Brother lived there for a while. I remember the Grafton Notch area to be quite nice if you are wanting to go someplace not by the sea
Have set a goal to hike Mt. Olympus trail here in SLC this month. 7 mile hike with over 4k elevation gain. Gonna be a doozy. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/utah/mount-olympus-trail
Hiked around Acadia for a few days last year for a bachelor party. It's got some neat trails but it's mainly smaller, shorter trails that you combine to make one larger hike.
Baxter State Park is awesome. Can give some recs for that area if needed. Basically around and over Katahdin.
I hiked it about 20 years ago. Key is to start very, very early. That avoids the worst of the heat and crowds.
Anybody have a Zpacks rain jacket? My food bag is Zpacks and has been indestructible. Saw their tents are getting a lot of love. One of my rain jackets just died, thinking about the Zpacks Vertice. Lotta $ though.
Heard good things about their tents. Have also heard their customer service can be hit or miss tho. HTH
Read this is kinda at thing at most cottage companies. Think it might just be that a tiny company doesn't have multiple people on the phones everyday waiting for your call. I'm sure a lot slower and more strict with refunds and exchanges. REI, Moosejaw, etc., barely even ask questions.
Did Mt. Olympus this past Saturday morning. Absolute burner of a hike with it being straight uphill the entire way. Incredible 360 views of the Salt Lake valley.
Are there any suggestions for small, simple packs to use for short day hikes? I ask because I have an old bag that has worked fine for hydration and storing a few items but there really isn't any airflow on the back so my back ends up ridiculously sweaty. I love the airflow on my Osprey Stratos. Any suggestions for small, simple bags that have good airflow on the back?
Doing my first solo overnighter this weekend. Leaving Friday evening, sleep at trailhead. Wake up early Saturday AM and hike in, find a good spot, explore. Wake up Sunday, going to explore the base of some peaks, but probably not try to summit solo. Depending on weather, either doing the Eastern Cascades (22 miles - https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/spectacle-lake ) or head out to the Olympic Peninsula (16 miles - https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/royal-basin ) Both places are fairly popular, so I don't imagine it'll be too private on 4th of July weekend.
Planning on heading out tomorrow and doing a night or two in western Iowa parks. It’s there are about three places within 3 hours that have hike-in spots and each one only has a few spots. No wilderness areas where you can camp at any location. No idea what to expect when we get to one of them. Might be full. Hike-in might be deserted. Might end up just fishing and heading home. Iowa sucks.
There are a couple places I'd like to check out in NE and SE Iowa, but have 0 interest in anything on the western side of the state. Grew up there and try to avoid it as much as possible.
I’m a good 4 hours from yellow river. My in-laws live just south of there and I don’t really want to drive that far or make the obligated visit with only 2 days. Later in the summer we’re going to hit that and take boat out on the Mississippi and tie up and camp a few nights on some islands below Guttenberg. Loess or Hitchcock is where we’ll probably try for this weekend.
I've always been a tent or open air guy. Now that we have three dogs, a lil kid, and I've had 3 surgeries in the last 24 months were tempted to buy an RV. Anybody give down that road and have any advice new/used, brands, features that are must have or useless?
Ordered a set of Hefe Luxx deluxe insoles and it’s a huge difference in comfort. This was just 5-10 minutes. Excited to do an extended test. https://hefeluxx.com/collections/more-comfort/products/deluxe-insoles
Did Spectacle Lake this weekend, 2 nighter. About 3 hours east of Seattle, just east of Snoqualmie Pass. 23 miles in and out, right around 4,000 ft of gain. Went to Pete Lake Friday night, only about 4 miles in, got there just in time for a rainbow: Spoiler Most of the hike to the lake is in a burn field, so no cover but awesome views Spoiler There's a big peninsula in the middle of the lake with about a 15-20 ft channel to the other side. It was pretty packed, but we got a spot right at the end of the peninsula Spoiler
Me and 2 buddies are talking about doing Section J of the PCT over Labor Day weekend. 70 miles, goal would 5 days, so 14 miles/day. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/pct-wa-section-j-snoqualmie-pass-to-stevens-pass
I have a 70L version with this same backpanel and it's awesome. https://www.gregorypacks.com/packs-...880XXXX.html?dwvar_126880XXXX_color=Vivid Red
Doing Hoh Rainforest to Blue Glacier next weekend, out on the Olympic Peninsula. 34 miles in and out, over 6,000 ft of gain. Gonna do it in 3 days/2 nights. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/hoh-river-trail-to-blue-glacier-trail southside edit: permits booked. This has been on my list for a long time.
Did Melakwa Lake today. 13 miles in and out, a little under 3,000 ft of gain Alpine lakes are good for the soul Spoiler
That was probably the hardest - but most rewarding - hike I've ever done. Total of 38 miles in-and-out and almost 5,000 ft of gain. Day 1, did 10.5 miles through the Hoh Rainforest, pretty flat. Rainforest was incredible. This picture is not edited at all: Spoiler Day 2, did around 7 miles/4,000 ft to our camp, with packs. After dropping our packs it was another 1.5 miles and 900 ft to the Glacier. Worth it. Spoiler Day 3, hiked 17.5 miles out, was a complete slog. Love the Olympics: Spoiler
Fucking impressed. 38 miles in mountain terrain in 3 days? 17.5 in one day, holy shit. Great pics! Would love making it to the Olympic.
I'm moving pretty gingerly today. I've done 25 miles in one day, but that was a little uphill and mostly flat, plus just a daypack. Going down 4,000+ ft with a full pack sucked so hard. In hindsight, we could've camped lower on the 2nd day. There was no need to take our packs up that high, could have easily camped at a lower elevation and then day hiked up to the glacier and back down the same day. But also feel damn good about yourself.
I did just shy of that from Bannock Mtn back to the Suiattle trailhead in a day. But we went from 7k to 5k, back up to 6.4k, then down again to 1.6k. Honestly that wasn't as bad as the the hike in where we went from 1.6k to 6.4k. I had a full pack with quite a few beers in it and ran out of water on the way up. Dumbass.
My last trip was the 1st time I didn't. But we went up to 14k in the San Juans. I was worried about the altitude since my house is 3ft above sea level. Gotta admit, it was really nice not having the weight. Weed is light.