Name one thing you wish you brought on your last hike?
Water filter.
My dog.
....
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Climbing salve (Joshua Tree, or Bonnie's Balms, or Climb On, or Burt's Bees Miracle Salve). To protect my toes from the mud.
If my toes weren't hurting, I mightn't have slipped and fallen. And if I hadn't slipped and fallen, I wouldn't be stuck in town with a brace on my knee.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
More time
A different woman.
a bottle of bug spray
MEGA '13
+1 on more time.
I'm not lost. I'm exploring.
More time
My hammock
An umbrella
A good book. Hiking alone gets pretty boring by yourself..after a few weeks...
AT (LASH) '04-'14
Less stuff
Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams
A dry left shoe and sock.
I kinda wish I had brought Another Kevin and Rocketsocks on my last hike. Does that count?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
And I'm just sorry I missed just bill's east coast trek and seeing Kevin chase after that raccoon trying to get his pot back...pesky critters!Originally Posted by Sarcasm the elf
PS folks...cooking pot.
II weren't there either. I was in Salt Lake this year while sub zero pow-wow was going on.And I'm just sorry I missed just bill's east coast trek and seeing Kevin chase after that raccoon trying to get his pot back...pesky critters!
PS folks...cooking pot.
We need to meet up again though some time. My time is at a premium as I'm sure yours is too, but sometime...
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
More garbage bags :-(. Them woods were dirty!
Speaking of which, did we ever find out who won the raccoon pot incident? I'm not sure AK was definitive... :/And I'm just sorry I missed just bill's east coast trek and seeing Kevin chase after that raccoon trying to get his pot back...pesky critters!
PS folks...cooking pot.
Back atcha! I'm kind of holding off on making another run at Friday Mountain until you've got the time. It's doable as a day trip if you're not trying for Lone and Rocky. (I might just do it one of these weeks and then plan to do it again when you're available. Right now, I'm still just trying to heal up. That fall 2.5 weeks ago has turned out to be a real pain in the ... knee.)
OK. Here's the definitive story from my perspective.
I was a little careless with storing stuff (ordinarily I'm a stickler about bear bagging) on account of the fact that bears would be asleep in that weather. I didn't account for the mini-bears (although all my food items were in a drysack hanging on a mouse trapeze).
I woke up at about 3 am (at a temperature of about -3F) and saw a raccoon about six inches from my face, dragging my backpack. Now I have to fumble about for the inside pocket of my sleeping bag to get headlamp and glasses, get the drawstrings undone on the draft collar and hood, and pull my boots on before I can chase the little bar steward. He was a good ways down the hill, pulling the pack behind him, except for a couple of odds and ends that rolled out.
I chased him off, and retrieved my stuff, except that I couldn't find my spork or my TP. But I found JB's cookpot along with my strewn stuff. The little thief must have made off with that first, without waking me. ('Coons do like shiny things.) JB didn't lose anything, so I'll call that round a draw. The raccoon definitely beat me.
JB and Laz were hammocking out back of the lean-to and didn't even hear the commotion. Malto had decamped in the night and gone back to the trailhead to sleep in his car. I woke up a couple of tenters nearby (that I didn't even know were there) with the commotion. They came by a few minutes later to ask if I was OK.
About half an hour later, I heard halloaing from the tenters' camp. The raccoon had made his way into their tent for another attempt at thievery, I learnt in the morning.
JB lent me his spoon so I could have breakfast without needing to whittle one. But the TP turned out to be another matter entirely.
I didn't cover myself in glory on that trip. I nearly covered myself in ... something else. When we packed up to continue the hike, I started feeling the definite stirrings of a stomach bug, and the damned raccoon had my TP. There wasn't enough snow anywhere for a snowball, which would normally be what I'd use in winter. (It cleans more effectively than TP, and is surprisingly refreshing, not nearly as bad as you might think.) I just apologized to the group, hiked out to my car, and with mind over matter, managed to get to the john in the Palisades Parkway bookstore before I exploded. It was an uneasy drive back to Schenectady.
The bug went through me quickly, and I thought about rejoining the group, but by then the ice storm had closed the major roads. I really wished I had been there when I heard about Malto's harrowing descent on the Suffern-Bear Mountain trail off of Pyngyp. (I think he mentioned a couple of not-quite-controlled glissades, that fortunately didn't end in tree-arrests.) I could have shown him the workaround on the old woods roads. I'm familiar with it, and not all of it is on the trail maps. Bushwhacking isn't lawful in Harriman, but (1) I'm sure the weather was mostly keeping the rangers in, too, and (2) a ranger would have to be having a VERY bad day to ticket me for it under those circumstances.
I've always gotten permission to stray from the trails when I've asked (in order to explore specific ruins, for instance). They want you to ask so that they can warn you about the cellar holes, abandoned wells, open mineshafts, deteriorated mining equipment, unstable tailings heaps, and similar hazards that are found in the ghost towns.
I always know where I am. I'm right here.
A working pillow (my Exped failed - to their credit, Exped fixed it and returned it free of charge but after the hike). Stuff sacks with clothes don't cut it for me for a good nights rest.
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