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Colt Cannon posted:Best thing is, I might get to see some snow. I think we are doing Bear Lake area, hitting up Helene Lake, and maybe one or two other places. I am so loving excited. Plus my cousin and I are planning a trip to Yellowstone for next year, and Colorado is close enough that I can just take either a short flight, or a 9 hour drive and join him when he goes camping. I wish I would've thought to do this before. Wild basin is your huckleberry.
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Sep 20, 2014 03:58
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Ropes4u posted:Wild basin is your huckleberry. I jizz for wild basin. Same here. Non religious person had incredibly life changing experience the first time I went to the mountains which was rmnp. I like having a day pack. I'd it's not much more then bring it
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Sep 20, 2014 04:09
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Colt Cannon posted:I have a small day pack, like 14L, should I try and find a way to jam it into my main pack to tke on the short day hikes? You'll probably be okay - unless you'll have access to your car if you really want the option to switch. I admit, I took my 65L external frame to Devil's Head for a climbing weekend and actually regretted not having my smaller bag on hand to hike from the camp to the climbing itself. But your needs may vary. Ropes4u posted:Wild basin is your huckleberry. Oh poo poo if you get the chance go to the south entrance of the park and do wild basin. My brothers came out for a week and we did a day hike to Ouzel Falls, and while several bridges along the trail are "missing" thanks to the floods last year you can get to the Falls or to Ouzel Lake via a detour. If you can make a full day of it, the hikes to Bluebird or Thunder Lake are gorgeous and open up a bit to meadows. Realistically, you probably won't need the big bag for these unless you plan to camp. gently caress. Jealous. edit: PS if you do this bring sunscreen. The farther trails run through an exposed burn zone. Squiggle fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Sep 20, 2014 |
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Sep 20, 2014 04:09
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Colt Cannon posted:Best thing is, I might get to see some snow. I think we are doing Bear Lake area, hitting up Helene Lake, and maybe one or two other places. I am so loving excited. Entrance to Bear Lake last May - trails with snow was harder than I thought:  We camped at Olive Ridge campground right by Wild Basin a couple nights in August but didn't have time for the trails yet  p.s. Garmin Monterra experiment fialed horribly, a $3 android map like MyTrails with offline downloading is so much better. Also these kick rear end for recharging phones as well as other recent usb-powered Colorado inventions in remote hiking areas sadus fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Sep 20, 2014 |
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Sep 20, 2014 05:44
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I got back a few hours from my trip and had a ton of fun. Decided in the end to just do 1 night instead of 2 but oh well, there's always next time. I've only ever been backpacking/camping/hiking when I lived in Europe still so the whole "I need to get back to my car" thing never really occurred to me as being a problem. Back there we'd just take the train and maybe hitch a ride a ride for the final part and then just… hitched a ride back to the first city with a train station. When I got to the park and started looking at the maps I very quickly realized I would have to get back to where I started which was a huge bummer. Anyway, I parked at a trail for an unofficial trail and followed it for a few km and then crossed a stream and officially went off trail. This was fun cause I don't really care about seeing sights cause I've seen a lot of sights before, so I spent most of the rest of the day trying to walk across the drat forest. I realized I really do need gloves if I plan to do it again because I'd feel a lot better grabbing onto trees and touching the ground with all the mushrooms and such growing everywhere. Now I feel like I want to start doing this more often and I like the idea of going ultralight I think, that way I could also do some bike packing too. :get in: e: Looking at tents right now. I was loaned this one which is 2.5 lbs. I liked it but honestly would have preferred an even smaller one. What's the lower limit of tents these days? Boris Galerkin fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Sep 21, 2014 |
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Sep 21, 2014 00:40
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You can get tarptents that weigh well under a pound, if you want a tarp + bug netting. If you don't care about bug netting, you can go even lighter. You can also get a bivy sack, which is almost like a tent but smaller and lighter.
