Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

Exactly.

If you hit the sos button or are reported as an overdue hiker/backpacker/explorer, SAR will put themselves at risk to find you.

Too many people these days hit SOS when they don’t need to.

Too many people at home call SAR on a family member when an OK message does not come through.

I always tell people no news is good news until my drop dead date. The InReach could malfunction, get lost or break and I will not abort a trip because of it.

Another resource is the reconn form:
http://reconn.org/form.html

It is important to file a plan, and stick to it.

 

How well does the anti-odor work? For me, polyester based fabrics achieve their 'stink' level rapidly, as compared to Merino wool for example, and when in a group environment, sharing a tent, - lets just say it can be one small factor contributing to group dynamics, however un avoidable at times. The bamboo component will certainly make it very comfy.

 

Agree, many of my MTB shirts seem to permanently stink now, ever so faintly after a good wash but quickly reaching full stench. Good to know about the Merino wool, especially for a cool-weather base layer. I don't have any high-tech hiking stuff, usually stick to cotton layers (t-shirt, flannel), with a thermal base layer if the temps warrant it.

I do have one of those towels that you can wet down and "snap", and those do pretty good for cooling around your neck, although I'm not sure how they truly compare to just a regular towel. I would probably never buy one, but my wife worries about me and buys me silly stuff that occasionally turns out to be useful.

 

Living in AZ and being a high presperation guy I wear poly pretty much 100% of the time golf, hiking, gym etc. I have found it is worth buying nicer stuff after pretty much daily use at the gym on the trails etc I do not have any that retain odor post wash etc. North Face, Patagonia, O.R. tees all hold up pretty well. Some of the off brand stuff and even nike dri fit have a much shorter life cycle for me.

Outdoor research echo tee being my favorite.

https://www.outdoorresearch.com/us/en/mens-echo-tee/p/2428361381009

https://www.outdoorresearch.com/us/en/mens-echo-ls-zip-tee/p/2428400482009

 

It's not the synthetic fiber itself that holds odor, its the lubricant added to the fibers in the knitting process. They are too stiff to go through the flying machine needles without lube. The best brands know this and use a special post-production wash process to remove the lube. The final product then will barely hold any odor at all. Also, synthetics will sometimes add a few silver fibers to the mix and they kill the odiferous bacteria.

 

Cant agree more!

 

REI labor day sale $200 pack for $150. 58L is a bit more than i really need for 1-2 night trips but this thing carries weight very very well. Loaded it up with full kit plus 3L of water and an extra 3lb to accommodate food weight etc. 25lbs fully loaded. Pretty happy with it. Should serve me well over the AZT and a lot more comfortable than my Osprey.

 

Years ago a guy called for rescue on Mt Rainier. His ankle hurt. (Sprained?)
The conditions when they left were "Not recommended to climb due to icy conditions".

Two rangers that went to help him slipped and fell into a crevasse.
A guide friend said he would have told the guy to walk out.

I think the two way communication gives both sides more information than a simple "Button".

 

It's not unusual for subjects to understate their circumstances; a hurt ankle could be anything from a bad fitting shoe, blister, sprain, torn ligament, to broken bones.

As examples, one of the recent calls, where 2 way communication over inReach was utilized, the injured ankle did turn out to be broken tibia. Another call, via cellphone for an elderly member of a family hiking along a flat railroad bed trail had a similar complaint. The actual cause was not the ankle but quickly realized on scene this was a cardiac event in progress, and she needed to be evacuated quickly, yet calmly to not alarm her or her family as we were limited in what intervention we could do until she got into the ambulance.

Lessons are 2 way communication is far better than none or one way, never assume, and call sooner rather than later.

 

There is a great excerpt from a mountaineering book (or maybe it was a Semi-Rad post...) that challenged you to think about your circumstances while on trips, because the goal is always to make "the peak".

Essentially, it boiled down to realizing when your mindset of "summit or die" needs to be flipped and examined through a "summit or LIVE" strategy.

 

... after all reaching the summit, means you are halfway, and in mountaineering getting back down is usually the more dangerous part.

 

The tracking points feature on the InReach is great for this. I do a lot of solo hikes and scrambles and have my InReach set to ping my location to my wife every 10 minutes. That way if I fall and injure myself and cant activate/operate my InReach she will at least see my location and can alert someone if I haven't moved for a few hours. It gets a bit expensive, but worth it to keep my wife from worrying about me every time I go out solo.

 

Agreed. Plus the farther UP you push means the farther DOWN you have to escape.

Found it BTW: https://semi-rad.com/2017/10/10-basic-rules-for-adventure/

 

Just finished editing my camping food video that's goin up Monday... I think its funny and there some cool stuff I did in it but in also giving away a hatchet if I get 100 likes a month from Monday. Did a full breakfast lunch and dinner meal but this fish took home the beauty pageant prize

 

In my 20s I turned around about 15-20 ft from the top of Zabriski Point in Death Valley. My friend did it. I recall it every time I see it.

Yes, very much. I have determined it is twice as long to come up as go down. I love that canyon.

 

Speaking of Grand Canyon elevation profile of the Arizona Trail

 

I biked the Utah towards jacob lake section. Gorgeous ride, but there were a few times I was just outta gas. There's also a part of pine forest about 4 miles from the Utah end that made my "big kitty" senses go right to DEFCON 1.

 

I'm really curious to see what I'll run into out there. Bear spray will be with me most of the time. I'd love to see a cougar from a far

 

I turned around 100 ft from the top of Langley after attempting three routes in very early summer solo many years back. It wasn’t til the third attempt failed and I sat down to rest that it dawned on me I hadn’t seen a single other person the whole day. That’s when I realized I had been way past my comfort zone for a few hours without even realizing it. Put a lot more thought and care in getting back out and ended up fine.

Returned a year later and reached the summit easily in better conditions. The stupid mountain will always be there later (notable exception for Mt. St. Helens).

 

Yeah, it was a section of old riverbed through desert pines. Meandering, narrow with raised banks on either side, short sight lines. Perfect ambush territory. The part that spooked me is how still it was. Absolutley NOTHING made a noise in that section except my bike on pine straw. Every time I'd stop, my brain would announce "this is not right".

I've seen 3 cougars in my life. I guess I'm lucky like that, since most go their entire lives without even a glimpse.

1 from a far ways away skulk across a field in WA

1 was on a small ridge direct above me while hiking that my friend's dog alerted me to here in UT that had the drop on me, dead to rights. He matched me along the ridge step for step for about 50 yards, then I had to go around a tree/corner. I went around the tree, looked up, and it was gone. First instinct was to look behind me, even though there was a 40 foot ledge dropoff.adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

The last one was riding my mtn bike and i passed under it. It was a tree tunnel trail, and there was this stick hanging down from the trees above me about 10 feet up. As I passed it, I looked up and realized it was A TAIL! And attached to that tail was a schmedium sized cougar. I was doin about 10mph at the time, but that split second we made eye contact and my veins went to ice water right quick.