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

^one of my regrets upon leaving OR was not visiting there, a friend has raved about the Wallowas to me many times

I feel uneasy even publicizing the place here on ILX, just because it has been growing in popularity and getting more pressure on it. I've been seeing more signs of overuse there in recent years. Luckily, it is far away from major population centers and airports, so if you aren't a local and you want to go you really have to work at it. It's a 350 mile drive for me. One way.

what I've learned from my journeys around the US Southwest is that if it's been Instagrammed, it ain't off the beaten path anymore

Been seeing out of state plates at trailheads that just a few years ago I'd hardly see any locals, let alone tourists

new mex is still pretty sleepy shhhhhhhhh

I know you haven't lived there for all that long but what's your favorite hiking spots? I have no Instagram or Facebook accounts so you're secret's safe with me. I've been wanting to get back to White Sands & figured I'd hit the mountains that surround it. Seems wrong that it's further from me than, say, Telluride or LA.

last time I was there I was in ABQ and Santa Fe and it was cold and rainy so didn't get a chance to hike :(

the pecos wilderness is basically in my backyard and it's astonishing how empty it is once you get further than a mile or two from the trailhead, even during high season.

my friends and i go camping at this place outside penasco (rio santa barbara) on two of the big summer holiday weekends (memorial/labor) and it's always empty

https://imgur.com/a/JoTF9vF

my other favorite place in new mex is the chama river, oh baby

https://imgur.com/a/JoTF9vF

i haven't yet been to the Gila but it is very much on the list

1st hike I did in NM was in the Pecos. We only saw one other person.
Same trip we did The Catwalk, more of a walk than a hike iirc. And short hike to a campsite somewhere in the Gila. I curious what Silver City is like nowadays. Quirky lil town, reminded me of Bisbee AZ. Or Bisbee reminded me of it, since I hadn't yet been to Bisbee.

I've been walking the Pilgrim's Way - from Winchester to Canterbury - and the one thing I've been consistently amazed by is how empty this particular part of England is. In the sense of barely seeing anyone on the actual walks themselves, but also the deadness of the land: it's all either agricultural, where nothing grows thanks to brutal land management, or paddocks. Even the horses look nonplussed. (Tbf, horses always look nonplussed, second only to pheasants in the 'standing in a field looking bewildered Olympics.)

My sister lived in Denver for years and despite visiting four times, a walk up into the hills around Boulder aside, I failed to get a proper hike in the mountains. I a fool.

"Never Hike Alone" is such bad advice. Everyone should hike alone! If only occasionally. It's such good thinkin time.
My friend in Tucson is too scared to hike by herself, and it makes me sad that she's missing out on so many good hikes (and all they provide mentally and physically) while she's still young enough to do them. Obv I don't know what it's like to be a woman and worry about your safety when alone, but she has 2 big dogs and there's well-traveled, short hikes close to populated areas. Just think she's being paranoid.

i ride a d hike solo alot, bit I don’t recommend solo anything in the bc or sc. If you can find anyone who can and will do like you, pair up. like just anything can happen.

On the day last summer that I fell and ripped open my elbow for 10 stitches and plenty butterflies bandaids, thank god i had people with me. they inspected and tied off my elbow with an old tube and gauze. i did descend 500m and ride 1.5 hours direct to urgent care solo, but not having their support and assurance woulda sucked.

is it probly ok? yeah. Is it risky? def.

my friend did most of the appalachian trail with just her dog. But she's very fit and experienced and she had people scheduled to meet her to do parts with her.

I prefer hiking with other people. It's not like you have to walk side by side. I did the patagonia W with three others and it was fine because we kind of went our own pace and just caught up to each other every so often or met up at the end point for the day.

In the face of the current advice to avoid crowds I'm overjoyed that my favorite pastime is outdoors and can be done solo or with just one other person. It helps keep me sane and balanced, and de-stressed. My favorite hikes are those where I see no one else for the whole day, but hiking has become popular enough in these parts that this almost never happens anymore.

When I hiked in the Dolomites last year everything I read in preparation said buy trip insurance because if you get injured on a trail and can't hike down the only way to get you off is by helicopter which is like $5-10k minimum. Of course I blew this off. On one of our hikes we saw a woman get airlifted off the mountain with a sprained ankle on a relatively flat section.

All of this is to say that you can get injured with just one misstep without doing anything stupid or dangerous.

hiking alone is the frikkin best and i will never stop doing it

everyone has a plan til they get punched in the mouth. ain’t saying i’m over solo shit, but ay, i know.

