Re: camping and backpacking

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Leki makes GREAT hiking poles. Collapsible, light, repairable, multi-use. With a rubber tip it's an everywhere pole. Pull off the tip and there's an ice tip. You get a snow flange as well. And, all the joints are replaceable. Some even can function as a camera mono-pod! And they look like hiking sticks, not canes.It also has a built-in shock absorber.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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YankeeTarheel wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:40 pm When I was young up to my early 20's I LOVED camping out, in my little 2 person canvas tent (still have it). I camped out in my parents back yard in my pre-teens and teens. Later in my early twenties, I still did it, no problem sleeping on the floor of the tent with no cushioning, just ground with the rocks and roots removed. I slept outside like that and got the very best sleep I've ever had --and when it rained, and rained HARD, I slept even better.

But when my eldest son was young we slept out in the back yard, and I had a thin air mattress. I was in my 40's and I was totally miserable. Age had caught up with me in that one way, even with a pad. Haven't tried it since...
Ah, well. I STILL remember those wonderful nights in upstate NY, when even in the summer, the night air was chilly and the sleeping bag was warm and I slept SO well!
I still sleep out in the yard at least a few times a year. Just because.

Re: camping and backpacking

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YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 3:56 pm Leki makes GREAT hiking poles. Collapsible, light, repairable, multi-use. With a rubber tip it's an everywhere pole. Pull off the tip and there's an ice tip. You get a snow flange as well. And, all the joints are replaceable. Some even can function as a camera mono-pod! And they look like hiking sticks, not canes.It also has a built-in shock absorber.
Hmmm... or a rifle monopod?

Asking for a friend. :D
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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K9s wrote:
YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 3:56 pm Leki makes GREAT hiking poles. Collapsible, light, repairable, multi-use. With a rubber tip it's an everywhere pole. Pull off the tip and there's an ice tip. You get a snow flange as well. And, all the joints are replaceable. Some even can function as a camera mono-pod! And they look like hiking sticks, not canes.It also has a built-in shock absorber.
Hmmm... or a rifle monopod?

Asking for a friend. :D
I forgot who but somebody makes a hiking stick with a V-rest on top to allow it to double as a shooting stick/monopod.

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There's something to be said for a roll of fishing line and a couple of empty beer cans couple a rocks in there. How you generate the beer cans is your own business, but having an early warning system helps me sleep better. Being armed and dangerous as well is a plus.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: camping and backpacking

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Time I lived on the central coast for a while, there was this old lady downstairs and two doors to the right, door opened on to the common area. Thought she owned it. Came out a spittin' and a hissin' like to peel the skin right off your ears--she'd give you a piece of her mind and then some you cross her ideas of how a left footed goal should be shot. Turned out she'd played for the Venezuelan National Team before she was deported. Wasn't politics. That woman had the sharpest tongue I'd ever had the displeasure to experience. I'd've deported her too, If I could. Could kick a soccer ball, though, sure. We moved out out of there to the bar district for some peace. Had some times, I tell you what. Tongue like that is a weapon in the right mouth, eh.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: camping and backpacking

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K9s wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 7:34 pm
YankeeTarheel wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2020 3:56 pm Leki makes GREAT hiking poles. Collapsible, light, repairable, multi-use. With a rubber tip it's an everywhere pole. Pull off the tip and there's an ice tip. You get a snow flange as well. And, all the joints are replaceable. Some even can function as a camera mono-pod! And they look like hiking sticks, not canes.It also has a built-in shock absorber.
Hmmm... or a rifle monopod?

Asking for a friend. :D
Just a standard camera mount like a tripod. I suppose you could rig something up. Tried to answer last night but, um, you know, the forum was having its own "24 hour stomach flu" yesterday. :sick:
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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lurker wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:17 pm
Wino wrote: Fri Mar 06, 2020 9:03 pm wish I still could.
exactly. i've done the math, at best i can expect 7,000 more days, less and less capability toward the end. seems like a lot, but very, very finite. i'm viewing this as something of a "use it or lose it" scenario. my back hurts more the more i sit, but most everything else still works. might as well enjoy what i can while i can.
Did most of my backpacking/camping 60's thru early 90's. Can't count the times I met older people on the road or in camp areas that wish they had done what I was doing when they were younger and able. To this day I encourage youngers to do it while they can and to quit procrastinating - just do it!! to steal Nike's words. From deserts to woods to snow and ice. Spent weeks to months at a time on the road between jobs. Then got lucky and found work that paid me to be in strange outback places plus world travel. No 'regerts'! :thumbup:
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

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Lurker, I have Leki poles I bought about 25 years ago. I think there are cheaper options at Target. I see Amazon has them as low as $20ish. Mine don't any sort of shock absorbsion. Most important is the ability collapse and change length easily and often, so checking out the locking devices well or spending some time doing web review research will be worth it. As well as being super helpful for hiking, they're great for other stuff like holding up a tarp, skewering unfriendly trail dogs or splinting a broken limb..
'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."

