skin. That tacky feeling is unpleasant and can cause chaffing. So one thing Chris and I did frequently was to stop at a water source and take an upper-body sponge bath when we felt dirty. I used soap on my face but just plain water on the rest of my body. It's amazing what clean skin can do for your outlook on life.

I also brought along two pair of quick-drying nylon mesh underwear. So after a particularly sweaty day I could wash the one I was wearing and change into the other, letting the first pair dry. Not a big weight penalty but a big difference in happiness and comfort.

Sleep

If most of us are honest we would have to admit that it's harder to sleep in the woods than in bed. Perhaps this wasn't true when I was a kid but a good night's sleep is harder to come by as an adult. Lack of sleep makes even the nicest day in the woods a burden so we have to learn to sleep.

For one thing the woods are noisy and that can be quite a distraction when trying to sleep. I've found that a pair of foam earplugs work wonders. They don't block all sounds but they are very good at the high pitched sounds made by many insects and critters scurrying about in the leaves.

If you worry because you don't sleep well on overnight hikes then take hope. Chris taught me, and I found that it is true, that your body adapts fairly quickly. The first night won't be great but the second is better and by the third night you will find that you sleep amazingly soundly. I had brought along a book to read during sleepless hours but by that third night I was asleep within seconds of lying in the hammock.

Susquehannock Trail System Hike

2011-06-23T20:10:00.000-04:00

As you know I usually am the Weekend Hiker, in that I tend to go on overnight hiking trips. But back in January I made a New Year's resolution to do a long-distance backpacking trip this year. Well I recently accomplished that goal. My hiking buddy, Chris, and I set out to hike the entire 85 mile Susquehannock Trail System loop in six days. It turns out we had to stop early and so weren't able to complete the entire loop but it was still the longest backpacking trip I've taken since I was a teenager.

Chris and I met Monday morning, the 13th of June, at the trailhead at Ole Bull state park. The weather was perfect. The trail climbs immediately from the trailhead up to a ridge. I have written before about how many more ferns there are in Pennsylvania than in Missouri. But I had not realized the extent. Here's a shot of Chris with a carpet of ferns behind him stretching as far as the eye can see. That was pretty typical of the forest floor during much of the hike.

We picked the best week of the year to go hiking I think. The mountain laurel was in full bloom everywhere we went -- beautiful white and pink blossoms surrounded us on all sides when we were at high enough elevation. This picture doesn't do it justice but it was the best I could do.

Chris was a great hiking partner for this trail. He lives quite close to it and painted many of the trail blazes himself. He also maintains a section of the trail by himself. As we hiked along he told me the history of the area. Apparently there was very heavy logging back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The first to go were the pines. Then there was a building boom in the country which caused the loggers to go back after different species. Previously the eastern hemlock had only been valued for the tannin that could be extracted from it's bark. The hemlock in this area were hundreds of years old (as old as 800 years in many cases) and were enormous. Only a few old trees survived this mass harvest but the stumps can still be seen. In almost every valley if you look you can find the old railroad grade that had been built to carry the logs to the mill. The rails are gone but you can still see where the railroad ties were. We found several old whiskey bottles from the period. Chris also pointed out a stand of apply trees that sprung up around an old logger camp, apparently from discarded apple cores.

After the area had been clear cut it became known as "Pennsylvania's Desert". The state was able to purchase the land for little money and the forest has grown back to where it is very pleasant.

There is one "trail town" on this loop. It's the little town of Cross Fork. We stopped at the tiny general store for an ice cream.

The heavy rains this spring have had an impact on the trail. The currents in the stream had been so strong that they had carried tons of rocks downstream and pile them up in various places. You can see an example of this below.

Chris noticed some places where the stream had changed course compared to just a few weeks before as the stream had choked it's old channel with rocks.

The wet spring had a rather unpleasant side effect. The stinging nettle, which normally just grows in boggy areas of the trail, was thick everywhere. For some sections we were up to our knees in stinging nettle for a mile or more. Thank goodness for long pants.

This area is home to a great number of rattlesnakes. We only saw one on our hike but it made for a little excitement. I was in front and came upon a snake who was apparently coiled next to the trail waiting for a chipmunk to run by. I heard the rattle right next to me but couldn't see the snake because of the brush. Chris told me it was just to my left so I stepped away from it and circled back to where Chris was standing. From there I was finally able to see it. A good-sized "black phase" timber rattler, about 5 or 6 feet long. He was a well-behaved snake I must say. He gave me a good warning and then when we gave him some room he slithered across the trail (stopping to look at us and make sure we wouldn't attack him). Here's the best shot I got of him.

Notice the rather large rattle.

On the third day Chris' bad knee began acting up and we realized that we might have to adjust our plans. By the end of the day it was clear that the best strategy would be to bail out the next day. I think our total distance traveled was 50 miles or so. I had a great time. One of the things that had kept me from doing multi-day hikes before was that I was reluctant to go that long without anyone to talk to. A hiking partner make a lot of difference. Chris is a great hiking partner. He's a very experienced backpacker and a good conversationalist. I'm hoping that a doctor will be able to fix his knee so we can hike again in the future.

Backpacking in the Rain

2011-05-10T22:38:00.000-04:00

In my previous post I mentioned that we encountered a lot of rain, both during the day and at night. I've only encountered heavy rains during a hiking trip a few times. I thought I'd summarize what I've learned so far about what works and what doesn't. Keep in mind that this only relates to heavy rain. If you are expecting a lot of drizzle then what I say below won't apply.

Silnylon Tarps and Shelters

When you first venture into ultralight backpacking you soon encounter a fabric called silnylon. It's a ripstop nylon that has been impregnated with silicone. Lightweight tarps are made of the stuff as are many single-walled shelters. It's great stuff because it's lightweight and mostly waterproof. By this I mean that with enough force water will be able to penetrate the fabric. In a driving rainstorm you experience this as "misting": fine droplets of water that splatter on you. If the intensity of the rain lasts for a while then you and your stuff will get damp. I've experienced this on a few occasions and this was one of them.

Gatewood Cape

The Six Moon Designs Gatewood Cape is a really neat piece of gear. It's made of silnylon and so misting can be (and was for me) a problem. But it's only 11 ounces for rain gear AND shelter and so it is something of an ultralighter's dream. The more you look at it the more you are impressed with the design. A lot of good thought has gone into it. It sets up with a trekking pole and six stakes. Setting it up takes some practice. Chris had to help me each time.

Gatewood Cape (downloaded from backpackinglight.com)

My Poncho and Bivy

I've used a poncho and bivy (a rather common combination) which means that your poncho is raingear and half your shelter. You need the bivy because of possible splatter getting on you. But bivy sacks are not weightless. The idea of the Gatewood cape is to eliminate the need for the bivy. In my experience this is only partially true. The cape does provide 360 degree protection but is quite small if you pitch it close to the ground (even for me at only 5'5" tall). The usual thing is to pitch it with a gap of several inches at the bottom. This left me exposed to windblown rain on the first night. The second night I was able to guess the direction of the weather and pitch one side down. This would be a great piece of gear for when you thought rain was possible but that a storm would be unlikely.

Rainwear

The Gatewood cape or a poncho is rainwear and shelter. However cool this seems it does raise some problems. Chris had brought separate rainwear and so the second evening I had just barely finished eating when a storm rolled in so I had to huddle inside. Chris strolled by and offered to hang my bear bag for me. If he hadn't done that I don't know what I would have done. You can't leave your shelter during the rain if you go this route. I recommend bringing a pee bottle with you if you try this -- worked well for me (I doubt it would work so well for the ladies).

Even with a poncho or cape I would bring a hat. The hoods on ponchos make your head and neck sweaty.

The other way to go is to get a rain jacket and perhaps rain pants. The problem is that your body produces moisture while you hike and if you are inside waterproof clothing you get pretty sticky. Breathable raingear is a must. The most breathable and least expensive is DriDucks. They are not super durable though. But for $20 you can afford to replace them often. I don't think I would recommend wearing rain pants, whatever the brand. My legs got really wet from the mountain laurel bushes that crowded the hiking paths even when it wasn't raining. Rainpants might snag in such situations. But my nylon hiking pants dried quickly so I didn't care if they got wet.

Synthetic Insulation

Backpackers are fond of down as an insulation. It's amazingly warm for it's weight and packs down small. However it can't stand a wetting. My modified winter quilt uses high quality down as insulation and since I use it in the cold weather (below freezing) I've never really had a problem with it getting wet. For warmer weather I use a quilt my wife made me using Climashield XP synthetic insulation. It's not as warm per ounce as down and doesn't compress as well but it works great in wet conditions. During the night on this recent hike the outside of my quilt took the brunt of the misting and got pretty wet. However I stayed warm inside. In the morning the quilt dried quickly. Down quilts don't insulate when wet and don't dry quickly if they get wet. For spring hikes I think synthetic insulation is a must.

At this point I should insert another trick that I had heard about but never had to try. In the evening my clothing was wet (especially my pants). I didn't bring extra dry clothing because I wanted to try this trick. Just go to bed wet. The heat from your body dries your clothes at night, provided the moisture can escape (wouldn't work if you were in a bivy that wasn't very breathable). This worked well for me. So I went to bed with wet clothes under a somewhat wet quilt and woke up mostly dry. Cool huh?

Footwear

There were lots of creek crossings as you can imagine on this trip. But when hiking in heavy rain the trail itself turns into a creek so your feet are constantly wet. My hiking companions wore waterproof Gore-Tex boots but found they still had wet feet by the end of the day. The first day I felt smug with my sandals and Sealskinz socks. I could cross creek and hike through water all day and no water would get in. When the rain stopped I took them off and just wore liner socks with my sandals. So my feet were cool while my companions had hot, sweaty feet. I've used this strategy before successfully. But this time I ran into a problem. The second day the sealskinz socks were still wet from the day before, both inside and out. I think the issue is that the membrane inside is somewhat breathable and the heat from your feet allows sweat to pass from inside to outside. When the sock is off there is no temperature differential and so moisture seems to pass from outside to inside. At any rate it didn't look fun to put them back on so I just hiked in regular socks and changed them when I could. Not super fun. I think the better solution would be to continue to wear the sealskinz until they are dry outside and then take them off.

West Rim Trail Hike

2011-05-05T10:37:00.004-04:00

The day after Easter I went with a buddy from Hammockforums named Chris and a friend of his on a hike on the West Rim Trail of Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon, more correctly known as Pine Creek Gorge. The trail is 30 miles long and we decided to take it in 2 1/2 days.

Chris' friend turned out to be Curt Weinhold, a photographer from the area. If you have used guidebooks for hiking trails in Pennsylvania then you may have seen his work. If you click on PA Wilds or Nature on his page then you will see examples of his work. Some of the photo's I've posted below are actually his also.

Here's the man in the flesh, just as we began our hike, at a bridge over Pine Creek. We started at the southern end of the trail and hiked north to Ansonia, PA.

Another shot of him looking every inch the outdoorsman that he is. He has spent a lot of time in these woods. He probably knows this trail better than any many alive actually.

It was wet when we began our hike as it has been all spring. We had a lot of rain during the hike as well. That made things uncomfortable but did make for some gorgeous views of waterfalls and creeks.

There were so many gushing creeks and waterfalls that after a while we realized that if I stopped hiking to take pictures of each one we'd never make any progress.

On top of the rim I was stunned at the quantity of Mountain Laurel. Mountain Laurel is a flowering bush which is evergreen and is the state flower of Pennsylvania. Here's Carl standing on the trail with Mountain Laurel behind him.

A first for me was to see porcupines in the wild. They are actually easy to spot because they make a lot of noise as they scamper up trees to get away from you. It was fun to see but my hiking buddies tell me they are a major nuisance. While you are hiking they will often eat through the tires, brake lines, and other important parts of your vehicle. Experienced hikers put mothballs near their cars when they leave them at the trailhead. Apparently porcupines don't like the smell.

The problem with hiking a rim trail is the temptation to camp on the ridge to get nice early morning views. That left us exposed to windblown rain from the thunderstorm that raged all night. I was on the ground under a tarp rather than in a hammock so I got quite a bit of spray on my quilt during the night. In the morning we woke up to mist filling the gorge.

As the sun came up I hung my stuff out to dry and watched the mist clearing out.

The second day was sunny for most of the day but then thunderstorms came in the afternoon. Below you see me hiking in a piece of gear called a gatewood cape that Chris loaned me to try. It's like a poncho tarp but sets up into a shelter with 360 degree protection. On the right you can see it set up for our second night.

Near my cape setup you can see an ad-hoc creek forming. The ground was so waterlogged and there was so much rain falling that little creeks were forming everywhere. This one got within a few inches of flooding me out.

Here's Chris looking much drier than I was because he was in a hammock. While I enjoyed trying out the cape this hike reinforced my opinion that hammocks really are the way to go in rainy weather.

The next day provided some more great views of the gorge.

Here's me at the end of the hike. Not looking beautiful but feeling good.

Being a Radical

2011-04-23T19:48:00.002-04:00

When people make fun of ultralight backpackers they always give a particular example of radical, ridiculous, over-the-top weight-saving behavior. I know you know what it is. Cutting the handles off toothbrushes, right?

Well I always laughed at that also. Until recently when I started putting my gear together for a three-day hike on the west rim trail of the pine creek gorge. I noticed that the child's toothbrush that I take backpacking was getting pretty worn out. So I went to look for a new one. Ack! Have you seen the toothbrushes these days? They are ridiculously heavy! The plastic is needlessly thick and the handle is covered with a heavy layer of rubber. Good heavens! Why the heavy duty construction? This is for brushing teeth, not chipping away at glaciers. Even if I weren't a backpacker I would be offended at wasting that much of the earth's resources on a toothbrush.

So I've officially joined the ranks of the backpacking radicals. A few minutes with my dremel tool and the toothbrush is about the size and weight that any human really needs. On the left is the old toothbrush I'm replacing and on the right is the new radicalized toothbrush.

I'm really excited about this upcoming hike. I'm going with two other backpackers who've hiked this trail before. We are leaving early Monday morning and I'll return on Wednesday evening. I'll be sure to post some pics.

Dealing with Wet Wood

2011-03-19T15:46:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine and I are planning a long backpacking trip this summer, 70 or 80 miles in 6 days. In thinking about the logistics of taking an extended backpacking trip I began to wonder how the backcounty boiler that I reviewed in my last post might work as a stove system for the trip. It's appealing to think that I might not have to carry any fuel for my stove. Fuel planning is a bit of a stress because there's always some uncertainty about how fast you will go through your fuel. I've certainly had my fair share of accidentally spilled pots of hot water which have required me to boil again -- using twice as much fuel as I had planned for that meal. Liquid fuels can also leak or spill (although I haven't had this happen yet) leaving you with less than you might need to finish your hike.

However if you take a wood stove and plan on collecting your fuel then you must face the possibility (especially in this part of the country) of rain, perhaps for extended periods, such that the only wood you will find will be wet. I thought about carrying esbit solid fuel as a backup. Initial tests using esbit in the boiler were a bit unsatisfactory. Then it occurred to me that perhaps the best use of an esbit cube would be to dry out the wet wood. So I performed the following test to see if that strategy might work.

After having done the test I'm now wondering if I could get away with less than I cube. Also I'm wondering if there are other alternatives to use in the boiler when the wood is wet. Any thoughts?

Backcountry Boiler

2011-03-17T08:54:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty excited about a new piece of gear I just received. It's called the Backcountry Boiler and it was designed by a backpacker in Pittsburgh named Devin Montgomery. His website is here. The lightweight backpacking community has been eagerly anticipating the release of the boiler. In the first run only 100 were produced and I was able to get one of those first 100. I'm looking forward to using this on upcoming hikes.

In a later post I'd like to talk about what to do when dry wood is not available.

West German Wool Army Pants

2011-03-07T13:21:00.008-05:00

In continuing my winter gear theme I've decided to talk about pants for winter camping. Actually this is a review of a new piece of gear that I haven't really put to the test yet. I'll have to follow up some time in the future for a review of how these pants performed for me.

Back in January our local boy scout council held it's annual Klondike derby. For those who don't know what this is it's like a sled dog race where the boys are the dogs. They build sleds and pull them around a course, stopping at various stations where they must complete scouting skill-related activities. I volunteered to help at the Map&Compass station that our church congregation was in charge of. The day of the derby turned out to be one of the coldest days of the year. It was about 0F when we arrived in the morning. I was wearing two pair of long underwear under my nylon hiking pants (that I wear in all seasons). My upper body was fine because I had on many layers and a down parka. But my legs were a little cold. I mentioned it to one of my buddies who was there (who is a real outdoor expert)and he pointed out his wool pants.

Wool is great stuff as I've mentioned before. It's water and odor resistant, and has great wicking and insulating properties. Furthermore in a dense weave, such as you would have in a wool pant it is windproof. I love my merino wool tops and I've consider merino for a base layer on bottom but I had never thought about wool pants. So I set about looking for some.

The classic outdoor wool pants used to be the Malone pant made by Woolrich which is located not too far from me. However they seem not to make them any more. Or at least I couldn't find them on their website. I've found various places online where you can buy them and the going price seems to be about $90. A bit steep for a pair of pants I wasn't sure I would like.

Then I found a review of some West German wool army pants by a backpacker named pig-monkey. I hopped on eBay and soon found a pair just like he had talked about, and miraculously they were in my size. I got them for $16.

These pants are very cool. Military pants seem to be very well made. The waistband is adjustable with buttons inside and out. There are bar tacks on all the pocket seams and inside there are cloth panels over every seam as well as the crotch, waistband, and ankles.

The fly is button-up and there are lots of pockets. The knee area (from mid-thigh to mid-calf) has a double layer of wool (you can see the upper seam of the second layer in the photo to the right).

I tend to use the "cargo" aspect of my hiking pants a lot so I really like all the pockets. Each one has a button closure.

The flap on the cargo pocket is tacked down on the front so that the flap stays down even if it is unbuttoned.

Outside the cargo pocket,but still under the flap, is an extra little pocket that is just right for a small knife, or keys, or coins.

In the main compartment of the cargo pocket there are long ties to which you can tie small pieces of gear. The ties are long enough so that you can use the gear (say a knife, small flashlight, or compass) but it makes it impossible to lose by dropping. Very cool idea.

There are snaps around the ankles also so you can snap them tight to your ankles before you put your boots on. When snapped the pants can't ride up on your leg and get over the top of your boots to let snow it.

This works great with my NEOS. I had a chance to try it this morning because strangely the biggest snow of the year just arrived last night. I went out shoveling wearing these pants and was impressed with how well this feature works. In the past that has always been my problem when in deep snow.

The one thing that concerned me about these pants was that the reinforced knees seemed very stiff and made a crinkly sound when I walked. The knee area has a double layer of wool but there seemed to be some kind of papery material between the layers of wool. I opened up the bottom seam and found the culprit.

I imagine these pants were made back in the 60s or 70s. This reinforcing material seems to be coated with something that has stiffened up and cracked over the years. There was a fair amount of yellow dust on and around it.

Removing it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. The old reinforcing material rips easily and soon came out. I had to open one more seam to get to the part behind the cargo pocket. Here you can see the offending material after removal.

The entire procedure took only five minutes and the resulting product is quieter and more comfortable.

Pig-monkey recommends lanolizing your wool outer clothing. That will increase the water-resistance of the pants.

Although I think these are very cool pants I'm still not sure how I will like them for backpacking. They are rugged, water-resistant, and warm but they are heavy. I may decide that I would prefer a rain pant over a fleece layer on bottom. Rain pants have their own downsides. They tend not to be as utilitarian in terms of pockets and such and the danger of condensation is high compared to wool.

I'll have to do some more experimenting.

Postscript: Shortly after this post I went outside wearing the pants to make snowmen with my kids. I purposely spent a lot of time on my knees in the snow to see how well the wool repels water. I was really impressed. At the end of the process I stood up and dusted off the snow and the pants were dry and my legs were warm. Pretty cool.

Winter Gloves for Backpacking

2011-02-28T20:13:00.003-05:00

There is no gear choice more agonizing to backpackers than choosing gloves. Most backpackers end up with many pair, none of which is totally satisfactory to them. I've recently changed my glove strategy and so far I'm cautiously optimistic.

My previous pair of gloves were glove/mittens that I picked up for cheap somewhere. Mittens are warmer than gloves but don't allow you to do anything that requires much dexterity. The idea of this system is that you get the best of both worlds. You can fold back the part of the mitten that covers your fingers. Velcro on the back of the glove holds this top part in place. When in glove mode they are fingerless.

My Old Glove/Mittens

This seems like a great idea. The problem here was that the execution wasn't that great. Notice that in either mode your thumb is still encased. It turns out to be surprisingly hard to do things like use a lighter or tie a knot while your thumb is covered.

The other weakness of this is that it isn't waterproof. The material doesn't absorb water but snow or water can easily get under the flap.

SealSkinz Waterproof Gloves

I have a pair waterproof gloves also. They are SealSkinz gloves. These gloves are completely waterproof but the inner membrane is one-way breathable. I think they are probably designed for fisherman or paddlers rather than hikers. However they are nice for spring hikes when there might be cold rain or you might have to mop the frost off your tarp in the morning. They are windproof as well of course so they keep the chill off a bit. But there is no insulating layer so if it gets down near freezing your hands will be cold.

Backpackers tend to prefer a layering system with a waterproof outer mitten and an insulating liner glove inside. If you get too warm you can use either the liner by itself or the mitt by itself. I've looked at many such models and finally found one which I think will do well: Outdoor Research Meteor Mitts. Initially I had trouble finding these because REI's site has these under women's gloves. However if you start searching for Outdoor Research mittens and then select Unisex then you find these.

Meteor Mitt liners

What's cool about these is that the liner is a glove/mitten, like my old ones. In fact these are much better because the thumb can be uncovered also. The fingers are not separated underneath like my old gloves but that was kind of a useless feature. This provides so much dexterity that I really can tie knots without getting down to bare hands.

