Category Archives: Backpack Trip Report

The Eye Candy Backpacking Trip

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After spending a day with my wife after the December Anza Borrego Trip, I decided to head to Nevada to do a 3-day backpacking trip in the Muddy Mountains Wilderness. The boss said I had to come back by Christmas Eve and be available for Christmas. That sounded fair enough.

The weather forecast was better than what I had just experienced in Southern California, so switched out the Trailstar for my Hexamid shelter. All other gear remained the same, for simplicity and because it would be perfect for this trip as well.

I have spent quite a bit of time in the Muddy Mountains, so part of the trip would be an encore and another part would be exploration of parts new to me. I had a fully charged battery in the camera, new AAA’s in the headlamp, and again took my solar Casio watch. There was no time to replace the battery in the Timex Expedition. Also, as I did on my last trip, I did not bring a map. It is pretty easy to get “unlost” in this area. All major washes flow all the way to Lake Mead. So follow any major wash and you will end up at the main road through the northern section of Lake Mead Recreation Area. There is a certain sharpness of mind that is created when you know you do not have a map to reference.

I am not inclined to write another comprehensive trip report, so this will be more of a pictorial tour.

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December Backpacking in Anza Borrego

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14-(Dec-2014)

Writing backpacking trip reports can be a pain in the ass. If I wrote a report for every trip I did I would probably quit backpacking or quit writing. However, it is a semi-tradition for me to write a lengthy report for my kids at the end of each year.

So this is the 2014 version.

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Backpacking 500 miles in the Mojave Desert (part 1)

Backpack Trip Report

In November and December of 2000 I backpacked from my house in Palm Springs to Lake Mead and back.

Mohave 500 mile map

During the past two months I spent many nights in a tent. This time of year the nights are 12+ hours long, and I only need 8 hours of sleep. The first night of my Lake Mead bike tour I was thinking back to a long hike I had done 14 years earlier and decided to go ahead and document it during my biking and backpacking evenings this past November and December.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

This is the opening sentence in A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

 The year 2000 was about the same for me.

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No Rattlesnakes, No Water, No Fun

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Great ideas pop up in my head around 2 am. They hit me like a thunderbolt, instantly wake me up, and I immediately take survey of the idea; usually sitting up to give the idea the respect it deserves. There are three courses of actions I can take regarding these great ideas:

  1. Tell myself that I will evaluate the idea in the morning to see if it still holds water as a great idea, and go back to sleep. This doesn’t work out well most of the time. I forget what the idea was completely, or misplace it in the hidden folds of my brain and sometimes find it again at a later date — sometimes more than a year later. I rarely use this option.
  2. Analyze the idea while it is still fresh in my mind. This is often a poor method of handling the idea, because, more often than not, I end up playing with the idea until it is time to get up.
  3. Get up, write the idea down, and go back to sleep. Of all the idea handling options this one is the best.

In the morning, if the idea still exists, it is examined for clarity and sanity. If it passes both tests, the idea is placed in a holding pattern. If after 7 days the idea stands this test of time, a plan is put into action to bring the idea to fruition.

This is how the Rattlesnake Canyon Loop hike was created.

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Escape from Walden Pond

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The Backpacking Trip That Didn’t Happen

A while back I decided to visit Walden Pond. Not because it is wonderful wilderness and not because of Thoreau. I was going to be in Boston anyway, and Walden Pond and Thoreau are historical curiosities to me – nothing more and nothing less.

For the uninitiated, Walden Pond was the locale for the Transcendentalist Philosopher Henry David Thoreau’s experiment in self-reliance. The pond itself is not significant, but for me it ended up being quite pleasant and relaxing.

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On the Buckeye Trail (again)

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S24O

An s24o is a sub 24-hour overnight backpacking trip. I have been doing s24o trips for decades, but never knew they needed a special name or, more surprisingly, that someone had already gone through the trouble of identifying and cataloging this kind of hike, developing a name, and even creating an acronym for said name.

But here it is. It exists and it is important, because I read it on the Internet. A while back I mentioned the s24o, but am too lazy to go back and check it. As far as the acronym, I like it, have consciously added it to my vocabulary, and will use it when deemed appropriate – assuming I remember it and do not misplace it in one of those little used crevices in my brain.

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The Music of Backpacking and other Musings

Backpack Trip Report, General Talk

August 27, 2014

No, this isn’t about iPods on the trail. I never take music on a backpacking trip.

I am in an airplane traveling at hundreds of miles per hour at an altitude above 30,000 feet. Once I get home I will have a quick turnaround to head out for a Labor Day camping trip with Joyce, so I won’t post this until that trip is done.

As is my preference, I have a window seat where I can see the earth below. Too far up to see any details, and often hidden by clouds. But clouds are good. Like a snowflake each cloud formation is unique and pleasurable to watch. Time passes, and I think of many things between my observations beyond my little window.

I am returning from a trip to Durham, North Carolina. As I am oft to do, I was able to throw together a quick trip. Like I did in the Cedars of Lebanon trip, my hike was a figure 8. Perhaps this is a new motif in my hiking — figure 8’s.

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Backpacking the Cedars of Lebanon

Backpack Trip Report

 Last week I backpacked the Cedars of Lebanon

I have read that the mountains of Lebanon were once heavily forested with cedar trees. Over the course of thousands of years, the harvesting of timber by several civilizations over the centuries has decreased these forests. It is said the even King Solomon used Lebanese Cedar to build his temple.

photo-10 NOT LEBANON

After returning from our little trip to Lake Mead, the next morning I was on an airplane headed east. A last minute change in plans had me flying into Nashville for a meeting.

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Buckeye Trail Section Hike

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Buckeye Trail Blue Blaze

My last post was a review of the book Grandma Gatewood’s Walk. Toward the end of the article I mentioned that she was a founding member of Ohio’s Buckeye Trail Organization. One of Emma’s favorite hiking places was a section of the Buckeye trail in Hocking Hills, Ohio near a place named Old Man’s Cave.

So not much more than a week after I read about Emma Gatewood, I decided to head to Ohio and do some Buckeye Trail backpacking. This, like many of my trips, was a last minute spur of the moment decision.

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You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em

Backpack Trip Report, Backpacking

As you probably know, I often do short backpacking trips when I travel on business. Most of these trips don’t lend themselves for a lot of advance planning. I look at a map, determine the elevation differences from where my meeting is and where I might hike, look at the weather forecast, pack what seems to be the required gear, and then hop on a plane. Often I don’t know exactly where I will hike; that is something I sort out when I get to my destination.

And that is how it was this week.

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