CDT in June 2010

[SunnyWalker]

OK! I heading over to Columbus (only a few hours from my home) to start going north for just two weeks June 11th. I will post a list of my equipment and all here soonest. Hope you folks will weigh in. Using J. Leys maps and Wolf books. Will be going lighter then I ever have before in backpacking. Will come home after 15 days. Work for a week or two and return to where I left off to carry on for another two weeks. I wonder what the weather will be like in NM in June from border North? I wonder how far I'll get. (No schedule, no nothing - vacation). Going solo. I'll bet water will be harder to find during June. Or is it the rainy season?
-Chaplain (formerly SunnyWalker)

[garlic08]

Mid-June in the Chihuahua Desert? Please be careful out there! I see you're from TX so you'll be acclimated to the heat. Water sources should generally be OK since it's been a very wet winter. The monsoon generally starts around that time, increasing relative humidity (and discomfort). You'll have the CDT to yourself, I bet.

I did some hiking on the AZT in the Sonoran Desert last June in 100F heat and it was among the most challenging hiking I've done.

[Graywolf]

OK! I heading over to Columbus (only a few hours from my home) to start going north for just two weeks June 11th. I will post a list of my equipment and all here soonest. Hope you folks will weigh in. Using J. Leys maps and Wolf books. Will be going lighter then I ever have before in backpacking. Will come home after 15 days. Work for a week or two and return to where I left off to carry on for another two weeks. I wonder what the weather will be like in NM in June from border North? I wonder how far I'll get. (No schedule, no nothing - vacation). Going solo. I'll bet water will be harder to find during June. Or is it the rainy season?
-Chaplain (formerly SunnyWalker)

WoW1!! In June..That is going to be a scorcher..I hiked some of Big Bend in the Summer. Not again..I will wait till Fall or Spring, early Spring at that. Good luck, besides the heat, could be a fantastic trip!!

[SunnyWalker]

I usually do my hiking in Big Bend in the Spring. The hot season in Chi desert really starts in Aug, July though I know it will be warm. Rainy season not til later. It'll be fun. Probably won' see to many folk. Not using GPS, just map and compass. I am waiting right now on the Wolf books. I am going to try to find a place in Amarillo that will print the Ley maps of NM on maybe larger then 8 1/2 by 11. Like the size of a regular topo map.

[SunnyWalker]

I might bump a GPS unit ahead and pick the box up the second week. If I am doing fine I was thinking then I'd just send it home. The only toy I have so far is a 9.2 oz set of Brunton Binocs.

[SunnyWalker]

This date is getting closer and it is still a go. Starting to gather food.

[fiddlehead]

I think one of the biggest problems in NM besides water availibity, is: finding shade.
I would think about one of those umbrella hats or at the least, a big straw hat (but tie it down to your chin for wind)
There will be almost no shade.
I have gotten used to hiking in the heat. It takes more water and a slower pace, but my body is now used to it.

I wouldn't venture out of a shady spot between noon and about 4 PM if I were doing this.
And if possible, make that shady spot near water. And drink lots of it while you are sitting/lying there for 4 hours after cooking your main meal of the day and relaxing.
Good luck.

[Connie]

This is pretty cool:

HyperKewl Evaporative Cooling insert for Baseball Cap
Camo Evaporative Cooling Headband
Evaporative Cooling Sun Activity Hat
BluBandoo Cooling Neckband - Evaporative Cool Effect

Quest Outdoor Fabrics has the cooling product "Crystal Cool" you can sew in a pocket you have.

PolarWrap insoles are supposed to insulate your feet, including insulating from the desert sand heat.

[SunnyWalker]

Thanks for all the tips and etc.! If you'd like to follow my "journal" and see a gear list go to postholer.com There my user name is my old "SunnyWalker". My list of gear is generic. If you wish to know what brand somethng is or the maker email me. Otherwise it is like this: "stove" for Pocket Rocket stove. I felt that a journal does not really belong here on WB. It's not really a journal thingy. Please read and let me know. Thanks.

[Dogwood]

Interesting products Connie for the hot desert hiker.

I'm guessing the co-polymer powders/crystals mentioned are similiar to what I use in the landscaping industry. I buy them at the big box home stores under names like Moisture Miser. The size I get look like coarse rock salt. They work by absorbing H2O molecules, expanding considerably to resemble clear pieces of Jello, and then release the water over an extended period of time. I mix the crystals into backfill soil when planting trees, shrubs, flower containers, and vegetable gardens to extend the periods between waterings.

It never dawned on me that the crystals or powderized forms of the crystals could be embedded or encased in clothing for their cooling effect.

[Connie]

That is what it looks like. Quest Outdoor Products is selling it. Here is their neckerchief pattern instructions: http://www.questoutfitters.com/tips_...%20NECKERCHIEF recommending supplex fabric and 2 teaspoons!

I think it may well be the same thing. I know it works. A bicycle racer told me he puts it in his bicycle cap. Before that he soaked a fat cabbage leaf, or several. I am not kidding.

He is a professional bicycle racer, in the veterans class now.


EDIT: The agricultural product is not the same: explanation here.

[SunnyWalker]

Decided to not send ahead the GPS Unit. Don't need it and don't want to lug it with me. It is one repetitive piece of equipment.

[Connie]

Maybe "lug" some "Crystal Cool" product?