Liners with digits exposed

The covers for fingers and thumb have little magnets in them that stick to tiny magnets on the back of the gloves to keep them out of the way. Nice touch I think. Since the liner is fleece velcro would be a pain.

The outer mitts are well designed also. The gauntlets come up quite far on your arm and can be cinched down to keep out snow. I've held them under running water and they seem to be highly water-resistant.

Meteor Mitt Shells

At the bottom of the picture the the left you can see part of a long loop of cord with a simple cord-lock. This puzzled me at first and then I realized that if I put this around my wrist I could take the mitt off and let it dangle without worrying about losing it. This means you can take off the outer layer without stopping to undo your pack. Very nice.

My one gripe -- velcro which makes the shell difficult to remove

After using these gloves on two outings this winter I have concluded there is one minor design error. The mitt and the liner stay attached to eachother due to matching strips of velcro. This makes is surprisingly hard to get the mitt off. I found myself just removing the whole thing when I needed to use my fingers. I think I'll remove this velcro. I imagine the idea was to keep you from losing the liner. But the difficulty it imposes partly negates the advantage of having a liner which allows for finger dexterity. This is an easy modification so I don't mind having to do it.

I've used these gloves in very cold temps and I would say these gloves are good down to 10 F (-12 Celcius). Below this temperature I found my fingers getting cold if I were standing still. While walking I could keep my fingers warm down to somewhere around 0 F. If you are going to spend significant time below 10 F then I would recommend something like the Black Diamond Mercury Mitten. I considered these initially but decided they were overkill for my purposes and would provide only minor dexterity.

A Winter Hang

2011-02-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I went the to a "hang", a gathering of hammock enthusiasts, in NW Pennsylvania. It was held at Moshannon State Forest near the Marion Brooks natural area at a place called "Beaver Run". Nearby we found plenty of evidence that beavers are indeed active in the area.

One of the reasons for a hang is to test your gear and to take a look at other people's gear and get ideas. When we first planned the hang it looked like it might be very cold and that worried me. Then on the day of the hang it got amazingly warm, but was forecast to be cold and gusty that night. Setting up in warm weather with melting snow all around reminded me of one of the best things about hammocking -- staying above the mud!

Here you can see my bridge hammock (with green underquilt) suspended above a slush pond that formed from my footprints while I was setting up. Because I knew it would get down to about 20F that night I added a second underquilt that my wife had recently made for me. I figured that would keep me warm. But my big concern was the wind. Gusts of 40 mph were called for and the ground was muddy so I was afraid that stakes would not hold.

Enter my new favorite piece of gear. I just got these guys for my birthday. They are REI Snow and Sand Tent Anchors; just simple squares of material with cords connecting to a common point where you tie to. They are lighter than stakes but work great in snow. The picture shows a rock but what you really do is put a bunch of snow in the center and then bury that in more snow and stamp it down. I put these on the windward side of my tarp and hoped for the best. They worked great! Didn't budge an inch and the tarp stood firm all night. In fact in the morning I had significant difficulty getting them out. I had to pound on the ice with the back of a hatchet I borrowed.

The other reason for a hang is to meet people. The people on hammockforums.net are some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. The hang was organized by medicjimr who documented the trip with this youtube video. Below are some of the other hangers.

Because Pennsylvania is colder than Missouri I'm finding I need to beef up my winter gear. In the next few posts I'll describe some of the gear I've been testing out his winter.

Enhancing the Golite Ultra 20

2010-11-04T20:27:00.000-04:00

(Note: In this post I describe a DIY project that several people online have talked about doing but I have never heard of anyone who actually did it. So I decided to share my experience.)

I have written in a previous post about my Golite Ultra 20 down quilt. This has been a good quilt for me but, as others have noted, the temperature rating of 20 degrees was optimistic. I have read that the weight of down used was about 9.5 ounces (270 grams) of high quality (800 fill power) down. The Nunatak Arc Alpinist, a very well respected down quilt, has a 20 degree temperature rating with 11 ounces of down so I do think the people at Golite went a little cheap on the fill. (Because of widespread complaints the newer version of the quilt has more down I understand. The new version doesn't have the "20" in the name and is rated a 3-season quilt.).

This hadn't bothered me very much when sleeping on the ground but in a hammock it was a problem. The reason is that on the ground I put my ccf pad inside the quilt such that it forms a U-shape inside the footbox of the quilt such that my feet don't actually touch the quilt. In the hammock I don't do that and my feet were always cold. After investigating I realized that the baffles in the footbox were only partially filled with down. Here's a picture of my hand inside the footbox. You can clearly see the shape of my finger.

So I decided to buy some down from Thru-Hiker. He sells excellent quality down (900 fill power). The smallest bag you can get has 3.1 ounces in it. Here is the bag next to the quilt.

The mission was to put the down into the quilt. My wife was surprisingly willing to take on this project. She is a very competent seamstress. The first task was too pick open some seams with a "seam ripper" tool.

Once we had made a small hole we tried several methods of inserting the down. A funnel and a pencil worked pretty well but soon we realized that we could go even faster just using our fingers.

For those unfamiliar with the terminology of down sleeping bags and quilts you need to know that inside the quilt are "baffles" made of very fine mesh material. This keeps the down from shifting around too much and leaving cold spots. The areas between baffles, where the down is, are called "chambers". Most of the apparent "seams" you see in a down quilt aren't seams at all. They are just where you see the stitching that holds the baffles to the shell material of the quilt.

We filled the two chambers at the foot end (the part with black fabric) with extra down and then turned to the very bottom of the quilt, where the soles of you feet touch. This was somewhat laborious because there are three small chambers down there.

The quilt was definitely underfilled before. But I worried a bit about putting too much down in each chamber. At the foot end we certainly got close to doing that. If you overstuff the chambers then the down will not be able to fully loft and the insulating value of the down will be compromised. But afterward as I compare the feel of it to well-constructed winter down bags (such as those sold by Western Mountaineering) that I have handled it seems comparable.

The foot end was certainly the high priority. But after stuffing those chambers as full as we dared we still had at least half the down left. So we decided to continue on up the quilt and fill in the chambers that go across the body. This is made a little more difficult than you might think by one of the nice features of the Golite Ultra 20. Many quilts and bags have baffles only running across the body. But of course this means the down can shift to either side of you. The Golite Ultra 20 has additional baffles that run the length of the quilt and keep the down on top of you. This means that we couldn't open the seems at the very edge of the quilt and have access to those important top chambers. So we picked apart the seams where the lengthwise baffles meet the horizontal baffles.

The result is very nice looking. Because of the comparative emptiness of the quilt beforehand the "enhanced" quilt looks like the chambers are full without being overly full.

Inside the quilt feels positively luxurious. The material that Golite uses is very soft to the touch and now that the chambers are bulging with down your feet in particular feel like they are nestled in warmth. I'm really looking forward to trying the improved quilt this winter!

For those interested in tackling this project I will add two points.

1. Thru-hiker's down is REALLY excellent. The tufts of down are huge and fluffy and there are very few feathers to be seen. I highly recommend it. And the quantity (3 ounces) is just right for this project.

2. Working with down involves some clean up, as you can see from the pictures above. However I was surprised how easy it was. We have a Dyson, bagless vacuum cleaner and I was stunned at how well it worked. In just a few minutes the room was completely clean.

A Very Rocky Trail

2010-11-01T20:02:00.005-04:00

Last week I returned to the Mid-State trail with my brother. We intended to follow it from the Jo Hays vista trailhead to Laurel Run Road. Since I had previously hiked a few miles of this before and the trail had run more or less along the ridge and since both trailheads are located along the ridge I reasoned that the trail must follow the ridge for the whole distance. That's basically the hike we took but when I returned home I found that my copy of the Mid-State Trail guide had arrived and a quick perusal showed me that we had actually done a combination of the Mid-State trail and the Jackson trail. The Jackson trail ends at Jo Hays vista on PA26 near where the Mid-State trailhead is so I guess it's an easy mistake to make.

The Jackson trail is extremely rocky. It follows the ridge of the mountain even when that ridge becomes very sharp and so rocky that no trees will grow. But this means that there are spectacular views of the surrounding valleys. Here are some photos to give you an idea.

There was very little elevation gain or loss on this trip. But as you can imagine the hiking was hard because the ground was so rocky. Afterward my ankles were sore from being twisted at each step.

It was a beautiful hike and we really enjoyed it. When it got dark we stopped for dinner. I was reminded how much I enjoy my DIY woodgas stove. If you haven't made one yet then you really should. You can follow the directions I give in the link above. This time of year it's one of my favorite pieces of gear. It's just so simple and reliable. A full load (about a handful) of twigs boil about 2.5 to 3 cups of water just perfectly. We fired it up three times that evening. The first time was to make some chili mac for dinner and then later (since we were still hungry) we made some Ramen. Then as it got late we made a big batch of hot cocoa. I didn't use a lighter or matches this time. I found that vaseline soaked cotton ball could be easily lit with a firesteel striker.

Since I hadn't been out for a while I was really struck with how much I enjoy being out in the woods. The beauty of nature is soothing to the soul.

Rothrock Forest, First Looks

2010-09-19T21:23:00.011-04:00

When I first considered moving to Pennsylvania I wondered about hiking on the Appalachian Trail. But then my wife read in a book that hikers consider the Pennsylvania section of the AT to be their least favorite section. Apparently the reason is that the trail misses some of the prettiest parts of the state. So I did a little research and found that the Great Eastern Trail, which parallels the AT for much of its length, runs right through State College and was more carefully designed to hit the nicer areas of Pennsylvania. In fact the Pennsylvania section of the GET was the first section finished and it's called the Mid-State Trail. Ever since then I've been interested to find out where this trail starts and do some miles on it.

I have learned most of what I know about hikes in this area from the website PAhikes.com. The site is apparently run by someone here in State College. From this site I learned that the MST is not the only trail nearby. The nearby Rothrock State Forest is crisscrossed with many trails. Below is a topographical map of the forest near State College.

View Larger Map

On Saturday I followed some directions from PAhikes.com and found the MST. If you look at the northeast quadrant of the map you will see a road called Laurel Run Road. I followed this road up the mountain to where it crosses anther road called Little Shingleton Road. This road is not really a road as it has a gate. I parked my car at the gate. The MST is marked with orange blazes on the trees and follows this road for a hundred yards or so before forking off.

Last post I mentioned the differences in the foliage I have noticed. In the picture you can see one of the main differences along the side of the road -- ferns. There are ferns in the Ozarks but here the numbers and density of the ferns is really impressive. Here's another patch of ferns further on.

After 100 yards or so the MST forks off to run along the ridge of the mountain. The trail is rocky but the hiking is easy because there are no ups and down. Occasionally there are nice views of the valley far below and the next ridge. This picture doesn't really capture the view but it was the best I could do.

I followed the trail for a mile or so and then came this intersection.

Rather than continuing on the MST I took a side trail called the Sand Spring trail. which heads down the mountain. It's very steep in this direction. I found myself huffing and puffing on the way back up. I then continued on the MST until I came to the highest point on the mountain (you can see it in the map). At that point I returned back to my car.

In short I'm enthusiastic. I plan to return for a hike in this location and spend a day or two along the MST -- the first of many I hope!

Mount Nittany

2010-09-18T21:57:00.005-04:00

Since settling down here in State College, PA I haven't yet taken an opportunity for an overnight trip. But I have spent some time examining the territory. It's beautiful country around here for anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

State College is nestled in the Allegheny mountains of central Pennsylvania. Because it's such a small town you really feel close to the woods. Biking around town I notice that it smells like being out in the woods. My house is right near a forested area. In fact I'm surrounded by trees on 3 sides. At the bottom of the hill my house is located on is a creek called Spring Creek where the local kids go to play in the water on warm days. On the other side of Spring Creek rises Mount Nittany, the largest mountain in the area.

Recently we took a little hike up Mount Nittany. The trailhead is just a mile from my house. There are many trails on the mountain and some fine views of the town from the top.

I'm trying to figure out what is different about Pennsylvania as compared with the hardwood forests of the Ozarks. In some ways it is very similar. But there are differences that I can't quite put my finger on yet. Some of it has to do with the plants. The trees seem to grow taller here and the undergrowth is entirely different.

The topography is also different. The hills aren't that much bigger than they are in the Ozarks but they seem bigger. That's because of the way they are shaped. Imagine laying a hand towel flat on a countertop and putting your hands down on the towel about 6 inches apart. Now if you were to slide one hand toward another folds would rise up between your hands. That's how the mountains around here look. They are quite steep on the sides and very long, just like the ground had been folded.

Hikers often talk about how rocky Pennsylvania is and I was curious to see for myself. It certainly is very rocky. There are few places where the trail is smooth. There aren't that many very large boulders or very small stones either. Either would make the hiking a little easier. Most of the rocks you see scattered about are about the size of a typical desktop printer.

I talked to a geologist who told me that we have an inverted topography here. The stones are sandstone from some ancient ocean shore that has been raised up to become the surrounding mountains.

I'll write more soon about some other areas I've explored.

Missouri Hiking Gems

2010-08-09T15:35:00.005-04:00

Recently I blogged about my remembrances of the Ozark Trail. The OT takes in some of the nicest spots in the state. But of course there are some great hikes that aren't on the OT. Some of these I have hiked and I thought I should mention them. Especially since one of them turned out to be my favorite spot to hike in all of Missouri.

Last post I mentioned Bell Mountain and Council Bluff lake. These aren't on the OT per se but are both loop trails that intersect the OT. So I count them as part of the OT. I'm going to talk about places that aren't on the OT.

The other thing I will exclude is the Katy Trail. Some people do hike this I understand but it's really for biking. This is a MUST DO if you are in Missouri. It's just spectacular! But I'm going to only consider hiking spots in this post.

I'll rank three such hikes according to how beautiful the hike is. They are all good but not equal in my mind.

Bronze Medal
Sam A. Baker State Park
Some may say that the Mudlick trail in Sam A Baker State Park should be included as a loop trail that intersects the OT because the Wappapello section dead ends into it. However I've never hiked the Wappapello section and so I didn't count it as part of the OT. This park is mostly for people who want to get away from it all and rent a cabin for a few days. There are many cabins in the park near the River. There's even a little convenience store that's open in season. I went in the winter so I had the park to myself. The Mudlick trail goes around the park and is about 15 miles long. If you start at the trailhead and hike counterclockwise then you soon come to the two best spots along the trail. The first is a great bluff view. Here it is in the morning in winter.

The great thing about this bluff view is that you can camp right there in a stone 3-walled shelter -- the only place in Missouri that I'm aware of where there are such shelters for hikers.

A little further on is Mudlick hollow. This hollow has waterfalls and cascades and is really gorgeous. A photo opportunity in any season I would think.

The reason this trail only gets the Bronze is that these two spots are within the first 2 miles of the trailhead. The rest of the hike is pleasant but not spectacular.

Silver Medal
Big Piney Trail -- Paddy Creek Wilderness
The Paddy Creek Wilderness is in Southcentral Missouri, just South of Fort Leonard Wood. It starts at Roby Lake near the town of Roby.

I'm not sure what it is about this place. I just found that I kept going back to it in my mind months after I'd hiked it. The creeks are great and the forest is beautiful. I went right after a big storm so many trees were down and the creeks were running very high (crossing Paddy Creek itself was a challenge, I was wet up to my hips) but I still loved it. The highlight of the hike is the canyon in the middle of the loop trail. The views from the bluffs are incredible and you can camp right at the top if you like.

This is really a first class hike all around. It might have won the gold if it weren't that the competition was so incredible.

Gold Medal Winner
Hawn State Park -- Whispering Pine Trail

I didn't discover this park until quite late. But it's actually one of the closest to St Louis. The camping area near Pickle Creek is full of RVs in season. But you get good solitude on the trail. There are great backcountry camp spots along the trail also. The forest has more pine than most forests in the Ozarks and I think that adds to the beauty. There are two creeks that border this park and both are unusually beautiful. Words don't really suffice so I'll let pictures do the talking for me.

The trail also hits some high spots and from the boulder-strewn peaks you get great views of the surrounding country.

And there are great bluffs overlooking the creeks which provide great pictures from either the top or the bottom.

If someone could only go on one hike in Missouri I'd recommend this one!

Ozark Trail Retrospective

2010-07-20T20:13:00.028-04:00

Now that I've moved to Pennsylvania I thought it would be a good time for a retrospective of the Ozark Trail. I didn't finish the trail but I've seen a good bit of it.

I've put my hiking history along the OT in a google map. Interestingly I couldn't embed it in this post (can't figure out why). But if you click here it will take you to the google map (best to open it in a new window so you can flip back and forth between my descriptions and the map). I've colored the various sections of the trail differently and put in some notes about when I did each section. Below I will review each section briefly.

Courtois Section
This is the northernmost section of the OT (colored in purple on my map). This is a beautiful section of the trail. About 5 miles in (from the north) you meet the Courtois creek. The trail runs between the creek and a bluff for a mile or so. This is one of the prettiest parts of the entire OT I think. Across the creek is a very high bluff. After crossing the creek the trail climbs this bluff to an area called "the Narrows" where you can see both the Courtois and Huzzah creeks (but the view will be obscured in summer by leaves). Great views here. The rest of the trail is also very pleasant. I only completed this section down to Hwy 8, near the Berryman campground.

Trace Creek
The Trace Creek section is the next section south (red/orange on my map). This section is quite pleasant though not spectacular. There are nice creeks and woods and the trail is not difficult. The highlight of this trail in my mind is really a side trail that comes off of it that is not officially part of the OT. Near the southern end of my map (I only did the northern part of this section) you come to Council Bluff lake. There is a trail that goes around this lake that is just gorgeous.

Middle Fork
Near the end of the northern part of the Trace Creek section is the beginning of the Middle Fork section(colored brown in my map). I really love this section. It has more creeks per mile than any other section which makes for a really pretty trip. It also has Barton Fen.

Taum Sauk
To the right in my map you see some blue trails which don't appear to be part of the OT thru-trail. This is the Taum Sauk Section. Eventually there will be a large loop in the middle of the OT and the Taum Sauk section is part of this incomplete loop. The Taum Sauk section was partially destroyed by a flood and the middle part was closed while I was living in Missouri. But the east and west parts were great hikes. The eastern section takes you from Ketcherside Mountain to the top of Taum Sauk mountain (the highest point in Missouri) and then down past Mina Sauk falls (the highest waterfall in Missouri) to a rock formation called Devil's Tollgate. This part of the trail is quite challenging because it is so steep and rocky. But the rocks are very red in color which makes for striking scenery.

The western part is also very nice. There are many very large glades in this section that offer nice views of the surrounding mountains. Most people though would say that the highlight of this section is a side trail which goes to the top of Bell Mountain. Many people consider this to be the nicest hike in the state.

Karkaghne
Continuing south from the Middle fork you come to the Karkagne section (sort of purple/brown in the map). This section was heavily damaged in the storms but is now mostly open. This section has some very nice parts and some less nice parts. The northern part of Karkaghne is nicer than the southern part IMHO. The crossing of the Bee Fork has a gravel bar which I think is the nicest camping spot along the entire trail. The Sutton Bluff area is the most scenic part of this trip and well worth seeing.

Blair Creek
This section (dark green on the map) follows Blair Creek for much of the way but it's southern portion is along the Current River. The Bluffs at Owls Bend, near the southern end, provide the best bluff view anywhere along the trail. The northern section of this trail is less interesting. Although part of that may be because I got lost and ended up walking along dirt roads.

Current River
I would dearly have loved to finish this section. As it is I completed two hikes to some of the most picturesque spots on this section. You can see these two chunks in red on the map. The northern chunk is the trip I took to Klepzig mill. This old mill raceway by a shut-in creek is a must-see spot I think. And the hike there from the north is lovely with many nice river views and fields of flowers.

The southern chunk is from my trip to Rocky falls (a brief side trail takes you to the falls from the main trail). This short hike may be my favorite of all. The whole place smells of hickory, which I love. The glade on top of Stegall Mountain provides great views of the Ozarks. And the falls themselves are beautiful with a wonderful swimming hole at the bottom.

Eleven Point
Near the bottom of the map is a blue line that runs nearly east-west. This is my float trip along the eleven point river. Some people might say I wimped out in this section because I floated the river rather than hiking the trail. But the trail runs right next to the river for quite a ways and my float covered the entire length of the trail. This was a great float. The springs along the river are a real treat and the many bluffs are gorgeous. This river is not as popular to float as the Current or Jacks Fork river so you can get some solitude.

In between the Current section and the Eleven Point section is the biggest gap. I never got a chance to do the aptly named "Between the Rivers" section.

There are several orphan sections of the trail -- sections which don't currently connect to any other section but will eventually connect to form a large loop. Of these I've only hiked Marble Creek (not on the map I'm afraid). The others are Wappapello, Victory, and North Fork. I've never hiked these but perhaps someday I will.

Lots of great memories. Some of my hikes have been nicer than others. But I can honestly say that I've had great experiences on every hike and seen things I would hate to have missed. It would be impossible to pick a favorite section. If you've never been on the OT then you need to make it a priority in your life and see the beauty of the Ozarks!

Pushing it at Blair Creek

2010-06-28T15:01:00.023-04:00

On June 14th and 15th I hiked the Blair Creek section of the OT. As the name suggests the trail follows Blair creek for much of it's length.

One of the great things about hiking near a good water source in the summer in Missouri is that you can travel very light. No need to carry a sleeping bag or under-insulation for a hammock and no need to pack in lots of water. That means you can do a lot of miles in a day. On this hike I pushed that hypothesis to the limit.

Below you can see a map of my trip. I hiked the entire Blair Creek section from south to north. At the north end it connects with the Karkaghne section I did back in May. At the south end it connects to the Current River section and was where I started on my Klepzig Mill hike. Since the trail was a point-to-point trail I decided to hike one way and bike back. I nearly bit off more than I could chew with that decision it turned out.

