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Finally did get a new phone, hopefully new photos will be of better quality. In the meantime, I went through my old photos and picked out what was good enough to keep, so I'll share a few selections from time to time.

First, a rather spooky looking view up a slope on Blodgett Peak, a mountain with a bit of local notoriety. In short, the trail that formerly led to the summit of this not terribly high but rather steep mountain ceased to be maintained, despite being attached to a park in a nice part of town. The result is a nightmarish web of social trails in disrepair, often extremely steep and badly eroded, sometimes leading to even more difficult "routes" such as up a boulder field to a rock wall. A few years back a young man died on Blodgett, despite being a mountain of little note. Beware the quiet ones.



Simply a view west from Palmer Park, but I love the muted December sun over the mountains.



Part of the early 20th century ruins found at Fremont Experiment Forest along Barr Trail, elevation ~9000 ft (2750m). This site was used for forestry experiments that influenced future reforestation and land management policy. Supposedly there are some strange hybrid trees in the area, but I've never spotted them. The environs certainly are thickly grown, and the old signs of habitation seem strangely out of place, though a sharp eye can spot many relics of the old days in this area.

Watching all these pics I understood I'm really tired of every day routine and now my only dream is to be somewhere in such a place with pure nature around.

Alemsnte wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:09 am Watching all these pics I understood I'm really tired of every day routine and now my only dream is to be somewhere in such a place with pure nature around.

This puts a smile on my face.

Finally some photos with the new phone. I ran nice and high today to celebrate my birthday and saw some interesting things. A bit above treeline, I encountered a herd of bighorn sheep, a famous inhabitant of the Rockies renowned for the males' head-ramming mating combat. The photo isn't too bad, considering I had to do 8x zoom from about 300 ft (100m) away. They are shy and don't care for company.



A broad view of the area where the sheep were grazing, for perspective.



Look at what the weather was doing today! Below me, a sea of fog and mist that I ran through to get above 9000 ft. Above, a thunderstorm brewing! And in between, about a vertical mile of clear air. Utterly amazing.

I started putting an "Oh Shit" Kit together last month. I just ordered what I think are the last few items that I would need if I get lost somewhere in the great wilderness.

In a 10 liter waterproof bag:

Compass
Emergency Blankets
Emergency Tent
Fire Striker
First-Aid Kit
Flashlight
Knife
Lifestraw
Magnesium Shavings
Mess Kit (Compact)
Multi-tool (Leatherman)
Paracord
Repair Tape
Stormproof Matches
Survival Bracelet
Tinder Tabs
Topographical Map
Trench Shovel/Tool
Water Bottle
Whistle(s)

Am I missing anything (truly essential)?

I've given some thought to such things, since it's essentially not much different than a backcountry camping kit. I personally tend towards ultralight, since extra weight means more effort trying to run with all that gear. Here's my backpacking kit, and thoughts/comments:

Sleeping kit: This is essential gear, but can be very minimal. For brief excursions you can cowboy camp (no tent) and use just a pad for your hips and your pack as a pillow, but this is an acquired taste and offers zero protection from anything. Important considerations are weather and insects; if pests bite you all night, sleeping is impossible. However, it's useful to consider the entire sleeping kit as a unit rather than components. For example if you choose to use just a tarp, you may want a light bivy sack to keep off bugs or really bad rain, but if you choose an ultralight tent with floor and rainfly, you might only need as much sleeping bag as makes you comfortable. Also consider that inflatable sleeping pads offer excellent insulation for the weight. Down sleeping bags or quilts are the lightest and warmest, but must be kept dry, so carry it in a dry sack. This is by far the most expensive part of most kits, unless you expect to not sleep outside or cowboy camp.

Mandatory:

- Water container, filter. I see you've chosen a Life Straw. Nothing wrong here, just practice your intended collection/filtering technique and remember that once something is contaminated (like your bottle, if you scoop up water and drink from it with the straw) it is forever contaminated until disinfected. Also consider whether you want to filter water in larger quantities for washing dishes, hydrating food, etc.
- Trowel/biodegradable toilet paper. Not strictly necessary, and you have a shovel included already. Still, a small roll of TP is awfully handy if there aren't any good rocks or sticks around. Among trowels, The Deuce is my choice, it's as light of a digging implement as is likely to exist. Small rolls of biodegradable TP can be bought from REI.
- Food container. I don't see this on your list, and to be sure it's situational. On the other hand, if a bear or even a raccoon steals your lunch, that can be a really serious problem. It's funny when Yogi Bear does it, but once you're 30 miles deep in wilderness and wake up to zero calories in reserve, you laugh out the other end. For maximum protection there are bear canisters, for something lightweight but more expensive, Ursack is a respected choice. Store food well away from camp, downwind of your campsite. Do not, I repeat do not, take food inside your tent, or handle your sleeping gear in any way with hands that have touched food without being thoroughly washed. This is true whether bears are present or not, little field mice will gladly chew a hole in your tent if they smell something tasty, and human food is the very tastiest.
- Cordage. I personally like arborist cord over paracord, from experience. The main advantage here is that arborist cord is made to slide easily over rough surfaces like tree branches without getting snagged, and it's also usually extremely light per foot. Specifically, DynaGlide line is excellent, available from Gossamer Gear.
- Camp kitchen. This is worth a good deal of consideration. Most cooking kits weigh a lot. Camp stoves use fuel, which adds up quickly over long trips. Cooking on an open fire requires a much larger cooking rig and depends on abundant and usable natural fuel (and is surprisingly dangerous in any dry area, floating embers can start a forest fire). There are wood burning portable stoves, which is probably what I'd recommend if you prefer natural fuel since this will not only contain the fire but make the fuel use MUCH more efficient. Also consider not cooking or even using fire! I make my meals from cold soak oatmeal, potato flake, peanut butter on tortillas, shelf stable sausages, GORP, hard cheese, etc. Besides cutting weight, this has the additional advantage of not relying on outside supplies, the meals can be prepared and eaten under any conditions even if my cooking kit broke or I have no fuel. My dining kit is a spork and an emptied out Talenti gelato container.
- Hand sanitizer/soap. Not optional, the #1 cause of sickness in the wilderness is not water but your own contamination after bathroom. Have sanitizer, use it religiously outdoors. Remember that washing your hands with soap and untreated water is utterly useless unless you sanitize after.
- Navigation. You have options here, but topo/compass is the most reliable, especially in an emergency. Practice using them. An exceedingly helpful accessory to this is an altimeter, which could be a component of your watch or some other device. In many, many cases if you know which trail or road you are on and can determine your elevation, you can narrow down where you must surely be on the map with speedy accuracy and much less effort than attempting to take bearings.

