Home > Fit City > Archives > backpacking category
backpacking
September 12, 2011
The post-backpacking blues
It’s never easy going back to work after vacation. But it’s even harder, I think, to turn on the computer and get back at it after a backpacking trip.
Last week, all I did was hike through the Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe, Calif. We started at Echo Lake and followed the Tahoe Rim Trail about 60 miles to Tahoe City, camping along the way. (The photo above shows me at the end of a 15-mile day, near Barker Pass.)
My main activities? Figuring out where to pitch my tent at night. Finding the next stream or lake where my husband and I could draw water. Heating that water over a tiny campstove to cook the dehydrated meals we carried with us. Soaking my feet in an ice-cold mountain creek.
That was then; this is now.
Today it’s all email and phone messages, electric lights and street traffic (even if I did ride my bike to work.) I’m showered and have applied deodorant, something I didn’t do while backpacking. I’m wearing freshly laundered clothes, also a novelty, and I’m not swatting mosquitoes off the back of my neck.
I’m also trying to process all the news about the devastating fires that torched houses, gobbled up thousands of acres of pine forests and nearly wiped out one of my favorite state parks while I was gone.
My mind keeps drifting back to last week. I can still hear my boots scrunching over gravel trails, feel the weight of my backpack on my hips, see through the tent flaps to the sun glowing orange over an alpine lake.
The real glow today, though, is from my computer screen.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: backpacking
September 8, 2011
I'm backpacking in Desolation Wilderness
I’m in the middle of the Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe, Calif., at the moment, living out of a backpack and trying to stay out of reach of the bears.
We started at Echo Lakes and are spending four nights on the trail. We’ll pop out of the forest near Tahoe City, eat much-craved hamburgers and fries, and soak up as much cool air as we can before we head back home.
I love the simplicity of backpacking. (Have you read Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods,” about his experience hiking the Appalachian Trail? Wonderful!)
The only thing on my agenda each day is hiking. A panorama of big pines and sapphire-blue lakes scrolls past. I’m in no hurry. I’ve got no appointments to keep, no obligations to meet. When I make it to camp, I set up my tent, unroll my sleeping bag and boil up some water to mix into a dehydrated meal.
If you’ve been trying to reach me this week, I’ve been incommunicado. In case your blog comments haven’t been posted, that’s why.
I’ll catch up when I get back.
In the meantime, what’s your favorite place to backpack?
(The photo above shows me backpacking through Yellowstone National Park a few years ago.)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: backpacking
July 4, 2011
Headed to Colorado for a llama trek
I’m off to Colorado this week, hanging with llamas, white water rafting and absorbing as much cool weather as possible.
My friends and I have booked an overnight llama trek with Spruceridge Llamas in Salida.
The llamas won’t be carrying us, but they’ll be toting some of our gear. Llamas, apparently, can transform a backpacking expedition into a back-friendly hike in the woods. I’m just hoping they don’t practice their spitting on me.
I’ll be writing about the experience when I return.
I’m also planning to do a one-day white water rafting trip. Cross your fingers on that one; reports are that rivers are rushing due to unusually high snow melt this year.
Then I’m spending a night in Breckenridge, doing nothing other than visiting friends and relaxing. Maybe I’ll rent a bike and go for a ride.
See you when I get back!
(Photo by Myscha Theriault/MCT)
Permalink | | Categories: backpacking
December 22, 2010
Tent Poncho, anyone?
Under the category of weird products, may I present the Tent Poncho and the JakPak.
The first does double duty as a tent and a rain poncho, in case you’re out for a stroll in the rain and suddenly decide you need a portable shelter.
The other pulls triple duty as a jacket, tent and a sleeping bag, in case, I don’t know, the Tent Poncho just isn’t enough.
Last minute holiday gift anyone?
These were spotted on Gizmodo.com, always good for a chuckle.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: backpacking
August 25, 2010
Photos from Glacier National Park
It’s hard to come back to reality (and work!) after a week in the woods.
I’m still suffering through a painful re-entry after backpacking for six days in Glacier National Park.
Raj Randeri, who was part of our six-person group, sent over these photos from our trip to remind me how it felt to wade in an ice-cold lake and hike through the mountains.
In the meantime, the heat and traffic here in Austin seems worse than ever.
Permalink | | Categories: backpacking
August 23, 2010
Backpacking at Glacier National Park
I’ve popped out of the woods after a week of backpacking through Glacier National Park.
Anyone want to sniff my armpits?
Ha!
We spent six days in the back country, trekking from Upper Kintla Lake, in the northwest region of the park, to Chief Mountain, in the northeast part of the park.