View Blair Creek Section Hike in a larger map
The beginning part of the hike is spectacular. I started late one evening, intending to get just a mile or two in before setting up camp. It was warm and humid and kind of magical because in the dusk I was surrounded with fireflies, blinking all around me. The trail rises steeply and I could see nice views of the river below. Then I came to Owl's Bend Bluff where there is a steep bluff with a great view. I decided to camp there so I could take a picture in the morning. I think it was worth it. Here is the view quite early in the morning.

After the bluffs the trail continues along the river for a bit and then heads north. It crosses a small creek called Little Blair Creek before you meet the real Blair Creek. Blair Creek in most places is 20 or so feet across and about a foot deep. The trail runs along side it for quite a ways. Here's a view of it from the trail at a point where the trail runs along a steep slope next to the creek.

Hiking in the summer in Missouri is not always pleasant. It was quite hot and I got sweaty. So as it got on towards lunch I stopped and took a bath in the creek and washed my clothes. I would have swam but the water wasn't deep enough.

A bit later I got my wish, although not in a way I would have wanted. After my bad experience at Karkaghne I decided not to risk bushwhacking. But it became necessary at one point because a large tree had fallen and blocked the path. I climbed on top of the fallen tree to look around and find the best way to rejoin the path. I was standing on what looked like a large, sturdy branch. Without warning it broke and I found myself on the ground in the midst of the branches of the fallen tree. After checking for broken bones I looked around and realized I couldn't get back to the trail from where I was. I reasoned that since the trail followed the creek I could just go to the creek and wade upstream until I found the trail again. However the creek had become rather deep at this point, although I couldn't judge how deep. My backpack is mostly waterproof so I didn't worry too much about it. But I held my camera and my map in my hand as I entered the water. Soon the water was over my head and I found myself swimming. I must have looked quite the fool swimming up the creek with my backpack on and one hand held out of the water holding my camera and map. But fortunately no one was there to see.

After 50 yards or so I was able to find a place where I could climb out and find the trail. My camera was fine but the plastic sheet protector containing my map had a few drops of water inside. Soon all the ink ran and the map became quite useless.

Shortly after this the trail crossed an open area and became quite difficult to follow. The grass and weeds were up to my armpits in areas. As a result I got some tick bites on my upper body (my legs were safe due to my pants being treated with Permethrin). On the upside there were many blackberry bushes in the field and the blackberries were ripe so I could just pick them as I hiked. That made a nice snack.

A little later I came to an area with a few caves in a small cliff. I walked up a narrow ledge along the cliff to see the caves. One of them was inhabited as you can see below!

That's the closest I've ever been to a Turkey Vulture. Notice the large egg you can see through the lower hole. I assume this cave was the mother vulture's nest and she was guarding her egg. I took this picture and then retreated, not wanting a territory dispute with a vulture.

The northern part of the trail is much less interesting. After it leaves the Blair Creek it runs right next to county roads for a few miles. It was hot at this point and I began to run out of water. I had stashed about 1.5 liters of water with my bike so I decided I'd have to skip the second night of camping I had planned and go all the way to my bike. I arrived before sunset and drank about half the water I had stashed. Then I hopped on the bike and began to ride back to my car. The hike had been about 25 miles and the bike ride was about 32 miles. As it began to get dark I realized this wasn't the best idea I had ever had. After about 15 miles of biking I couldn't go on any more. It was nearly dark at this point. I laid down on the side of the road and considered my options. I was tired and hungry. There was no place to camp since I was biking through farm country. I needed more calories to keep biking but since my food was dry that would require drinking the rest of my water (only 1/2 liter at this point). I elected to try and refuel and make it to my car where I had another liter of water. After eating some snacks and drinking all my water I got back on the bike. The next hour and a half are mostly a blur in my memory. The road had lots of ups and downs. For some of the ups I had to get off and walk because I was too weak to bike. I arrived at my car at about 11:15 pm, grateful to be alive. I felt similar to when I finished running a marathon a few years back. The difference was that I had trained for the marathon!

Lesson learned.

Car Camping at Marble Creek

2010-06-13T23:35:00.011-04:00

I don't always go hiking when I camp. Sometimes when I bring one of the kids along we either hike just short ways or just camp right next to the car. This past weekend was one of the latter opportunities.

My three oldest daughters spent the week at "Girls Camp" which is a program the church runs every year for girls between 12 and 18. Natalie just turned 12 recently and so was able to go. We persuaded our oldest, Kimberly, to go again (she doesn't care for camping) so all three of them were there together and had a great time.

On Saturday morning I was supposed to go early to pick them up. So I decided to spend the night before the same area I did last year, Marble Creek. Last year I hiked the trail from the Marble Creek campground to Crane Lake. It was a hard hike because there were so many trees down but I remember it fondly. But I was disappointed that I spent so little time at Marble Creek itself. So this time I took my son, Hyrum, and we spent the night at the campground there. We hung our hammocks from trees near the car.

The creek itself is beautiful. The water has worn away all the soil, exposing the rhyolite bones of the area. Rhyolite tends to crack in straight lines, leaving square blocks or stair steps. So the creek looks as though some giant child has spilled their set of building blocks into the water.

Between these large, square boulders are many nice little pools. In the morning Hyrum and I went for a swim in one. Well probably more of a bath than a swim. But it was fun anyway. It's a great place to go splash around on a hot summer's day.

We hiked a bit upstream to where we could see a waterfall. We found that a dam had a been built at some point, possibly for an old mill that no longer exists, and the water fall was really water spilling over this old dam.

I recommend that if you are coming to hike the Marble Creek section of the Ozark Trail that you spend some time here.

Karkaghne vs Me

2010-05-07T21:08:00.019-04:00

View Karkaghne Section Hike in a larger map
This past week I decided to tackle the Karkaghne section of the Ozark Trail. I hadn't heard much about it but it continues on where the Middle Fork section, which I hiked last year, leaves off. So it seemed like a good step on my quest to finish as much of the trail as possible.

Above is a Google map that describes the trip in detail (just click on the markers for my comments). The total distance appears to be 28 miles. However I made it longer by making some stupid mistakes. Mountaineers "conquer" a mountain when the climb it. The best I can say is that Karkaghne and I fought to a draw. I'll describe the blow-by-blow fight below.

I hiked south to north this time. The southern part of the trail isn't as nice as the northern part in my opinion. The trail runs along a gravel road for quite a while and that's not very pretty. In addition there are several places where people have dumped garbage right in the forest. Pretty disappointing.

My first crucial error was in choosing socks. I decided to wear running shoes rather than sandals this time and I choose some thin socks because it was going to be warm. I choose them because there were longer socks then some I had worn before and I wanted protection from ticks (treated them with Permethrin ahead of time). But they were just dress socks and did a poor job wicking moisture. So I ended up with blisters on both feet. I put some moleskin over them but still it made the rest of the journey unpleasant.
Round 1, Karkaghne

The Karkaghne section was hit pretty bad by the storm last year and there were many trees down. However sawyers have done a good job clearing the trail. But there was one section that either hadn't been cleared or had experienced more recent storm damage because the trail became nearly impassable. Bushwhacking around this blockage was harder than I thought. This section has a lot of thorny plants growing beside the trail and bushwhacking through them is very difficult and painful. I was glad to finally get past that.
Round 2, Karkagnhe

After my Klepzig Mill trip, when I was awakened more than once by little critters scurrying in the grass around me, I decided that it was time to get off the ground and "above it all" in a hammock. I also made camp on a gravel bar along the Bee Fork. It was a great place to camp and quite open so I expected not to be annoyed by any critters.

The Karkaghne section takes it's name from a mythical forest creature. That's a tidbit you learn on the Ozark Trail website. I didn't think about that much until about dusk when I was just finishing setting up camp and I heard some LARGE ANIMAL running directly toward me across the gravel bar. I summoned my loudest angry bellow (the one I save for dogs who harass me while biking). It had it's intended affect and the animal wasted no time in fleeing the scene. I did get a look at it and I think it was probably a coyote or perhaps a large dog. After that I enjoyed a campfire for a while and then slept soundly.
Round 3, Hiker

The next day the trail climbed out of the valley that the Bee Fork flows through and up to the Sutton Bluff area. I thought there was a side trail to find the bluff but I couldn't find any such thing. So I ended up bushwhacking, following my GPS. You'd think I would have learned my lesson from the bushwhack the day before. This one was even worse. The area off the trail was extremely overgrown also choked with fallen trees. A few times I was genuinely afraid I'd get stuck and never be found. After and hour or two of this I found the trail again. Then I found that the best view of the bluff was from the trail itself as you can see below. So my bushwhack was not only painful but worthless.

Round 4, Karkagnhe

At the bottom of the bluff is a campground with a river flowing through it. I stopped for a rest and a swim. The water was cold but refreshing. The swimming hole is at the base of another bluff.

Afterward I tried to find the trail again but it seemed to have disappeared. I was afraid that Karkaghne had won again. But a camper saw me and told me that he had seen OT trail blazes about a half mile down the road. He even took me there on his ATV. So I'll chalk that up as a victory, even though I needed help to do it.
Round 5, Hiker

The rest of the trip was quite nice. The trail was much better and the views were quite nice. The trail runs along high ridges and you can see the surrounding valleys quite well in places.

I ended up back at my car at about dusk. Karkaghne nearly had me a few times but I figure any time I don't give up I win.
Decision, Hiker

More Pictures of Klepzig Mill

2010-04-24T12:48:00.011-04:00

In my last entry I posted only a few pictures of my trip. Normally I'm a bit embarrassed about my photography so I don't put very many pictures in a post. But I've received some requests for more pictures of the mill so here they are.

The mill owner originally built a concrete dam across the shut-in creek (a real travesty since it's such a beautiful spot!) which forced the water down this raceway toward the mill wheel. The dam is now gone. There are just a few places where you can see residual concrete stuck to the rocks.

Since it was springtime and the leaves were out the view of the mill is somewhat obscured from the across the creek. However there is a nice photo during leaf-off time at this post by another blogger, Jeff Moore, at his blog, Missouri Backpacking

Klepzig Mill

2010-04-18T15:47:00.013-04:00

I'm continuing my quest to see the sights I've been meaning to see here in Missouri before I move to Pennsylvania. This past weekend I returned to the Current River section of the Ozark Trail to visit Klepzig Mill. I had heard that it was one of the nicest spots along the trail. It's the site of an old grist and saw mill located on a shut-in creek.

This was an out-and-back trip. The map above shows the path I took. I started at Powder Mill, where the Current River and Blair Creek section meet. Klepzig Mill is at the very bottom of the map, a distance of about 6 miles. I arrived late on Friday and hiked in the dark for about a mile or so. I slept on the ground with my poncho pitched above me. During the night it rained but I stayed dry. During the night I was awakened by some rustling in the grass as some little critter was coming toward me. I shined my light and saw a little armadillo scurry away. That's a first for me -- to see a live armadillo (as opposed to a dead one on the highway).

Spring is in full swing and the Ozarks have exploded with grass and leaves and flowers. The air was full of the scent of flowers.

The hiking was pretty easy and the weather was great.

Klepzig mill is on a shut-in creek. That means a place where a creek is confined to a narrow channels because of a large rock formation. I have a bunch of pictures but none really do the place justice. Here are the best ones.

While there I had a swim in the shut-in creek. It was cold but very refreshing.

After hiking back to my car I drove a few miles to another place I've been wanting to see: Blue Spring. It's one of many springs in Missouri but probably the most picturesque. It's apparently 310 feet from where the water comes out of the cliff up to the surface of the pool. This depth, combined with dissolved minerals in the water give the distinct color. The spring seems quite still but in fact the flow of water is significant. A good-sized creek begins it's life at this spring.

Floating the Eleven Point

2010-04-12T17:24:00.008-04:00

It turns out that I will soon be moving from Missouri to Pennsylvania. So I'm trying to see as much of the Ozarks as I can before I leave. I had never hiked the Eleven Point section of the Ozark Trail. This trail follows the Eleven Point river so I decided that rather than hiking it I would take a 2-day canoe trip down the river and camp overnight on a sand bar and see the same territory from a different perspective.

I rented a canoe from Richard's Canoe Rental. Richard moved out from St Louis in the early 70s and he and his daughter run the place. The eleven point river is not as popular a destination as the Current or Jacks Fork rivers apparently. That means that it's much less crowded although some people I know who have floated both claim that the Eleven Point is nicer.

The eleven point river is spring fed, and not just from one spring. There are many springs along the river, some of which are quite impressive and add significantly to the flow. This one is called Roaring Spring because of the sound it makes as the water rushes out from the rocks a few feet above the level of the river.

Springtime in the Ozarks is a beautiful time. I was just in time to see the bluebells in their full glory.

In the evening I pulled my canoe onto a gravelly sandbar and built a fire from drift wood (very plentiful). It was really delightful. It's early enough in the spring that the insects aren't really out and so the night was quiet. The sky was clear and the view of the stars was perfect. I fell asleep looking up at them as my fire burned down to embers.

On thing I keep forgetting is that when you are camped near a river the morning dew is pretty thick. I brought a warm synthetic quilt because I was afraid it might get cold. In the morning the quilt was quite wet on top (although I stayed dry). I'm glad I didn't bring the down quilt. When the sun came out I draped the quilt over a nearby branch and it was soon dry and ready to be packed up.

On of the great things about these Missouri rivers is the bluffs that overlook the river. I took several pictures but this was the only one that turned out the way I wanted.

I floated about 30 miles in all. From Thomasville to a boat launch called Whitten Access. I had a really nice time. I'm glad I got to experience this before I leaving this fine state.

Bald Knob

2010-01-13T21:30:00.015-05:00

Classes don't start until after the MLK holiday and I just finished some work on a paper so I decided to do a quick overnight trip. It's been very cold recently which has kept me indoors. It's warmer now and I wanted to get out and do some camping in the snow before it melts. I went back to Buford Mountain where mydaughter and went last year. I was hoping there would be significant snow on the mountain and nice views of the nearby valley blanketed in snow. I was a bit disappointed on both counts but had a nice trip anyway.

It has been so cold this past week that I figured I might be the first person to hike since the snow fell. So I was surprised to see someone else's footprints on the trail, indicating that some stouthearted soul had braved the single digit temperatures. It looked like he had brought a dog along. However after a few hundred yards the man's footprints disappeared but the dog's continued. So maybe this dog (or coyote more likely) is a hiking enthusiast. His tracks seemed to follow the trail.

I hiked up at night and camped near the top, not far from where Natalie and I had camped before. In the morning I decided to hike farther down the trail. Interestingly the coyote, or whatever it was, apparently had the same idea a few days before. So my tracks look like I took a dog along for the hike.

My goal was to hit all the peaks in the Buford Mountain Conservation Area. In particular I wanted to get to Bald Knob, a glade on top of one of the peaks, that I hoped would provide some views.

Bald Knob is a mass of large stones that looks nice in the snow, even when it's only an inch deep as on this occasion. Previous hikers have built a cairn to mark where the trail continues since you couldn't make out a trail on the glade itself. I decided not to continue around (I had a meeting in the early afternoon that I had to get back to) but just stopped for a while to enjoy the view.

The view of the nearby valley is also nice but for some reason most of the snow was gone. That really puzzled me since it hasn't been above freezing since the snow fell. But it was a nice view in any case.

NEOS Overshoes

2009-12-30T23:33:00.009-05:00

Santa Claus was good to me this year and got me a pair of NEOS Overshoes, the Adventurer model. I intend to use these this winter for backpacking.

I had been thinking about getting a pair of winter hiking boots. But I chickened out because boots are expensive considering how much snow we get here in Missouri. Also I'm not used to hiking in boots and I was concerned about getting some that felt comfortable without requiring a long break-in period.

Overshoes fit the bill because you just wear your normal hiking shoes inside.

The inside sole of the overshoe is rubberized so that your own shoes don't slip and slide inside the overshoe. This works remarkably well.

The overshoes close with a velcro strap around my calf and fasten with a strap over your foot.

Another very nice design feature is that the only opening is at the top, 15 inches from the sole, so it is waterproof. I put this to the test on my recent hike of the northern Trace Creek section of the OT. I had to ford a river that would have been REALLY cold to cross in sandals or water shoes. The overshoes worked like a charm.

When I didn't need the overshoes I collapsed them and packed them away. They collapse down quite small and weigh very little.

Recently we've been blessed with some snow here in St. Louis so I took them outside to walk around in the snow for 45 minutes or so. Not only are they well suited for this purpose in terms of keeping my feet dry but my feet were amazingly warm as well. The NEOS website was suggesting they would be comfortable down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. It was in the low teens when I was walking around and my feet were more than warm enough.

I'm looking forward to some nice hikes in the snow in these babies.

North Trace Creek

2009-12-30T23:22:00.009-05:00

On Wednesday, December 30th, I joined 3 other hikers from the motrails group for a day hike of the northern half of the Trace Creek section of the Ozark Trail. It was fun to finally be able to put a face to some of the names of people I'd met online. I was finally able to meet Danny McMurphy face to face. He is the expert on hiking trails in Missouri. His website is the go-to source for information on Missouri hiking trails.

We parked at an Unofficial parking spot off route DD near Council Bluff lake (about the half-way point of the Trace Creek section) and then shuttled up to the Hazel Creek campground and hiked south back to our cars.

I went up the night before and camped near where we left our cars so I would be sure to be on time in the morning (we were meeting at 9am). It snowed all night a very dry kind of snow. Really more like little balls of ice. I used my bivy because it's a perfect shelter for that kind of thing. I pitched my poncho over my head to keep snow out of my face.

The Trace Creek section, like the nearby Middle Fork section which I hiked last year, has many small creeks and rivers which beautify the trip. During the leaf-off time of the year there are nice views of the river valleys. The light dusting of snow added to the beauty of the woods.
One of the fun things about winter is the interesting ice formations you see on the creeks. I really can't imagine how some of them form. This one looks for all the world like "ice bats" hibernating or something.
The Ozarks is a great place to be in the winter.

Thermal Regulation

2009-12-30T23:13:00.006-05:00

I've been thinking about thermal regulation while hiking this winter. During a hike your need for insulation can change quite quickly depending on outside temperature, wind speed, humidity, and exertion. Being too cold is no fun of course but being too warm can be a problem as well because perspiration can quickly chill you once you stop hiking.

Conventional wisdom says that the right thing to do is to dress in layers and remove layers as you get warmer or put them on as you get cold. However this is a lot of trouble because it involves stopping and taking off your backpack to put away or take out a layer. To avoid this nuisance most hikers don't vary their insulation enough.

I've discovered a better solution. It turns out that most heat lost you experience is through your head and your hands. I used to take my hat and gloves off when I got warm but I ended up having to try and shove them in the pockets of my pants (which were already full from my GPS and snacks). For the past few hikes I've instead worn my Sugoi Speedster 2 hoodie. I originally bought it for winter running and biking but now I'm finding it very useful for winter hiking as well. The fabric is a full stretch, wicking, midweight base layer with fleeced inner side so it's comfortable and warm. But the best features are the hood and cuff gloves. If I'm warm I can keep the hood off and my hands bare.

When I begin to feel cold I can pull the hood up and tuck my hands inside the cuff gloves. They aren't really gloves, just a fold of fabric that encases your hands. It doesn't allow for any dexterity but this is a feature I use while hiking, not while setting up camp or cooking.

I've really been loving how easy this makes it to adjust to my changing needs for insulation while hiking. In previous posts I've sung the praises of merino wool and of course this top is synthetic. The tradeoff is that the synthetic tops have a problem with odor while wool seems impervious to body odors.

On my most recent trip to hike the Trace Creek section of the OT I made a mistake when it comes to nighttime thermal regulation. I went to bed with little insulation on my legs. When I went to Sam A Baker state park a few weeks before I had worn very good lower body insulation to bed and found that it was too much and so removed it. I had brought that same insulation with me on this trip but left it in my pack. Once I realized I was a bit cold in the night it was snowing and blowing quite hard and I didn't feel like getting out of my quilt to rummage through my pack to change so I just settled for being uncomfortable.

The lesson is that you should always wear you warmest clothes to bed. It's easy to take things off in the night but it's hard to add insulation that you didn't take to bed with you. Oh well. Lesson learned.

Sam A Baker State Park

2009-12-18T11:32:00.009-05:00

View Mudlick Trail in a larger map

After I had graded the final exams I decided to spend two nights on the Mudlick Trail in Sam A Baker state park. I had heard good things about it. I enjoyed my trip but I ended up spending only one night because I finished the trail sooner than I thought I would.

The Trail
Above you can see some waypoints I uploaded from my GPS after I got home. I started the loop at the trailhead on the right side and went counter clockwise.

I arrived Wednesday afternoon about 4pm and hiked north until I came to the hiking shelters. I had heard mixed reviews on them. They were actually really nice for a winter hike: 3 sided stone shelters with stone floors and fireplaces.
I stayed at hiking shelter 1 because it was perched right on the cliff facing East over the valley where the Big Creek runs and I thought it would provide nice sunrise views. I wasn't disappointed.

After leaving the shelter I hiked north along the ridge and then down into Mudlick hollow where Mudlick creek runs. Along the trail down into the hollow I found some really nice frost flowers. Some of the pictures didn't turn out and even this one isn't very well focused. But you can see the delicate structure of the ribbon of ice that comes out of the stem of a plant when the ground is moist and the air termperature drops to well below freezing.

The creek itself is really pretty. The highlight of the trip in my mind. Notice the icicles hanging from the moss-covered rock wall over the creek.
I love this picture. It was just a little waterfall but the combination of rushing water and ice on the rocks made it seem magical.

The rest of the trip was very pleasant. The forest must burn regularly because it was quite open and free of undergrowth. There are significant changes in elevation so it's a good workout. The only really difficult part was the downhill on the bottom right of the map. This is a `hiker only' section of the trail because it is too rugged for horses. It's almost too rugged for hikers. You are traveling down and along a steep hill side covered with rocks about the size of your head. Lots of opportunities to twist your ankle. I never fell but the constant twisting of my foot made my Achilles tendon hurt.

I had planned on spending two nights on the trail and camping the second night near Logan creek (bottom left on the map). But I made better time than I thought and so continued on to the trailhead. I reached my car almost exactly 24 hours after I had parked.