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Sep 21, 2014 01:46
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Boris Galerkin posted:I got back a few hours from my trip and had a ton of fun. Decided in the end to just do 1 night instead of 2 but oh well, there's always next time. I've only ever been backpacking/camping/hiking when I lived in Europe still so the whole "I need to get back to my car" thing never really occurred to me as being a problem. Back there we'd just take the train and maybe hitch a ride a ride for the final part and then just… hitched a ride back to the first city with a train station. When I got to the park and started looking at the maps I very quickly realized I would have to get back to where I started which was a huge bummer. Awesome to hear man. I need to find some decent gloves. I have always had the cheap, found at wal-mart type of gloves, and want to upgrade to something a little nicer. I just have no idea what is good and what is bad. As far as tents, I would just keep an eye out for good deals. http://tinyurl.com/n2a37fu I went with this. It is a little heavy, but I got it for under 100 bucks on some end of season sale. I sleep alone, but like having the room in case someone else needs a place to sleep. I would like to get a UL tent, but will probably just go with a single person tent. I don't want to skimp on a tent.
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Sep 21, 2014 02:31
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Summitted Ryan Peak. I was kinda hoping to do nearby Kent Peak but a poor route choice ended that idea.  Saw a small family of goats.  Best part of the day was finding a rad slope to scree ski down. 500 feet down in just a few minutes.
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Sep 21, 2014 04:07
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Boris Galerkin posted:Now I feel like I want to start doing this more often and I like the idea of going ultralight I think, that way I could also do some bike packing too.  http://www.tarptent.com/ http://www.mountainlaureldesigns.com/ http://www.zpacks.com/ Those are my three favorite shelter makers. http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/index.html The bpl forums are a little stale these days, but there is a ton of good info on them. The for sale section is also a nice place to pick up lightly used gear for a good price.
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Sep 21, 2014 08:07
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Squiggle posted:Oh poo poo if you get the chance go to the south entrance of the park and do wild basin. My brothers came out for a week and we did a day hike to Ouzel Falls, and while several bridges along the trail are "missing" thanks to the floods last year you can get to the Falls or to Ouzel Lake via a detour. If you can make a full day of it, the hikes to Bluebird or Thunder Lake are gorgeous and open up a bit to meadows. Realistically, you probably won't need the big bag for these unless you plan to camp. I'm actually going to be spending two days in RMNP at the start of October assuming my work schedule doesn't get screwed up. I'm planning on doing Bluebird Lake on one day and I am thinking Spruce Lake on the other, but I'm certainly open to other suggestions (I was considering doing Flattop Mountain instead of Spruce Lake). I probably won't make it back to Colorado for at least a year, maybe a couple. So if there is a can't-miss day hike I should do in place of Spruce I'd like to hear about it. Only requirement is that it has to be a day-hike as I can only car camp until I get a new/larger pack and a lighter sleeping bag.
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Sep 21, 2014 09:56
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More ColoradoTalk™, this time from the Four-Pass Loop in the Maroon Bells Wilderness, which despite being really crowded right at the trailhead, is one of the least populated backpacking areas I've been to in CO once you get a few miles out. Since it's late September, the aspens are turning yellow in full swing, and the weather is getting iffy. The first night out, it was so warm and clear that I slept under the stars and watched the Milky Way for hours. The second night, I got 2 inches of rain, hail, and lightning with little warning. So in the dark, I moved my tarp to cover a largish flat rock to avoid pooling water because it was coming down so heavy. I wanted to camp at the top of a 12,000 foot pass so it's entirely my fault, but it was totally worth it for the experience of hearing/seeing thunder and lightning striking the valley below me, so w/e. The next day I met up with a few people who had camped lower, and apparently they got it even worse because all that water just ran down the hills and flooded a lot of the established campsites where form little bowls where people keep pitching their tents. Lots of unhappy wet hikers that morning  Protip: sleeping on a rock sucks, but at least it's dry when you get the water to run around it.I really enjoy these 3 day trips, it gives you plenty of time to get way out there, without being so long that you need to plan a substantial portion of your life around it, and you don't have to spend all of day 4 thinking about a burger and a beer. With just the tarp and bivy, you don't take up a lot of room so you can make camp pretty much anywhere, which means you can hike almost until sunset before you have to think about finding a site, instead of stopping at 4 or 5 like a lot of people seem to do. As popular as the Maroon Bells Wilderness is, it is not underrated at all, and is totally worth it. The entire trip from beginning to end was one of the most scenic places I've ever been. My main regret is that I don't have a real camera to take with me at the moment. As ultralight as I'd like to think I am, I will take a full camera kit with a couple lenses with me next time.      