Along the way, we climbed up and down mountains, crept along ledges that made me woozy, admired huge piles of grizzly bear scat and munched on juicy thimble berries growing along the trail. I saw the most stunning waterfalls I’ve ever seen, skinny dipped in ice cold mountain lakes, ogled a few diminishing glaciers and raised only one tiny blister on my left heel.
We averaged about 10 miles a day, although one day we climbed more than 3,000 feet, descended about 2,700 feet and covered 14 miles of terrain.
I loved the solitude. No roads, no cars, no buildings in sight.
No baths or deodorant for six days made us pretty dang stinky, too. We happily forked over $4 for a 6-minute, coin-operated shower at the finish.
I’ll be writing more about my adventures soon.
The photo at top shows me at the back country permit office the day before we started our hike. I looked a lot dirtier by the end…
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: backpacking
August 11, 2010
Trying to prevent blisters while backpacking
If you follow this blog, you know I’ve been marching around my neighborhood with a backpack loaded with books to prepare for my upcoming backpacking trip to Glacier National Park.
After a 28-mile hike around Lake Georgetown in April spawned the most hideous blisters I’ve ever had, I’ve been experimenting with different combinations of shoes and socks for the trip.
I’ll be wearing Salomon trail runners — running shoes with rugged soles designed for off-road trails — instead of traditional high-top hiking boots. I’m also packing Injinji toe socks, which some hiking companions swear by, along with a bag of 2Toms powder (that’s my cat Mouse posing with the bag, above), which is supposed to prevent blisters.
That’s my most important equipment.
Other than that, I’m bringing a single pair of pants, one long-sleeved hiking shirt, a short-sleeved technical shirt, a rain jacket and pants, a broad-brimmed hat, a merino wool pull-over and a pair of long-john bottoms. That’s about it for clothing.
I’ll stink, especially since I won’t be wearing any deodorant. Apparently it can attract bears.
Luckily, I do love getting really dirty now and then.
It makes the shower at the finish line feel that much better.
Tips, suggestions, advice?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: backpacking
August 10, 2010
Packing for backpacking in Glacier National Park
I’ll be heading to Glacier National Park for a week-long backpacking trip soon.
This past weekend, I started packing. The photo above shows the spread of food I’m shoving into my pack for six nights in the back country.
I’ll be eating dry granola for breakfast, energy bars for lunch (I like Builders Blocks and Honey Stingers because they fill me up) and Mountain House Pro Paks (the pasta primavera rocks!) for dinner, plus snacks like trail mix, dried fruit and nuts and some candy bars.
This will be my longest backpack trip to date. We’ll be hiking about 8 to 10 miles between sites each day.
Any tips or suggestions? Who’s been to Glacier before?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: backpacking
July 28, 2010
Jack Hanna used pepper spray on grizzly; will it work for me?
It’s nice to know that bear spray works — on cubs, anyway.
I’m headed to Glacier National Park in Montana in a few weeks for a week of camping and backpacking. I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about the grizzlies.
This report from the Associated Press about TV host and zoo keeper Jack Hanna makes me feel a little better. I think.
Hanna was hiking in Glacier National Park with a small group of people Saturday when they encountered a mother bear and two cubs on a narrow trail.
The group backed to let the trio pass, but one of the cubs charged.
Hanna unleashed a can of pepper spray, designed to deter bears, on the 125-pound baby. It took three bursts from the can, but the little fella finally got the message and fled.
Ironically, Hanna had recently filmed a message for the National Park Service, encouraging hikers to carry the spray.
You don’t have to convince me — my husband and I carried a can while backpacking in Yellowstone National Park a few years ago (we didn’t have to use it), and we’ll do it again.
I’ll also leave the eau de trout cologne and huckleberry necklace at home.
Who’s backpacked in grizzly country? Any tips?
(The photo above from the U.S. Geological Survey shows a grizzly bear rubbing on a tree in Glacier National Park. Federal scientists have documented the largest population of grizzly bears in Montana, a sign that the threatened species could be at long last on the rebound.)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: backpacking
June 15, 2010
Want to burn calories? Go backpacking!
One of the reasons I’m looking forward to my late summer backpacking trip through Glacier National Park? (Besides the cool respite, that is.)
My body becomes a calorie-munching machine when I backpack.
I realized this a couple of years ago, when my husband and I spent a couple of days backpacking at Yellowstone National Park.
It seemed like I ate my weight in trail mix and freeze-dried meals and still couldn’t get enough calories into my body. By the time we were done, my hiking pants were drooping off my body.
Of course, the amount of calories you actually burn depends on how far you hike, how fast you move, how much you weigh, how much your backpack weighs, how much climbing is involved and the temperature. (I bet anxiety level due to fear of bears factors into the equation, too!)
Backpacker.com recently mentioned a formula to determine how many calories you need in the backcountry, based on whether you are having a rest day, or are moderately active, very active or extremely active.
