Hungry Jack
Trail Wise!
Living and dying in 3/4 time...
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Post by Hungry Jack on Nov 14, 2016 10:18:35 GMT -8
Avoiding overpacking / keeping pack weight down.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2016 10:36:36 GMT -8
After ~30 years of backpacking, I still pack too much snack food.
Trail mix, nuts, granola bars, dried fruit.
Probably 2x as much as I ever eat.
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toejam
Trail Wise!
Hiking to raise awareness
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Post by toejam on Nov 14, 2016 11:31:21 GMT -8
My biggest challenge has always been not carrying stuff I don't need.
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tigger
Trail Wise!
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Post by tigger on Nov 14, 2016 15:16:55 GMT -8
Honestly, I think much of it is difficult. I have spent roughly thirty years refining my skills and I am still finding little tricks to learn.
The top three biggest challenges for me -
Packing for comfort without too much weight. I tend to limit myself to 2-3 "treats" these days. In the past, I could never seem to find the right balance. I'm sure for some, this was much easier.
Bad weather backpacking - Layering clothes to stay dry and warm...without being too warm, changing during foul weather, Sleeping cozy through the night. This took years of experimentation for me to get my layers just right to be able to hike in both freezing cold temps and wet rainy days on end.
Navigation - Getting the balance between direct routing, reading the terrain, staying off the afternoon sun ridges with thick brush, determining the average pace possible in a variety of terrain. Then there is the extreme terrain challenges of thorns, constant splitting and merging valleys and ridges, crossing water sources, weather extremes and their effect on navigating blind. Watching the plant life to determine possible water sources and elevation changes. Navigation at night, reading Quad maps, mastering the GPS, coordinates, compass declination, reading daylight shadows. It's become a balance of instinct, fighting my instinct, skill, a bit of luck, and knowing when to just stop for the day/night.
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ogg
Trail Wise!
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Post by ogg on Nov 14, 2016 16:44:49 GMT -8
Navigation and reading weather takes time and experience. I recently had an experience revisiting a cross country high desert route in Joshua Tree National Park that 14 years ago, very early in my backpacking career, didn't go as planned. On the first trip, I got nowhere near my intended destination, Conejo Well in the Eagle Mtns near Cottonwood Springs and the south entrance to the park. The route to Conejo Well is entirely an old, disused road that hasn't seen wheeled travel in decades, overtaken by time and nature but still clearly visible to an experienced eye, aside from where dips into washes. I undertook some forensic analysis of the failed trip of 14 of years ago as I walked the route again and memories clarified in my mind. I identified the place where I had unknowingly left the trail and continued up a wash that the road-trail had briefly dipped into. This mistake was a common mistake of novices, the following of wishful thinking, following a perceived route that goes where one wants it to go, rather than where the deduced route actually goes. In the case of this particular route at the juncture of my deviation, it begins to veer away from the mountains at the base of which, farther East is the destination. The "natural" thing to do, so it seemed at the time of the first trip 14 years ago, was to stay close to the mountains. Memories came back to me and I recalled realizing my error later on, backtracking, finding the route where I should have taken it, and then realizing that some wet weather was coming in and I had little confidence that I could continue to trace the remaining four miles in worsening weather and dimming light and get to my destination before sunset and rainfall (in whichever order). So, I headed up a large wash that bisected the trail at that point, that led to higher ground closer to the mountains. There, I found a fairly sheltered campsite in a rocky area just above the wash and pitched my Eureka Solitaire tent with a nylon poncho rigged over the entrance with a trekking pole as a sort of porch. I was cozy there, in the vigorous rain that eventually materialized after nightfall. 14 years later, I had little difficulty tracing the route and had a blast doing so. One of my most favorite sorts of hiking is walking lonely, barely perceptible roads in the desert, alone, often in plain or austere settings yet somehow sublime to me. 14 years later, once again, there was much rain at the coast, slim chance of me receiving any, but I was prepared for rain. 14 years ago, with my novice navigation skills, I flubbed finding the route but called the weather. 14 years later, the route was no problem but I probably fretted over the weather more than I needed to.
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daveg
Trail Wise!
Michigan
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Post by daveg on Nov 14, 2016 20:55:01 GMT -8
Did he have a map of the route? Can he read a map? I can look at a map and easily know my route then easily follow that route. That's on foot or in car. Navigation is a learned skill, not inate I had a trail map but didn't give him a copy. Perhaps I should have. And I have no idea what his map reading skills are. But every time we took a break I took out my map and went over it with him.
He had a step counter app on his iPhone which I was curious about since I sometimes use counting steps as a navigation tool. But the distance walked as calculated by the app turned out to be way off. On Saturday, the app calculated we had hiked a total of 14 point something miles when in fact we had covered slightly less than nine miles. When taking a break on Sunday morning, the app calculated we had hiked six miles when, according to the map, we had covered just a bit over three miles. I'm guessing the discrepancies were the result of the ever changing pace length that occurs when hiking.
The trail map showed plenty of geographical features and the points where two other developed trails intersected the trail we were on. So it was fairly easy to figure out (at least approximately) where we were. But the other paths that intersected the trail were not on the map and the scale was so small it could not show all the turns in the trail. So one had to depend on the blazes to get from point A to point B.