Thoughts on Gear for Winter
On every trip I learn a little more about backpacking. This trip was cold but dry and I brought my bivy and air mattress. People tend to like bivy bags for two reasons: protection from mild precipitation, and extra warmth. I think the first of these makes sense but I don't buy the second reason any more. During the night I was plenty warm on my legs and body but I had trouble with condensation from my breath when I slept on my side. I think I would have been better off to add warmth with a small liner bag and avoid the condensation problems. Now if there had been rain or snow forecast (and I wasn't in the shelter) then the bivy would have been perfect. The small amount of condensation is a small price to pay for keeping your bag from getting wet.

I've occasionally had fires on my backpacking trips and so I began thinking about carrying some kind of tinder. Well I think I have found the ultimate fire starting material -- cotton balls smeared with vaseline. Other hikers had recommended it but I had never tried it until this trip. You get a nice hot flame that lasts a long time, plenty of time to get your fire started.

Hawn State Park

2009-10-18T09:15:00.019-04:00

This past weekend I returned to Hawn State Park. Kimberly and I had visited it a few weeks ago and I was quite taken with the beauty of the place. We hiked mostly in the area near Pickle Creek. That area is very nice but I wanted to see more of the park so I hiked the Whispering Pines Trail south loop to get an idea of what the other side of the park looked like.

The trail is very pleasant and, as you can see below, quite rocky. There are large sandstone boulders everywhere. (I mistakenly referred to these as dolomite but was corrected by my friend Ted MacRae of Beetles in the Bush. Dolomite is a kind of limestone. The sedimentary rock in Hawn is apparently part of the Lamotte sandstone formation.) The terrain is quite steep in places as well. This picture was taken near the top of one of the two peaks I crossed during the hike.

The views of the surrounding area from the top were magnificent. The peak of fall color was just coming on.

As it began to get on toward evening I began looking for the campsite I had seen on the map. I found this spot right near a small creek which was quite lovely and had a fire ring and some sawn logs for sitting on. So I set up my hammock and made a fire. Interestingly the next morning I found the actual campsite a few hundred yards further down the trail. It had a sign that said "No Fires". Whoops! Oh well.

Below my hammock you can see a green underquilt that Debbie made for me. An underquilt keeps heat from escaping beneath you while you hang in the hammock. This one uses synthetic insulation and worked wonderfully.

The next morning I continued on to the other river that runs through the park, the Aux Valles. It runs alongside rocky cliffs for quite a while. Really gorgeous.

I had to get home fairly early so I bushwhacked to cut off some distance and get back sooner. That was fun but it ended up leading me to the edge of this cliff rather than to the parking lot. You can't tell the difference between a cliff and a hillside on a topographic map.

So I ended up having to climb down. Kind of scary actually. But I made it all right. At the bottom was Pickle Creek which I waded and then walked back to my car. I took this picture from the bottom. Does it look like a fun climb to do with a backpack on?

Pickle Creek

2009-09-30T10:00:00.009-04:00

This past weekend I took my oldest daughter, Kimberly, to Hawn State Park and we hiked the Pickle Creek trail. The Pickle Creek Natural Area, which is within the borders of the park, is apparently very special because of the variety of plants, birds, and animals that live near the creek. The trail begins at a very nice picnic area in a stand of pines.

Then the trail follows the creek for about a mile. The creek bed is very boulder-strewn and quite pretty. Apparently there are few places in the state where so many types of rock formations are visible. The creek itself is described as "tea colored" which is a very good description. However the water is also described as "high quality". We couldn't figure out whether it was the water or the creek bed which gave the color. We were carrying plenty of water so we didn't bother tasting it for ourselves.

The terrain is quite rugged and so there are some nice views to be had. The forest is also very pretty and apparently has been managed using occasional burning so it is comparatively open and free of invasive species.

At the end of the trail we decided to bushwhack to a campsite we saw on the map. The camp is along another trail which picks up at the end of the pickle creek trail but we would have had to follow it around a loop which was several miles long and it was getting dark. Finding the camp took us a while because the map was only approximate. But then we realized that our GPS did show the trail which leads to the camp. So we used the GPS to intersect the trail near where we figured the camp must be and then followed it to the camp.

Often I just camp wherever the mood strikes me. But there are advantages to an established site, even a backcountry site like this one with no services. One advantage is that there is open, flat space. We were sleeping on the ground under a tarp rather than in hammocks so the flat space was welcome. In addition an established camp has a fire ring and so you can make a fire. That helps to make the night seem more cheery. We ate our dinner by the fire and then watched a movie on Kimberly's iPod and went to sleep.

I did get one shot of our camp the next morning. I pitched our tarp between two trekking poles. I really like this pitch because it's so easy to put up and provides 360 degree views. In the picture below our bug bivies are draped over the trekking poles to dry.

We didn't hike a lot of miles on this trip but we had a nice time.

Arachnids

2009-09-08T18:27:00.005-04:00

My brother came to visit me over Labor day weekend. He is a tarantula enthusiast and so we went hiking around various places in Missouri looking for them (they aren't found in northern Illinois where he lives). I like to think of our trip as the tale of three arachnids

1. Aphonopelma Hentzi, the Texas Brown Tarantula. This is what we were looking for. They appear in glades in southern Missouri under rocks. At least that's what we heard. We failed to uncover any even after flipping many rocks.

The first place we looked was fairly close to home. The Valley View Glades Natural Area in Jefferson county was rumored to have tarantulas. It's a small glade complex but it did offer us with a view of the second arachnid.

2. Centruroides vittatus, the Striped Scorpion or Plains Scorpion. This is apparently Missouri's only scorpion. They were quite plentiful under the rocks in the glades. However I think we only saw young scorpions because they were sort of a yellow color rather than the dark brown color that the adults are supposed to have. We also saw several skinks and several small snakes which I think are Western Worm Snakes. They are really small and hide under rocks.

After spending several hours we decided to head to southern Missouri to the Hercules Glade complex. Here is a picture of the glade top trail which I stoke from the forest service web site.

We camped in an area called the Tidwell area which is very nice. During the night it rained really hard. So much so that we had to abandon our tarp and retreat to the car. Wind blown rain was getting in. We were trying to share an 8x10 tarp with me in a hammock and my brother on the ground. The tarp didn't provide enough coverage for two.

Although the Hercules Glades are nice looking we thought we might have better luck a little further east at Caney Mountain Conservation Area. We enjoyed hiking in this area but failed to find any tarantulas. We saw a few more snakes but I'm not sure which species they were. However the patches of grasslands provided an enounter with the third arachnid.

3. Trombicula alfreddugesi, Chiggers! I don't normally encounter many chiggers when I hike. But that's because I tend to stay in woodlands. Chiggers infest grassy areas. You never see them (they are tiny) or even feel them bite. You just begin to itch after a few hours. This scratching dislodges the chigger but that is just the beginning. Chiggers do not burrow into your skin or suck blood. They pierce the skin and inject a saliva that dissolves skin cells. It also causes the nearby cells to harden into a tube that the chigger can drink through. It is this tube that causes the discomfort later on. Your body will eventually break down this tube but until then you have an itchy welt. At the moment I have something like 100 on my feet, ankles, and the backs of my knees. Oh well.

Katy Trail: Portland to Marthasville

2009-07-17T19:34:00.011-04:00

I have now completed a second overnight trip on the Katy Trail. This time I biked the area just west of where I had gone last time. On my last trip I went from St Charles to Marthasville, a distance of about 40 miles. This time I put my bike in the car and drove to the little town of Portland, MO and then biked east to Marthasville (once again about 40 miles), camped and biked back the next morning.

Portland is a very small town. It's main feature seems to be the Katy Trail trailhead near a boat launch on the Missouri river.

This section of trail is just as beautiful as the previous section with limestone bluffs and forest all around. Occasionally the trail comes out of the forest and passes through farmland as in this part where the trail crosses over a bridge on a creek. That's my bike in the background and my pack in the foreground.

The bluffs are actually even more impressive in this section then in the section closer to St Charles. In fact one of the little towns I passed through was called Blufton, apparently named after the nearby bluffs, which are really high and very impressive. However it's really hard to get a picture which does them justice.

What really sets this section apart is the views of the Missouri river. It's quite close in other places too but here you ride so close that often it's just a few feet away, with no trees to block the view.

The downside of being so close to the river is that near the river there are always plenty of mosquitos. But when you are on a bike you don't even notice them. They can't keep up and so I wasn't even aware of them until I stopped to take a picture. Then they swarmed around me and I got back on the bike quick. Biking is definitely the best way to see the Katy Trail. A walker would get eaten alive.

Once again I camped in Marthasville, in fact I slept in exactly the same spot as I did last time. Here is the view from where I slept (the picture was taken in the morning). It's right next to the town baseball field. The great thing about this spot is that it's covered and so there's no need to string a tarp or otherwise protect from rain. A little rain was forecast but never materialized.

Once again there was a game going on when I arrived. The town seems to be really big into baseball and they all come out to cheer on their team. This time it was the 16 to 18 year old boys.

The people in town are really nice. The lady at the concession stand recognized me right away. I had dinner and watched the game before showering and going to sleep. The concession stand is a typical midwestern affair, the prevailing attitude being that anything can be deep fried. I had a burger, fries, and the jalepeno bites you can see on the menu. A jalepeno bit is just sliced jalepeno, dipped in batter, and deep fried. Great for an old New Mexico boy like me.

I slept pretty well on my Big Agnes pad. I wrapped myself up in a Neat Sheet (with the corner weights cut out) for a quilt. It worked fine. I didn't sleep quite as well as last time because the wind kept waking me up. But it wasn't bad. I woke up at 5:18 which was perfect because I had to get back for a meeting at work at noon. So I got some hostess snacks at the convenience store and biked the 40 miles back to my car and then drove home, changed and got to my meeting just in time.

All in all a great trip.

Pictures from the Katy Trail

2009-07-16T16:17:00.008-04:00

In my last post I bemoaned the lack of photographs I had taken. So I drove back and took a few just to give an idea of what the trail looks like between St Charles and Marthasville.

As you can see the trail is well packed and wide with trees arching overhead. It's a veritable tunnel of green. I didn't get any shots of the wetlands on the south side of the trail but on the north side in many places you are riding next to limestone bluffs that are quite beautiful.

I'm heading out in a few minutes for another ride, a bit farther west. Next post I'll have info about that part of the trail.

Bike camping

2009-07-04T01:33:00.005-04:00

The past few weeks the weather has been scorching. This week was so nice that I decided to take a bike trip along the Katy Trail. It wasn't a long trip. About 40 miles each direction. And rather than backcountry camping I ended up in a city park in the cute little town of Marthasville.

View Katy trail to Marthasville in a larger map

The Katy trail is a real gem. I've used it for long runs when I was training for a marathon. It used to be a railroad line and I believe it is part of the Rails-to-Trails project. The trail is flat and for many miles it runs next to the Missouri river. Often there are limestone bluffs on one side, the river or wetlands on the other, and trees overhanging the trail itself. Nothing short of gorgeous.

Biking the Katy trail is popular enough that there are trail towns that cater to the biking community. I stopped in one of them, Defiance, and had pizza at a little tavern before continuing on. (That's one benefit of bike camping: no need to bring food since you are never far from civilization.) Some town allow camping in the city parks and Marthasville is one of these. It's one of the cutest towns you will ever see. Really tiny. There are like 4 streets in town and the trail cuts right through it. When I showed up at the park there was a little league game and a men's softball game going on. I swear the whole town turned out to watch the games. It's so quaint it's like the town that time forgot.

The city park also has showers for bikers and they ask for a $5 donation to help fund the facilities. It was nice to be able to shower before bedtime and then to sleep under a park shelter so there was no need for a tarp or anything.

I ran into 5 other bikers and we all camped together. They are college students who are part of a cross-country trip called Trek to Re-Energize America. Several teams are biking to Washington D.C. to advocate for action on climate change. In particular they seem to focus on biking as a viable alternative for commuting. The particular group I ran into blogs about their ride here (although when I last checked the site was down). They stared in Peublo, Colorado. Great kids. We had a nice time together. They wanted to hear me lecture about economics and the environment. And of course professors love to talk so we got along great.

I wish I had more pictures of the trip. I tried using my cell phone as a camera but I can't get the pictures off. But if you go to the Katy Trail website there are maps and lots of info and pictures from better photographers than I.

Mapping the Damage at Marble Creek

2009-06-14T15:43:00.013-04:00

This past week my daughter went to a girl's camp our church sponsors every year which was held down at the S-F scout camp (on the Swift explorer base). I was asked to go pick up the girls from our congregation on Saturday morning. So I looked for a place nearby to do a hike on Friday with the idea of camping Friday night and picking the girls up in the morning on my way back home.

I looked at the Ozark trail page and saw that the recovery work was well underway on many sections. I felt a twinge of guilt that I hadn't volunteered to join any of these work parties. Then I saw that the post-storm status of one little section of the trail not far from the girl's camp was "unknown" and they were looking for someone to go scout out the damage and report back. I decided to volunteer so I could contribute in a small way to the trail I've come to love so much.

The section is called the Marble Creek section. It's not very long and currently doesn't connect to the rest of the trail at either end (although eventually it will). Perhaps for that reason it isn't as popular as some sections. It's quite nice though. It begins at Marble creek (pictured below).

After that the trail winds with only gentle ups and downs through the forest and then ends in a loop around Crane Lake.

Crane Lake, like every lake in Missouri, is man-made. A dam was constructed in a narrow valley. The southern loop of the trail brings you right next to this dam. The northern loop brings you around quite a ways above the dam with a nice view. I took a picture of the view but it was getting dark and so the picture didn't turn out so you'll have to be satisfied with the picture below, taken from the edge of the dam on the southern edge of the lake.

Mapping the damage to the trail involved stopping at every point where a tree had fallen across the trail and creating a waypoint on my GPS unit. Later I would share those waypoints with the sawyers so they could plan a cleanup. This turned out to be pretty exhausting. No only does it slow you down to stop and enter a waypoint but afterward you have to clamber over the tree or bushwhack through the surrounding forest and then try to find the trail on the other side. The trail itself has seen better days. Lack of use has caused it to become overgrown in places and occasionally I got lost. I had several GPS track files to go by but one was just an approximation and the other two were incomplete. At one point, near the lake, I became totally lost. Then I happened to catch sight of an old trail marker. The trail itself had completely disappeared in undergrowth but I was able to follow the trail markers up through some glades and along the side of a hill, which I later saw was one side of a steep valley where the dam was built.

Some people feel that the hiking season in the Ozarks starts October 1st and ends sometime in April or May. It's certainly true that those are great months to hike the Ozarks. But I have learned a few tricks about hiking in the summer.

1. Treat your pants and socks with permethrin ahead of time. Ticks climbing on clothes treated with permethrin quickly die. One can easily pick up dozens of ticks in just one day of hiking in the summer in the Ozarks. I only saw one on me this time and it was on my forearm from where I had brushed a nearby bush. My legs and feet were completely clear.
2. Take a bath in the hot part of the day. Find a stream or a lake, pull out the Dr Bronner's soap and restore your humanity with cleanliness. Just swimming is fine too because it cools you down. But a bath is nicer. This time I swam in the lake and then went on the rocks below the dam to take a bath in the rushing water.
3. Hike quickly and don't stop until after dark. Mosquitoes can't fly very fast. If you walk at a reasonably brisk pace they can't keep up. You don't even think they are there until you stop and suddenly they swarm you. But mosquitoes also stop flying once it is truly dark. This time I took a hammock with no bug net and found I didn't really miss the bug net because by the time I went to sleep there were no mosquitoes around.

Hike and Bike

2009-05-24T22:33:00.015-04:00

On my first trip on the Ozark trail, last summer, I hiked the first 7 and a half miles of the northern-most section of the trail, the Courtois section. I had planned to finish it at spring break but I got sick. So I set out to do it this past weekend.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the storms that had knocked down so many trees in the Paddy Creek wilderness. I turns out that that storm caused widespread damage in south-central Missouri. Many sections of the Ozark trail have had to be closed (many of which I have hiked in the past year) until sawyers can come and clear the dead trees. Fortunately the Courtois section was largely spared, at least the northern portion. So I decided to start about 12 miles into the section (from the southern end) and hike up to the point I had reached last year.

One of the challenges faced by backpackers is transportation. Most trails are "point-to-point" and so you end up a long way from where you parked your car. Rather than using a shuttle service this time I hit on the idea of using my bike. The Courtois section, as you can see below, makes a wide bend and touches (or nearly touches) highway 8 in two places. So I put my bike in the trunk of my car and hid it in the woods near the northern end of the trail and then drove to my starting point. The idea was to hike to the bike (following the blue path on the map below) and then bike to the car (the red path, which follows highway 8). It worked out reasonably well (except for a rainstorm during the biking part of my trip).

View Middle Courtois Section Hike in a larger map

As near as I can figure the total distance on the trail was 23.7 miles and the biking distance was 8 miles.

Even after having done quite a few backpacking trips over the past year or two I am still a very imperfect backpacker. The one thing I do well is hike. Once I start hiking I become quite taken with the beauty of the forest and it just seems wrong to stop hiking (until it gets too dark to find my way). So I end up doing quite a few miles in a day. This time I started at 1pm or so and did about 19 miles before I stopped to camp. I ended up hiking all the way to my bike on the first day. Part of that is because I hike alone. Hiking alone is really great. But sitting around in camp alone is not much fun. So I tend not to do it much.

Every time I go hiking I think "This one, THIS is the most beautiful section I've ever hiked". It can't really be the case that every trail is more beautiful than the last so I think my memory just fades quickly. But I was very taken with the beauty of this section. Unfortunately most of my pictures didn't turn out (something on the lens I think) but here is a taste of what it was like.

I made a few mistakes, like I do every time. I brought a stove and a hot meal to cook as well as dried snacks to eat along the way. But I never ended up using the stove or the hot meal. It all goes back to preferring to hike rather than sit in camp. And the right kind of snacks can be tasty as well as nutritious. I really like crunchies freeze dried mixed fruit. No sugar, additives, or preservatives and it's light as a feather and tastes great. I've bought similar stuff from Just Tomatoes. Their freeze dried mixed veggies is awesome trail food. I also eat a lot of jerky along the trail so I get a pretty balanced diet. And for pure calories (it takes a surprising amount of calories to hike) peanut M&Ms are hard to beat.

My biggest weakness as a backpacker is sleeping. Often I don't sleep at all. Other times I sleep fitfully. If I hike until I'm exhausted I have better luck but still my body needs to have familiar surroundings. So this time I left the hammock at home and tried the air mattress and bug bivy. It's heavier in the summer than a hammock but it feels more like a bed. My mistake was to look up at the clear night sky and decide that no rain protection was necessary. In the middle of the night I felt drops on my face and quickly threw the poncho/tarp over the bivy. That kept me dry but because it wasn't staked out or supported with trees or poles there was little circulation so I felt pretty clammy when I woke up. Oh well, live and learn.

Next morning I hiked a bit farther up the trail to meet the point I had got to last year and then I went back to camp, got on the bike and headed to my car. That's when the rain really came down. So by the time I arrived at the highway 8 trailhead I was drenched. Then the rain promptly stopped. I hid the bike in the trees, hiked about a mile and half up to my car and drove back to get the bike and go home.

All in all it was a great hike.

Paddy Creek After a Storm

2009-05-09T16:40:00.018-04:00

Well the finals are all graded and the grades submitted so I took the opportunity to get away for some hiking. I was originally planning to go Thursday night and come back Friday but something came up and I had to reschedule. It turns out to be fortunate that I did because a very severe storm hit on Thursday night. More on that later.

View Paddy Creek Wilderness (short loop) in a larger map

The map above shows the loop I took. I wanted to do a longer loop but somehow I got on a shortcut trail that makes a shorter loop. I'm going to start a support group for knuckleheads like me who own GPS units and don't have the brains to use them. I had forgotten to load this section of Topo map onto my unit and didn't realize it until it was too late. Hence the mistake.

The Paddy Creek Wilderness is located in Central Missouri, essentially directly southwest of my house. It's farther West than I have gone before. The area differs from the parts of the Ozarks I have explored before in that the rock formations appear to be limestone and not igneous rocks. The Paddy Creek Wilderness is near the Big Piney river which runs through central Missouri and empties into the Gasconade (which in turn empties into the Missouri). The Paddy Creek Wilderness area is the area surrounding the little Paddy Creek (which joins the big Paddy Creek before it empties into the Big Piney). The area is quite beautiful with many limestone cliffs overlooking the creek.

Since it's late spring there's beginning to be more wildlife around although the mosquitoes aren't yet as bad as they will be. This is the first time I've got a decent picture of one of these guys.

He thought I didn't see him and so stayed real still for the photo. I'm not exactly sure but I think this is a Five-lined Skink, also called a "Blue-tailed skink" (note the blue tail). This is Missouri's most common skink.

Being from the desert I'm used to lizards. But I thought that was the only slice of desert I'd find in Missouri. Imagine my surprise when I almost stepped on this right next to the trail! Am I right that this is a prickly pear cactus? Weird.

I arrived in the late afternoon on Friday and it had rained all night. The trail was soaked and all the little tributaries that dump into the little Paddy were full. Here the trail crosses one of these tributaries. It made a nice picture I thought.

But the main story of this trip was the storm damage. It was truly unbelievable. Hundreds of huge trees had been ripped up by the roots. I think I spent half my time off the trail, bushwhacking, trying to find a way around fallen trees. I genuinely think that if I had gone on Thursday I might not be alive today. My hammock could have been tied to one of those trees. Or worse, one could have fallen on me in my sleep (if anyone could have slept during that storm).

Most of the fallen trees were oaks. But many tall pines fell as well and this surprised me. I would have thought that those straight, tall pines provide less of a target for the wind and so wouldn't be as prone to fall over in a storm. But as you can see that wasn't the case.

In the picture above it's a bit hard to get the scale. I'm standing on the trunk and taking the picture. The trunk is larger around than my body and looked to me to be at least 40 feet tall, maybe 50.