(you v likely do too gbx, your rep precedes- but you are likely v good at your hobbies! me, eh, not so much).

Can't play basketball (apart from shooting around by myself) so been hiking more lately. Most everyone has been good about stepping off the trail to let ppl pass & give enough space. But I've been sticking to the less popular trails. They just closed a bunch of the popular trailheads around Sedona because ppl weren't practicing social distancing on them grrrr. And I'm still seeing quite a few out of state plates at trailheads. Plus there's a LOT of people car camping where dispersed is allowed on natl forest land.
Grand Canyon closed down fully after a resident tested positive. But state park in town here was still collecting fees from cars pulling up when I drove past yesterday.

Right now the greatest feeling in the world is when you've been on a long multi-switchback climb and you suddenly realize you're in a new ecosphere - the trees are taller (there are now trees), new wildlife, new colors, sharper rocks.

walkings pish

No it's the only genuinely good thing

In evolutionary terms, walking is quite literally the foundational step toward our becoming human.

During Oregon's initial "stay at home" order, which officially discouraged any trip away from home that was not strictly necessary to life or health, I wasn't able to hike. That ended in June and I've been able to take several hikes, both alone and with my wife. My conditioning is well off the mark for this time of year. After a 10 mile hike with 2600 ft of elevation gain I was sore for a day. It makes me feel old.

corona has made me walk even more than before. and somehow i cannot put headphones on any more and listen to podcasts. i have to digest what is happening on the way. even in the city.

I've not been hiking much, but did do some nice hikes in the Michaux State Forest a few weeks back.

Since I live in arguably the filthiest major city in the US, walking is a bit of a sad activity unless one is in a park, so much of my aerobic activity has come from taking long, long bicycle rides. It's been great.

Was on craziest trail I've ever been on, on 4th of July. In Chiricauhua Mtns. Hasn't been maintained in 30 yrs at least I'd say. Was a loop, so only way I was able to navigate my way back was AllTrails showed the trails and I somehow had enough signal for it to work. I'd lose trail, consult AllTrails, find trail then 100 ft later it completely disappeared. Rinse and repeat. Old wooden trail signs knocked over and partially buried under pine needles. Completely overgrown in parts, forcing me to climb over 100s of trees and tangled growth with no way around due to steep slope on either side. Legs scratched up and bleeding. My water bladder sprung a leak when I stopped for lunch, but was able to pour most of it into the plastic water bottle I had. But by the end of 14.5 miles & 3500 ft elevation gain, I was in heaven drinking the hot water that had been sitting in my car. The app said I burned 4200 calories which is a personal record for a day hike.

I had a hike like that which I tried to do ~3 times when I lived in Siskiyou County. The description of it is here: https://hikemtshasta.com/trinity-divide-trails/soapstone-trail/

That post really downplays the absolute, total disappearance of the trail after the pond— it just sort of peters out, and you're in a field of manzanita and wildflowers. No service, no signage, no nothing. It's really great in one sense, but also one of the only times I've ever been viscerally spooked while hiking. About as far into backcountry I've ever been.

And I've done some pretty remote hikes, particularly in that area.

I like the description there. "quite possibly the most forsaken..."

I tend not to get worried when I can't find the trail cause I can always just backtrack, but since that hike was a loop and I was 3/4 of the way into it, I would've had to hike 20ish miles total to backtrack. With dwindling water and daylight. I always have a headlamp and am prepared to stay at least a night out in the wilderness, gear-wise, but it def won't be a comfortable night.

http://www.chiricahuatrails.com/trails/saulsbury-trail-263

That's the one I did. Wasn't planning on doing the part described as "poor, with narrow and overgrown tread, significant deadfall, and lots of faint and hard to follow sections" but I decided the originally planned loop was too long given that I'd lost some of my water to the leak. Prob would've been better off doing the xtra few miles since pretty sure those trails are in good condition.

Moar hiking stories!

Haven't gotten to hike at all recently. Our return to the Dolomites planned for September was obviously canceled, but we are planning on renting a house in Acadia National Park instead.

I watched a pretty good "10 best spots in the Alps" youtube the other day and he had Dolemites in their twice iirc. Had been on my list for awhile but I'd never seen 1st person + drone footage of trails before....looks amazing. When I go to Italy 1st time I will most likely be with my parents so don't know if I'll get a chance to see Dolomites, and if I do we won't be able to do anything more than a pleasant stroll.