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talus
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Post by talus on Nov 15, 2016 0:35:49 GMT -8
I'd say Map & Compass skills, as they take some studying and application. I agree, especially in heavily forested areas, where it is hard to travel cross country.
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markskor
Trail Wise!
Mammoth Lakes & Tuolumne Meadows...living the dream
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Post by markskor on Nov 15, 2016 0:37:52 GMT -8
Lots of great advice mentioned so far...have to agree with tigger - this backpacking thing may not be as easy as just strapping on a pack and heading down some trail. There is a learning curve...maps, food choices, warmth, rain gear, footwear, fires, etc, etc...some may call them challenges. Whatever, there are many subtle nuances in doing back-country things right and thus, having a successful outing.
Not mentioned but a few more skill "challenges" worthy of personal mention...important lessons to learn:
On longer, multi-day treks, many start out with a dynamic, distinct, "city-made," comprehensive plan of attack...how many miles to do that day...maps with little red X's drawn...a detailed 10+-day agenda. However, do not treat this plan as written in stone. Better when you realize/ concede/ learn that it is the mountain, not you, that sets the agenda. Conditions can change; chit happens. Always be flexible.
Secondly, since the OP stated "on-trail" and "not solo"...obviously there will be company along. Don't be that guy who is constantly flapping his gums. Sometimes long periods of silence work better, considering?
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rebeccad
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Writing like a maniac
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Post by rebeccad on Nov 15, 2016 8:17:26 GMT -8
Better when you realize/ concede/ learn that it is the mountain, not you, that sets the agenda. Conditions can change; chit happens. Always be flexible. Yup. Not accepting that has gotten a lot of people into trouble.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2016 12:14:04 GMT -8
I missed the trail twice this summer. First time freaked me out so badly, I tried my best not to let that happen on the AT. But I still wondered off the AT once. My compass saved me. A newbie has so many new sensations and info roaring through the brain that it's easy to get sidetracked.
Overpacking food was my biggest challenge this summer. The fear of being stranded out there was the culprit. Last trip, I finally learned to relax and not overpack. Yay!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2016 12:44:00 GMT -8
@bjaye
Excellent point. Early on with backpacking, I had the bad habit of packing way to much food. All part of the learning curve.
Packing that extra day of food has given us wiggle room. Several of our trips this summer my wife and I came back with just handfulls of snack food and our spare food left.
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reuben
Trail Wise!
Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Nov 15, 2016 14:23:33 GMT -8
I lost a trail in Chile last year. Granted, it's a "park in progress", I was hiking it backwards, and they admit that it doesn't have the greatest markers even when hiked from the beginning, but I got off trail near the end. As it turns out, there are several editions of that trail, and I missed one of the forks, which probably wouldn't have been an issue had I hiked it in the "correct" direction.
I was getting tired (it's 14 miles and 4,000ft when done correctly), largely because I didn't take quite enough in the way of snacks. When I ran into some scree which sent me sliding downhill several times with no end in sight I knew I had missed a marker. There was a split earlier but one path was clearly marked as closed (rocks stacked in the middle of the trail). I hiked back, and, knowing roughly where I was and where I was headed, took the closed trail since it seemed to head in the correct direction. After describing it to Kris and others they were pretty sure that I had actually missed a fork even before that one. But even if my new/closed trail wasn't quite right, I knew that the general direction was correct and I could reorient myself when I came back out of the woods, which wouldn't last long. I had to climb over a bunch of fallen trees, but I knew that I was headed in the right direction (down and south). I could feel my body shutting down and thought about stopping, but knew that I was close and headed in the right direction. Eventually the old trail I was on intersected the new trail, and I was home free.
When I made it back to camp I was completely shelled after a 11 hour day with plenty of water but not enough food, and it took a couple of days to recuperate, but I made it.
To sort of echo what others have said, you have to know your limits. I knew that I could spend the night up there with just the clothes I was wearing. I would be miserable, but I'd make it down the next day.
I actually sat down and thought about my situation - where I was, where I wanted to go, how I planned to get there, whether or not I should stop now and try again tomorrow, etc. Rash decisions rarely turn out well, and I didn't want to make one (turns out I had ventured onto an old trail that went another 10 miles to a small town). I relaxed, waited for my blood pressure and a bit of adrenaline to subside, let my mind slow down, then thought about my situation and my options.
All of the above is a long-winded way of saying that, as others will testify, the best tools you take with you are what's in your head. The better tools you can store up there, the better you'll be when things go south.
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reuben
Trail Wise!
Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Nov 16, 2016 5:42:05 GMT -8
I had a map, and knew how to read it. That's how I knew where I was. But while there was one trail on the map, there were many on the ground.
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Post by cweston on Nov 16, 2016 6:06:13 GMT -8
Following a trail is often not as easy as folks like us may make it out to be--there are often social trails that may look just as "developed" as the main trail, and are almost never shown on maps.
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Post by cweston on Nov 16, 2016 6:10:15 GMT -8
Maybe the hardest skill to acquire is a realistic sense of one's own abilities and limitations. With that comes the ability to set realistic goals for daily mileage, and so on. And the ability to plan off-trail travel that may push you a little, but is ultimately within your ability to accomplish safely.
Also, an internal mileage clock is very important for successful navigation. In most circumstances, I have a pretty good sense of when I've walked a mile, two miles, etc. that can get short-circuited in extreme situations, though, like uber-slow bushwhacking travel.
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