The Unoffical Official Hiking Thread

Enjoyed a lot of barefoot hiking this summer, best two backpacking trips:

Goat Rocks Wilderness, WA

Goat Rocks Old Snowy 03_lr.JPG
Barefoot in the lower elevations

Goat Rocks Goat Ridge Trail 01_lr.jpg
The snowy parts in huaraches

Goat Rocks Hawkeye Point 01_lr.JPG
Hawkeye Point (7,431 ft)
Goat Rocks Old Snowy 01_lr.JPG
PCT High Point (7.650 ft) near Old Snowy. Mt. Rainier in the background
Goat Rocks Goat Lake Evening 01_lr.jpg
Late evening at Goat Lake (6,420 ft)
Climbing Middle Sister (10,052 ft), Central OR

Hike to Camp Lake 01_lr.jpg
Barefoot half of the trip
Middle Sister South Ridge 01_lr.JPG
I put Five Fingers on for glacier crossings and this upper rocky part
Middle Sister Summit 02_lr.jpg
Middle Sister summit (10,052 ft)
 
The flowers are incredible, Para! Were those really butterflies or did you add those in?
 
The flowers are incredible, Para! Were those really butterflies or did you add those in?
I saw butterflies flying around me at the summit but was amazed to discover those two caught in the photo later at home.
The butterflies just happened to be there when the camera shutter snapped.
 
Yellow butterflies flying around you means there will be a rebirth or renewing of your life, Para. That's incredible that your photographer captured them in the picture frame.
 
Wow even more! You are a great photographer. Those are top-notch quality photographs! I am impressed.

So anything new going on in your life?
 
I am enjoying all the pics. I'm glad everybody is sharing their variety of experiences with their love of hiking.

There may have been some slight skiving in relation to work this afternoon:oops: , but isn't this pretty?:p
2012-11-19_13-07-38_145.jpg

Look at the funny cloud on the left, does anybody know what kind it is? It isn't a plume of smoke, although that's what I thought it was at first.
 
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So I want to talk about gear some more. I like to do day hikes mostly, but hubby likes to do overnights. The main reason that I prefer day hikes is that I have congenital joint hypermobility and, without going into a long explanation, let's just say it makes being active challenging sometimes. Ditching conventional shoes makes it a lot easier to deal with and has allowed me to be able to hike longer and farther than ever before in my entire life. For me anyway, I don't think carrying a big huge heavy pack is any more natural than wearing conventional shoes. I also avoid traditional packs because I have scoliosis, and while my spinal curvature is mild, it can make backpacks in general less-than-comfortable. One last general thing about packs and feet is that if you have recently given up your boots, I suspect continuing to carry your regular pack and configuration could cause some problems.

Even on day hikes around here I tend to carry around a fair amount of stuff because some of the places I go can get ugly quickly and I need to be able to keep myself in one piece long enough to get out if the excrement hits the fan. I tend to carry around more stuff in the winter because as a Northerner by birth I know the value of dressing in layers and taking them on and off. To accommodate these various conditions I've added to my hiking "system" a Mountainsmith Lumbar Pack and an Outdoor Products Majove 8.0 waist pack. The latter is my warm weather pack and yes, it is basically a glorified fanny pack with water bottle holders, but I have zero shame.:p

I've done a test run with the Mountainsmith pack while we were car camping. The test was to see if I could cram all the essentials for one weekend into it. Yes it can be done. It weighs in at about six pounds with all my gear in it, including 1L of water, and excluding food other than emergency snacks. I have a Northface synthetic sleeping bag (don't ask me what model) and a Ridgerest foam sleeping pad that can be tied to the bottom and top of the lumbar pack respectively. In case you are scratching your heads about the only 6 lbs bit keep in mind that my shelter is a camping hammock my husband made for me out of ripstop nylon and tulle for a bug net. Hubby has a Warbonnet tarp to go with his camping hammock and it weighs slightly less than a fart. I intend on getting myself a slightly smaller version of the one he has. My next test will be to see how far I can walk with the aforementioned pack/sleeping system configuration before it gets annoying or painful.
 
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Enjoyed a lot of barefoot hiking this summer, best two backpacking trips:

I see you have trekking poles. How do you like them? I have some that I was using back when I had awful knee pain and we were hiking in North Georgia in the Chattahoochee National Forest (AT, Brasstown Bald, etc.). I stopped using them because we haven't been in the mountains since then, my knees no longer hurt, and I find the noise they make is contraindicated for the kind of wildlife viewing I like to do. Hubby stole them and uses them to make a "porch" for the tarp on his camping hammock. Am I missing something? Should I steal them back?