This next picture is a bit hard to understand unless you were there. A row of three huge pines fell like dominoes. Note how you can see the rootball of the second tree under the trunk of the first. The third is farther along.

I went super-ultralight on this trip. My lightest hammock, just my poncho for a tarp and raingear, and no stove (just ate cold food). Worked out fine. I'll push this even farther when the weather warms up even more so I can do some serious miles.

Stegall Mountain after Burning

2009-04-18T12:51:00.019-04:00

Those of you who read my blog know that I'm a fan of Allison Vaughn's blog, Ozark Highlands of Missouri. There's a lot to learn about Missouri ecosystems on her blog. But she also talks a lot about how much she enjoys burning forests. That's her job. Sounds like a funny job for a conservationist but it turns out that occasional, limited burning is one of the best tools for keeping a forest healthy.

At least that's what Allison says. I had no first hand knowledge until Easter weekend when I got to hike through some of her handiwork.

My Father came from New Mexico to go hiking with me and see the Ozarks first-hand. I decided I wanted to take him to the area that I had heard was one the most beautiful areas of the Ozarks, the Current River section of the Ozark Trail between Stegall Mountain and Rocky Falls. Below I have embedded a Google map of the path we took with a few notes about the hike. You can zoom in to see the terrain better and look at the annotations I have made at various points. The trail was about 5 miles each way with some significant ups and downs.

View Stegall Mountain Trip in a larger map

Stegall Mountain is in the southeast part of Missouri. It's not the highest peak in the Ozarks but it's bald on top so it provides some great views of the surrounding area. I had heard shortly before the trip that there had been a burn in the area some weeks before. I was both a little concerned and a little curious to see what it would be like to hike and camp so shortly after a fire. What I found delighted me and made me grateful for people like Allison who spend their time to make our forests healthy.

The forest near Stegall, like all forest in the Ozarks, is primarily Oak and Hickory with some Pine. There seem to be more pines than where I have hiked before. The pines are truly amazing. We hiked through stands of pine where each tree was at least 40 feet high and straight as an arrow. I can imagine that the early settlers must have been really excited to see such stands of perfect timber. In fact I think the area was over-logged back then. The fire cleared away all the brush down low but didn't really hurt the trees. Here's Hyrum next to one of those pines. You can see a little charring on the bark but the tree appeared completely unharmed. But notice behind Hyrum how open and free of brush the forest was.

As we ascended Stegall the terrain turned very rocky. I had expected to see mostly Dolomite (which is very common in southern Missouri) but it appears that the "bones" of Stegall are Rhyolite just like the St Francios mountains like Bell and Taum Sauk. This rocky climb was quite steep and at the top the trees ended and we could turn around and see this view of the area we had just hiked through and quite a ways south. Notice that low down on all the trees you can see the a little bit of charring from the fire but that the trees are all healthy.

There were places where we could see that on one side of the trail there had been burning but not on the other side. The burned side was open and inviting. The unburned side was choked with brush. Obviously this is nice from a aesthetic perspective but Allison tells me that there is something more important going on. The types of bushes and small trees that can't handle fire tend to be the invasive species while the survivors are native species. So the fire preserves the natural beauty of the Ozarks.

There seems to be an unusual concentration of Hickory in the area. The forest floor was covered with Hickory nuts: hundreds and thousands of them everywhere. The kids collected some of these nuts and later we cracked them found that Hickory nuts taste great. The smell of Hickory was in the air everywhere (a heavenly smell if you aren't familiar with it). The smell permeated all my gear and clothes and now, a week later I can pick up my coat and smell it and the whole experience comes rushing back to me.

Our destination was Rocky Falls. A small river named Rocky Creek falls over a massive rock formation in a very picturesque way. Here's the falls...

...and here's my dad posing with his grandkids in front of the falls.

The pool at the base of the falls looks like it would make a great swimming hole in summer!

We set up our hammocks near the falls so that we could go to sleep listening to the sound of the rushing water. The next morning we took a short hike to the top of the falls.

We wanted to hike down the other side so I took off my shoes and socks and ferried the kids across while wading. My dad went upstream and found a fallen log to cross over.

The first day had been misty and windy and we were quite cold (I wished I had brought gloves). But Saturday the weather turned very warm and the kids found the hike out a lot more challenging. Then we rushed home in time for the kids to have an Easter egg hunt with some friends.

Hammock Bunk Beds

2009-03-28T12:59:00.013-04:00

It's been a while since I have blogged. The reason is because I haven't been able to backpack recently. I had a big trip planned for the second week of March that ended up not happening. It was Spring Break at the University but not at my kids' schools. So I decided to try a 3-day trip on one of the longer sections of the Ozark Trail. I bought my food, packed up my gear, printed my maps, and had it all ready to go the night before. The next morning I woke up with a stomach virus including vomiting, fever, body aches, the works. So no backpacking trip.

Since then my teaching load at the University has increased and so there hasn't really been time to get away.

I have a new piece of gear I've been wanting to try but so far have only tried in the back yard. It's an 11x10 Cat Tarp from Jacks R Better. The Cat stands for catenary, meaning that the sides are cut as catenary curves rather than lines. This means that the tarp flaps less in the wind. The large size means that there is enough excess room that you can fold the edges of the tarp in to create doors as I did below.

This provides extra protection from wind and rain. Notice that I have also pulled out the sides to make it look even more tent-like. There is one tie-out on the side of the tarp in the middle but I created a second one using Grip Clips. You can see what I did more easily from the side.

I could have put doors on both sides but that begins to defeat the purpose of a tarp which is to provide maximum ventilation (to prevent condensation). Also there was really no room in this case because I set the tarp up along the short axis to make it as tall as possible. The reason was that Debbie and I were going to test the tarp out together in two hammocks, bunk bed style!

Here was the setup. I put the bridge hammock on the bottom and a simple gathered-end hammock on top.

And here's our lovely model demonstrating!

The weather was a bit cold, about 40 degrees with wind, so we each used a closed-cell foam pad under us. I followed the advice of a friend on hammmockforums.net who suggested putting the end with the doors into the wind. That way the tarp splits the wind rather than providing a big target for the wind to push against as it would be if you faced the broad side of the tarp into the wind. The open end faces away from the wind. Stopping the wind this way is critical when using a hammock because the wind will carry the warm air under you away and you will feel chilled.

This setup worked wonderfully. Debbie and I were amazed at how comfortable we were and we went right to sleep. It's nice to have your spouse close to you when you are camping! It make it feel so much more natural to go to sleep, even in the outdoors.

Interests Relating to Backpacking

2009-02-15T23:03:00.018-05:00

I've found that backpacking has sparked my interest in several areas that I hadn't really thought about much before. I'm finding myself googling things more often to learn the answers to questions that come up during a hike. Backpacking puts you more in touch with the natural world that we usually don't see or think about.

Forestry

Trees are the first thing you begin to wonder about in the forest. You feel stupid not knowing what these trees around you are. After I'd been on a few hikes I began to wonder what kind of trees I was seeing and what were the nuts I kept finding on the ground so I began asking questions. Now I can recognize a Hickory nut and I know which tree it comes from. I never knew what Hickory trees were before. Now I'm wondering if it's Hickory trees that give the Ozarks their particular smell. The smell is subtle but quite nice. The other day I took out one of my tarps and had the family smell it compared with the smell of a brand new tarp that I'd never used. "That's the smell of the Ozarks" I told them. However I don't know yet that it is Hickory that I'm smelling.

I always knew what an Oak tree was but after reading Allison Vaughn's recent blog entry I'm anxious to get back and see if I can tell which of the oaks I'm seeing are post oaks and which are the red or black oaks. Apparently the post oak is adapted to the fires that once were common in the forest. Now that we stop forest fires the red and black oaks (that can't tolerate fire) are taking over.

Astronomy/Star Gazing

Last Thursday night on top of Taum Sauk Hyrum and I were struck with the perfect view we had of the stars. We were on top of the highest mountain in the state, far from any major town, with no leaves on the trees and no clouds in the sky. As I looked around I found that I wished I knew more about the stars I was seeing. I could recognize Orion's belt but that's about all. Here's a picture I stole from the web somewhere. You can see the stars that make the belt. I figured the two bright stars underneath must be his feet and the two upper ones were his hands. A very rough approximation of a person I thought. I started reading about the constellations and found that Orion is the big winter constellation. After spring it falls below the horizon. I also learned that there is more detail in the constellation than I originally thought.

You see that bright area just below the belt? That is often called the sword. Now look to the right of the upper stars. There are 4 smaller stars in a semi-circle. That is the bow that Orion is shooting.

The stars in Orion are among the brightest in the sky. Including Rigel (bottom right) and Betelgeuse (top left). The sword is actually not a star, it's the Orion Nebula.

Pretty cool. I'll have to study up to see what other constellations there are to see and how they change with the seasons.

Entomology

We all see bugs from time to time but we mostly step on them, shoo them away, or ignore them. In the woods I see some pretty cool bugs sometimes. This fall while on Bell Mountain I stopped to cook lunch and when I finished and turned around to get my pack I met this fellow.
It's hard to get the scale from the picture but he was about 5 inches long. Learning names of insects is much harder than birds or animals because there are so many. But the variety itself is pretty incredible. I never really cared before but while hiking I have time to look at these things and now I'm wishing I knew more about them.

Geology

All kids are interested in rocks as a rule. Very few adults are. But once again the fact that you have more time while backpacking makes all the difference. Here's me picking up a rock while hiking with my brother near Council Bluff lake. You can't see the rock very well. It looked almost like a geode to me but not quite. These things were everywhere.

This winter I returned to this same general area to hike the Middle Fork section. The northern end of that trail is near Council Bluff. Here's a larger stone of the same kind. I just had to stop and look at it and take this picture. What in the world is going on here? It's softer than a geode. It seems to be made of sand but why these bumps instead of flat layers like most sedimentary rocks?

Hmmm. Still got a lot to learn.

Mina Sauk Falls

2009-02-13T20:50:00.008-05:00

With Saturday being Valentine's day I knew I couldn't do a weekend backpacking trip. But Hyrum had Friday off from school and I didn't have a class to teach or a seminar to attend so we headed off to spend Thursday night on a mountain.

Missouri is not the land of high mountains. In fact you can drive right to the top of Taum Sauk mountain, the highest mountain in Missouri, and look at this plaque. There is a campground near this spot where we spent the night.

Here is Hyrum enjoying a brief moment as the highest person in Missouri. (Actually he was the highest person in a several state region since there is nothing higher in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio.)

In a previous post I described hiking the trail that leads to the top from the Ketcherside trailhead. During that trip we hiked down to Mina Sauk falls, the highest waterfall in Missouri (132 foot drop in total) but I forgot my camera back at camp and so got no pictures. It didn't matter much because on that occasion there was no water. The falls only run after wet weather. We got quite a bit of rain on Wednesday so I thought we might get a nice view on Friday morning. We weren't disappointed.

The side of Taum Sauk where the falls are located (a little over a mile hike from the peak) is very rocky. The creek cascades down a rocky cliff but not in a straight line so there is no way to get a view of the entire falls without a helicopter. No picture from the ground really does them justice. Here is a shot from quite a ways back. But you can really only see the middle part very well. At the top of the picture you can catch a glimpse of the uppermost part of the fall.

Standing at the top this is the view you have looking down.

There are two trails from the peak to the falls and we took one going down and another coming back. The entire loop is just under 3 miles.

All in all we had a great time. Hyrum is a natural camper. Once his head hits that hammock he is asleep and doesn't stir til morning. Even with a comfortable hammmock and a quiet night (like we have in the winter) it's not that easy for me. I have to lie for quite a while before I can convince my body that it's okay to fall asleep even if I'm not in my bed at home. One of the difficulties of age I guess.

Tent Stakes

2009-02-07T18:17:00.013-05:00

The weather lately has been very interesting. Just a few days ago the highs were in the teens. Today it was near 70 degrees. There's Missouri for you. The nice weather makes me anxious to get out on the trail but there's still a lot of snow on the trails (now a lot of slush) which makes for unpleasant hiking. So instead of reporting on a trip I'm going to talk about gear again.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was having trouble with my Tite-Lite stakes. In general I like these stakes a lot. They are very lightweight and work great for pot supports for cooking (as I described in this post). The problem is in the winter when the ground is frozen. I've bent a stake trying to get it into the ground.

I've also lost a stake when the wind caught my tarp and ripped the stake out of the ground, sending the stake flying to who knows where. So I purchased some 8" Easton Aluminum stakes. These stakes are surprisingly light and strong. You can pound on them without worrying about them bending. Also, rather than a shepherd's hook at the end they have a cord which you can tie to your guy lines. That means that even if the wind rips the stake out of the ground it will stay attached to your tarp and not get lost.

I set up my tarp in the back yard and slept under it during the snowfall last week. Pounding the stakes into the frozen ground worked great. I was very impressed. Unfortunately it's much harder to get them out. I suppose it's a testament to their staying power but when I tried to remove them I had to really pull and this was all I got. Actually I had 4 to begin with and it only happened on half the stakes so it wasn't a total loss.

One of the good things about buying gear at REI is their return policy. You can return anything at any time in any shape. Sometimes this gets abused I'm afraid, leading people to joke about REI standing for Return Everything Immediately. In this case I felt justified since my stakes had failed on the first use.

So instead I got some MSR Ground Hogs. These aluminum stakes aren't as light or as long as the Easton stakes but they are all one piece so they can't come apart. And they still have the cord attachment rather than the shepherd's crook. I've talked to people who use them and they all say they are really strong and can take a beating. I won't often need that kind of toughness since the ground isn't often frozen in these parts. But I do need it occasionally.

Actually the best thing to do is often to use no stakes at all. If you can find trees or bushes to tie your guy lines to then that is stronger than any stake. I really try hard to pick a spot where I have things to tie to. Sometimes if there isn't a tree in the right place you can find a heavy fallen tree limb and drag it to the spot. Backpackers who often camp in deep snow really like this method because you can't find any ground to pound into. There are stakes that are designed for holding in snow but I have no experience with them.

There's another trick that I have used when I'm concerned about my stakes not holding. The worst wind I ever camped in was early last spring with Kimberly. We hung our hammocks right next to each other so we could talk. Good thing too since we didn't get a wink of sleep. The wind was gusting to 45 mph and the sound that a tarp makes in that kind of wind would wake the dead. The campground was very sandy and so I was concerned the stakes wouldn't stay. Fortunately there were large rocks around. I pushed the stakes into the ground and rolled a large rock on top of each. The wind didn't yank the stakes out of the ground all that night although it tried pretty hard.

Fallen Giants

2009-01-31T10:24:00.005-05:00

I, like most of you, have a list of blogs I like to read regularly. Two of my favorites are sectionhiker, by a fellow hiker from the Boston area named Philip Werner (on the boards he goes by Earlylite), and Ozark Highlands of Missouri, by an ecologist named Allison Vaughn. A few months ago Earlylite posted an entry about a book he had read called Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. I haven't read the book but it sounds facinating. Often as I'm hiking in the Ozarks I will look around at the forest and wonder "what happened here? why does it look different than it did a few miles back?" By reading Allison's blog I'm learning more about the ecology of the Ozarks and I'm learning to understand what I see better.

Here's a sight that I often see along the trail. A fallen forest giant that has had it's very roots ripped out of the ground.

This was a pretty common sight on my Middle Fork section hike. In fact in that post I showed a picture of my camp that just showed my bivy and tarp. But zooming back a bit you see that I was camped right next to one of these fallen giants.

In fact I was in between two of them. Here was the view looking out from my camp.

Natalie and I saw lots of fallen trees on our Buford Mountain hike also. At first I didn't know what to make of it. But after reading Allison's blog recently it hit me.

Here in Missouri (and all over the Midwest really) we occasionally have winter ice storms. An ice storm is where rain falls and freezes immediately on the first object it touches. The ice build up on limbs can be pretty heavy. In the city that means power outages. But within a few days the repairmen have come with chainsaws to remove the fallen limbs and trees and fix the lines. In the forest the trees just stay where they fall.

I think that's what has happened in these pictures. That would explain why it's the biggest trees that fell (even though they appeared to be healthy and not diseased). They tower over their neighbors and so collect the most ice. Then, if they are leaning slightly, that weight uses the long trunk of the tree as a lever and rips the roots out of the ground. That's how the forest removes the tall trees and makes room for new ones.

There's one more thing I wonder about though. Often these trees fall across the trail and then the trail maintainer comes through and cuts a chunk out of the fallen trunk so a hiker can get through. Often the trunk is hollow at the time. At least I guess this must be true because these cuts don't look very old.

I wonder what this means. Are all tree trunks hollow? Or does this indicate some weakening of the tree due to age or disease? I still have lots to learn about the forest before I really understand what I'm seeing.

Stove Systems

2009-01-25T16:10:00.008-05:00

In an earlier post I talked about my gear and briefly mentioned my alcohol stove system. I call it a system because the combination of the stove, pot, fuel, fire starter, and carrying case are more than the sum of the parts. It's clear why you need each item but you also want some way to carry them so they don't rattle in the pack and so that the individual items are all easy to get to. My SVEA 123R is a very clever white gas system that incorporates the pot, stove, fuel container, and windscreen in one compact bundle. It's even more important for a lightweight stove like a pop can stove. These stoves can be easily crushed in a pack and then won't work properly. After struggling with these issues and looking online at what other people were doing I came up with a system that I like quite well. Apparently other people were thinking the same way because now you can purchase similar kits from several online retailers.
The individual pieces are easy enough to assemble yourself. For a pot I use a 24 oz Heineken can (I don't drink beer so I had to get a friend to drink it for me and give me the can). It's very lightweight and about the right volume. In addition the thin aluminum conducts heat very well so it's quite efficient. Around the top I put some of those Livestrong bracelets so that I could pick the pot up without burning my fingers. In addition in the kit I have a windscreen, a stove, a pot stand, a fuel measuring cup, a priming dish and a ziplock container that I also use as a cozy and a bowl. The total weight is 4.7 ounces. The idea of a cozy may be new to people who have never done Freezer Bag Cooking. Basically you combine your dried food and boiling water in a freezer bag and wait while it cooks. The function of a cozy it to keep the heat in while the cooking takes place. I drop the bag into this ziplock and put the lid on. It keeps the heat in well and also serves as a bowl for when it's ready to eat.
The priming dish is the round piece of aluminum pie pan that is under the stove. I put a few drops of fuel there to heat the stove. By the time this fuel is burned the stove is heated and working well. Notice that the stove I'm using now (a Sputnik stove) has the pot stand built in. Previously I carried a homemade stove and a separate pot stand.
Inside the pot I store a lighter, a bottle of fuel, and an ultralight towel. The towel keeps the rattling down and I find I always need one handy when I'm eating anyway. The weight of the total system with full fuel bottle is less than 7 ounces.
I like alcohol as a fuel but sometimes I like using Esbit instead. Esbit tabs don't require any stove. You just need some place to set the tab and a pot stand. I had a homemade system I used to use but it didn't work as well as I wanted. So for my birthday I bought an Esbit system from Ultralight Outfitters and gave it to my daughter to give to me (we're not really into surprises around here). It's really quite cool.

It is designed to be used with a Fosters 25 oz beer can (couldn't find anyone who drinks the stuff so I had to buy it and pour it out). The tray that holds the Esbit tablet clips on to the bottom of the can and can be slide up and down. The the whole thing sets in the wire pot stand. If you want to extinguish the tablet before it's consumed you slide the tray all the way up to the bottom of the can and the flame gets snuffed out.

The windscreen works just like you would think it would. But the manufacturer suggests and additional use for the windscreen. The windscreen stays relatively cool so when you ready to pour out the hot water (or drink the hot beverage as the case may be) you grip the windscreen and pick the whole assembly up.

The white strip at the top of the top of the can is actually a strip of silicone that serves as a lip protector if you drink from the pot.
The system packs up quite nicely. You just put the windscreen inside the pot stand and then put the pot and fuel tray inside.

The fit is nice and tight so there is no rattling.

Inside the pot there is plenty of room for fuel tabs, a towel, and matches. I prefer matches for Esbit because it takes a few seconds for the tablet to catch fire. A lighter can get pretty hot in those few seconds. It's much nicer to just light a match and set it on the Esbit tablet. I use REI stormproof matches which burn very hot for several seconds and can't be blown out by wind.
There's extra room in this system for something else. I'm thinking I may make a cozy out of reflective bubble wrap as described sectionhiker here. The one thing I will be missing compared to the alcohol system is the ziplock container. That's a bit of a problem since I use it with my Steripen for sterilizing water (see my Middle Fork hike entry). I'll have to come up with a different solution for that.

Beavers?

2009-01-14T21:02:00.012-05:00

In my wildlife blog entry I mentioned that I was hoping to see a beaver dam on my trip to the middle fork of the OT. But in the subsequent blog entry, where I document that trip, you'll notice I didn't mention seeing any beaver dams. I was really bewildered. I had seen the following pictures by Danny M (whose motrails site is the definitive guide to hiking in Missouri) which looked pretty impressive. These were taken near Barton Fen, about half-way through the middle fork section.

When I got to Barton Fen and didn't see any dams I actually took off my pack and went exploring to see if I had missed them somehow. I did photograph the following tiny thing which hardly looks like Danny's pictures of beaver dams.

I was really disappointed and worried I had somehow missed what I had come to see. Then it occurred to me that the severe flooding we had had in Missouri during 2008 may have wiped out the dams (and maybe the beavers!). When I got home I made inquiries on Danny's yahoo group. John Roth, president of the Ozark Trail association, told me that the beaver dams get obliterated every few years due to flooding. In fact the pictures on the Barton Fen gallery at ozarktrail.com are of a previous set of dams which existed in early 2002 but were destroyed that year by floods.

So it appears that flooding is an occupational hazard for beavers. It may be that the little dam I saw is the beavers attempt at rebuilding.

