that's why I hit up my local indies (Feral and Wilderness Exchange) for most of my purchases in Denver
Few initial pics from Yosemite trip... Currently working through hundreds of shots. Firefall was dope & only viewable 2 out of 5 days in the valley Spoiler
2 climbers attempting El Cap Dawn Wall, having lived on the rock for several weeks now Spoiler Red Arrow Spoiler Zoomed in Spoiler Zoomed more
This is a good follow. They have pop up sales for some of the smaller, harder to get, gear companies. Can't embed so just posting the link. https://instagram.com/garagegrowngear?utm_medium=copy_link
Not sure this is the best place for this, but does anyone have a rec for inflatable standup paddle boards?
I have this one, it's great. Kinda pricey. https://www.irockersup.com/irocker-paddle-boards/irocker-sport-11-x-31/ Worth it Spoiler
Should have said that this will only be used at a lake by very casual users...think it's worth going nice?
I would try to keep it under $4-500. You get what you pay for, of course. I know costco has them for a few hundred, too.
I normally wear injinji liners with either darn tough or smart wool. I was at REI Friday and saw Wrightsocks for sale and decided to try them. I woke up early Saturday and realized that I’d grabbed two left foot injinjis, and rather that wake Lady Tegg up, I just raw dogged the Wrightsocks. Zero blister issues with 10 miles with some decent climbs.
Cross posting from the National Parks thread: I'm going to search through the thread to get some ideas but I am heading to Seattle for a guys trip Aug. 18-21. I want to fly out there the Friday before (8/12) and do some hiking in the area. I know Olympic, Mt. Rainier, and North Cascades are all within about 2.5 hrs of downtown Seattle. Do you all have any suggestions on which one to do? Should I focus on one or do two days at one and two days at another? Particular places I should stay? Etc...
Woke up this AM and hiked 9 miles to a waterfall that spills into the South Atlantic ocean. Amazing. Cachoeira Saco Bravo Spoiler One week until the Pati Valley
The Humphreys trail is extremely "rooty" below that saddle. So I can see that. It's insane how people lay down FKTs there.
Returned yesterday from 5-days backpacking and trekking the Pati Valley (Vale do Pati) in Chapada Diamantina National Park in Bahia, Brazil. Incredible. My local friends connected us with an independent guide, not with an agency, and one of the few guides that camps instead of staying at the refugios. He is a huge hippie (or, as they’re called in Brazil, “road crazies”), cooked vegetarian food every meal, and provided complementary joints at the end of every day. Easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in person and just a freaking experience. Didn’t cover a lot of distance – about 15-20 km/day (8-9 miles) – but the verticals were insane. Three separate climbs with 1,500-2,000 ft of vert in less than 2 miles. Just straight up. The Pati Valley itself is at about 4,000 – 4,500 ft of elevation in what can best be described as high plains. Our guide called it desert, which it may be for Brazil, but not what we would typically think of as desert. It’s the very end of the rainy season down here and we were told the waterfalls would be completely dry in less than a week, so perfect timing. Got real lucky with the weather – didn’t get any rain until the last night into the next morning, but it did pour for most of our last day. Sloshing our way back was not fun, but it was the only bad weather day. Day 1 took a taxi two hours to the western side of the park and entered. Went from 3,000 to 4,000 ft and then another 6 miles to our camping spot. Dropped our packs and went to the most iconic spot in the park, a huge valley overlooking like 5-6 waterfalls. Spoiler Day 2 was one of the hardest days I’ve ever had – up there with some 20+ mile days in Washington. Went to the bottom of all the waterfalls. We only had daypacks, which made things easier, but still ridiculously hard. Our guide may have been bullshitting, but he said this particular route has been closed for 2 years and he had not visited in 4 years. It started with a huge decline down more than 1,500 ft, at times steeper than 45 degrees, thru super muddy terrain. We went down thru the left of this picture where the full shadow meets the half-shadow, then followed the river towards the bottom to that dark pond we're looking at: Spoiler
Most of the hike was just bushwacking and scrambling thru what can best be described as a rainforest. So hot and humid, I didn’t think it was possible to sweat so much. I drank 3 liters of water during the day. Once we got to the bottom of the valley, it was about 4 hours of this: Spoiler But it opened up into a cathedral of waterfalls with the walls going straight up. Really special. Spoiler Chilled and swam for about an hour or two, then slogged our way back to the same camp spot and crashed early.
Day 3 was a rest day, hiked down into the actual Pati Valley about 8 miles with minimal vert, hit up a waterfall for lunch and chilled for 2 hours. Got a sweet camping spot right on the river. Spoiler Day 4 was right up there with day 2 in terms of difficulty. We only took day packs, but scrambled to the top of one of the mountains. My watch had us climbing 1,800 ft in about 2 miles. A lot of scrambling straight up. It was hard, but super fun. Reminded me of scrambling in WA. To get to the viewpoints, you have to walk thru a cave. I’ve seen The Descent, so it was pretty gnarly. Spoiler It’s only about a 10-15 minute walk thru the cave onto the other side, which opens up into two viewpoints of the Pati Valley. Chilled here for about 2 hours, had lunch, slogged back down. Got back to camp, packed up, and then had to hike another 6 miles which included another 1,500 ft climb in just over a mile, with full packs. First time I’ve truly scrambled with a 40-50lb pack. It was probably the hardest part of the 5 days based on how much we had already done. Legs were beat. But, at the top were incredible views of everything we had accomplished. Spoiler Woke up on the last day to pretty heavy rain, so had to pack up in pretty miserable conditions and hike out 25 km. It rained for the first 3-4 hours, but the entire last day was flat or slightly downhill, so wasn’t difficult. Just sucked in the rain. *** As a sidebar, 2 days before the trek we took an 8-hour overnight bus from Salvador to get into the park. At about 5:00 AM the bus stops at what I thought was our destination, so I wake up my friend and we get off, grab our packs, and look for a taxi for our hostel. Turns out I was wrong and had us get off about 2.5 hours before our destination. Two gringos walking around before sunrise slowly discovering we’re semi-lost in what we later learned is a very dangerous town called Lencois. Had to pay a taxi driver 400 reals – about $80 USD – to drive us to our actual destination at 6:00 AM. My buddy was pretty prettttty irritated with me.