[SunnyWalker]

One won't stay cool in the Chi. You just work with it, smartly. Take L-o-n-g lunches and get a beauty rest during the stop. If you can make yourself stop hiking-that's the hard part. I hope you'll go to postholer.com and look over my equpment list and journal. It's under my trail name: "SunnyWalker". Love to receive any comments you might have.

[Sly]

Weather for Columbus, NM

91°F | °C
Current: Sunny
Wind: S at 11 mph
Humidity: 17%

Thu

94°F | 64°F
Fri

92°F | 63°F
Sat

92°F | 59°F
Sun

94°F | 59°F

Detailed forecast: The Weather Channel

[Connie]

Okay, I read your gear list smarty.

Chi? Let's see, chinese chi energy?

The things I mentioned are for evaporative cooling: soak, cools by evaporative cooling more effective than simply wetting the cloth flap on the back of the hat, if you ever did that.

The only high desert experience I have had has all been good.

I am trying out this stuff, because it is cheap, lightweight, and because it is supposed to provide the evaporative cooling much longer.

I wore my neckerchief to REI, today, just to make a fashion statement.

[Connie]

I carry the Brunton BAK-4 monocular, instead of the heavier binocular.

I have never carried 50' of rope or 10' of clothesline. I use two different weights of lightweight spectra (also known as dyneema) I purchase at West Marine, but can be purchased online over at Hammock Forum. I did have to learn knots that do not slip out of it.

Nylon supplex is great fabric for hot weather.

I always have an inner windshirt available and the supplex nylon long pants because it can be windy. I wear an oversize nylon supplex fisherman's shirt with ventilation netting in the side panels for hot country, but I also like an oversize shirt made of rayon. I wear an open highly breatheable knit-weave silk camisole, for modesty: I am a girl. Men like cotton string "muscle" t-shirts or those string strap deep neck opening t-shirts to sweat into and have evaporative cooling happening inside the ventilation netting over-size "fisherman's shirt". Otherwise, the evaporation of sweat is all "insensible" water loss.

Insensible water loss is sneaky dangerous: dehydration sneaks up and overtakes you with a little disorientation and silliness (giddiness). Then, it gets worse, because your judgement is impaired. The practical definition of impaired judgement is: you do not know your judgement is impaired.

Remember: to drink water on purpose.

Did anyone say lotion, with SPF?

I have something to cover my mouth, nose and face (and eyes, like full wrap sunglasses) for blown sand. If really bad, I shelter. I think my OR bug bivy could be more lightweight and breatheable on the solid side, but I like it best for most other places I travel. It keeps the crawlies out. I have flopped it over and put the solid side up to cover up as much as possible, propping it off me a bit and leaving a small place to breathe well.

I like the Sawyer in-line filter because it can be used as an in-line gravity filter, used as a drinking straw, and it can be backflushed. I don't know if the Sweetwater filter you have can be backflushed, but some "available" water is real yucky. Prefilter, a lot.

I don't carry a memo pad and pencil. I carry laminated emergency instructions to pin to my outer clothing, if I am impaired like going semi-conscious or like that. Hasn't happened.

I use the Silva wrist compass, to avoid fumbling around, but many people are happy with the zipper-pull model with the thermometer on it. I have that one, too, but I usually go places I want the zipper-pull model compass with the windchill chart on the back.

edit: I use the Suunto M-9 Wrist Compass, review here. I think both brands are same, however I have had this compass since it first came out. I think the Silva is under license. I only need more compass on the ocean.

[SunnyWalker]

Thanks Connie. I'll probably cut the rope down. It's real lightweight small rope, I can't remember the diameter (prob 1/8), nylon. Used for bear bagging and I'll prob bounce a head of me. I have tried out different binoculars and this will be the first trip for these. If you read my equip list I think I have on there a tube of sun tan lotion.
Sly-hey those links are great! Thanks.
My only regret so far is I wish I could change my pack for a lighter one. It weighs 7 bldg., so I am behind from the start. I love the old thing but can't get another right now. Next year though for sure.
Keeping cool in the desert like the Chi (my abbreviation for the Chihuahan (sp?) desert) is a combo of light clothing, covering up, sun tan lotion, hat, wetness, and cunsumable water.
connie the Sweetwater filter system has been around quite a while. The One cleans the filter after each operation. I believe this helps it to last longer.

[SunnyWalker]

OK-no 15 ft clothesline! I can use rocks or bushes and etc., as a clothesline. The 50 ft., rope is for bear bagging. I will bounce it ahead as there are not many trees out north of Columbus for awhile.

[Connie]

I meant I couldn't tell the model Sweetwater you have.

The marked water resupply points on the CDT have been reported, and photographed, to be really gross: cow-water is a polite term and better than some out there. For example, filthy water in what looks like an abandoned tractor tire.

Re-consider more pre-filter, than their Prefilter, the Siltstopper and the Sweetwater filter brush.

I know I had a Sweetwater filter system and the pre-filter.

I would pre-filter the pre-filter with a totally expendable bandana, or better, strong and tough coffee filters. But a small amount of powdered alum will settle out solids, if you can have water "stand" in a dirty water container overnight.

The cooling product I mentioned is by wetting and it evaporates slowly, so slowly apparently it outlasts other passive evaporative cooling.

I found another brand, Kool Tie and REI has it.