I learned something else as well. Beavers are kind of like suburbanites. They are always remodeling their homes. So if their dam is not knocked down by a flood in a given year then they raise the dam and make it higher. Actually this can be bad for the surrounding ecosystem because the dam pond grows and grows. So an effort was made to keep the most recent set of dams from growing. A PVC pipe with holes drilled through was laid across the top of the dam so that even if it the dam were built above it water would continue flowing through so the pond wouldn't get any higher. Thinking back I did see the end of a PVC pipe sticking out from the bank at one point. That must have been the location of the dam. Perhaps in a few years there will be another 6 foot dam on the creek.

Middle Fork section of OT

2009-01-04T09:25:00.033-05:00

The Ozark trail, as can be seen from the offical website, will eventually stretch from St Louis down to Arkansas with a large loop around the Missouri Ozarks. The trail splits to form this loop near Council Bluff lake where I went hiking with Grant. Most of my recent hiking has been on the eastern side of the loop (which is still incomplete). This weekend I tried the west side of the loop.

The trail is broken into sections between 18 and 40 miles each. The section I hiked is called the Middle Fork section. I've never hiked a complete section at one time before but this time I did. Of course it's a fairly short section, just over 22 miles.

This trail is just delightful. The thing that characterizes this section is the numerous creeks running with crystal clear spring water. That makes hiking so much nicer because you don't need to carry much water. And of course it makes the trail much more scenic. Perhaps it's because I grew up in the desert but I really love creeks and streams. In fact I took way too many pictures of the creeks I came across because each one looked so good to me. Here are just a few to give you an idea.

I think waterfalls are especially pretty. These are small creeks of course so there aren't big falls. But they are nice to look at. The picture above is of the largest waterfall I saw on the trip. I've read that it is 12' from top to bottom.

I noticed afterward that I took more picture of the small creeks than the big streams. Some of them were a challenge to cross. For a few there was nothing to be done except wade. I guessed this would be the case in advance so I wore my sandals with sealskinz waterproof socks. These socks keep water out but allow sweat to escape in some way. They work pretty well. My feet stayed dry after many river crossings.

The trail, as you can see from the map above, heads west and then turns almost straight south. I started hiking about noon on Friday and made good time, about 2.5 miles per hour, and reached a high plateau just before the southward turn just after 4pm. I camped there for the night. There was a forecast of rain so I set up my poncho/tarp above my bivy in a lean-to configuration.

This is the most common pitch for a poncho/tarp and I found I liked it quite well. It's probably not particularly strong for high winds. The winds that night were very mild but I found it surprisingly robust. If you look carefully you can see that I ran a line from the hood of the poncho backward to a tree. This keeps the wind from pushing the tarp against you when it blows. The rainfall wasn't that significant but this setup kept me very dry.

I set my woodgas stove near my head with some fuel I had gathered the night before so in the morning I could make some hot cocoa without getting out of bed.

The woodgas stove worked out very well on this trip. There was lots of fuel available and I found it pleasant to cook on. For dinner I had Parker Pass Potatoes from Enertia Foods (which was excellent!) and I found that one batch of wood was able to boil my water and then simmer the soup for an additional 5 or 10 minutes or so afterward while I stirred.

The next morning a misty rain was still falling. So I packed my gear (leaving the poncho/tarp up), put my pack on, and slipped the poncho over my head and wore it while hiking.

Later the rain stopped and the fog cleared a bit and I had a very nice hike. I stopped for a warm lunch at about noon. Since the wood was wet I turned the woodgas stove upside down and used it as a support for a block of Esbit fuel.

I stopped regularly to fill up on water from the creeks. It was beautiful, clear water but of course one must always be careful about water borne pathogens (mainly Giardia). Many hikers filter their water but I like my Steripen Adventurer better. It sterilizes the water using UV rays. I fill a wide mouth container from the creek and then stir with the pen. UV light is invisible of course but a blue light shines to let you know it's working. I dislike filters because they are hard work and get harder the longer you use them. Some people use chemical tablets but this seems even worse because it ruins the taste of the wonderful spring water. I do carry tablets as an emergency backup for the Steripen but so far haven't used any.

At the end of the trail I met a friend who shuttled me back to my car. As I waited for him I made another instant soup like I had for lunch. I learned something interesting. It turns out my system can't take more than one instant soup per day. It didn't agree with me. I think I need to bring more homemade food in the future.

Wildlife

2009-01-01T11:47:00.010-05:00

When you are backpacking you get a chance to get away not just from the city but from farms, roads, established campgrounds, and other places that people are. You really get out into the "backcountry" while backpacking. So you would think that backpackers would see a lot more wildlife. In my experience this isn't the case. Sometimes I'll go on a hike where I see no animals at all and then in my own subdivision I'll have to stop my car while a whole herd of deer cross the road. I'm much more likely to see rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and possum in my backyard than on a backpacking trip. Missouri is full of beautiful birds of many kinds. But most of them are more easily seen by hanging a bird feeder in your backyard than by seeking them out in the wild. Even hawks are relatively common to see along the highways.

I think the reason is that suburban animals have learned that humans are not dangerous most of the time and so they don't bother trying to avoid us. Animals in the backcountry still have the fear of man and even a lone backpacker on a trail makes plenty of noise to send wild animals scampering.

However in the backcountry there are animals that you will seldom or never see in the city. But you may have to be content with seeing signs of them.

Above is a picture that may not look like anything to you. But as I was hiking the Western Taum Sauk trail recently it really stood out. The forest floor was covered in leaf litter. But I kept seeing places like this where the leaves had been pushed away and the ground had been dug up. This is where a feral pig has been rooting around, searching for something to eat. You can learn about the problem of feral hogs in Missouri here.

On my Bell Mountain Wilderness hike I came across the following set of prints near Joe's Creek.

Since the prints seemed to be following the trail I thought they might be from a large dog accompanying some previous hiker. But then I realized they were much too big for any dog I know of. Notice the comparison with my own foot below.

Afterward I checked with some people who know a lot about such things and they confirmed that these were bear prints. (The clue is that all the toes are in a line rather than the center toes being forward as they would be for a cougar or dog.)

I've also seen a lot of scat (droppings) while on the trail. Lately it has been largely composed of persimmon seeds. Persimmon trees are native to Missouri and produce a lot of fruit. I'm not sure whether these are hog or bear droppings.

Owl pellets are another sign that is common. You even see them in the suburbs sometimes. As a scout I would sometimes see owl pellets in New Mexico. They were small and contained lots of tiny bones. The owl pellets I see here in Missouri can be really big! We have larger owls here I guess. The big pellets seem to be from owls that have eaten a rabbit because large amounts of rabbit fur are what you see.

Beavers are also common in Missouri but I've never seen one. Generally you only see the dam they make. This weekend I'll be hiking in an area where people have reported seeing beaver dams. Perhaps I'll take a picture.

I'd like to see signs of a bobcat or a cougar. Bobcats are common in the Ozarks. It used to be thought that there were no cougars in Missouri but recently they have been seen. A cougar could live pretty well off the deer and feral hogs so it wouldn't surprise me.

The animals and birds I actually have seen in the wild that I don't typically see in the city are

1. Groundhogs
2. Turkey, typically in a flock of about 10
3. Snakes (Osage copperhead, black rat snake, some kind of water snake I can't identify).
4. Turkey vulture
5. Bald Eagles

Hopefully this list will get longer as I spend more time backpacking.

Winter tarping

2008-12-24T11:53:00.018-05:00

On my recent hikes I've been using my bivy with no other weather protection. I bring a tarp just in case but on all my recent trips I've known that the chance of rain was slight. Snow would also not a problem. Last winter I went on a night when 8 inches of snow was predicted. I slept in the bivy with my frogg toggs rain jacket draped over my face. In the middle of the night I was awakened briefly by the soft sound of snow falling on the bivy. It was quite pleasant and so I just went back to sleep. In Missouri we don't have these snow storms that they have in the Rocky Mountains where feet of snow may fall accompanied by high winds. Snow fall in Missouri is gentle and accumulation is generally just a few inches. So a bivy and rain jacket is a perfectly adequate shelter.

The winter weather you worry about in Missouri is rain, or rain mixed with ice. This can be much more dangerous than snow storms because you can be wet through on a day where temperatures are hovering around freezing. And these storms are often accompanied by high winds. So I've been experimenting in the back yard to find a setup I would trust. The past few days there has been wind and freezing rain so I thought it was a good opportunity for a backyard test.

I've used tarps quite often of course but mostly with hammocks and that is a little easier because the tarp is tied to trees and the hammock holds you up close to the tarp so it's easy to get a very weather worthy setup. (In fact a hammock and tarp combination is the driest setup you can imagine. Brittany and I were out in hammocks on a night when it rained 8 inches during the night. In the morning the ground had become a swamp. Anyone in a tent would have been miserable because the water and mud would have risen high enough to get in. We were warm and dry all night.) On the ground it's potentially more difficult.

In my last blog entry I showed how I set up an A-frame pitch using my trekking poles and my Equinox 8x10 silnylon tarp. This is a pretty cool setup but since it is open on both ends you would have to face it 90 degrees to the wind to keep windblown rain from getting in. And with the broad side to the wind I'm not sure how it would stand up to strong winds. It might do better with two trees rather than trekking poles but that requires you to find two suitable trees. (Finding two trees the right distance apart in Missouri is easy, that's why hammocking is so convenient, but for ground sleeping you need two trees AND a flat space between them -- that combination is a little harder to find.)

Sgt Rock has great backing site in which he describes several tarp pitches. I choose to try the one he calls the Trapezoid pitch. He recommends it as a very weather-worthy pitch. You tie the middle of the 8 foot side to a tree and stake the opposite end out into the wind.

Then you stake the corners near the tree out.

The resulting space is quite sheltered and long enough to lie in.

I took my bivy and pad out and set them out under the tarp. I napped there for a bit during the rain and wind and it seems reasonable. There was a little spray on my face which I think was caused by turbulence around the the top of the tarp. But I didn't know whether it would be a problem. I could always drape my rain jacket over my head after all. To experiment I left the pad and bivy in place for the next 18 hours. Afterward there were chunks of ice stuck to the tarp but underneath it was quite dry. However the cumulative effect of the spray at the head end (which is the lee side) ended up being pretty substantial. So I'm not sure I like this. I'll need to think some more about how to handle that turbulence issue.

Part of the problem may be that my tarp is a flat tarp. Many ground sleepers who tarp use shaped tarps. There are many types of these but at the least you typically have a "beak" on the end so that the highest point is not open to the elements. This idea was first popularized by Ray Jardine, the father of ultralight backpacking in general and tarping in particular. Now you find beaks on many tarps.

Another area of concern is stakes. I use Gossamer Gear Tite-Lite titanium stakes. These stakes are lightweight but they have a problem or two. From the picture below you can see that they are rather dull in color. Not a problem up against the wood table in the picture. But imagine trying to find one in the woods after a gust of wind has yanked it out of the ground. About a year ago I was experimenting in my back yard and lost one this way. For all a know it's still there because I never found it.

In the picture you also see two products I was testing for adding some color to the stakes (titanium doesn't take paint well I'm told). One is reflective tape and the other is shrink tubing that electricians use (I don't know what they use it for).

The shrink tubing is really cool. You just cut a piece about an inch long,...

slip it over the head of your stake, and heat with a lighter (or some other heat source).

The result seems just as good as the reflective tape (can you tell which is which in the picture below?) because the colors are bright enough that they stand out well in nature. I've never lost one since I did this treatment.

But now that I'm experimenting with winter tarping I'm finding another problem. The ground in my backyard was frozen and getting the stakes in was a challenge. In fact when I pulled the stakes up I found that one of them was bent. It makes me wonder if I need a more robust set of stakes for winter conditions.

Stephanie and Dad camping!

2008-12-14T18:29:00.000-05:00

Stephanie, my two-year old has noticed that camping is something Dad does and that he often takes kids with him. I've noticed her talking a lot about it lately and I think she was dropping a hint. She's not really up to camping but a few days ago I did set up a tarp in the back yard and we "camped" for about 20 minutes. She's been talking about it ever since. She'll just walk up to me and say "we went camping!" She loves to look at these pictures too.

The tarp I used was my 8x10 foot tarp and I set it up between my trekking poles rather than tying to trees. The poles are just setting on the ground, not stuck into the ground. The tension of the tarp keeps the poles upright which in term keeps the tarp up.

The thing you see hanging from the tarp above us is my candle lantern. It's kind of cool thing. It's just a candle that is sheltered from the wind but it gives quite a bit of light (which you can't tell here because of the flash).

So here we are snuggled in our quilts and warm clothes. Stephanie was so excited she kept getting up and jumping up and down, hitting the tarp with her head. After about 20 minutes though we headed back in. I knew she would never be able to get to sleep in this new and exciting environment. But that didn't matter. What did matter is that she and her dad went "camping" together!

Western Taum Sauk to Bell Mountain

2008-12-12T15:14:00.002-05:00

Ever since I hiked the Eastern Taum Sauk trail with the scouts I've been wanting to go back and hike the Western half of the trail. So this weekend I did it. Well technically I only hiked as far as Bell Mountain but since I had caught the the rest of the trail when I hiked to Bell Mountain from the highway A trailhead I have completed the whole Taum Sauk section of the Ozark Trail. Well, even that I will have to qualify because there is a section of the trail between the East and West sections that is closed to hikers. More on that later.

These two maps cover the area I hiked. On Friday night I parked and camped at the North Bell trailhead (top right of the top map). The next morning a friend, Bill Fordyce, picked me up and drove me to the start of my hike at the bottom of the lower map. I hiked all day Saturday and the camped on top of Bell and Sunday morning walked down to my car and drove home.

On these maps you can see several way points marked. For some of them I have pictures and you can also click on the way point number and be taken to a Google map of that area.

TS11 -- Because of the reservoir breach in 2005 the middle section of the Taum Sauk trail,which passes through Johnson Shut-Ins state park has been closed. This temporary drop-off serves in place of a trailhead for those who want to hike the Western Taum Sauk Trail. This sign post was just off the road. It says 13 miles to the Bell Mountain Wilderness but that's just to the edge of the wilderness. I camped about .8 miles past that on the peak of Bell.

TS10 -- 1.6 miles. Power line crossing. You can see it if you click the satellite view google maps you can see it. Not tremendously interesting but I was able to get a good shot that shows that there are pine trees in the Ozarks as well as hardwoods like Oak and Hickory. I think these are white pine. I understand the white pine used to dominate the Ozarks but over time the hardwoods have taken over. Not sure why.

TS9 -- 2.8 miles. Near the top of Goggins Mountain there are glades (visible in satellite view with google maps)

TS8 -- 4.2 miles. There is a side trail here which forms a loop (the Goggins Mountain Trail) which is supposed to be quite nice. But it is also closed for construction (unrelated to the Johnson Shut-Ins construction). Didn't matter anyway because I couldn't find the side trail. As near as I can figure it was somewhere near this boulder field.

TS6 -- 7.2 miles. The remains of an old house are here.

Not interesting in and of themselves but Bill Fordyce, who knows the area well, told me that behind the house is a spring. I filled up my water bottles at this spring.

Crossing for the Padfield Branch which is a creek that empties into the Middle Fork Black River (which empties into the Black River, etc).

TS4 -- 9.7 miles. More glades with a view. Considered the southern tip of Bell Mountain even though the landscape goes down again before rising up to Bell proper.

The view is of Goggins Mountain that I had just come down from to the Padfield Branch crossing. This was one of three places I had cell phone reception on the trail. The top of Goggins Mountain and the top of Bell Mountain proper were the other two. I stopped here and made myself a hot lunch.

TS3 -- 11.1 miles. Fork in the trail.
I was coming from the right in the picture. If I were to have continued I would have come to the the Hwy A trailhead where I started the last time I hiked Bell. (Hwy A trailhead is where the Taum Sauk section of the Ozark Trail meets the Trace Creek section. Council Bluff lake is a side trail off the Trace Creek section). So at this point no matter which way I went I would be going over trail I had hiked. The picture is taken looking down the Bell Mountain trail which is where I went to get to the peak.

BM2 -- 13.8 miles. The glade at the summit of Bell where I met some fellow hikers. We had planned on coming to see the meteor shower but the weather clouded over so we didn't see any meteors.

The guy in the yellow tent is Bill Fordyce. It was his idea to meet on top of Bell to look at the meteors. He's a really cool guy. He lives up there in the Ozark mountains.

Here was my camp setup.

I knew that the weather was going to be windy so I knew a hammock or a tarp wouldn't be very fun. So I went with the bivy. The temperature wasn't very cold so I used the Air Core pad with just my Nite-Lite torso pad under my shoulder-to-hip area. My legs could feel the cold of the air pad so I put my coat under my legs and I was warm. Actually I was almost too warm. During the night I stripped my thermals off. In a bivy you always worry about condensation. Interestingly I found no condensation on the top of the bivy where I would expect it but I did found condensation under the air mattress. It seems that some of the moist air from my body drifted under the air mattress and condensed against the cold underside of the bivy. Not really a problem though since moisture under the mattress can't get either me or my bag wet.

North Bell Trailhead. -- 17.3 miles. Where I left my car (and where I camped on Friday night). I hiked this last 3.5 miles pretty fast, about 75 minutes. I was with a fellow I met on the mountain. He likes to hike fast as well and do long miles. We're thinking about doing a trip together at some point.

I did some pretty serious hiking on Saturday (I was trying to make it to the summit before sundown). I'm a little sore today. I'm afraid I didn't sleep very well Saturday night because the wind was so loud. It's funny, I always think to use ear plugs in the summer because of bugs. But here it is December and I needed earplugs because of the wind! Not what I expected, but there is always something unexpected when you are backpacking.

Layering Clothing for Winter

2008-12-09T23:08:00.001-05:00

One thing that surprises people when they begin to hike in the winter is how much your need for insulation can fluctuate. Natalie and I found that out on our recent hike up Buford Mountain. It was something I should have remembered from my distance running days.

When Natalie and I arrived at the mountain it was several hours after dark and the temperature was in the mid 20s with a wind blowing. Stepping out of the car at the trailhead with my little girl I thought "what have I done?" We bundled up in our warmest coats, hats, and gloves (my fingers quickly became numb while trying to adjust my pack straps) and began walking. I was dreading the evening ahead of us. But within a few minutes we were unzipping the coats. As the climb became steep we were removing our hats and gloves. I would have taken the coat all the way off but it was inconvenient with the pack. So we were hiking with winds and below freezing temperatures and feeling hot.

You should think about your body the way you think about a car or a steam engine. It's hard to get going in the cold but once you get started moving your muscles produce a tremendous amount of heat. When I was running I learned that if I were comfortable at the beginning of a long run then I would be sweating 15 minutes later. You need to start by feeling a little cold.

The difference between hiking and running is that typically you only stop running at the end, when you are about to get into your car or house and go for a hot shower. But during a hike you may stop to rest many times. At these times you find out that your muscles quickly stop heating you up and you get cold in a hurry. If you were sweaty when you stopped then that heat loss is hugely accelerated and you can quickly begin to suffer from hypothermia.

So it's important for a hiker to dress in layers that can be easily removed and put back on. Also each layer should be made of some material that will wick moisture but still keep you warm when it's a bit moist. So cotton is OUT. The saying among search and rescue teams is "the best-dressed corpses wear cotton."

Natalie and I did some things right and some things wrong on this trip. I'll show you what we wore.

Base Layer
The layer closest to your skin is called the "base layer". Here is a very unflattering picture of me wearing my base layer.

The two types of materials most favored for base layers are polypropylene and wool. Here I am using both. My shirt is an Icebreaker 200 merino wool top. My bottoms are polypropylene thermals. My socks are Smartwool hiking socks.

Most people are used to thinking of wool as being scratchy and not something you would want against your skin. However merino wool is much finer and softer than other wool. The icebreaker top I'm wearing is as soft to the touch as any cotton T-shirt. Wool is a great insulator and will keep you warm even if it is wet. The advantage of wool compared to synthetics is that it seems to never absorb odors. I know this sounds unlikely but I have tested it. I have worn this top on a number summer hiking trips and got pretty sweaty (particularly my back because of the pack). In between I didn't wash the top. After 5 or 6 times I was stunned that it smelled the same as it did the first day. Synthetics don't have this property as any runner (or their family) can tell you.

The polypropylene bottoms I picked up at a military surplus store. In the military they wear something like this as part of their Extended Cold Weather Clothing System (ECWCS) apparently. They are very warm.

Insulation Layer
Over your base layer you put on a layer that can be removed if you get too hot. Some people call this the "fleece layer". That's a marketing gimic made up by the people who sell fleece material. Fleece makes an excellent insulation layer and is warmer per ounce than wool. But wool has other advantages as I've mentioned. Here is Natalie and me in our Icebreaker tops that we use for insulation layer. Mine is a 260 zip top (in the picture it is zipped all the way down) and hers is a hoody. We love our Icebreaker tops but they are very pricey!

One interesting thing about my top is that it has a thumb hole in the sleeve. You can put your thumb through that hole and if you pull anything on over the top (like a jacket or gloves) the sleeve will stay down by your wrist rather than sliding up your arm. Pretty clever.

Wind Layer
The problem with insulating materials like wool or fleece is that they are not windproof. A good stiff wind will cut right through to your skin and steal your warmth. Many people react by getting a warmer jacket when all they really need is something to stop the wind. This is my wind shirt that my lovely wife made for me using the Liberty Ridge kit from Thru-Hiker. He sells materials and patterns for backpackers who like to make their own gear (I bought the materials for my synthetic quilts from him). This top is made of a very thin but water resistant/breathable material called Momentum 90. The entire thing only weighs 2.2 ounces! It's so small that when I take it off I can put it in my pocket when I feel warm and want more ventilation.

In the picture I'm also wearing REI Sahara pants which are made of nylon. These are actually convertible pants so you can zip off the bottoms and have shorts. I have no use for that in the winter but I can't see a reason to have summer pants and winter pants. In both cases you need a wind layer on the bottom.

Now you'll notice that I'm wearing 3 layers on top and only 2 on the bottom. That's pretty common. My bottom base layer is extra warm and so it's sort of a combination base layer/insulation layer.