-John Cleese

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https://www.bigbend100.com/

Texas Parks & Wildlife mag had an article in this months issue (April 2020). I would give my left testicle to be able to do this - alas it cannot be. I've spent months in the Big Bend area over the years. Did day packing trips, otherwise 4-wheeling - not much of the Big Bend I've not seen up close and personal. I was there the weekend the UT student died in a 17" snow storm (late 80's) - he made a miscalculation to return to his camp site rather than head down mountain to safety - got lost in the snow storm and died from exposure. Small search planes were landing on road between Panther Junction and Chiso Mtn. access and gassing up at the then Gulf station. This is not an area you want to fuck up in. I didn't have to buy ice for a month (Feb) - just leave ice chest open at night to refreeze. My two Boxers at the time and I had our own close call after a day of exhausting hiking - we were unable to climb the loose sand hill - probably a half mile from our camp site. Finally made it, all totally exhausted - we hung around camp for next few days (Grapevine Hills - end of access road) Park Rangers allowed us to over stay (back then, maybe now, two weeks a year was limit) - said if they got crowded would ask us to leave our back country primitive camp area. I was between jobs and we stayed over a month.

This looks like a great trip. The Big Bend Ranch back then was not a part of the National Park.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

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Just read this thread. Did you ever get out there?

I’m a fan of just getting out with the crap I have. I don’t have anything Ultra Light, but my stuff is only 15 years old, lol.

I mostly RV “camp” Becuase I have 5 kids and a wife who is an Army Vet who won’t live w/o AC to sleep in. But I do get out for a solo overnight White deer hunt every 3-5 years or so. I hike way into hilly, public land, where the Ohio rednecks are too lazy to go. I have an older mountain hardware 2-person, very well used & repaired tent which I just use as my blind. Old LL bean backpack, Kelly sleeping bag —- and yes, a “green bottle” propane stove Because I can’t live with out coffee. If I didn’t need coffee I’d just cold camp to save the weight of it. I’d love to upgrade this junk, but I can’t justify the expense on items that only get used once every couple of years, and works well enough. In fact, I have an old Remington 870 rifled barrel 12 Ga that only got used for infrequent whitetail hunting - my least used and least loved firearm. Absolutely punishing to sight in. (My last successful whitetail hunt was never - lol.) I’m ecstatic that Ohio Permits PCCs now Because I shoot those WAY more and I like them.

I basically, use the hunt as an excuse to spend a Fall Bushcraft night out in the woods. I’m more of a “hope I get lucky, but I can shoot,” than a deer hunter.


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Other than sleeping on the ground (which was OK when I was still under 30) it sounds like fun. If you're going for a back-packing PCC, you may want to consider the Kel-Tec Sub 2000, in either 9mm or .40. Unless you're really into Glocks, the multi-mag version can be adapted to take all kinds of magazines. Mine is set up for Beretta 92fs, but a quick swap of the $13 mag catch and I can use Sig P320 mags. Other catches are available as well. The PCC weighs about 4 lbs and folds to 16" and fits in a back-pack.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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Been a lot of videos on FB lately on camping in winter and in rain (the latter seem to mostly be from S.Korea). There are some really cool tools and techniques. There are light, stashable armchairs and tables, and cool folding wood stoves with chimneys that rollup, and pass through a special heat-resistant port in the tent. But, frankly, at my age, while I like having all those techniques in my head to remember "just in case", I MUCH prefer the idea of "Glamping" in a comfortable RV!
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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I agree YT. Sleeping bags now are lighter and warmer than the heavy ones I used to carry around growing up, but sleeping on the ground is for the young kids not me. I could do it if my life depended on it, but I much prefer a cabin in the wild which has the best of both worlds.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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highdesert wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 10:17 am I agree YT. Sleeping bags now are lighter and warmer than the heavy ones I used to carry around growing up, but sleeping on the ground is for the young kids not me. I could do it if my life depended on it, but I much prefer a cabin in the wild which has the best of both worlds.
Yeah, back in the summer of 1977, I spent most weekends camping at a lake in upstate New York. Just cleared away rocks and roots and never slept better in my life, with no air mattress. Then, I guess about 20 years ago, I "camped out" with my older son in the backyard. By then I had one of those self-inflating camping mattresses and I was never more uncomfortable in my life! What a difference 25 years made!

(Go ahead and laugh if you've got em!)
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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I've had a hankering for years to hike up the front range of the Catalina mts to this huge rock face where giant boulders sheered off and the sun reflects to my house in the evening.
It speaks to me.
Then I can flank it and go up the top of a ridge where both sides have several hundred foot cliffs.
Problem is it will require off trail hiking and spend two nights.
The ole left knee is acting up.
The wife wants nothing to do with it. Lol
Maybe my youngest son to do it with me and He's a Rock climber soon to be doctor.
It's one of the bucket list things to do before I die.
I need gear.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

