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

jesus christ are you serious?? you actually saw bears for real?? think i'd probably have a heart attack. did get pretty excited when we saw deer just a few feet away from us when hiking out at the marin headlands, but then i get excited about seeing squirrels.

I saw a ton of bears, one ran right across my trail. Some more experienced hikers have told me not to worry about bears and that if a bear attacks you just whack it on the nose, as if you are punishing a child, and it will run from you, "probably". Shit like that makes me feel pretty amateur hour.

what kind of bears, like how big? i got scared the first time i saw a sign warning about mountain lions, jordan couldn't understand till i explained to him that in nz the scariest animal you can encounter in the wild is a boar.

i wld be afraid of a wild boar!

i used to be terrified of mountain lions but i never actually saw one.

also: 20 mi sounds insane! the most i've ever done is probably 7, and i was pretty fucked afterwards.

yeah but you don't really see them all that often xp

the first time i saw a snake (it was about 7") while hiking was also freaky, but i managed to get photographed with it

I saw a ton of bears, one ran right across my trail. Some more experienced hikers have told me not to worry about bears and that if a bear attacks you just whack it on the nose, as if you are punishing a child, and it will run from you, "probably". Shit like that makes me feel pretty amateur hour.

― (b)admin (roxymuzak), Sunday, May 17, 2009 12:06 AM (8 minutes ago)

what the fuuuck

Justine, they were black bears, like this one:

http://www.shularinn-pigeonforge.com/slideshow/images/smoky_mountains_black_bear_jpg.jpg

Although tbh one of them that day looked like this:

http://ahimsablog.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/black-bear-baby.jpg

I saw some bear TRACKS that were scarier than any bear I've ever seen, though.

See, bears don't want to fuck with you, though. If you make noise on the trail so that you don't sneak up on them, and if you don't mess with them, they're not a danger to you at all. People get really freaked out by bears but I think they've only killed maybe 2 people ever in the Smoky Mountains and one was an idiotic baby who was taunting it and its parents let it and the bear just swiped at it and it died. No one had ever been killed by a bear in the Smokies until 2000. IIRC that incident had something to do with a girl gathering blackberries and there was a bear inside the bush.

They are mostly sweet, and want to leave you alone and be left alone, in my experience. This is why I don't bushwhack much during non-hibernation periods.

so they're not huge, right? maybe the same height as an average person, standing up? tbh, that cub is too cute for words and i'd have to be restrained from attempting to pet it and consequently incurring the wrath of its mum

when we went to the zoo last year we spent aaaaaaaages hanging out talking to 'ting ting' the sun bear

I saw many deer while I was on the trail at night. I was under the impression that deer were diurnal, but I kept hearing all this rustling around between 10 and midnight. I'd flash my light over thinking it was a bear, and it'd be some beautiful deer just prancing through the forest.

xpost yeah most of them are about person sized or smaller that I've seen, there are some fucking huge mamas out there though. The babies are embarrassingly cute, and tumble around in trees and try to get you to pet them so that their moms can kill you, it's terrible

i don't like hiking but this thread title makes me really really happy

it was this or niggaz with altitude

lol

North Face backpack where I'm hold'n all the work at

haha the other day me and my hiking buddy were on a trail and we passed this huge lump of white animal hair and i was like "what could this possibly have come from?" i picked some up to inspect it, saying "haw, im disturbing this ecosystem." my buddy was like "yeah, and it's disturbing me"

i wish that could be our hiking club's motto somehow

I can't wait to get this:

http://www.mysigg.com/ProductImages/MYSIGG/8025.50.JPG

pretty much the most metal looking thing ever

On my last hike I totally ran out of water! I was only a couple miles from the endpoint, though. Next time will take two of the above.

That is pretty metal. How many ounces?

it's 33 oz

am also considering the nalgene flask

http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/NalgeneFlask.jpg

I ran outta water on a hike in Arizona once, a day into it (which meant a day's hike out in ridic heat w/o water). It was kinda scary at first but we found a big tree, all by its lonesome, and sure enough there was a little water hole next to it.

cute! tbh i passed lots of creek (the trail was called rabbit creek for pete's sake) but i'm to chickenshit to drink much out of creeks

i got sigg bottle today but it is purple with pretty swirls because i like things that are purple.

woah nalgene flask is neat!
btw i was at eastern mountain sports and EVERYTHING is 20% off!

i know, i am crazy about that flask

man, i wanna go hiking

there are many great options nearby, lb!
jones gap :D :D :D
used to do table rock a lot when i was a kiddie.

also the dupont forest has really cool waterfalls.

man i miss the smokies so much. i don't think i ever did the rabbit creek/abrams loop. out of cades cove, we used to go up to gregory bald a lot. and spence field, i love that hike. also did a lot of day-hiking up from the cosby side. and from newfound gap. (charlie's bunion!) you know the whole time i was there, i never hiked the chimneys. some things to do in the future.

these days all my hiking is urban. which is fine and i like it, but it's not the same. i really loved getting up, stocking up, driving out and spending the whole day walking. then a big dinner and beer somewhere. (if we went up out of townsend we'd stop by that mexican place in maryville on the way home. los something-or-other.)

chimneys suck imo!!! 2 miles straight up a bunch of red clay mud and 2 miles straight back down where you just came from, and the view is great of course, but there are a lot of great views in the smokies. i dread going up there, you didn't miss anything

my favorite short hike is alum cave bluffs, nothing else like it

i'm waiting for azalea season to do gregory's bald! did andrew's bald and it was really miserable, but i picked a stupid time of year to do it.

