still fuckin with climb cuz climb pays: the ILX hiking thread

nice! glad it went well for you and your son. it was basically cloudless when i went, but with similarly good temperatures.

amazing pics. bucket list for sure

Nicely done, Spottie!
Was just realizing this is 1st year since I moved to AZ that I haven't been to GC. Might take a day off in Nov and do a hike there.

My sis is in town now and we'd like to hike West Fork trail near Sedona but it's basically impossibile to find a parking spot after 8 am. We did that trail at same time of year in 2015 with no such issue. Instagram effect has caused it to basically be undoable at most times of year.
Yesterday when driving to a trailhead I saw about 30 cars, almost all with out of state plates, parked along roadside at an unofficial trailhead for an unofficial trailhead to these ruins. Just 5 years ago you'd maybe see a car or 2 parked there, usually locals. Then came Instagram…

yeah sedona has been over-run by wannabe influencers. still awesome tho. the path we took on the gc was really busy too. especially the last 4.5 mile stretch after indian gardens.

The IG effect is among the reasons I choose to go to more out-of-the way parks when I can. When we were in sight of the Grand Tetons, we instead did an amazing hike in the Gros Ventre wilderness. Not as crowded, shockingly beautiful, hard hiking— everything we wanted.

While it's wonderful to hike in the dazzling beauty spots, that's not what hiking's all about for me. Out here in the western US there are many thousands of trails that are beautiful, but not dazzling, and therefore not crowded with hikers looking for a gorgeous background in their IG selfies.

There's still lots of quiet out there if you just want a peaceful hike in the woods or the desert. This summer I even managed a five day backpack in a popular alpine wilderness area in Oregon and through judicious planning I didn't see another human from Friday noon until Monday afternoon and this was in late July prime 'high season'! But that was only possible because I know the area so well and understand where the crowds go.

This is true.. the GF and I visited Zion in April, and we did spend one afternoon seeing the grand sights, alongside the shuttle buses and the huddled masses armed with their selfie sticks; but the following afternoon, we explored a somewhat anonymous canyon near the east entrance, and for hours and hours we didn't see a soul or even a scrap of litter (or discarded mask). It was a great day and was fun to see the desert so.. well, deserted.

zion's basically a no-go for me at this point. bryce too, though it isn't as bad. i just can't deal with all the people in order to get access, even if there are a lot of areas in the parks that are hardly visited at all. you'd think valley of fire state park in nevada would be lesser-known and quiet, but that was one of the most crowded park experiences i've ever had. on the other hand, once we struck out on some slickrock that wasn't part of the handful of featured trails, we saw no one and all became quiet.

the places i look for 1) are wild and alive as you walk through and experience them and 2) have nothing you can take a singular, eye-candy picture of. in utah this means i avoid most slot canyons, big parks, holeeee sheeeiit rock formations, native american ruins. i'm out for a nice trail and some peace and quiet though i also love slickrock. there are a few places left where you can get all of that. they're usually 4th or 5th on visitors' priority lists for various reasons, one of which is often because they're out-of-the-way.

no one goes to the san rafael swell except locals with atvs but the place is so big you can still get lost in it. great place for some raw desert realness.

Lol,a buddy had recommended Valley of Fire as an 'off the beaten path' site to visit en route to Zion, and I thought for sure we'd find somewhere to camp... but every single campsite was occupied - most of them looked like long-term visitors. We ended up on some scruffy, litterbug BLM land near Sand Hollow reservoir, next to a bunch of off-roaders

Islands in the Sky up near Guernville is gorgeous, not too tough at all, and is pretty lightly-trafficked.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51210250792_6b3d998a57_c.jpg

Not to blow up the spot, but these issues we're talking about are truly the reason why I loved living in the Mt. Shasta area. I hardly *ever* saw more than one or two people on any trails, with the exception of the very popular trails that lead to the summit of the mountain...but within an hour drive, there are hundreds of other trails. I only hope it stays that way.

Shasta is well protected from recreational overuse by the distance it lies from any large city and by its sheer size. Also by its bad access roads. This is no bad thing. What it needs better protection from is clear cutting.

