Hiking Thread

cory

cory

Tree House enthusiast
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
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Any of you folks into it?

@stikine , are you familiar with the Baronof Cross Island Trail, it recently appeared on my radar, sounds interesting
 
Kinda. Problem is the weather I prefer hiking in is also the the weather I prefer for treework. Also, to really get away from people, I have to drive kinda far. There is a local park I want to checkout when it gets cold. It's pretty infested with humans in the warm months, but good weather might scare them off. My favorite spots are very isolated, but once had human activity. It's fun finding remains of buildings. farm equipment, whatever, and marveling over how they got there, and trying to figure out what the land looked like when were last used. Basically surveying, but without carrying all the the stupid gear with me :^D
 
I still backpack with an old Jansport that I bought in about 1975. It's an external frame, which is a style you just about cannot see in use anymore even though they are superior to internal frame packs in almost every way. Chalk that up to fashion, mostly. But they are still made, if you look around.

M uses a Kelty external frame pack of similar vintage. Our packs have a great many hundreds of miles on them, actually as I think on it, it's got to be more like several thousands.

Most of the rest of our backpacking stuff is newer, replaced/upgraded over the years. But those old packs are still some of the best pieces of gear we own.

A good story comes to mind...we were hiking out of the Sawtooths in Idaho several years ago after 8 or 9 days in the backcountry, and met a trio of young men hiking in. Visited on the trail for a few minutes and then passed each other by.
As they receded behind us, I could hear one ask the others, "Did you see those packs? Man, where do you find a pack like that?" To which the quick reply came from one of his buddies, "In the feckin' museum, dude!".
:lol:
 
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heading to the Sierras in August......bout to hike to everything I'm gonna climb. I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of the death march with a pack but it'll get you away from the crowds and into some really awesome places.
 
Death march? Never viewed backpacking that way...but I suppose if it's only seen as a means to another end, all in a hurry to get there, rather than an effort just for its own value :), it could be so :).
 
Burnham said:
M uses a Kelty external frame pack of similar vintage.
:lol:
Click to expand...

Kelty was, I believe, the first backpack manufacturers to reralize women are build differently from men.

My x-wife had one of the earliest versions.
Been around the World twice with that.

I use Tioga of the same age.

F... them internals!!
 
There is only one feature of internal frame backpacks that is superior to externals...that being they are more stable on the hiker if said hiker is constantly pitching from side to side or back and forth. Visualize a XC skier, perhaps. On the other hand, a hiker is far less exposed to those conditions...not immune from, but not constantly. Only in completely off trail conditions does it really become a factor for a backpacker.

The advantages to an external frame backpack include better transfer of weight to the hips, better ventilation between pack and the wearers back which is cooler and less sweaty, better organization of gear, easier to load and work out of. Put a rain cover on an internal frame pack and you funnel loads of water off the top onto your back as you hike, while an external frame's standoff distance avoids much of that.

Many people think an internal frame pack will be lighter than an external frame model of similar size, but in reality, the opposite is more often true.

On balance the external offers more pros than cons, by far.

I'm speaking to true backpacks, designed for carrying all one's camping gear for multi-day treks. For day hikes, an internal frame pack is quite suitable. In the technical terminology, a daypack vs. a backpack.
 
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I like to to drive to as remote of locations as I can and poke about exploring on foot. Not so much make miles on a trail…though my buddy I was just exploring AZ with and I are threatening to start backpacking. I think I’d like to do the Pacific Northwest trail sometime. The PCT starts near me. I keep threatening to do Cactus to Clouds…
 
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  • #15
Holy chit that is awesome. He should check in, I for one would love to hear about it. Lotta peeps do updates on IG, is he doing that?
 
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  • #17
What's his address on fb or whatever you call it.

He's got a treeco working for about 5 months without him while he does the whole trail?

I'd have to see that.
 
Burnham said:
Death march? Never viewed backpacking that way...but I suppose if it's only seen as a means to another end, all in a hurry to get there, rather than an effort just for its own value :), it could be so :).
Click to expand...
figure of speech. Cross-country travel in Sierras can be pretty gnarly....off-trail that is. Trying to go light and fast to get up a summit and back down can hammer you if you know what I mean.

Other than that, I need a mission when going for a hike. I guess I did too much backpacking with adjudicated youth back in the day.
 
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  • #22
Interesting, thanks.
 
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  • #24
Yes.

I'm not fully savvy in how to navigate the link but yes it's all there.
 
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