Backpacking Thread

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[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Ouch. C’mon, you should know that if anything, I’m —> <— this close to being an anarchist . Besides, here in Maine, and especially near the capitol, it’s home of tree-huggers, Socialists, and gay-cation destinations, so you can’t help but to have friends Lefter than Lenin :wink:

Come up to Maine, I’ll show you how to catch dinner on a fly-rod.

(Note: Ignore my fat-ass face. This pic was about 2 years before I dropped 70 pounds)[/quote]

Hahaha of course. Nice fish man. What’d you get? I haven’t been freshwater fishing in fuckin’ forever… that looks like one of the stripers I caught off the coast of Long Island this summer.[/quote]

That was indeed a Striper. Caught her on a 10wt with a Lefty Deceiver in about 5 feet of water in a flat.

The Kennebec is still saltwater at that point. I live about 20 miles up river in fresh, but still tidal water. The alewives (herring), shad (herring), stripers, sea-run brown trout, and a whole host of other anadromous migratory fish come up the river to spawn in the summer. That was 39 inches, 1 inch short of legal (dammit)! Still go my keeper that day (and a bunch of other releases).

Arm was sore for a week.

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[quote]SteelyD wrote:
That was indeed a Striper. Caught her on a 10wt with a Lefty Deceiver in about 5 feet of water in a flat.

The Kennebec is still saltwater at that point. I live about 20 miles up river in fresh, but still tidal water. The alewives (herring), shad (herring), stripers, sea-run brown trout, and a whole host of other anadromous migratory fish come up the river to spawn in the summer. That was 39 inches, 1 inch short of legal (dammit)! Still go my keeper that day (and a bunch of other releases).

Arm was sore for a week.[/quote]

That’s beautiful man. I love going for stripers… good eatin too. Last time I went, it was the best day of fishing I’ve ever had… pretty much topped out on sea bass, stripers, and porgies.

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End of the day with those stripers… we limited out by 9 a.m.

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SWEET!

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I like to do 1-2 long backpacking trips a year. Nothing quite like it!

I do the majority of my shopping at mec.ca but they have items they don’t ship outside of Canada–not everything though.

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I take a “walk in the woods” every chance I get. I haven’t done as much as I’d have liked since this damn recession started, but I still get out at least twice a year or so for a few nights.

My Aunt Sue was the one that got me into it. She has “walked” all the major trails in the world. Including 19000 feet of Everest at age 70. I used to help her maintain part of the Appalachian Trail every year for more than a decade (I carried the chain saw). She had bad fall a few years ago down the side of a mountain in New Zealand and fucked up her shoulder pretty bad at age fucking 89. She’s 96 now, and STILL goes canoeing by herself in the everglades and goes on group hikes with her club where she is the oldest member by about 20 years. She’s a machine!

As for gear, her property just north of Annapolis, MD has what they call “the Spare house” Which is pretty much a guest room and the rest of it is divided into my Uncle John’s old workshop (with tools half a century old) and her equipment storage. So I have only every bought clothes and a few personal items. I usually just borrow a tent, pack, and sleeping bag from her whenever I need it. She has like 50 YEARS of camping equipment! it’s a trip to look for stuff in there - like going into a time machine. But it all still works fine and has been well maintained.

Cool thread

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Ive wanted to for a longtime, im into survivalism and that kind of stuff, i even have a really good (very expensive)backpack i was given by one of my fathers friends who couldnt use it anymore. I think one of these days I finally will go on a backpacking trip.

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Haha! FI, now you have triggered my mapping compulsion.

I spend most of the winter google mapping the Laurel Highlands, then exploring them and fishing the spring creeks for brook, brown, and rainbow trout from spring to fall.

I also collect and eat a lot of different shrooms while out in the woods. It’s a good and very abundant source of food but you absolutely must identify them properly.

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[quote]angry chicken wrote:
I take a “walk in the woods” every chance I get. I haven’t done as much as I’d have liked since this damn recession started, but I still get out at least twice a year or so for a few nights.

My Aunt Sue was the one that got me into it. She has “walked” all the major trails in the world. Including 19000 feet of Everest at age 70. I used to help her maintain part of the Appalachian Trail every year for more than a decade (I carried the chain saw). She had bad fall a few years ago down the side of a mountain in New Zealand and fucked up her shoulder pretty bad at age fucking 89. She’s 96 now, and STILL goes canoeing by herself in the everglades and goes on group hikes with her club where she is the oldest member by about 20 years. She’s a machine!