Optional:

- Knife. Yeah, this is amazingly enough optional. Most things a knife is truly needed for you can either improvise with something else, or prepare for in advance (like cutting cordage to useful lengths). Still, this is a pretty small item and pretty damn handy when you need it. Strongly advise against overkill, a KABAR is not even remotely needed. A small knife like a Gerber LST is enough for 99% of what you need. Additional tools are almost never useful unless you know exactly what they would be used for.
- Lighting. Also optional, only necessary if you intend to move around after dark. Obviously not a bad idea to have, choose something waterproof if possible. For general utility, I recommend a headlamp over other options since this leaves both hands free and always follows the direction you look.
- Fire in general. Putting aside the question of cooking, it's worth asking how fire will help you survive. If you're cold, you should have a shelter as discussed above, and a fire is not going to do you any good inside a tent or even a bivy without risking setting your bed on fire! If you're severely injured and must make emergency bivy, you definitely don't want to go gather fuel to make a campfire, that's preposterous.
- First aid. Unless you have specific first aid training and know what you need, this is a pretty iffy category. I've talked long and hard with other outdoorsmen about this, and the interesting thing is, it appears that a little duct tape along with the hand sanitizer you should already have, is most of what you need. Minor injuries need no treatment besides disinfection; major injuries are rarely treatable in the field beyond what you could accomplish with strips of clothing, duct tape, and maybe an available stick (or trekking pole). Medicine is up to you; pain relief is subjective, gastrointestinal issues should be cause for evac but some Immodium to get you out of there could be useful. Other items depend on personal need; don't forget toiletries like toothbrush/paste (and ignore that garbage about cutting the handle off your toothbrush to save weight, you want a handle), and maybe consider tweezers and clippers or other grooming devices for longer trips, since small things like a splinter can really get on your nerves in the field. Duct tape can be rolled around a ball point pen tube to give you a small length for travel use, and also a plastic tube that could be a splint or various other things. Or a pen.
- Camp shower. You can get very lightweight showers that are basically a bag with a plastic showerhead. Hang this from a tree and take a shower au natural. After several days of being covered in sweat, this is an amazing luxury. Do not rely on rinsing off in natural bodies of water, not only is this unreliable, you should not wash yourself off in water you may intend to drink from even if you have a filter. This can serve double duty for porting water for washing dishes, which is not especially optional.
- A sitting pad. Easy to say you will forgo this, but after a couple days of only resting your ass on rocks or hard ground, you may wish you had this. In many backpacks you can stuff one of these into the area right behind your back as a pad, some packs even come with one built in and made to remove and sit on.
- Finally, clothing. You don't really need extras, but consider what you wear at all. Cotton is bad, it stays wet and chafes. Choose the lightest synthetic clothing available, this is advantageous not only in terms of weight but breathability and ease of cleaning/drying. I go out wearing ranger panties, a shirt, and synthetic socks, and it doesn't matter if they all get soaked because they dry quickly. Covering clothing like a wind/rain shell, hat, etc, all up to personal preference and environment, but choose them wisely. Avoid heavy rain coverings that don't breathe, they weigh a ton and will make you so humid inside that you can't travel anyway.

In summary, give a lot of thought to what you want to carry. Every week this summer I've found abandoned gear on Pikes Peak, always because tourists bought cheap, heavy gear and didn't consider how heavy that becomes after a day or two of hauling it around, especially if you're not used to carrying a pack. Take only what you will absolutely need and not one thing more. Obviously weight matters less if you intend to work from a vehicle, even a bicycle, but if you have an operational vehicle you aren't all that lost in the wilderness, are you?

For reference, my backpacking/fastpacking kit is about 8 lbs (minus food/water which is consumable) for weekend trips, 10-11 lbs for a trip of indefinite length such as a thru-hike (this assumes restocking food at intervals along the way). This includes the backpack itself and everything in it, even luxuries.

And finally finally, this is all based on 3 seasons travel. A winter kit is a whole different game in so many ways.

Outsider wrote: ↑Wed Aug 05, 2020 3:22 pm I've given some thought to such things, since it's essentially not much different than a backcountry camping kit. I personally tend towards ultralight, since extra weight means more effort trying to run with all that gear. Here's my backpacking kit, and thoughts/comments:

...

Advice noted.

Just to be clear, this little kit I put together is for unplanned emergencies. If I plan on trekking outdoors, I'm gonna put together something comprehensive keeping all of your notes in mind. Extra clothes, toiletries, cleaning supplies, MREs, etc.

Thanks for the info!