On a long, strenuous day of hiking with a heavy pack, the number of calories used per day is equivalent to your body weight multiplied by 25 to 30 calories per pound. (Multiply by both numbers to get a range.)
If I weigh 130 pounds, for example, I’ll need 3,250 to 3,900 calories on a hard day of backpacking.
The calorie calculator comes from “Backcountry Nutrition” (Stackpole Books, 2008.) Go here to see Backpacker.com’s article.
For more tips on how many calories you can burn doing different activities, go here.
Permalink | | Categories: backpacking
May 6, 2010
Testing my new backpack
I’m going backpacking in Glacier National Park this summer.
My husband and I did some backpacking in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. Aside from my paranoia about grizzly bears (which were hanging out in the area where we were hiking, clawing up trees and, according to a ranger report, walking on top of at least one tent in the backcountry, prompting us to have to alter our route), I loved it. Walking through the great outdoors, breathing in the smell of trees and fresh air, and getting first-hand evidence that no, the entire world is not yet swathed in cement puts my soul at ease. It just makes me happy.
But the backpack I used in Yellowstone hurt my hips. It rested in just the wrong place, and after two days I felt like someone had been hammering on my hip bones with a mallet.
Hoping to alleviate the problem, I recently splurged on a new women’s specific backpack. It’s got a curved waist band and more padding. It’s called a Gregory Deva.
My hard-core, weight-weenie friends call it “a pig” because it weighs a little more than their packs. But, as I tell them, I’m willing to carry a few extra pounds if it means I don’t wind up with painful bruises on my hips.
I need to spend some time getting used to hauling stuff around in it, so the other evening, I filled it with books and hiked a couple of miles around my Allendale neighborhood.
Did you see me? I got a few strange looks.
I’m planning to walk this way a few times a week, building up weight and distance.
So far, no pain.
But the mountains in Glacier are taller than the ones in Central Austin.
Have you been to Glacier National Park? What kind of backpack do you use?
Permalink | | Categories: backpacking
April 18, 2009
Backpacking in the Big (Skeeter) Thicket
I’m fresh out of the mosquito-infested jungle that is the Big Thicket of East Texas.
Whew! I should have dipped myself in DEET before that little excursion.
Not really fully thinking about the implications of backpacking in a swampy parcel of land near Beaumont, I set out with running buddy Marcy Stellfox this week to search for insect-eating plants in the Big Thicket National Preserve, where four species of carnivorous vegetation live. (That’s Marcy, above.)
We found the plants — slender, funnel-shaped stalks with red-veined throats and dainty little lids on top.
But we also found clouds and clouds of mosquitoes. Marcy and I are now calling the place The Big (Skeeter) Thicket National Preserve.
If you decide to go, I’ve got some advice:
First, bring some serious bug spray. We sprayed ourselves with some eco-friendly eucalyptus oil that was supposed to ward off biting bugs. We thought it smelled great. Apparently, so did the mosquitoes.
Get there early in the day. We spent an hour and a half hiking through a bramble-patch before the undergrowth cleared out enough that we could pitch a tent. Since we didn’t throw on our backpacks until 5:30 p.m., that was a problem. We had to set up camp at the first open area we came to — and that happened to be a crispy, partly toasted area that had been the site of a prescribed burn maybe a year ago.
Another reason to hike further in? We were serenaded by barking dogs most of the night. And we could hear the buzz of vehicles on the highway from inside our tent.
The Big Thicket is made up of a dozen or so separate parcels of land, and the parcel we were backpacking on (the Turkey Creek Unit) happens to be long and skinny. It’s bordered by private land. Where people own dogs. And cars.
But … as much as I’m grumbling here, the Thicket is a very cool place. Visions of Bigfoot and the Creature from the Black Lagoon danced in my head as we trudged down the pine needle-covered trail. The paths we explored were well maintained, with boardwalks over particularly swampy areas. I loved peering into the muckier parts, imagining that the cypress knees were tiny, caped people.
I have a good imagination.
I love to sleep in a tent, too. You could put me in a tent just about anywhere and I’d go giddy with happiness. And boiling water using my tiny camp stove? Heaven! Nothing like a foil pouch of dehydrated pasta, if you ask me.
We got lucky with those hungry plants, too. They bloom in April and May. After our night in the woods, we hiked back to our car, then drove around to the north end of the Turkey Creek Unit, where the plants grow by the thousands. (That’s one of the plants we found, below.) We didn’t see any eating bugs while we were there. They looked pretty well-fed, though.
Funny thing, too. The mosquitoes weren’t as thick there. I think the plants ate ‘em all.
Where do you like to camp? Ever been to the Big Thicket?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: backpacking