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Sep 22, 2014 03:49
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Discomancer posted:More ColoradoTalk™, Those pictures are loving amazing. General question to you and others: Do you do any post-production stuff to your pictures (like altering color in photoshop) or no?
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Sep 22, 2014 04:01
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Those are straight out of my phone to you. I don't do much with these cell-phone pictures, but when I had a real camera and came up with one of those special images, it would for sure get corrected in Lightroom. I wouldn't spend the effort to say, jack up the hue on an individual tree or flower or anything, it's usually just full-image adjustments to exposure, contrast, white balance, and stuff like that, which sometimes don't come out quite right since you're shooting in such a huge range of conditions with little control over your environment. But mostly, I just try to get the final image to replicate reality instead of say, making the sunset ~*tOtAlLy EpIc*~
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Sep 22, 2014 04:29
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Recently took a short drive up to Sedona, Arizona to go hiking/ask my Ever since we moved to Arizona hiking has become one of our favorite hobbies, cant do this in Chicago. We are about to invest in some better hiking shoes and get some camelpaks. I'll upload more photos soon as I can get them off my camera. If you hate working out hiking is the BEST way to be motiated.   My hiking buddy   I would throw the frisbee onto the little waterslide and my Pancake couldn't get enough of it. Until she couldn't find it and it floated away gone forever.  The reason we will start our engagement broke. 
Guru Yaekob fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 04:34
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I survived! This is the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness next to Lake Michigan. I highly recommend it. It's more of a short hike in with lots of primitive camping. Was good for trying out some equipment. First day was all sun, second day was some rain and cloudy, but sun later, then that night a hell storm came over the lake. At sunset, we watched it roll over the lake, and later that night got the southern tip of it, so I couldn't imagine sitting through the whole thing. Whole album here http://imgur.com/a/IRikA I'm just pulling out highlights. These are all an iPhone 4s for the curious. Not retouched. View from the camp  Dog has never experienced sand. She was very excited about it, then later realized how much it sucks.  Then made peace  This picture does not capture all the colors in this sunset.  Dogs loves beaches  Dog butt, but it shows how diverse the woods are.  Clearing up   Oh poo poo!  Took a beer detour for some locals I can't get down south.  Hi Lansing! Thanks for the beer.  Pano shots. Click for big on all these. First sunset  Second sunset with the storm on the horizon 
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Sep 22, 2014 06:21
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cheese eats mouse posted:
Whats up dog hiking buddy, beautiful dog you have there.
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Sep 22, 2014 06:30
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Guru Yaekob posted:Whats up dog hiking buddy, beautiful dog you have there. Thank you. Had her since she was a pup  Jealous of your desert pics. I want to get out west!I have two, but the other one is constantly moving and running around me, but my 8 year old lady still sticks around. She's getting a little up there for anything longer than a few days. How old is yours?
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Sep 22, 2014 06:37
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Ours is 7 months old, she loves hiking and swimming she never runs out of energy. We went up to Saguaro lake one day because we were told it was dog friendly, welp she caught a piece of cactus in her tale and swung it into her side then before I could get to her she tried biting it off and got the burrs stuck in her mouth and face...then we had to rush her to the vet it was heart breaking. Now I'll only take her on trails where there are no cacti.
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Sep 22, 2014 06:45
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Oh no! That sounds like a puppy and something my little one would get into. She ends up looking like this during our trips when not running around.
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Sep 22, 2014 06:57
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Anyone been hiking in the Lost Coast area of Humboldt County? I really love the California coast and I'm hoping to do the 3-day hike through this summer with friends from the JMT. I know that you need tide tables to pass some areas, and there's a a lot of hiking on sand, anything else I ought to know? Nifty posted:Took a 2-night trip to California's "Lost Coast" this past weekend. Up in Mendocino County, where they decided not to build the 1 highway as the terrain was far too rough for construction. Surprisingly the trail was pretty drat packed but it honestly had no affect on the experience as there were ample camp sites. Beautiful place! Hiking on sand/beach stone for half the 24-mile trail sucks though Just back from this one. It was a difficult 3 days - inland areas were steep and muddy, the beach has some zones that are still flooded at low tide, and more than half the walking is on the beach, usually a mix of crumbly sand and uneven stones. Worth the trip though.