Now for Natalie I didn't have any insulation layer that would fit under her nylon camping pants so I had her wear these snow pants. Perhaps overkill but remember that I'm a paranoid parent. The sides do unzip (as you can see here) so she could ventilate if she needed to. Underneath she wore a thin base layer.

The mistake that Natalie and I made was to bring warm coats. I didn't even put my wind shirt on because a coat is essentially an insulation layer and a wind layer in one. But therein is the problem. A coat is not adjustable enough. I would have been better off with a down vest that would fit under my wind layer (I have a larger wind shirt I could use for that purpose). That would make one small piece that I could take on and off easily. On Saturday when we were hiking and it got above freezing it was too hot to wear a coat but not warm enough to do without it entirely.

We'll do better next time.

Father and daughter on Buford Mountain

2008-12-06T15:19:00.001-05:00

My daughter Natalie (who is 10) and I just got back from an overnight backpacking trip to Buford Mountain. Buford Mountain is in the same general are of the Ozarks as Taum Sauk, Bell Mountain, and Council Bluff Lake, all of which I've blogged about recently. The terrain is very rocky with occasional glades from which there are views.

View Larger Map
The entrance to the park is straight south of the peak, just off Hwy U in the above map. In fact you can see the first part of the trail in that map as well. It looks like a road that comes off of Hwy U and goes straight north and then ends. In fact it appears that you used to be able to drive closer to the mountain than you can now. The current parking lot is right off U and the first part of the trail is along the old road. In the trail map below you can see a place called "old lot". That's where the road dead ends and the trail begins. It appears it used to be a parking lot for hikers to leave their cars.

Buford is a fun mountain to climb because once you get on the trail it's nearly a straight shot north and you are at the top in under an hour (I probably could have done it in 30 minutes but Natalie can't go that fast).

Natalie and I didn't start until quite late at night because we got off late. So it was all night hiking. The moon wasn't full but it was fairly clear while we hiked and so it was surprisingly light. We used my little LED light to keep from tripping on rocks. We got to our camp site at about 10pm.

As you can see from the map the peak is fairly flat and that's where we camped. I planned to camp there because it was the only flat spot and we were going to be sleeping on the ground rather than in hammocks (it's amazing how convenient hammocks are in terms of site selection). It was forecast to be in the 20s overnight and so I worried a lot about us getting cold.

Now I have to laugh at myself because I made some of the same mistakes I was joking about in my post about heavy weight backpacking. I was so concerned about my little girl getting cold that I ended up carrying too much weight. But at least it was me that was being burdened down and not her. I'll go through what gear I brought and what was useful and what was just along for the ride.

First of all I should point out that in a winter backpacking trip the parent is going to be carrying quite a bit of the child's gear. If I don't like to carry more than 20% of my body weight then I really shouldn't expect a child with immature bones to carry anything like that much. Now Natalie weighs 50 pounds soaking wet so I want her to carry less than 10 pounds. In the summer that's easy. In the winter it's hard so I carry a fair amount.

We own a very old child sized down mummy bag from my wife's childhoood. It's an REI bag that dates to the 70s I think. But down lasts a long time and when you fluff it up it has a lot of loft. It weighs 42 ounces which is a lot for a down bag, even a child's down bag. I'm guessing it was originally a zero degree bag. When Natalie is fully snuggled in it it's hard to believe she could get cold at night.

Of course when winter camping there is always the issue of cold face since your face has to be exposed to the cold air so you can breath. Natalie handles this by wearing her stocking cap to bed and then pulling it down over her eyes and almost over her nose, leaving just enough space to breath.

For myself I think I hit on a good but different solution. I have a down coat with a hood that zips off. I snuggle my quilt under my chin (so I don't breath into the down quilt) and wear the hood to bed. Then I sleep on my side and turn the hood so that it covers most of my face. I can see just a sliver between my pillow and the edge of the hood.

Part of the weight I was carrying was an extra pad for Natalie. Since I knew the ground was going to be rocky I brought the Big Agnes air pad for me and I a Therma-Rest Trail Lite in size small (48 inches) for Natalie. The terma-rest pad weighs about 20 ounces. Interestingly it seems that they don't make that size any more. In addition I wanted each of us to have two CCF pads, one for under the air mattress and one for over the air mattress. I own a full length RidgeRest and I bought her a short one. She carried that one (it's only 9 ounces). It's designed to be a torso-length pad but for her it works as a full length path since she's only 48 inches tall. She used that under her air pad and she used the NiteLite pad (that I use for my pack frame) on top of her air pad. I used a Walmart CCF pad for under the Big Agnes and the RidgeRest for on top. So in total we had 6 pads of which I was carrying 5.

I also decided not to carry an ultralight stove. I had heard that the best kind of stove for cold weather is a "white gas" stove. So I called my mother and asked her to send me my SVEA 123R that I had received as a scout. It was used when I got it but it 25 years ago but it still works great. It's one of the most popular backpacking stoves ever made.

The stove comes with it's own windscreen and a small pot (1 1/2 cups) and potholder. However I wanted to use a larger pot so I just took the burner.

The burner itself is an interesting piece of engineering. When you open the fuel cap to fill it you can see a long wick curled inside. It runs up through the neck up to the burner. To get it started you can put some fuel in a little dimple at the base of the neck and light it. This will heat the neck and pressurize the stove. Some people carry a separate bottle of fuel (or even alcohol) just for this purpose. But there is an even easier way to do this in cold weather which I tried on this trip. In the morning the stove was very cold but I was warm. I held the base in my hands and it absorbed heat from my hands which created pressure inside the stove. Then I turned the key and fuel began gently bubbling up. I lit this fuel and in a few seconds the stove was roaring away. Truly a brilliant design! But it's not lightweight by modern standards (19 ounces).

When I bring an alcohol stove or an Esbit stove I carry the stove (and windscreen and pot) in a ziplock container that I can use for measuring water for meals. In this case I decided to carry the large windscreen I made for my woodgas stove. I decided to carry this in a Lexan water bottle I owned. I know these aren't lightweight but it was a convenient way to carry with windscreen (rolled up small) and it still left room for my candle lantern and matches.

We also mixed our hot cocoa in this Lexan bottle so at least it served some useful functions. The candle lantern was just along for the ride though. We had originally intended to read Watership Down to each other at night but since it was so late we left it in the car (Natalie had read to me while we were driving) and went straight to sleep when we set up camp so the lantern wasn't used at all. It only weighs 6.2 ounces so I can't feel too bad about that.

But the biggest waste of the trip was an extra blanket I brought. It was one of those "last minute worried parent" kind of things. I saw it in my car and just threw it in so we could us in case we got cold. But with our sleeping setup (including my down jacket which I could take inside the quilt for extra warmth) it served no purpose. It wasn't even very lightweight at 22.8 ounces. It's meant for picnics. I did roll it up as a pillow but that's a pretty heavy pillow!

In the "minor wasted weight" category I have two entries.

1. I realized afterward I had brought four extra pair of socks! Now two would make sense: extra liner socks and extra wool socks. But in addition I brought one more pair of wool socks and some sealskinz waterproof socks. I suppose I could be forgiven for the sealskinz since there was a (remote) possibility of snow that night and so keeping my feet dry would have been important in that case.

2. Upon arriving home I realized I had also carried my water filter. Now that was just along for the ride. At this time of year you won't find any liquid water so a filter is superfluous. I just hadn't realized it was at the bottom of my food bag!

I did bring more food than we needed and also more water but I don't count that as a waste because you never know when things will go bad and you might need to spend a few unplanned hours in the backcountry. Having not enough food or water in that case makes a bad situation worse.

In the morning after our cocoa and eggs (actually quite tasty! could be the added MSG I suppose) we hiked some more. We didn't have a lot of time because Natalie had an commitment back in Chesterfield at 1:30 but we did make it to the second peak north of the main peak. We stopped in a glade and rested. It turned into a really nice day. There seem to be a higher proportion of hickory trees on this mountain than I have seen on other mountain in the Ozarks (although there are always plenty). The whole trail was littered with hickory nuts. One thing that was really cool were all the Frost Flowers that had formed during the night. We didn't get a picture but here is one I stole off the web. They seem to grow around the stems of dried plants most often. They are amazingly delicate, fragile even. We wanted to bring one home but we ended up crushing it by accident. I have no idea why they get so beautiful. Many are quite large and the shapes are quite varied. The picture below isn't as pretty as most of the ones we saw.

In my next blog entry I'll talk about cold weather clothes: what I currently use and what I want to change for my future winter trips.

Building a Woodgas Backpacking Stove

2008-11-30T10:33:00.000-05:00

In previous posts I've mentioned that I generally use an alcohol stove or Esbit tablets to boil water for rehydrating meals while backpacking. However the concept of using a wood stove is beginning to catch on among backpackers. The reason is that the fuel is available in the forest so you don't have to carry any fuel. I've been experimenting with this for a few months and I now have a design I like and am confident enough with to use on backpacking trips. In this post I'll show you how to make it.

Now in general I am opposed to collecting firewood in the wilderness because dead wood plays an important part in the forest ecosystem and if every hiker made a fire then the forest would suffer. However I am going to show you how to build a stove that can cook a pretty big meal with literally a handful of twigs (what most people would use as kindling to start a regular fire) so the impact is very small.

There are two keys to this efficiency. First we will cook with flames rather than coals so we don't need to wait around until coals have formed. Second we will design the stove for more efficient combustion. In fact what we will burn is woodgas. Woodgas is the gas that is formed when wood is heated. It's an excellent fuel. In fact during WWII there were tractors with internal combustion engines that used woodgas for fuel. Our stove will be a downdraft gasifier, meaning that the wood will burn from the top down. The stove design I will be following is basically the Garlington woodgas stove with a few modifications in the windscreen and potstand.

To begin with take a normal soup can and cut the top and bottom off. It's nicest to do this with something like a Good Cook can opener which leaves no sharp edges.
Next decide which end of the can will be the bottom of the stove. Cut some tabs in the side of the can and bend them toward the middle. Now cut a circle of hardware cloth (or wire mesh) to fit inside the can. The tabs will hold this up.
What you are looking at in the picture above is how we get primary air to the stove. Air comes in the holes at the bottom that we cut the tabs out of and then flows up through the hardware cloth to the wood.

Now we need to make some holes for secondary air. This is the air that will mix with the woodgas to produce the flame we will cook on. Flip the can over and cut some slits in the side of the can near the top. Then insert a scredriver into each hole and bend the can so that the slits turn into vents leading from the outside of the can up and into the can.

At this point the stove itself is done. We fill the stove with twigs about the diameter of a pencil broken into pieces. I've found that it works best if I make the pieces about 3 inches long and put them in the stove the long way. The other approach is the make shorter pieces and just pour them into the stove. I find standing the twigs upright seems to help with airflow.

Now we can put a little kindling on top and start a fire. This is counter-intuitive because we are used to starting a fire the other way, with kindling on the bottom igniting wood above. But in this case it is very important that the fire burn from the top down. What happens is that the top layer quickly forms into a layer of charcoal. The wood below is heated and woodgas and air rise through this charcoal and a reaction called pyrolysis takes place. A main product of this reaction is hydrogen gas and that is what will burn when it meets the secondary air coming in from the holes at the top. In fact the way you know your stove is working correctly is that a few minutes after starting you will see that the only flames appear to be shooting into the stove from the secondary air holes. The flame will be quite steady and fairly blue in color (perfect combustion would yield a blue flame, yellow indicates some lack of efficiency).

Now in order to make this a good system for heating water I needed to rig some way to suspend a pot above the stove. I also needed some way to block the wind so it doesn't carry all the heat of the flame away before it can heat the pot. Actually a wind screen serves a secondary purpose in this case. The air around the stove inside the windscreen will become quite warm and so the secondary air entering the stove will be preheated, contributing to more efficient burning.

I built my windscreen/pot-stand out of a sheet of aluminum roof flashing. I drilled two holes and put wing nuts in them to hold the flashing in a cylindrical shape. Then I cut triangular holes in the bottom for air to enter. Last I drilled four holes about 1 1/4 inches from the top into which I can insert two tent stakes. The pot will sit on these stakes about 1 1/2 inches above the top of the stove. Using tent stakes is a perfect example of a dual use item. My total pack weight is reduced by carrying items I can use for more than one purpose. I always have to carry tent stakes for my tarp. So I might as well put them to good use.

The pot I use is an AntiGravityGear 3-cup aluminum pot. It's a great little pot. About the right size, very light, inexpensive, and the outside is already black so the black residue from the fire won't make it look bad. I sized the windscreen to allow a gap of less than an inch all the way around the pot for fumes to escape.

In the pot is 16 ounces of cold water (I kept it outside overnight and the temperature was in the high 30s). After a few minutes I have a nice rolling boil. That's not smoke in the picture, it's steam. A good woodgas stove produces almost no smoke. After a few minutes of boiling the flame begins to die down. Inside the stove is a pile of glowing charoal. After a few minutes this has been reduces to a fine ash, probably about 1 tablespoon full. So in this way also the impact on the forest is very small.

The downside of a downdraft woodgas stove is that all the fuel has to be in before you start the fire. You can't add wood later. Another way to build a backpacking wood stove would be to make a very similar system to the one I have built but also allow a space for wood to be fed in. You also get fairly efficient burning (better than a camp fire) because of the secondary air supply but it's not a true woodgas stove. However in some instances that might be better because it would allow you more control over how long a burn you need. You could keep such a fire going indefinitely if needed. However I like this system better. Mostly just because it's so cool!

Review of the GoLite Ultra 20 down quilt

2008-11-22T01:00:00.000-05:00

I picked up a new piece of gear this week. My homemade quilts are synthetic and quite thin, perfect for spring or fall camping but not good for winter. So I bought a new quilt which is down-filled. It's an Ultra 20 from GoLite. It's rated at 20 degrees, meaning that it's supposed to keep you comfortable at temperatures of 20 degrees or higher.
Down is the warmest insulation you can get for it's weight (for those interested in the down vs synthetic debate scroll down to the bottom of this post for my thoughts on the subject). GoLite uses very high quality down in this quilt (800 fill power) so it's amazingly light. In addition to being light weight down is also highly compressible. Amazingly this quilt can be put into this tiny stuff sack.
The quilt and stuff sack together weigh only 20.1 ounces on my scale.

I had heard mixed reviews about this quilt. Some people feel that the company was too optimistic in calling it a 20 degree quilt. It's always been reasonably priced ($225) but I found an amazing sale and got it for $168.75. I figured that for that price it couldn't be too bad. So on Friday night I took it outside for a test. It was 22 degrees, just perfect to see if this bag would really live up to it's temperature rating. The short answer (for those who don't like to read all the way to the bottom of an article) is that it passed with flying colors. I love this quilt!

Temperature ratings in general are nonsense. There is no amount of insulation that is right for every person to sleep comfortably at a given temperature (if you don't believe that then get married). Fortunately I only needed to know if this bag would keep ME comfortable in the cold. I tend to be a warm sleeper anyway (I use very few blankets at home). And like most lightweight hikers I sleep in my hiking clothes. So I wore the clothes I would be wearing on a hike in this weather (two layers of wool on my upper body, thick polypropylene thermals on my lower body, thin liner socks and wool socks over them). So this makes it more likely that this quilt would be adequate for me personally. On the other hand most people understand a 20 degree temperature rating to mean you would be comfortable in a tent. I'm not a tent person anyway so I was conducting this test under the stars: no tent or bivy.

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been cold while sleeping on top of Taum Sauk mountain when using two summer quilts. Looking back on it I think that was not all the fault of the quilts. I think I made a mistake in how I set up my sleeping arrangements. On that trip I used an air mattress for comfort. It is a good quality air mattress but air mattresses are problematic from a warmth perspective. The bottom side of the mattress becomes cold against the cold ground while the top is warmed by your body. Convection currents within the mattress bring the cold air up to your underside and cools you off from underneath. My Big Agnes Insulated AirCore mattress has some Primaloft insulation inside to try and cut down on these convection currents but it can't eliminate them. Last night it was much colder and I noticed it right away when I lay on the air mattress alone.

I had read that the warmest way to sleep in the winter is with 3 pads. You put one closed-cell foam pad on the ground, the air mattress on top of that, and another closed-cell foam pad on top of that. So I tried it. I put my Walmart CCF pad on the bottom and my RidgeRest on top. That's a lot of pads and a lot of weight but since it was just in the backyard I didn't mind experimenting.

One interesting thing about the Ultra 20 is that it has detachable straps which can be used to hold the quilt down to the pad as you can see in this photo from the manufacturer.

However in the picture they have a short RidgeRest and I own a full length one. The footbox of the quilt is too narrow to allow the pad to lay flat inside it. I think the idea is that if you have a full-length pad you should let the pad be outside the footbox. But I bent the edges of the pad up into a half-pipe and shoved it inside. I think that was a great idea actually. It held the bag away from my feet. My feet were wonderfully warm. In fact after a few minutes I had to take off my wool socks and just leave my liner socks on. But I noticed that if I reached up with my foot and touched the corner of the footbox it felt cold. So I think I will try this strategy again in the future on very cold trips.

I was toasty warm, even without the wool socks. In fact I probably would have been fine with only one layer of wool. I was very impressed. Of course part of this may have been that I was also very careful to keep my head warm. I wore a down hood that I zipped off my parka. Preventing heat loss from your head goes a long way toward keeping your whole body warm.

Many people make a serious mistake with their down bags. They store them in their stuff sacks so the down is fully compressed. This can cause the down to lose it's lofting ability over time. To maximize the life of your down bag or quilt you should store it fully lofted hanging in a large bag.

The Down vs Synthetic Debate

Warning: verbose explanation of obscure branch of knowledge follows.

Backpackers are divided about whether down or synthetic insulation is better. It is well known that down is warmer per unit weight and packs down smaller. Since backpackers are so concerned about weight (and, to a lesser extent, bulk) you might think that everyone would prefer down. However there is a "downside" to down if you will pardon the pun. Synthetic insulation is not much affected by getting wet. Both synthetic insulation and down will survive a wetting of course, that's not the concern. What I mean is that the insulating properties of synthetic insulation are much less affected by whether the insulation is wet or dry. Dry is better of course but if you and your gear got soaked on a cold day (say you fell in a stream or got caught in a winter rainstorm) and you wrapped yourself in your wet synthetic sleeping bag it would keep you warm and could save your life -- a down bag won't under the same conditions.

To understand why you must understand why insulation (natural or synthetic) works. The purpose of insulation is to trap tiny pockets of air. Your body produces heat in your muscles and this warms whatever is next to you. Convection will carry that heat away from you as the warm air next to your skin rises away from you and mixes with the colder air around you. Insulation prevents this by trapping that warm air. Now a balloon traps air but surrounding yourself with filled balloons won't keep you very warm. That's because inside the balloon convection currents would occur within each balloon which would exchange heat from the warm side of the balloon (your side) and the cold side of the balloon (the side away from you).

Insulation is something that traps air in such small spaces that no convection currents can be established. So most of any insulation is air pockets. They aren't sealed pockets like a balloon though. But they do make it hard for air to move around. Now if you squeeze the insulation the air will escape and the insulation will no longer function. So the insulation must be allowed to maintain it's loft in order to keep you warm.

Now go back to your wet sleeping bag. When a down bag or quilt gets wet the down clumps together and you have no loft. Synthetic insulation doesn't lose it's loft when it gets wet. So if you have a down bag you must be careful to keep it dry.

That doesn't sound like much of a concern does it? You can keep the down quilt in a waterproof bag in your pack so that rain or an accidental drop into a stream won't wet it. And presumably your shelter will keep water from getting on you while you sleep (it's not much of a shelter if it doesn't). Proponents of synthetic insulation will say that "the best laid plans ...". Of course it's the unforeseen accidents that could end up being dangerous. Hypothermia is nothing to mess with.

Fair enough, if you go with down you have to be extra cautious. However there is another problem. Our bodies are constantly giving off water, quite a bit over the course of a night. Our breath is the biggest source but not the only source. Our pores are constantly giving off moisture to keep our skin from getting dry. This moisture gets trapped in the insulation with the warm air. If it stays warm then there's no real problem. But on a cold night the moisture will condense in the outer layers of the insulation. In fact it may even form ice crystals. So in the morning you ought to air out your sleeping bag and let it get warmed by the sun if possible. If it's too cold then this won't be possible. Climbers on Mount Everest report that their sleeping bags get heavier and heavier each night as the ice accumulates. If the bag is a down bag then each night you lose a little insulation value too. Not a good thing.

What can you do to minimize the moisture in your down bag? First of all don't breath in the bag. There's a temptation to cover your head and keep your face warm. But then all the moisture from your breath enters the bag. Instead I like to drape a jacket over my face when it's cold at night with a little space for my breath to escape. Second, in extreme cold weather you need to keep the moisture from your skin from entering the down by using a vapor barrier. A vapor barrier is a waterproof layer than keeps the moisture from your skin from leaving. A thin plastic bag is the simplest type. Very soon after you put it on the humidity next to your skin will rise to a level at which the body no longer worries about the skin drying out so it stops releasing moisture through your pores. This cuts down on your heat loss as well as protecting your bag.

So where do I come "down" in this debate? Well I feel that you should always use the right tool for the right job. The greatest danger from hypothermia is actually when temperatures are above freezing, like 40 degrees. Think about this: compare how cold you get when you get rained on compared to when snow falls on you. Or compare falling into a snowbank to falling into a puddle on a cool day in terms of which is more unpleasant. When the water around you is solid there is little danger of getting yourself or your bag wet so down is fine (provided you take proper precautions). In the spring and fall when cold rain is likely to fall I want to have synthetic insulation in my bag as an insurance policy.

Heavy backpacking hall of shame

2008-11-11T13:24:00.000-05:00

Just before my recent trip with the scouts I saw a post by a friend on a backpacking board who goes by Phat entitled "Anti-Light Gear" in which he was asking for nominations for the worst weight offenders that we commonly see backpackers bring. He suggested the following quite insightful, though humorous, categories.

