Today, I took a 4 1/2 hour out and back hike of only 4.4 miles to practice some things. I carried a pack for overnight which was 24 pounds. A little heavy, but I was using a 8 x 10 heavy plastic tarp for the hammock. The new one is on the way.

I stopped here on the way out to cook oatmeal with lots of fixins added. On the way back, I stopped here for a snack of peanuts, raisons and dehydrated bananas. Some people stopped by, so we talked for a bit.



My first wild hang of the hammock. I set up the tarp, too, but didn't take pictures.

I also cooked some really good potato soup here. I made it from potato flour, dehydrated onions, sunflower seeds and some pepper.



On the way back, I spotted a Smooth Green Snake on the trail which is supposed to be hard to find.


One thing I learned is I really need to pack the hammock things in a section of the pack different than the sleeping bag. Otherwise, the bag will likely get wet if it's raining.

Also, 1.5 pounds of food probably isn't going to be enough for a day. I'm probably going to pack by meal instead of by day. It will be easier to figure things out on the trail.

The actual hiking time was right at 2 hours, so when I moved I moved pretty good for me. It was an 1,800 foot climb on the way out and the same on the way back.

My new Danner military desert combat boots were real comfortable. They are water proof which I tested by walking though a small stream. They didn't leak at all.

Good job! My only suggestion is loose the heavy boots . And pitch tarp as advanced leanto and spend the night next time

Up hill both ways, huh? My Grandpa used to mention something about that. I never could figure out why he didn't take the loop in the opposite direction when he went to and from school.

If you ever try and grab the tail of a small smooth green snake, watch out, they are freaking fast! They will turn around and try to bite you pretty dang quick. Much faster than a garden snake, or copper mouth, or any other snake I have tried it with. I don't recommend that anyone try that with any snake anyways, I was young and dumb then.

Maybe he was too preoccupied to think of it, what with his little brother on his back, and all that snow.

Wait, wait, WAIT!!! Lets just back up a second here...



finallyME, YOU have tried to pick up a copperhead by the tail WITHOUT pinning the head first!?!? DUUUUDE! That is CRAzY. Tell me about it...

You had it easy. In my day, we carried our bigger brother so his shoes wouldn't wear out before they were handed down. It was 5 miles uphill each way into the blowing snow. Remember how cold it was when the melting snow came through the cardboard covering the holes in your shoes?

Well, lets see....there I was..:)
It wasn't on the trail, it was at home. I was about 16 and we were living in an apartment complex in San Antonio. I was walking home when a big black guy yelled snake. Of course, I went running toward the commotion. The snake had almost made it to the undeveloped forested area that was next to the complex when I quickly grabbed the tail to pull it back in view. All I did the first time was pull it back and then let it go. So, as soon as it hit the ground, it started to try and get away again. I then grabbed the tail again. This time the snake decided to try and bite me. It was really slow turning back on itself and wasn't even close to getting his head near me. Then it decided to coil up. The black guy went and got a tire iron from his car, and I put it on top of the snake, then grabbed the back of it's head. When I lifted it up, it was a little longer than I was tall, so probably about 6 feet long. We eventually cut it's head off, despite me wanting to take it home as a pet. This was all well before I saw crocodile hunter on TV.

When you are young, you do dumb things. Well, at least I did.

I heard that to kill a cottonmouth you're supposed to grab it by the tail end and swing it around your head real fast and then smack it on a rock or tree.

Course, I never tried it

And, heck yeah, it's always uphill both ways here in the Ozarks, I'll testify to that, and the hills get taller as you get older too, and I know a bunch of old hillbillies that will back me up all the way on that

Great story! Except for the part about taking it home as a pet, it all sounds normal to me. If you have seen "the Gods must be Crazy", Bill's way to kill snakes is the way the little bushman kills cobras...not that I have ever tried that. All you have to do is stay away from the sharp end!

This explains why so many snakebite victims in the US are young men....:^)

The first time I heard that was in 1969 when I spent a HOT summer with my father outside of Ft. Worth TX.

We lived in a trailer park out in the middle of some huge cattle ranches and all us kids spent most of everyday hiking to a swimming hole in a creek a couple miles away and hanging out there.

I'd never seen a venomous snake before then, but that place was crawling with them. When told of that technique I quickly asked if anyone had done it, and the kid that said it just kind of shuffled his feet and "Naw", then a couple laughed and said "No Way!".

I asked if any of them knew anyone that did it, and they did name a name. He was an older kid, and a pretty tough character. Not the kind that'd be hanging out with punks like us. I met him before I went back home. I didn't ask him about that though. He looked to me like the kind of guy that might try that same technique on smartassed little yankees just for fun.