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Sep 22, 2014 13:27
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Discomancer posted:More ColoradoTalk™ Your photos are incredible and I need to get out to that area sometime as it looks like an awesome spot. But seriously, you chose to set up camp (and stay there) on a 12k ft pass above the tree line during a thunder/lightning storm?
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Sep 22, 2014 18:56
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Went to Norway this August with a group of colleagues, and we hiked to Kjeragbolten, Preikestolen, and Trolltunga. The first two hikes were completed on the same day, but for Preikestolen we decided to take our tents with us and camp on the trail. This was the first time I was doing a hike of this difficulty, I was very tired (especially on the last one), but it was definitely worth it. Norway is a beautiful country, and now I understand why Slartibartfast was so proud of his fjords.   On the way to Preikestolen  Preikestolen. It's even more crowded in July.   Trolltunga. I was too scared to sit on the edge, so I just tried a cool pose for Facebook instead. Some internet friends were impressed at least   Kjeragbolten. Again, too scared to stand on it.  In the photo, you can see the small path you can take to get to the rock.
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Sep 22, 2014 21:15
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Canna Happy posted:
I spent way too much time looking up tents at work today but I think I really like TarpTent "Notch." It seems to have great reviews too, including from some Scandinavian guy who seems to be camping in the cold a lot (which is my ideal cause I honestly hate the sun and heat). Only thing is I'll need trekking poles…
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Sep 23, 2014 03:55
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I have a Notch. It's great.
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Sep 23, 2014 04:03
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Holy poo poo those fjords are amazing. Was there a lot of people at Trolltunga? I would love to take a trip out there and hike around that area someday.Verman posted:Your photos are incredible and I need to get out to that area sometime as it looks like an awesome spot. Oh, I forgot to mention, I found a new backpacking superfood: sriracha peas! These have, per ounce, 120 calories and 4 grams of protein, which isn't too shabby. They taste great and are pretty easy eating, as opposed to something like pitas or triscuits which get old very quickly. They were definitely the highlight of my snack list. Discomancer fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 23, 2014 04:04
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Discomancer posted:Was there a lot of people at Trolltunga? Not at all, but as I said we camped on the trail so we were able to visit the rock early in the morning before the same-day hikers arrived. I heard that if you do a same-day hike in the middle of July, you might have to wait even up to an hour for a chance to get a photo on the rock. I guess that you could also camp at the bottom of the trail the previous night and still beat everyone else without having to carry your entire gear through the trail. Especially the first 1 km or so is leg wrecking because it's very steep. They are currently building a cable car so you can start the hike after the initial climb, which I highly recommend taking instead of trying to be macho hiker dude and ruining your knees.
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Sep 23, 2014 10:30
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Are we still afraid of bears? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/nyregion/black-bear-kills-rutgers-student-during-a-hike-in-new-jersey.html?_r=2
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Sep 23, 2014 23:17
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We should have torn down the Bearfort before they had the chance to regroup their forces.
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Sep 23, 2014 23:50
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beefnoodle posted:Are we still afraid of bears? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/nyregion/black-bear-kills-rutgers-student-during-a-hike-in-new-jersey.html?_r=2 Oh look a bear, how about all five of us split up and run in different directions. I have made the mistake of reading some comments on news articles, and that has been a bad idea.
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Sep 24, 2014 03:03
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Colt Cannon posted:Oh look a bear, how about all five of us split up and run in different directions. My mantra is to never read the comments, but man is this terrible accident ripe for trolling the masses.