1) Most often oversold (they needed a volkswagen, but got sold a lambhorgini)
2) Best Newbie trap (market to the clueless! it works!)
3) Most Overbuilt/Overweight (How much heavy crap can they put on it)
4) High Maintenance Prince/Princess Magnet (Attracts those who have to make the woods just like the suburbs)
5) Machismo Magnet (being a lawyer/stockbroker/computer geek isn't that manly, but carrying *this* in the woods is)
6) Gets taken for a ride (it always goes, but never gets used)

I had to laugh at this categorization but I think he has really hit it on the head in some areas. I decided to do a little research while on the scout trip. Many of the scouts were burdened down with heavy packs so I tried to figure out why. Here's what I found.

Backpacks
Interestingly the worst offenders seemed to be the backpacks themselves. Here is one that I saw.

It's a Kelty pack called the Yukon 3000 and one of retailers online says it is "popular with scouts". I think that ought to be a warning, not a recommendation. This monster is 4 lbs 9 ounces empty. That's the youth size. Several of the adult leaders have the large size and it's several ounces heavier. Want to talk about useless features? It has a separate metal bar called a "hold-open bar" which is needed for what exactly? Perhaps it's to hold the pack open so this beast doesn't bite off your arm while you are reaching in.

The irony is that this pack isn't even that inexpensive. It sells for $110 (although I saw a sale price of $89 somewhere).

By comparison the larger of my two packs (the Mariposa) weighs 16.8 ounces and has more internal space (I guess the Kelty people expect you to strap your sleeping bag to the outside so it can get rained on). I think it cost about the same when I bought it. It's been discontinued now but there is a boy-sized one on sale right now for $50. Some parent should grab that quick rather than dooming their scout to being a beast of burden. But even if that one is gone it is always possible to get a very nice, lightweight, but still high capacity pack for under $150.

Interestingly this wasn't the worst pack I saw. Others had multitudinous compartments and straps everywhere. Some were very nearly as big as the kids carrying them. I don't think any of them were under 4 pounds.

Interestingly Gossamer Gear was started by an engineer who got involved with his sons scout troop and then began thinking about the problem of pack weight.

Extra Clothes
Okay, time for truth here. A scout's worst enemy is his mother. It's a case of loving your kids to death. Moms worry so much that their little boy won't have something he needs that they load his pack for him and cram it full of "just in case" stuff. The funny part is that the boys don't know it's there and wouldn't use it even if they did. So all that stuff is just "along for the ride".

I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if they didn't pack things like jeans and other things made of cotton. Cotton is a terrible thing to wear while camping. Try this sometime. Get your jeans wet. Hang them outside and come back occasionally to check if they are dry. How many hours does it take? A pair of nylon pants weighs much less and dries very quickly. But mom's dress their boys in jeans and what do they do in case they get wet? The pack more jeans.

I only carry the clothes I'm wearing. My "just in case" clothes are layers I would put on top. All my stuff is either nylon or wool. Nylon dries fast and wool will still keep you warm even if it is wet, unlike cotton.

News flash moms. Boys don't change their clothes anyway. So don't burden junior with extra weight.

Knives
I don't now what it is about scouts and big knives. I guess it's the Rambo spirit in every boy. He wants a knife that could be used to kill a bad guy or field dress a moose. In reality the most you will use a knife for is to cut cord or open a package of food. Many backpackers carry no knife at all.

But what about other tools? We've all seen those swiss army knives with 15 different things.

A corkscrew, what are they thinking? good thing the swiss are neutral in every war if they think a bottle of Chardonnay is battle fare.

Granted my Leatherman Micra P4 has a few things on it but they are the things I need (mainly the blade and the pliers) and the total weight is only 2 ounces.

Nalgene Water Bottles
These are nearly universal with scouts. They are made of Lexan which is amazingly tough, you just about can't break them. Recently the government of Canada banned them because of a chemical used in their manufacture. Now they are made of something different. But the story is still the same. HEAVY. A bottle that carries 32 ounces of water weighs over 6 ounces.

By comparison my water bottle carries 2 liters and weighs only 1.5 ounces. More than twice the capacity for less than 1/4 the weight. Platypus makes one that is very similar and probably more common. I like the Evernew brand because you can't lose the cap.

Sleeping Bags
Actually this one is hard to get very upset about. A good, lightweight pack is cheap but a good, lightweight bag is expensive. But still I think parents only look at the temperature rating of the bag and ask themselves "will my poor boy be warm enough?" when they should be asking "do I really expect my boy to carry this for miles and miles?"

The lightest bags are quilts as I've stated in previous posts. But also the material makes a difference. Down is the lightest option but there are different qualities of down. The best weighs very little but insulates very well. But it's expensive of course. So people need to do the best they can. That's why I'm not too critical of bag choice.

Often money isn't the issue. Sometimes people get a bag that is too much for them because they let themselves be oversold. I was in an REI this summer and I met a girl who was just graduating from law school and wanted to do a long distance hike before selling herself into the white collar wage slavery we call a career. She planned to go somewhere close like the Ozark trail and was planning to go sometime in August. The saleslady was enthusiastically showing her the top of the line bags. A sleeping bag in August? in Missouri? During my August hikes I slept in my underwear in my hammock. No bag is what is needed.

I haven't talked very much about shelters (like tents) or camp stoves. That's because on this trip the scouts were told to sleep under the stars and to bring food that didn't need to be cooked. I'll talk more about lightweight options for stoves and shelter in another post.

Eastern Taum Sauk Trail (with boy scouts)

2008-11-10T14:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend I went with our scouts on an overnight backpacking trip over Taum Sauk mountain. It's the highest mountain in Missouri but of course that doesn't count for much. I think it's something like 1775 feet. It's part of the same St Francois mountain range that I've hiked before. It turns out that the St Francois mountains are among the oldest mountains in the United States. They are much older than the Appalacians and of course the Rockies are just babies in comparison. They are made of an igneous rock called rholite. In the past I've mistakenly called this red granite.

The trail is very rocky and in places you have to scramble up large boulders because that's where the trail goes. In my mind this is another argument for lightweight hiking. It was no trouble for me but I wouldn't want to do it while carrying 50 pounds.

The weather wasn't optimal and we were about 1 week late for the fall colors. On the previous weekend we had hiked the Green Rock Trail in St. Louis at the very height of the fall color season and during perfect weather. That was just a day hike (although it's a pretty streuous 10 miles, I've done it with Kimberly and Brittany before and also done a bit of it with Hyrum). This was an overnighter and we planned to camp on top of the mountain. The colors were still pretty nice as you can see but it had turned cold.

We camped at the top. There is a lookout tower there and nearby there is a glade with a nice view of the surrounding Ozark mountains.

I didn't know what the campsite would look like at the top of the mountain and so I didn't bring my hammock and opted for my bivy instead. On a previous trip with the scouts to fish at Montauk State Park Hyrum and I ended up sleeping in the car because the campground that the scouts picked had no trees. So this time I went to ground to be on the safe side.

Here you can see my setup. Because of the cold I brought both my 40 degree quilts (one is red and one is blue, both are visible in the picture). Inside the bivy you also see my Big Agnes insulated aircore pad. It's 2.5 inches thick and that makes it possible to even sleep on my side like I do in my own bed. It's heavy at 24 ounces but it's worth it.

The small white thing is my FlexAir pillow. It's quite an ingenious device. You insert a drinking straw into a slot on the side of the pillow to either inflate or deflate. When you take the straw out the air can't escape. Your first tendency is to fill it up all the way. The problem there is that it is so small that your head feels unstable, like it's about roll off the pillow. So you actually only fill it part way.

My bivy is an REI minimalist bivy. The term "bivy" is short for bivouac sack. It's basically a one-man tent that is only big enough for you and your sleeping bag. You can zip it shut and you are completely enclosed, although the material over your face is only bug netting so you can still breath. Many, like mine, have no supporting poles. Others have one hoop to keep the material off your face. But a bivy is only water resistant rather than waterproof like a tent. So I brought my poncho/tarp which I could set up over my bivy if it were to rain. That's really the right way to use a bivy. The bivy has enough water resistance so that any wind-blown rain that gets in under the tarp won't get you or your bag wet. The reason that the bivy isn't fully waterproof is because if that were the case there would be severe condensation problems inside the bivy. Even with a breathable but water resistant fabric there is still some condensation. The bug netting over the face helps minimize this by allowing your moist breath to escape but it doesn't eliminate the problem because moisture comes out of your skin all the time anyway. When I wake up in the morning the shell of my quilt is noticeably damp. But nothing serious.

Now I wasn't expecting rain so why bother with a bivy? Well the bivy also protects you from wind and keeps you warmer than you would be otherwise. That was useful on this trip! It was quite windy and we were really cold on that mountain top.

The bivy has another advantage over a tent that came up on this trip. We had hoped to see the Leonid meteor shower which was near it's peak. But when we arrived on the mountain top it was cloudy as it had been all day. Then, about 8pm it cleared up and we had a wonderful view of the stars until about 5am. In a bivy you can lie protected from the cold wind and still have a perfect view of the stars.

Underneath the bivy I tried a space blanket for a groundsheet. Not sure it helped. In the picture I'm using it incorrectly. Any ground sheet should be tucked away under the tent or bivy it's used with. That way if it rains the sheet won't direct water under you. In this case there was no rain forecast so I didn't bother.

Even with the bivy and two quilts I was still cold. I woke up at one point while sleeping on my side because the shoulder that was up was cold. It had compressed the quilt against the top of the bivy and compressed insulation doesn't insulate as well. My feet were a bit cold as well although not as bad as last time. I tried vapor barriers on my feet this time to see if my feet would stay warmer. I used those thing little bags you get at the grocery story to put your vegetables or fruit in. I put the wool socks over that and after a bit I didn't notice the plastic (much). I think they may have helped some but my feet still felt cold. My upper body was almost too warm at times. I'm going to ask my wife to make some insulated booties for me to wear while I sleep. Since they won't be as tight as socks they may help by allowing for more circulation.

The next morning we hiked the loop you can see in the map. Since it was just a loop we left our packs at camp (that helped some of the smaller scouts a lot). We went to Mina Sauk falls which is the biggest waterfall in Missouri. The creek wasn't running that day but it's still a really pretty rock formation. But like a dummy I left my camera at camp and so I don't have a picture.

Past the falls a mile or so you come to the Devil's Tollgate. The scouts had a great time climbing all over these massive rocks.

Here is a slightly better picture I stole from someone's site. It was also taken on a November day but the colors turned out better.

The Ozark trail at this point follows an old wagon trail that passed through the Devil's Tollgate. Unfortunately it was too narrow for wagons so people had to disassemble their wagons, taken the pieces through, and then reassemble on the other side. Unfortunately the hill rises steeply on one side of the tollgate and there is a creek on the other side so there was little choice. Now it's a fun place for the scouts to climb on.

Dad and son at Courtois Creek

2008-10-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

This weekend I took my son out to Courtois Creek. That's where the Ozark trail starts. The first part of the Courtois Creek section of the trail runs through the Huzzah conservation area.

There is a camping area and no camping is allowed outside of designated camping spots. That makes transportation easy. We didn't have to hike in and search for a place to set up camp. we just hung the hammocks right next to our car. I think it was probably the prettiest day of the year in terms of fall colors. The pictures don't really do it justice.

The downside of "car camping" like this (as opposed to backcountry camping which is what I think backpacking is all about) is that you are stuck next to a bunch of other car campers who have come mostly to drink beer and talk loudly until late hours. So you don't sleep well in these sites. When we arrived we got out of the car and a neighboring camper was blasting techno music. Not exactly the what you expect when camping in the Ozarks is it?

I bought an ultralight pack for younger kids to use when they come camping with me (the older ones can use the G5). It's an REI Flash UL. It's designed to be a daypack but it works as a lightweight frameless pack for a kid. It's simple and lightweight and the price is right.

This is a hammock that I made for a kid to use when they come hiking with me. It took like 5 minutes to make and $15 of material from Walmart. I followed the directions for Risk's Test Hammock. He says it should cost only $9 but I think webbing is more expensive than when he wrote the directions. The material is from the $1/yard bin.

My son Hyrum is the world's pickiest eater. But there is one backpacking meal he likes and it's one of my favorites as well. It's Mary Janes Farm Organic Black Beans and Rice. I find it takes a bit more water than the directions call for. But it's excellent stuff to eat with chips.

Now I had hiked part of the Courtois Creek section of the Ozark trail during the summer but part of the trail was overgrow and I got lost and had to bushwhack until I found the nearby road which I followed to the campground (If I'd been paying better attention to my map and compass it wouldn't have happened). Ironically that mistake caused me to miss the best part of the trail. So this time Hyrum and I set out to fill in that gap. The stretch I missed is only about a mile long so we left our packs at camp and just walked it after breakfast.

This section of trail is unbelievably gorgeous, especially on a crisp autumn day like we enjoyed. The pictures really don't do it justice.

The trail leads between a sheer cliff that rises on one hand and the creek on the other. If you look back at the map we camped about where the "P" is and then followed the trail (shown in red) to the northeast next to the creek and then did one or two switchbacks as we climbed out of the valley.

There are many caves in the cliff beside the path and some of them go back quite a ways. We went into this one and followed it back until it began to get too dark for us to see, then we chickened out and headed back out.

Once we climbed out of the valley we wanted to head back to camp. Rather than reversing our steps we followed a path along the top of the cliff. It's kind of hard to see what's going on in this picture but it's a view of the path by the creek taken from directly above.

Here's one we did to give Hyrum's mother a heart attack. Hyrum is dangling his feet over the cliff. As you can see he was a little nervous about the height as well.

All in all we had a very nice trip. Not as much hiking as I'd like but that's they way it goes when I bring little ones along.

I did learn something. I designed my quilt to be good down to 40 degrees. I found out on this trip that that was pretty accurate because it dropped into the 30s and I was cold during the night! We've now got some material to make a 20 degree quilt. But what I really want is something for my feet. The rest of me was pretty good but even after I put on a second pair of wool socks my toes were cold. I think next time I'm going to try a vapor barrier inside my socks. I'll explain more about that after I try it.

Gear for Autumn 2008 Hikes

2008-10-23T23:09:00.000-04:00

I was thinking that I ought to record some of the gear that I take with me on my hikes. I try to be a lightweight backpacker so I try to be very minimalist in what I carry and I also try to carry the lightest possible version of whatever I decided I need to carry.

To begin with here is the pack I currently carry.

It's a Gossamer Gear G5 pack. Gossamer Gear makes some of the lightest weight packs you can buy. This pack weighs a mere 10.5 ounces. I already owned one of their Mariposa packs which is a little larger and heavier (at 16.8 ounces) and I liked it but as I got lighter and lighter in what I carried I found that I didn't need the space. The G5 is just about right for my 3 season use for short trips (1 or 2 nights). I might use the Mariposa in the winter or for longer trips.

A lightweight pack is a great thing but it requires lightweight gear as well. A hiker who usually carried 50 pounds on his or her back probably has a pack that weighs 6 pounds. Now if this hiker says "hey I want to lighten up, I'll get a lighter pack" and then tries to jam their current gear into a G5 they will have problems. A lightweight pack is designed for lightweight loads. A heavy pack is heavy because it has to be made of very sturdy materials and have lots of features to enable it to carry heavy loads comfortably. My packs don't even have frames. Yet they are very comfortable to carry (I hardly notice them) because there isn't much weight inside.

Actually it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that my packs don't have frames. What they do is to utilize a somewhat stiff piece of gear to make the pack stiff. Below you can see two closed cell foam pads. The one on the right is a NightLight torso pad from Gossamer Gear. It weighs 3.6 ounces and folds up in thirds. The folded pad slips into a pad sleeve on the side of the pack facing my back and provides all the stiffness I need. It is also very comfortable against my back, both when hiking and sleeping.

The other pad is a Walmart pad. It has the same "egg crate" surface but it is wider and full length with a total weight of 14.7 ounces. As it gets colder I need to carry this pad to put under me in my hammock.

The picture below is of my bridge hammock that I use in the cooler months.

I would use it in the summer but it has no bug protection (although I could sew some on if I weren't so lazy). It has a double layer of cloth and I slip the Walmart pad between these to keep from losing heat as the breeze blows under me. Those breezes can rob a LOT of heat even when the temperature is only slightly cool. This hammock is extremely comfortable but probably not the lightest weight thing I could carry. The reason is that a bridge hammock requires two spreader poles to keep you from getting squeezed by the hammock. The hammock, including stuff sack, poles, and suspension lines, weighs 38 ounces. But it's worth it for me because it's so comfortable. When I'm using the Walmart pad inside the hammock I use the torso pad as a pillow.

Speaking of staying comfortable while sleeping here is my quilt.

My sweet and beautiful wife made it for me. Notice that it is a quilt, not a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags weigh more than is necessary since they have insulation both above and below. But the insulation below you is compressed by your weight and so does very little insulating. A quilt is basically the top half of a sleeping bag. This design is simplicity itself. The insulation (2.5 oz/yd Climashield XP) is sewn (only along the edges) between two layers of 1.1 oz/yd rip stop nylon. Then the bottom edge is folded over and sewn shut to form a foot box. If I get warm during the night I sleep my feet out of the footbox. That's another benefit of a quilt over a bag. The quilt can be snuggled close around you or draped loosely over you, as the temperature demands. Just like your sheets at home. The keeps you from sweating during the night which would chill you as the temperature drops. The quilt weighs about 10.7 ounces.

Here is the quilt inside a Dry Bag from Walmart. Notice the roll top closure. So if my pack get's wet my quilt will still be dry. The dry bag weighs 1.3 ounces.

A major weight saving strategy of lightweight backpackers is multipurpose gear. If one piece of gear can serve more than one function then you save weight by having fewer pieces of gear. Here you can see my poncho/tarp from Golite, another company that caters to lightweight backpackers.

It's longer in back than in front so that it will protect my pack as well as me while hiking. In the picture you can see some yellow cord tied to loops sewn in the corner of the poncho/tarp. In camp I tie these cords on and set it up as a tarp over my hammock. So it's both clothing and shelter. The total weight including stuff sack, cords, four stakes, and two rubber bands (for closing the head hold when using as a tarp) is 12.5 ounces.

Here are my smaller items. First is my kitchen set. Inside is my pot, pot stand, alcohol stove,windscreen, fuel for 2 or 3 meals, lighter and a washcloth. The total weight is 7.6 ounces. This is actually one of several kits that I sometimes use. In another post I go into details and describe each one and the pluses and minuses of each.

This is my knife/multitool, a leatherman squirt P4. Some people prefer the model with the scissors rather than the pliers. But I think a knife can do anything scissors can do and sometimes there is no replacement for pliers. The other tools are screwdrivers, an awl, and a file. It may be overkill for backpacking but you never know. And it only weighs 2 ounces.

The new LED flashlights have been a big boon to lightweight backpackers. I'm shocked to think that I ever carried a flashlight with 2 or even 3 heavy D batteries. LED lights draw very little power and provide adequate light for most purposes. If you have ever used a flashlight you quickly realize that what you really want is one attached to your head that points where you are looking so you can keep your hands free. Both of these are headlamps. The one on the left is a Petzl E+lite. It weighs 1 ounce with the battery and the protective case next to it weighs 0.6 ounces. This is an excellent light. It has high and low settings, flashing settings, and a red light option (which keeps your pupils from constricting as much at night and making you blind for a few seconds after the light goes out). The one on the right is a Gerber Tempo. It's tougher and takes a single AAA battery but it only has one setting. The elastic strap is homemade and turns this little flashlight into a headlamp. With the strap and battery it weighs 1.4 ounces.

I have two for when I'm backpacking with one of my kids or with my brother. However often I will bring both when I'm solo for a backup.

A critical piece of gear is a first-aid kit. I've enhanced this little one with a mirror and a tick-pulling tool (critical in Missouri). The mirror may seem a bit strange. In the old days they told hikers to bring one for signaling planes in an emergency. That seems like quite a stretch to me. But it can be useful when examining the back of your legs for ticks in the evening.

I call this my hygiene kit and I keep all these items together in a zip-lock bag. From left to right it has: [Top row] toothbrush, floss, earplugs (the woods are noisy at night!), q-tips, toilet paper, biodegradable soap (also used for toothpaste), [bottom row] lightload towel (a truly amazing towel), sunscreen, moquito repellent, SPF15 chapstick, and some ibuprofen (for aches and pains) and melatonin (for sleeping) in a baggy (better living through chemistry!). The entire kit, with ziploc bag, weighs 8.4 ounces.

In another post I'll go into more detail about stoves, food and water, and my clothing choices to round out my pack list. Then I'll total the weights and see if I am really a "lightweight backpacker".

Council Bluff Lake, October 10th and 11th

2008-10-16T09:46:00.000-04:00

My brother Grant and I went hiking around a lake called Council Bluff Lake, just off the Ozark Trail. We really couldn't have asked for nicer weather. The leaves were just beginning to turn. While I like hiking solo it's also great to hike with someone. We had lots of fun talking and enjoying the scenery together.

The hike we took was an 11.6 mile loop around the lake starting at the boat launch and going clockwise. We were very nearly always in sight of the lake.

One of the funny things about the trip was that by coincidence there happened to be a mountain bike race around the lake on Saturday. We saw a few bikers on Friday, but that didn't surprise us because we heard that this trail was popular with bikers. But we didn't know about the race the next morning. So all morning on Saturday we had to keep hopping off the trail so as not to be run over. I don't know the number of participants but it seemed like a lot. And the race was 4 times around the lake so by the time we were done we had seen some bikers 3 times.

Grant had never slept in a hammock. We hung our two hammocks near eachother so we could talk. I let him use my Hennessy because it has full bug protection (interesting he should worry about bugs being a spider enthusiast). He fully expected not to sleep a wink and in fact it did take some getting used to. But he actually slept well.

There were a few ups and downs but nothing major. So I expected not to get any good views except of the lake. But it turns out that the path crosses the earthen dam that forms the lake (all lakes in Missouri are man-made) and the dam is really quite high so we got a good view of the Ozark mountains, just beginning to put on fall color.