Hiked a loop by Flagstaff last weekend...illegally. Wasn't til I was 2 miles in that see signs saying area still closed for "public safety" due to fire. The fire was last September! Ridiculous. I said fuck it, I'm a big boy, it can't possibly be in worse shape than that Chiricauhua trail. It was fine. A few downed, burned trees. Fascinating how some areas are completely burned out and some are untouched, in no discernible pattern. At high point of the hike I had cell signal, checked weather 50 miles away at my house: 106F. Was 65F up there, niiiiiice.
Came back down this unofficial trail that was really steep and rocky. Near the bottom I encounter 2 young guys with mountain bikes. I say with bikes rather than on bikes, because there's no way any mere mortal could bike up that trail. I assume they had no idea what sort of trail it was.

Wow @ 106F to 65F difference.

I watched a pretty good "10 best spots in the Alps" youtube the other day and he had Dolemites in their twice iirc. Had been on my list for awhile but I'd never seen 1st person + drone footage of trails before....looks amazing. When I go to Italy 1st time I will most likely be with my parents so don't know if I'll get a chance to see Dolomites, and if I do we won't be able to do anything more than a pleasant stroll.

Yeah, I'm not sure Dolomites would be my recommendation for a first trip to Italy because it's atypical culture-wise. I would point out that the Dolomites are ski country and most lifts/gondolas operate in the summer as well, so you can often take a lift/gondola up to 8000 feet or so and then do a not too strenuous hike in utterly gorgeous scenery. It's cheating a bit, but who cares?

I'm planning to get in a 6 day backpack in the eastern part of Oregon starting on July 23rd. I could conceivably hike the route in 4 days, but I plan to take it easy, with some short side trips and maybe bag a couple of easy peaks I can do as a walk-ups or light scrambles. I'll cover something around 50 to 55 miles.

The route is very high (~7800 ft.) and dry ridgeline, with minimal shade, no running water, likely no snow patches left, so I'll need to carry plenty of water. With gear, clothes, food for six days, and one hiking day of water I'm projecting a 33 lb. (15 kilo) load as I leave the trailhead on the first day. I may be able to trim a bit more off that, if I get serious about it.

I'm very eagerly looking forward to it.

nice. have fun!

That sounds great, Aimless. If you ever want to get into northeast California, I highly recommend hiking in the Warner Mountains outside of Alturas, in the godforsaken Modoc County. Gorgeous country, on a good day can see both Lassen and Shasta, plus the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, all from the same spot. And Eagleville, a weird little resort town with hot springs and such, is there for a nice night of RnR after backpacking with full loads for a few days.

Enjoy your trip Aimless. Sounds amazing.

That sounds amazing and makes my conservative plans (in the UK) for the summer seem a little daft. I might have a rethink...

Because my conditioning is more of a question this year (lockdown-induced) I'm prepared to scale back if I get out there and don't feel like putting in the two 13 mile days I'd need to hike in order to meet my initial plan. It's a very remote area but I've been there before so I know what to expect. There's a photo of a mountain goat upthread from a 2011 trip I did on the same trail.

Wait, how are you getting water the rest of the days? Filtering standing water?

My water will come from lakes located on side trails off the main trail. Those lakes will also provide my campsites. The side trails are from 1 to 2 miles to get to these lakes, so if I were to fetch water from them partway through the day it would require a round trip of 2 to 4 miles before resuming progress on the main trail. Yes, I'll filter it, but the lakes are sub-alpine and pretty clean.

Gotcha. I've wondered about the water logistics of long backpack trips, but I've been thinking of conditions here in the southwest where "lake" usually means a 1/4 acre depression of dried up mud.
Have fun dude!

Oh. my. goodness. She’s a rock.

I want this girl in my foxhole... pic.twitter.com/4oT67HFKPg

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) July 19, 2020

I'm back. The peak bagging was a pipe dream, but I did put in my full 57 miles of hiking.

There were so many mountain goats they were a positive nuisance. At one time I had about 15 goats, from two different herds all milling around like a traffic jam. I had to use my "voice of command" and a lot of very stern looks to keep them out of my campsite - but no aggressive moves, just strongly signaling where my territory began and not to enter it. They were very persistent and we were often only 20 feet apart as I faced them down. Very annoying and energy-consuming. Otherwise, a challenging, but excellent six days in the wilderness.

Pix?