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Sep 24, 2014 03:09
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BF and I, a few weeks ago, decided Little Bear wasn't enough and went for the Blanca traverse: IMG_4025 by WestslopeBruin, on FlickrBF in the Hourglass section of Little Bear (geez didn't I just post this?)  10644803_10202827721276247_5840886055650151792_n by WestslopeBruin, on FlickrThe traverse between Little Bear Peak and Blanca Peak. This is about a mile of Class 3 to 5.3ish climbing. Due to high winds and having to wait about 45 minutes for some climbers coming up the side (I'm guessing they were climbing infamous Captain Bivwacko tower - I later heard climbing commands), it took us nearly 5 hours to complete the traverse alone.  10628087_10202827721396250_8630044744467912729_n by WestslopeBruin, on FlickrYours truly bypassing Captain Bivwacko tower (that square thing back there)  IMG_4035 by WestslopeBruin, on FlickrBF on the ridge between Blanca and Ellingwood. After spending nearly 5 hours on the traverse, we were just too wiped to complete the trip to Ellingwood.  IMG_4043 by WestslopeBruin, on FlickrThe lakes coming back down from Blanca. Although the Lake Como Road is pretty busy with Jeepers and ATV enthusiasts, the upper trail was probably one of the most underrated stretches of 14er trail I've ever been on. It was gorgeous in the stark way that is typical for high-altitude landscapes. Scarce photos, as we were too busy focusing on what we were doing than taking photos!  Biggest technical challenge was a black headwall with a small chimney problem, perhaps a 5.3. Most of the route was just nutting up foot-wide knife edges comprised sometimes of talus (seriously frightening) with thousands of feet of exposure. Itinerary: Friday we left from Colorado Springs and crashed in the back of the Subaru. Backpacked up to Lake Como Saturday and made camp. Sun LB -> Blanca, then a lazy afternoon playing by the lake. Sun hiked out and went for the obligatory Burger Quest (it was Labor Day so we had to settle for Chipotle).
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Sep 24, 2014 03:41
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quote:Efforts to reach Mr. Patel’s family on Monday afternoon by phone were unsuccessful. No loving poo poo. The last thing I would want if I died tragically is to have my family hounded by reporters.
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Sep 24, 2014 05:51
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Save me jeebus posted:BF and I, a few weeks ago, decided Little Bear wasn't enough and went for the Blanca traverse: Not to be a dick, but climbing that without a rope looks pretty loving stupid.
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Sep 24, 2014 23:16
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n8r posted:Not to be a dick, but climbing that without a rope looks pretty loving stupid. It's class 4. It looks steeper than it is. Almost no one climbs it with a rope. People that do are weirdos. Traverse is class 5.3 or so, but most people still don't use ropes.
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Sep 25, 2014 01:04
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beefnoodle posted:Are we still afraid of bears? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/nyregion/black-bear-kills-rutgers-student-during-a-hike-in-new-jersey.html?_r=2 This really surprised me, I was hiking there this summer. The majority of the place is fenced in so I dunno how a bear got in.
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Sep 25, 2014 01:36
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Finally getting around to going through some more JMT/HST photos: Near Florence Lake / MTR  R0001700 by spf3million, on Flickr Evolution Creek  R0002103 by spf3million, on Flickr Evolution Lake  R0002150 by spf3million, on Flickr Wanda Lake  R0002168 by spf3million, on Flickr Le Conte Canyon  R0002250 by spf3million, on Flickr Le Conte Canyon  R0002265 by spf3million, on Flickr spf3million fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 01:43
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Gorgeous pics. That first one is amazing.
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Sep 26, 2014 03:26
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Beautiful. I wish I had an easy way of taking longer nighttime exposures to get shots of the Milky Way. Sitting around the fire with a group of friends on the last outing, and all I could do was stare up at the sky. PS I feel like this is a safe space to say I set a new personal spending record at REI today. I am okay. We are okay.
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Sep 26, 2014 03:48
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You get some of it back at the end of the year, so it's really an investment. That JMT night shot looks amazing.
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Sep 26, 2014 03:59
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I loving love the program I'm in. We did a last minute field trip to go to a nearby conservation area with a seasoned elk bugler to watch and listen to the rut. Listening to those animals is magical. We only spotted them after sunset, in silhouette on a nearby hill, but it was totally worth it. I really want to make going out and listening to elk a regular tradition in my life.
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Sep 26, 2014 06:39
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