It’s that time of year when bloggers are posting articles about gift ideas for the special backpacker in your life — you know, backpacking gear. This is a dumb idea and you should ignore these suggestions. The same goes if that special person in your life is a camper.
Continue reading Christmas Gift Ideas For Your Favorite Backpacker
I am going to share an incredible story with you. Any story should start at the beginning, so let’s start there.
It is probably a good guess that most people who live in urban and suburban areas don’t pay much attention to wildlife in their neighborhoods, which are mostly birds. After living in my house for a few years, I was one of those people. But it wasn’t always that way. When I first bought my house in 1979 there were few neighboring houses. Our tract has nearly 2,000 lots, the smallest being around 10,000 square feet. In 1979 more than 80% of the lots were vacant. A few minutes’ walk from the house is open desert; thousands of vacant acres. During those first few years there was plenty of wildlife to observe – birds (especially road runners and mourning doves), jack rabbits, a plethora of lizards, a variety of snakes to include rattlesnakes, and of course coyotes to control wildlife population. Then the building boom during the 80’s, 90’s and thru the present left less than 5% of vacant lots. House and fences replaced most of the wildlife. There wasn’t as much to watch and I was busy with work, backpacking, and camping. Now that I am retired, there is more time to watch what wildlife remains.
Continue reading Backyard Wildlife and an Epic Bird Invasion
It’s a pretty common complaint among RV owners — it takes forever to fill my fresh water tank and the water keeps “backing up” while filling.
This was a big problem for us. We have two 50 gallon fresh water tanks and it would take an hour to fill them. The Owner’s Manual warned of this and states to fill the tanks slowly with the water bib turned to a low volume. This was completely unacceptable.
I finally devised a solution that cost very little money and will not take much time for anyone to adopt.
Yep, eight days in the Nevada desert. No shopping for me!
I read that Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the busiest shopping day of the year. Not only is it the start of the Christmas shopping season, but large numbers of Americans have a 4-day weekend – especially if you are a government employee.
Just got back from an extended camping trip in the desert in Nevada and my website had a bunch of “ping-backs” from this post by Andrew Skurka.
A ping-back is when another website refers a reader via a link. Andrew was very complementary about this website and Dave Chenault’s Bedrock and Paradox as blogs with some quality content, although not a lot of content, and both sites are not monetized; that is they do not generate income.
I want to clarify this and state again as I did on October 16th, that popupbackpacker.com now incorporates affiliate marketing, which generates a small amount of income for me.
Ostensibly it is pretty common for backpackers to bring an extra pair of shoes for crossing streams and/or to use at the campsite after a long day of walking. So I thought I would share how I do this. This does not apply to winter hiking, which I shall define as daytime temperatures below freezing and lots of snow. For those trips, this is my shoe system.
Continue reading How to Choose Backpacking Water and Camp Shoes
After finishing my backpacking trip and leaving the Trinity Alps, I headed west to the northern California coastline around Arcata and Trinidad. Two goals were foremost: (1) check out some campgrounds for an extended camping trip with Joyce later this year and (2) do some backpacking in the coastal Redwood forests. I spent the night camped next to the ocean and was treated to continuous rain and wind — an encore to the previous four nights. After checking a couple campgrounds for future reference, the decision was made that being outdoors in the rain 24/7 wasn’t much fun anymore. This was not a reason to cancel a trip, but it was motivation to consider options. One enticing option was the central coast area of California south of Carmel all the way to San Simeon, which was enjoying wonderfully warm weather. So I headed south on Hwy 101, dealt with bumper-to-bumper traffic through San Francisco and jumped on Hwy 1 in San Jose savoring a bit of driving along the Big Sur Coast and then a backpack in the Los Padres National Forest, not expecting this…
The Internet is a strange beast. With the anonymity of a computer screen and keyboard there are many people who are not what they appear to be — a counterfeit persona. Along with this there are many people who collect “friends,” “followers,” or “likes” as some sort of ego fulfilling stamp collection.
In spite of this electronic universe, a diligent person can recognize the sincere and honest people on the World Wide Web. But these folks can only be acquaintances. Friendship requires face-to-face real world interactions. At the end of October I spent a few days with some Internet acquaintances who I can now say are friends.
I want to point out that unlike camping and camper stuff that have a longevity in production, backpacking gear changes quickly. Old models are discontinued often, especially clothing and footwear. If I find a garment or shoe that I like and want to use long term, I usually buy several of each item, because if it is good the manufacturer will probably soon discontinue it and replace it with a “new and improved” model that is mostly marketing hype or worse — simply discontinue it.
“What should the tire pressure be when towing?”
This is a common question. If there is one subject among trailer owners that is wrought with misinformation and voodoo, it is tire pressure and load capacity. A discussion about tire pressure is, well, a numbers discussion. Ah, numbers are our friends. Just in case you dislike technical stuff and a bunch of numbers, let me pique your interest with a couple commonly asked but rarely correctly answered questions.
Q. Tire pressures are always shown as cold. Can I set my tires after driving on them and what should I set them at?
A. You should add 5 – 6 psi above the specifications. For example, if the specification is 35 psi, then set your warm tires to 40 or 41 psi.
Q. My SUV/Light Truck came equipped with passenger tires. Is there anything special I should know?
A. Yes. The load carrying capacity of P-Metric tires when used on SUVs, light trucks, and vans is 91% of the stated capacity.
Continue reading Tire Pressure Secrets for Camping Trailers & Tow Vehicles