As for gear, her property just north of Annapolis, MD has what they call “the Spare house” Which is pretty much a guest room and the rest of it is divided into my Uncle John’s old workshop (with tools half a century old) and her equipment storage. So I have only every bought clothes and a few personal items. I usually just borrow a tent, pack, and sleeping bag from her whenever I need it. She has like 50 YEARS of camping equipment! it’s a trip to look for stuff in there - like going into a time machine. But it all still works fine and has been well maintained.

Cool thread[/quote]

That is incredibly awesome. That’s a role model of a woman right there.

The equipment is probably crazy! That’s cool, because I don’t like how everything has gotten all “tactical”- lightweight, plastic, and ugly as fuck. I kind of like the “Indiana Jones,” wood and brown leather look, like an old school adventurer haha.

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Couple of things I brought along for the first time after receiving them as gifts- Buck 503 folder. What a great knife… light, nice looking, and one of the best constructed blades I’ve seen. Made in the USA as well, which is good, because I don’t bother with Chinese blades.

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Timex E-Tide Temperature/Compass Watch.

Thing looks old-school, and also has a thermometer and compass in it. If you set it to the tides, it will keep track of those too.

Pretty awesome. You’ve got to take it off to get a good temperature reading, but I left it for about 20 mins. last weekend, and it said that it was about 4 degrees in the Catskills… so its accurate too haha. Indiglo is great at night as well.

Unfortunately I’ve been too lazy to calibrate the compass yet, but that should work as well. Awesome machine here.

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Here’s a place near my house that’s a small mountain with an out-of-service fire tower at the summit (these are all over the place up here). Place is called Mt. Pisgah.

It’s a novice trail (I’ve taken my kids on this) that has a few different routes to the top, plus a service road (tractor or pro-4x4) to the tower (easiest route). Great for all seasons. Can be a 2-3 hr hike, or easily a 1/2 day going the roundabout trail.

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tower at summit

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reward. North to Applachians

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View west. Maine western mtns and White Mountains (new hampshire)

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Stump. lol.

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gateway into the best mountain range in the lower 48 ; )

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[quote]SteelyD wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Original post edit never made it, so…

Equipment advice: Go for ‘tried and true’ names that are still associated with extreme outdoors and wilderness: Helly-Hansen, Northface, Cabela’s, REI, EMS, even Carhartt (20,000 northern New England winter construction workers can’t be wrong about warm clothing).

Exception: L.L. Bean’s quality has gone down in the past 15-20 years. I live 1/2 hour from there, and I can tell you that I’ve returned a bunch of stuff that has broken. Oh, they replace it no charge, but that doesn’t help you in the field WHEN IT BREAKS.

When I was college (early 1990’s), a bunch of us did a month trek into northern Ontario to visit parks, mines, quarries, natural geologic features etc. Slept in tents the whole time. I bought a Helly-Hansen foul-weather jacket for 150 bucks or something. I still have it and wear it on rainy days. Mind you, this jacket has travelled two countries, was my only foul weather jacket when I was a land surveyor and geologist, and it’s still solid. Looks barely worn. I will weep the day I have to get rid of it. I just retired a Carhartt denim coat that was 15 years old, and I still have a pair of REI gloves from the same era (they’re going to be retired this year…) :([/quote]

It’s a shame you’re a fascist Steely, otherwise I really think we’d get along :wink:

Last weekend I went camping in the Catskills… my watch has a thermometer in it, ended up reading 4 degrees at about 11 oclock… and then the wind started. Fuck me.

Between two pairs of thermals, a flannel jacket, and the 0 degree bag, I was warm enough though.

I lived by Carhartt when i worked outside… no other jacket gets you ten years of hard use. But they’re too damned heavy to carry on a backpacking trip… I tend to go with the flannel, fleece lined jackets instead.

I tend to stick with stuff from REI or a store around here called Campmor… generally the best stuff, not the sports authority crap.[/quote]

Ouch. C’mon, you should know that if anything, I’m —> <— this close to being an anarchist . Besides, here in Maine, and especially near the capitol, it’s home of tree-huggers, Socialists, and gay-cation destinations, so you can’t help but to have friends Lefter than Lenin :wink:

Come up to Maine, I’ll show you how to catch dinner on a fly-rod.

(Note: Ignore my fat-ass face. This pic was about 2 years before I dropped 70 pounds)[/quote]

Hey read a few days back (I had heard pieces and bits about it but just recently an indepth history) that around the North East Rode Island - Maine area was some of the first Baptist-Anarchist groups coming out of Mass. (I suggest Chaos Theory as a starter book for people just so you know).

I go backpacking, but people think I am a cheater. I use Mules, I’ll admit it. I love getting a caravan together of mules and going out for a couple of weeks. I’m sorry, I love the outdoors but humans have evolved and just because I have a two room tent with me and a five burner stove does not mean I’m not living out in the woods. Oh yes, Carhart I need a new one, mine finally went out in style, I’ll see if I can get a picture up. Fell off the bumper of my truck and it got caught on a jag on the end of a flag pole under the arm and ripped it pretty good. However, it is forty year old, and my dad probably figures we got the 60 dollars out of it.