oh man there is nothing better than finishing a huuuuge hike and just chowing down on the way back through townsend at the heart and kettle or something

*hearth

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/images/13p2s1v6.jpg

saw three of these peeking out from a tree and was just like "do not want to be eaten by the inevitable mom" and ran through a trail junction

yeah you want the azaleas in bloom for sure.

the contours of the chimneys is why i never did it. once i got out there i wanted something more immersive than that, i guess. i love the rhythms of a nice long hike.

i think cucumber gap is the best short, completely easy hike

also love house mountain in south knoxville, so cool that a hike like that is just right there

hahaha, i must hike this!!!!

http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Haw_Ridge_3840.asp

house mountain is more northeast than south, isn't it? out rutledge pike? but yeah that's a nice near one. that's where i saw a whole flock of wild turkeys try to take flight. they made it up into the lower branches of the nearest tree.

i did some hikes around oak ridge, don't remember if it included HAW ridge.

also good: frozen head.

Haw, I totally meant East Knoxville

http://www.gajos.org/travel/hikes/uploaded_images/DSC_3973-737723.JPG

and big south fork! site of my bachelor party. granted there was less hiking than drinking and whatnot involved there. but there's some great hikes too. east tenn. is really A+ for hiking.

hahaha

i wish i had a pic of the sign at abrams falls

"four people have died here! please do not be next"
xpost

20 miles in one day? that's some serious hiking. what kind of elevation gain?

there's a million place to hike in the East, and it's good to get out there in the fresh air (smokies haw) and go up and down and such, but there's not a lot that's as interesting as most of the stuff in the other half of the country. i gotta start doing some stuff here though in preparation for out there.

in hawaii there were massive warning signs about swimming in waterfalls and getting caught in riptides and swept out to sea. it was scary but also kind of gnarly and awesome.

we've been out to the marin headlands a few times this year (san francisco), i like it because it's all open hills, beautiful views of the ocean, and this totally weird-ass old military stuff (like forts and stuff).

re that nalgene drink bottle: nalgene is responsible for making a lot of the equipment involved in animal testing (battery cages, immobilisers, restraints etc), fyi.

i dont know how to calculate elevation gain but it was mostly an easy hike with a couple uphill climbs, i.e. definitely climbed straight up pine mountain

Interesting, thanks A!

https://i.imgur.com/jeLWPGi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KbxTG6D.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qYp7ffw.jpg

met a guy

Beautiful. Where is that?

new mexico

Nice. That's Truchas?
Going to Santa Fe in 3 weeks but with my gf so if there's any hiking it will be minimal :(

Yeah, that cairn marks the top of truchas.

check out atalaya when you're in SF! basically right in town, doesn't go up super high, nice views of the area. bit steep

Cool thanks, I'll see if I can make that happen. I'm thinking tram ride up to Sandia Crest by ABQ may be more her speed. Have you done that?

Tram is good for sure

thinking about hiking down bright angel and back up kaibab in one day at the grand canyon. anyone have experience doing that? they have signs telling you not to do it but a lot of people do anyway. im currently in moderate shape and am a little worried about it tbh. we're kinda tagging along with a group of friends. i really want to do it but would MUCH rather spend a night or two at the bottom before coming back up, wondering if its worth the day trip or if i should wait to do it the way i want.

I've hiked in GC many times but have yet to make it to the bottom, let alone back up in same day.
With that caveat, I'm confident I could go down one of those trails and back up same day, but it'd be a tough climb back up. (I hike around 800 miles per year, mostly in AZ. I'd say I'm in better than moderate shape, hiking wise) But making that loop adds a significant amount of miles. Hiking Project lists the loop at 21.6 miles. That's 5 miles longer than the longest day hike I've ever done. And that didn't involve a 5000 ft relatively steep, unrelenting climb up.
If you do it, do it in the Fall or early Spring.

I would wait to do it how you want. Doing that loop as a day hike is more a test of masochistic will than a fun adventure.

I agree with GD. That's well past the scope of "moderate shape" and deep into the realm of heroic exertions.

yah thats where im leaning. appreciate it.

Agreed with others on this thread— I've done some hiking in those types of conditions, and it is brutal.

spottie, i did that hike in the opposite direction (down south kaibab, up bright angel) in october a few years ago, but we took a pretty leisurely one day down and a day and a half up with a side hike to plateau point on the second evening. a lot of south kaibab is effectively stairs, and my knees didn't feel great after all those steps down with a heavy pack, so i was glad i didn't have to immediately go back up. there were plenty of people who looked like they were making the kaibab round trip in a day, but it didn't seem like my idea of fun.

thanks, circles. lol soooo... i didnt end up listening and ended up doing the hike last weekend with my 12 year old son! we ended up going down south kaibab and up bright angel like you, circles. camped outside the park friday night under the stars, got up at 430 am and started down kaibab at 530 am in the dark. 4 hours to the bottom and 6.5 hours back up. i felt great honestly but the last three miles, and in partic the last 1.5 miles, were extremely hard. my kid had no issues at all. the weather could not have been better. 35 degrees at start, 73 at the bottom and like 55 when we finished. lots of cloud cover too. whole thing was a life changing experience really. i dont have to tell you how beautiful the gc is, here's an image dump anyway.
https://i.imgur.com/IsIdPMX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Bn7Udyf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fsnaMnb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XBQeCR1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ZCibn6P.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/V43GXuL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XBQeCR1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WBeDhs8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PG74DXH.jpg

Sounds like a great time and the photos are amazing.

That looks like an epic and excellent day. Kudos to you both. The GC is the best. Got to raft the upper half a few years ago and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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.