Great story Bill . Ah...to be a kid again. Clueless, but blissfully so. Balzaccom's comment



cracked me up and reminded me of a time before I was 10 and there were about 12 boys all looking for the holy grail of snakes (for us), the king snake. It was on a large road cut penetrated by many holes and a grassy area on top. We had seen a beautiful 4 ft king go into a hole. Half of us were jumping up and down at the top of the road cut (why we thought this would help I haven't a clue), and the other half were guarding the holes in the face while Donald (yea I still remember his name) had his whole arm in the hole the snake zipped into. Suddenly, Donald yells ouch, pulls his hand out with the king attached to it, and proclaims I got it! I think he drove his mom nutz.

Now THAT is a great story! LOL

That is funny!!!

It's amazing that any male lives past the age of 20.

Oh Donald...

I went on a short 5.6 mile hike today with a new pack. A Osprey Talon 44. It's the first time I've used an internal frame pack. I packed for overnight with 21.5 pounds including food and water. It was real comfortable.

On the trail, I ran across one of the very first campsites in the National Forest system. There was an old Adirondack style shelter originally built in 1919, then rebuilt in 1989 after a flash flood.

The aspen are changing in Colorado. Unfortunately, there weren't many along this trail.

next time increase your distance a little bit and carry more food and like they said above do an over nighter. I like my Danner combat boots. They are comfortable, but i don't know if they are water proof they are the desert type.

You had SHOES??!!!

Yeah, with pieces of cardboard to cover the holes my brother wore in them.

AND CARDBOARD?!

You rich folks had it easy!

Ok, you win.

(I had a bicycle, too.)

Hey, if I didn't take these things to extremes, somebody would revoke my "old fart" card!

(I'm currently running the same "you had it easy" scam on a young man in our firm who is just now sitting for the CPE exam.)

If we were women, we could talk about wearing skirts and freezing. Remember saddleshoes and plaid school uniforms? And how the nuns would yell at us if we looked up while going down the fire escape?

No experience with nuns or fire escapes - but I did have a strait-laced principal who made a point of walking between boys and girls who were holding hands. (He later married an English teacher who some would say was a "free spirit" and others less delicately called "tramp.")

When he called an assembly to lecture us about the evils of going steady (prompted by an abrupt marriage of the starting quarterback to the head cheerleader in their senior year), my wife and I sat in the audience holding hands. (As luck would have it, our last names both began with R, and our assigned seats were next to each other. In the dimly lit balcony. In the next to last row. I kid you not.)

High school - the good old days (?)

I went to an all male high school. We didn't hold hands. Now, maybe things are different.

You got to go to a high school? You rich people get all the fun.

Hey Gershon, what did you use to get such steady walking shots?

Youtube now has a stabilizer function in the edit window.

Today my son I took a 7 mile hike around my neighborhood in near blizzard conditions. The temperature was 25 degrees. I intentionally underdressed to test the minimum needed. Surprisingly, I only needed 2 things different than my summer pack. A wool sweater and blue jeans.

I had my Danner boots on which kept my feet completely dry even though I purposely tried to get them wet by shuffling through deepest snow. I had jeans and my Dry Ducks rain pants (One day to be replaced by something better.) On top, I wore a cotton T-shirt, a North Face fleece, a wool sweater and the REI version of a Marmot Precip. I had a wool hat covered with the hood from the rain jacket. The only thing I could have used was something to cover my face, but in a pinch, I could have tucked my camp towel into my hat. I was completely warm the whole time.

Now we both know that if we run into a freak snowstorm in the summer, we have nothing to fear.

For years, I have always tucked a version of the PreCip in my pack when going on day hikes. When you need it, you really need it.

The other day, I took about a 5 mile hike near home to test out some gear. (And to buy food as it was too dangerous to drive.)

The snow came about halfway to my knees most of the way.



Things I learned:

I LOVE my Danner boots. They give great traction in the snow. They are completely warm. And my feet stayed completely dry even though I was wearing cotton socks.

The cotton shirt, fleece, wool sweater, REI rainjacket combo still works well.

Dry Duck rain pants over my jeans kept me warm and dry, but the plastic in the rain pants tore just from the snow. Some good rain pants are in my future.

Be careful closing the Osprey Talon 33 backpack or snow can get in the top.

A wool hat with the rain jacket hood up is a good combination.

Walking in deep fluffy snow is more tiring than I thought.

Bicycle trails become really nice in the snow.

From my son: www.picnik.com is a good place to edit pictures.

You might faind that your cotton t-shirt or jeans create more problems if you begin to sweat a bit. I find that staying WARM when I am hiking is the least of my worries. The real worry is staying warm once I STOP hiking. And since my body is creating heat while I am hiking, if I sweat a bit (quite possible, even in very cold temps) then that cotton t-shirt or jeans get wet---ands stay wet. Two hours later, standing around in camp, it would be freezing.

The real test for all this stuff is to go for a hike for 7 miles...then stand around in tne backyard for three hours watching your pot boil, etc.

In that scenario, you will really understand why synthetic wicking material is so popular...and warmer.

Balzaccom,

I agree. I should have mentioned something about cotton. In the past, I've used milspec long underwear. In the future, I'll be looking for something Made in America. I'm just not there yet