If you like to go for long trips, I’d learn how to dry meat or at least salt cure it. Get a bear safe and some rope.

If you are looking for ultra-light stuff (which even though I’m not bashful about bringing stuff on camping I still try to keep the weight down as far as I can) weigh your stuff, everything. From water bottles to your spoon. If you go to a outdoorsman store you can usually find books on all kinds of ways to lower your weight.

If you happen to go crazy and drill holes and start cutting parts of your equipment. Use it for a couple of days at home to make sure it is actually usefu and you didn’t just destroy your equipment.

Make sure you have enough socks, because if it is cold you don’t want to go to bed with wet socks. Your feet will freeze.

I would suggest a frameless backpack and taking your bed pad and using that as the shell to keep your pack formed properly. The one time I did decide to go back packing without mules I ended up with a three day pack for about 13-14 lbs.

  • cut a piece of your bed pad off the foot your bed pad the width of your pack, because you can either use it as the bottom or top of your bed pad.
  • If you’re hiking in the colder months don’t go to bed without clothes on. I would suggest not having a sleeping bag but using an open back quilt (I forget the name), however it weighs less, no metal and basically has a pocket for your feet. It still keeps you plenty warm.
  • If you do not want to shell (you can shell out of a pancho) there is plenty of tents >1 lb on the market.
  • Use layers, but get a book on proper clothing for hiking, because some materials are not good and can damage your skin and make your hike harder than it should be.
  • Once you lower your pack weight, you’ll want to stop wearing those high ankle boots and get some light weight trail running shoes. It’ll help you move faster and walk on a path less abtrusive to nature.
  • If you ever have to disturb a place to camp (like move a log) if you do not burn the log, make sure to put the log back.
  • Swim naked, so you don’t weigh yourself down with wet clothes and why the fuck would you swim with clothes on in nature.
  • If you have to camp in snow, build walls of snow on the sides and from of the tent to block cold winds. Snow is an insulator.
  • Don’t bring chairs, old stumps work just fine.
  • The night before you hike out, get all your stuff packed up then.
  • The morning you hike out do not eat breakfast before you leave camp, pack everything else you couldn’t pack the night before and put the breakfast and stove (if you need it) in the top of your pack. After about a mile of hiking make breakfast (it helps with keeping time, if you are already on the go you’ll cook and eat breakfast faster where you seem to waste a lot of time in camp cooking breakfast before you leave).
  • Do not cook or keep food in camp, I usually put my food in a bear safe (only when state law says so) up in a tree about fifty yards away.
  • When hiking, wear two pairs of socks. Wear a wool hiking sock, and a wick sock. It prevents blisters (you get those from slipping in your socks which is usually because of sweat) and keeps your feet dry, while the wool sock keeps your feet warm. You can get thinner or thicker wool socks depending on the weather.
  • Wear long pants and always a long shirt. Yes you are in the outdoors, it is nice outside, but unless you don’t mind the bug bites or the sun burn (I wear long pants and chaps because my mules seem to walk me through thorns) I’d suggest covering up the skin. If you are in the outdoors and have sun friendly skin, you can wear short sleeve shirts and shorts, but I just like whear pants and long sleeve shirts when actually moving somewhere it just helps me stay cooler and I’m not worry about getting bit.
  • Bring an hankercheif, they are very useful, from covering your face when you are out of sunblock. To being a gentleman while eating, to watching dishes, to washing your face to keeping the dust out of your face when walking a dry path behind someone or during a duststorm. As well, if you get hot you can twist it into a bandana and soak it in cold water and tie it around your neck. And always to blow your nose with.
  • Have a large bill hat, it keeps the sun off your head, I would suggest a felt hat in winter and a straw hat with breathing holes in the summer.
  • In the winter, learn how to shell your clothes (outer thin laye to break the wind, rain, etc.), parka, flannel jacket, long sleeve shirt, short cotton undershirt.
  • A bag of baby powder, great for the nuts from chaffing and prevents swamp ass. I don’t care if I’m riding a mule or walking to class I got some on, it’s equivalent to deordarant, you may not need it, but now you don’t have to worry about it now.
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Forest fire from a trip last year.

One gadget that I just love is this:

You can set up a mail list, transmit your gps coordinates and it goes out to the email list. Or you can get tracking on google earth. I used t on my last trip and it was great. We were getting picked up by helicopter so we needed it to send out the pick up message but it was a cool toy.

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Shorter trip last year, these are all in the Vancouver area.