The access roads truly are demanding, lots of times praying the car would make it to a trailhead

I've read quite a few "stupid tourist hiker" stories since moving to AZ in 2012, but this one might take the cake:

https://azdailysun.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/life-isnt-worth-losing-for-a-cool-instagram-picture-says-hiker-who-called-coconino-county/article_8de5f435-efe5-5a8d-926f-08450f0d30bd.html

Summer is coming to a close. In my part of the world, this means fewer and fewer opportunities to hike and camp, unless you appreciate short days and bad weather. This year I've been lucky enough to spend more than 25 nights sleeping in a tent. Tomorrow I'll leave for an overnight backpack on Mt Hood that will probably be my last until next summer.

Most memorable of my trips was a solo overnight at 8300 ft, all alone at a high alpine lake where I'd never camped before. It was peaceful, surrounded by ancient whitebark pines and bare granite outcrops. I could see what I think was Saturn, shining brightly in the clear night. Nice. I'd do it again in a flash.

Next most memorable was a possible wolf sighting. It was near the shore, across a large pond/tarn. It was a bit too far away to be conclusive - maybe 80 meters, but it was clearly a very large canid, definitely the wrong size and coloration to be a coyote (cream-colored fur), configured like a wolf with a bushy downswept tail, and no human was visibly accompanying it. Had it barked at me I'd've known it was a wolf-like dog. But it watched me silently as I watched it. Also, I was in the only part of Oregon with known multiple wolfpacks. I'm more than 3/4 sure it was a wolf.

That all sounds very cool but the wolf sounds SUPER cool. Great work!

Strange to say, the experience was very interesting and focused my attention very powerfully, but the fact of the distance and intervening water removed most sense of danger or intimacy from the encounter. What was left was me trying as hard as I could to figure out if what I was looking at was what I thought it might be, and not succeeding in fully convincing myself of its reality. After all, the USA has a million dogs for every wild wolf, and even if 99% of dogs do not look anything like wolves, the odds against were too big to ignore, in spite of my patient sorting of the evidence in favor.

Just coming on here to check when I last bought a pair of walking boots! Bought my (amazing) Lowas Renegades 2 years ago, it seems. Is 2 years about what y'all would expect from a pair of boots? I've covered the best part of 1500 miles in them; both boots have split in the same place (outside, about where a bunion might be, just above the outsole). Just huffing at having to shell out the £200, tbh.

1500 miles is a more than reasonable lifetime for hiking boots. They have to absorb a lot of banging around and abrasion.

I just picked up a pair of NOS Vasque Skywalk boots on eBay for $62 - made in Italy. Still breaking them in but I think they will make the cut

living a more hikey life, as i can ride or rollerski with my fourth broken right clav.

so while my right arm is slinged? slung?--
packable trail hiking pole recommendations? thinking of going for a 14er, but it seems riskier without a safety pole/net.

er, "cannot" obv

lol i tried very gentle safe roadriding through fracture for 4.5 weeks, all i did was displace a prev nondisplaced fracture, it was-- yeah it was dumb, but when you old and on the 4th one, you wanna experiment and hold the little fitness you got. lesson if you wanna do that, get the plate.

(but i already had a plate there once, it was causing problems in joint after a while, and then i had to have it removed and the holes grafted, so i wasn't getting another plate and risk that again).

Now that it is winter, a few thumbnails from this past summer:

https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/55/77/MGzCjSfi_t.jpg
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/6e/1d/PwfXoAmy_t.jpg
https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/8a/d2/FcMNOdFa_t.jpg

Nice. Where is the snow?

Not sure how to interpret your question.

Sorry, I meant where are you in the photos with the snow?

In the Wallowa mountains of NE Oregon. It's a place I've visited almost every year for the past two decades. I've gone there so often that I know a great many of its trees individually (no kidding)!

Thanks. Sounds and looks lovely.

Sad thing is that several wonderful old high elevation trees I loved that had survived upwards of 200 years (I'd estimate) have died lately and I blame global warming. Bare dead branches that I used to find shade under.