I like the butterflies too by the way.
 
I tend to pack too much thanks to my military training. I have cut down on quite a bit of weight but I like to be prepared. I have an old pack that I am not fond of, hopefully I will be getting a new one this coming year. Mostly, I tend to pack too much food and I never eat it all. Guess I'd rather have too much than not enough. We usually do multiple day hikes, up to about a week. I think I have the same type of foam pad for sleeping on and an extremely lightweight dome tent, 1.3 lbs I think. I also have a lightweight sleeping bag that is a little over a pound. I also have a woobie (military folks know what I'm talking about) that I bring. It's actually a poncho liner blanket thing. I've used it in the low teens to keep warm when sleeping. Great even if it gets wet. I also have a tendency to take too much water, in fact I'm kind of nutty about it. I know you can use the pills and you can boil water and what not, but that's what I do for emergency, not when everything's ok. My family gives me a lot of grief about it because my pack, despite having the higher tech lightweight tent and sleeping bag and gear, is always triple or more in weight than theirs. I don't mind and my stepdad and brother didn't mind when they ran out of water and I was able to let them have some of mine... :D
 
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I see you have trekking poles. How do you like them? Am I missing something? Should I steal them back?

I really like them and they help me a lot especially uphill with a heavier backpack (where I can lean forward and put some weight on them) but it is a personal preference. Others do fine without them.
 
I also have a tendency to take too much water, in fact I'm kind of nutty about it. I know you can use the pills and you can boil water and what not, but that's what I do for emergency, not when everything's ok. :D
I carry iodine pills and a bit of water. Hubby has this stupid pump and filter system. I say "stupid" because I don't like it, I imagine it's just fine. He does "bikepacking" too though, which is what set off this resurgence of backpacking in our family. If I had to do the filter bit there is a Platypus gravity feed system that I like the look of. I want to try a steripen (I use UV to kill germs for my job) but his argument is that there will be no more batteries after the Apocalypse. I still want one.
 
I carry iodine pills and a bit of water. Hubby has this stupid pump and filter system. I say "stupid" because I don't like it, I imagine it's just fine. He does "bikepacking" too though, which is what set off this resurgence of backpacking in our family. If I had to do the filter bit there is a Platypus gravity feed system that I like the look of. I want to try a steripen (I use UV to kill germs for my job) but his argument is that there will be no more batteries after the Apocalypse. I still want one.
I think my lil brother just bought one of those pump and filter systems your talking about. Hopefully we can get out for our yearly hike this next summer and can test it out. Of course I will still carry my water, but if he gets sick I'll know not to get one. :D
 
Hubby has actually used his on one of his overnights. He didn't get sick. It's one of the better brands, although I cannot think of which one off the top of my head. I've used filtered water with iodine before when we were sea kayaking for my college freshman orientation. Tastes like poo even if you put kool aid powder in with it.
 
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I want to talk about my gaiters because I guess a lot of folks don't know that there are gaiters for alternative shoes. You might want to know why I am wearing gaiters in Florida.

Gaiters (though probably more the regular than ultralight) also work fairly well when there is snow on the ground (particularly deeper snow). One thing that will chill your feet faster than anything (I say this barefoot, but I bet it is also true for toe shoes) is getting snow on top of your toes. Depending on the length of the tip of the gaiter, they can help prevent that.

I know a person who would go out in fairly deep snow barefoot except for snowshoes and gaiters. And now we can debate whether that is really barefoot or not :). Most of the bare sole (except for a few strings) is touching the ground/snow.
 
I've used filtered water with iodine before when we were sea kayaking for my college freshman orientation. Tastes like poo even if you put kool aid powder in with it.
Hence the reason I pack my water and my iodine tabs are in my emergency med kit. ;)

I also always take 550 cord with me. Maybe a hundred feet or so. I have it all braided into a nice easy to manage ball thing.
 
I am enjoying all the pics. I'm glad everybody is sharing their variety of experiences with their love of hiking.

There may have been some slight skiving in relation to work this afternoon:oops: , but isn't this pretty?:p
2012-11-19_13-07-38_145.jpg

Look at the funny cloud on the left, does anybody know what kind it is? It isn't a plume of smoke, although that's what I thought it was at first.

Probably an old jet contrail.
 
Probably an old jet contrail.
It doesn't show well in the pic, but it was too big/too close to be a contrail. My best guess was that it was two different kinds of cloud formations merging but I don't know the names of the different kinds of clouds without a textbook in front of me. I thought somebody else might. Isn't anybody going to scold me for skiving off work? That is my favorite trail lately, it's where I took the photo for my avatar as well.