I read Bill Stephenson's post about hiking hillbilly style and had to laugh. I'm much the same, have read all the stuff about how deadly cotton denim is and still wear it. Been through a lot of bad weather and cold snaps in it, sometimes dry and sometimes wet, in the mountains and elsewhere, and it hasn't killed me yet. At my age I think it's running out of time to do that. Also carry a real stick, not one of the fiberglass toys. I have a four foot light staff I take with me on runs, and a six foot staff for the trail. Just had an argument with a neighbor a few days ago when two of their dogs tried to take a chunk out of my heels while I was running past their property and I cracked one of them over the head to back it off. When I was a kid nobody ever went anywhere without firearms. I don't carry a rifle any longer but in the beginning out in the Cascades when I first backpacked for fun I felt very strange without one. Extreme culture shock. If I didn't have a stick and good knife with me I'd feel embarrassed.

I've been stared at a lot by people tricked out with all the newest gear. My stuff is old and cheap. I have some things that are pretty heavy compared to ultralight but I still like them, and my total rig usually isn't heavy. Sometimes I don't even take it.

Bill may know the trail from the microwave tower north of Ponca to Hemmed in Hollow on the Buffalo River. I hiked that in February one year during the two weeks of good weather you always get in the Ozarks that month, full moon that night and clear sky, no weather fronts coming in, seemed like a beautiful time to just take minimal gear and comfortable clothes and go see the falls. We hiked in during the afternoon and evening and it was perfect weather for that, shirt sleeves and jeans and a backup jacket was the extent of my cold weather gear. We kept ahead of a string of backpackers from Little Rock who were going at it like it was an arctic expedition, loaded down with gear for every situation, down jackets, heavy boots, and they really thought we were crazy, kept trying to rescue us and make us part of the expedition until we got to civilization. I tried to explain that this was civilization, that my neigbors used to live just down the road there before the government took it over. In the evening when we were thinking about heading home, sun just going down, they were setting up camp near Granny's Cabin and I thought I might have to fight my way out of there with the stick. Linda would have been ok, she was a lot prettier than me and two of the guy's were offering to share tents and sleeping bags for the night. I'd have had to sit by the fire where it was cold if they had tackled me and rescued me for my own good.

We finally shook them loose and had a beautiful moonlight walk home, didn't even need lights. I didn't feel like we were in any danger because I had a knife and firemaking tools, if we'd got stuck we'd have built a campfire and kept warm the old way up against one of the bluffs. One of the nicest hikes I've ever had. Wouldn't have done that if I hadn't lived in the Ozarks long enough to trust the February warm spell.

I do have wool pants for the arctic, much below freezing and the denim isn't quite so comfortable. But a lot of the modern hiking clothes just feel like underwear to me and I wouldn't have any of them.

JimmyTH