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tonguengroover wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:22 pm I've had a hankering for years to hike up the front range of the Catalina mts to this huge rock face where giant boulders sheered off and the sun reflects to my house in the evening.
It speaks to me.
Then I can flank it and go up the top of a ridge where both sides have several hundred foot cliffs.
Problem is it will require off trail hiking and spend two nights.
The ole left knee is acting up.
The wife wants nothing to do with it. Lol
Maybe my youngest son to do it with me and He's a Rock climber soon to be doctor.
It's one of the bucket list things to do before I die.
I need gear.
Well, you know who to consult..."Dr, what do I need?"
I just spent an hour on the phone with my oldest--he's a law clerk to a superior court judge in LA county, his 2nd job and he's enjoying this one.
But....my video card started dying yesterday and he's FAR more up on what current hardware is. I've got an ancient GeForce GTX 555 pair that's been fine till...they started failing. He helped me build this rig a few years ago so he's familiar with it. Seems with all the choices it's really down to 2: Nvidia and AMD. And I'm going with AMD since Nvidia got infected in the pandemic with the "Total Asshole Virus".
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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tonguengroover wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 11:22 pm I've had a hankering for years to hike up the front range of the Catalina mts to this huge rock face where giant boulders sheered off and the sun reflects to my house in the evening.
It speaks to me.
Then I can flank it and go up the top of a ridge where both sides have several hundred foot cliffs.
Problem is it will require off trail hiking and spend two nights.
The ole left knee is acting up.
The wife wants nothing to do with it. Lol
Maybe my youngest son to do it with me and He's a Rock climber soon to be doctor.
It's one of the bucket list things to do before I die.
I need gear.
That sounds like a blast. We aren’t getting any younger so best to do it sooner rather than later.

I get it about the old injuries acting up. My 7 years of being a hardcore, competitive triathlete in my 30s have really left me with some lingering issues. An Elbow never quite fully recovered from a crash in 2019, and shoulders that act up from all the swimming. I’ve found that kayaking exacerbates it less than swimming, Because your arm doesn’t hyper extend. The problem is that it’s a 20-30 min drive to any kayaking lakes where I live now. The other part about going down an athletic rabbit hole, pursuing victory, is that I no longer have any desire to do it at all.

But speaking of fall camping and hiking (the best!) - normally we go out in our travel trailer, but I was looking forward to a nights tent camping with my youngest daughter for Scouts, but alas, I have to go to a wedding for my wife’s friends daughter who I have met once …

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Yup, getting old sucks. I'm glad I did Peru a couple years ago. Hiking at 10,000 to 12,500 ft is tough. I'd need oxygen now I think.

I keep seeing these military surplus sleeping bags and stuff on sale at Midway and wonder if they are any good. Not sure about climbing into a sack some stinky dude has been in. lol

Speaking of Peru, I'm eating Peruvian blueberry's in my cereal this morning. Turns out Peru is now the worlds leading exporter of blueberries. I didn't even see any while flying around Peru. Most are north on Lima.

https://www.fallcreeknursery.com/commer ... ns-of-peru
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

camping and backpacking

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tonguengroover wrote:Yup, getting old sucks. I'm glad I did Peru a couple years ago. Hiking at 10,000 to 12,500 ft is tough. I'd need oxygen now I think.

I keep seeing these military surplus sleeping bags and stuff on sale at Midway and wonder if they are any good. Not sure about climbing into a sack some stinky dude has been in. lol

Speaking of Peru, I'm eating Peruvian blueberry's in my cereal this morning. Turns out Peru is now the worlds leading exporter of blueberries. I didn't even see any while flying around Peru. Most are north on Lima.

https://www.fallcreeknursery.com/commer ... ns-of-peru
I went to Peru onboard a Warship in 2006, but I did get some time to explore some Inca ruins and see Lima and the surrounding environs. I’d love to go back and spend some time there for real.

Personally, I’d stay away from milsurp fartbags, etc. the stuff commercially available is lighter and more technical - depending on what you want to spend. MILSPEC stuff is designed by the lowest bidder to be issued to many careless, soldiers over time and is usually, unnecessary heavy (though rugged and durable) I’m very selective before buying MILSPEC gear for serious outdoors use. If I do I modify it, and reconfigure.

I assembled this IFV vest for hunting, I lt works pretty good for 2 seasons so far. But my pack is Alpz outdoors which is definitely medium quality
Image
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Image

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Thats quite the vest.
I'm going to check my old Kelty pack and see if it has worthy gear in it. I'm sure I need a new tent and bag. I /we only have some day hiking packs that are worthy of a trail.
My range/bug in pack has a bladder like the day packs but I think I need one with a frame.

Hey did you get to go to Cusco Peru? OMG I want to live there. There's a few Mericans live there and it has a food market a square block with pink pineapples and pig heads.
Alsdo a Merican bar and coffee shop next to the square.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

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Backpacking around in your 20’s is the way to do it. Young, tough, and ignorant, you can see and do a lot of things at that age you wouldn’t think of doing in your 50’s.

Spent three days hiking the Inca Trail carrying the gear we rented and all our provisions ourselves (plenty of water to be found along the way). At the end, the sheer exhaustion made walking a narrow, windy path down the mountain and seeing Machu Pichu below an open glen a magical and spiritual experience.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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