Think I need two new pieces of gear for summer szn. First is a warm-weather sleeping bag. I love my REI Magma but it's rated for 15 degrees and I get way too hot when camping in any semi-warm temps. Want to stay ultralight, or relatively light, so think I'll go with a quilt or something like this: https://www.rei.com/product/192142/sea-to-summit-cinder-50f-down-quilt Also getting some new backpacking boots. My Vasques were not very durable and, after looking at some reviews after the fact, that seems to be a common complaint. They took an absolutely muddy beating in Brazil and not sure how they'd hold up on some of the bigger treks I have planned this summer. Going to go with these from Salomon. Absolutely want goretex: https://www.rei.com/product/206597/salomon-quest-4-gore-tex-hiking-boots-mens I trust outdoor gear lab and they labeled them as the "gold standard" for big excursions/heavy packs: https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/shoes-and-boots/best-hiking-boots /deardiary
I have those Salomons. Been wearing them for about the last 5 years. So much love them. Maybe my fav equipment piece. I've carried massive packs up boulder fields in them and I've run miles in them. Comfy and badass.
Bought these last week, have been wearing them on walks to break them in. Absolutely dreamy. Big fan so far. Taking them out in the snow next weekend.
Summer itinerary starting to fill up! -PCT Section K to Stehekin: Aug 13-23 -July 22-24: Olympic Peninsula/camping on the beach -Mt. Daniel Scramble: July 2-5 -Enchantments: June 8-12 Buddy's GF won the Enchantments lottery, so 4 of us doing 4 days/3 nights up there in the 2nd week of June, going to try 1 or 2 summits. It's the same hike I did a few years back that you can only thru-hike without permits (23 miles, below). Will be much more relaxing over the course of 4 days.
I also have those Salomons. I'd recommend only taking them on a 10k or less hike the first time and letting your feet breathe for a day before using them again. I made the mistake of going longer for back to back days and re-activiated some plantar fasciitis from my past. Other than that, an elite shoe
Went up and snowcamped at 6,000 ft last night, right below Mt Baker abd Mt Shuksan. Awesome time. Spoiler Storm rolled in about 1-2 AM and dumped about 2-3 ft, had to hike out in a complete whiteout. Not fun. Spoiler
Flights to Nepal booked. Doing a 3-week trek to Everest Base Camp and other passes over 15,000 ft. Now the fun part starts.
The beers are talking, but my 2022 is shaping up: January - Ciudad Perdida in Colombia March - Chapada in Brazil June - Enchantments Summer - PNW August - PCT Section K Oct/Nov - Everest Base Camp Maybe head to Patagonia for NYE.
I did my 4th Trailblaze challenge on the Pinhoti yesterday. Over the course of ~10 hours, I thought a lot about doing a through-hike.
Spoiler: My Yearly Attempt to Convince Myself I'm Not A Soft Bitch https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/evening-hike-69cd21a--58?u=i https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/evening-hike-a3a8381--96?u=i https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/afternoon-hike-dabd8d2--280?u=i
https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/trekking-poles-research/ Edit: apparently an old article, but I just saw it posted on FB.
did Rim to Rim (North to South because I am weak) in the Grand Canyon last weekend. perfect weather. tons of people (it was my dad's 6th time and he had never seen so many people in the Canyon either). definitely a fun hike even if the last 4.5 miles always make you re-consider your decision-making to do the hike in the first place.
Leave Wednesday AM for 5 days/4 nights in the Enchantments. Really early in the season so there will be a ton of snow, basically 5 days above 7,500 ft and below 40 degrees/below freezing at night. Weather is mostly good, but looks like we're going to get dumped on Friday. Will hopefully push everything out for a clear day/night on Saturday. Spoiler
So I’ve been part-timing at a certain green union-busting co-op (and tbh it’s actually way more enjoyable than my desk job) while I figure out my next real job. Using that discount to round out and upgrade some gear. Hoping to start getting out more.
Heading to Aspen next weekend for a wedding. If I’m not super hungover on Saturday morning, would like to get in a hike. Any recommendations for a quick ~2 hour hike near town? Will be with a buddy who has a car, so can drive to a trailhead. All the hikes I’ve done in that area are 30-60+ Minutes from town. TIA
Thank you. 40s at night and 70s during day sounds wonderful (compared to 70s/90s), but had hoped snow was gone. Talked to a friend in the Yampa Valley and he made it sound like I was crazy for asking about recent snow despite the relatively green spring.
It has just been a cooler spring. And some late May precipitation. But I’ll have some good recs. No worries
Smuggler Mountain trail and Ute trail are both easily accessible from downtown Aspen. Ute trail is a bit steep.