Mountain Biking in Arizona Christmas 2015

I just made a quick video from my recent mountain biking footage in Arizona over Christmas. This is my first attempt at this, so I expect o improve! I filmed this with my cell phone in a handlebar mount, so the video is very wiggly.

4 EDC Packs Head to Head Comparison Test

I have had the opportunity to spend from several months to several years with these packs and this is my attempt to share my experiences. Please excuse the terrible editing, my filming was not very good and the editing did not help much. Thanks for reading my blog!

Angel's Rest hike in the Columbia River Gorge,August 8, 2015Just below

We wanted to hike in the Gorge. We had hiked in back of several of the big Falls before, the most notable of which is the "10 falls" hike in back of Multnomah Falls, including Fairy Falls.

On the trail up

We chose Angel's Rest, hoping to see Bridal Veil Falls, and Coopey Falls from the top. We did not know that there were fantastic vistas, but very little of waterfalls visible!

The hike was very nice, the weather was warm but not too hot. It was a relentless uphill 2.37 mile hike. The forest was beautiful, if a bit dry.

At the top, at Angel's Rest, the views to the West and East along the Columbia River were stunning. The pictures here do not do it justice.

Just below Angel's Rest, east along the Columbia River 

Near Angel's rest, east along the Columbia River, a fire burning on the Washington side

Looking east from Angel's Rest

Looking west along the Columbia River. In the distance, in the middle, you can just see Portland City Center.

 It is a very pleasant hike, but we did suffer for a few days after! Our quads were overworked on the way down. 

Us, at lunch rest below Angel's Rest

Looking west through the trees

a Hobbit Hole! See the blue water bottle at the bottom?

backing out, the Hobbit Hole entrance

Oops, that's not a Hobbit!

We stopped off to lean over the Coopey River Falls and get some video of this small, pretty waterfall.

There were many pleasant people and dogglers on the trip. We missed Korik. The next Gorge hike will include as many waterfalls as possible!

Bushcraft Knife Test: Cold Steel vs. Mora vs. Black Cloud

These are the players:

Cold Steel Scout; Cold Steel Master Hunter; Mora Heavy Duty; Black Cloud Knives Shark.

I decided to conduct a test with my comments and impressions of four knives that I have used for the past 10-15 years, with the exception of the Mora, which I have used for only a short time.

There is little new in this video compared to many others on YouTube, except for the comparison between these four knives at the same time, performing similar tasks.

My ultimate verdict is that all four of these knives do a great job in the bushcraft arena. They are durable, comfortable and great quality. The Cold Steel Master Hunter is a great, lightweight knife that is very flexible in its roles. The Cold Steel Scout is a bit large and heavy for bushcraft. It is  a better survival knife, but I would not feel disappointed if it was the only the knife I had. The edge chipping is the real concern here, and I will be testing this out more. The Mora is a classic bushcraft knife, and it is easy to see why. I would feel pretty darn good if I had the combination of the Mora and the Bahco Laplander. That combination can take on just about any bushcraft or survival task. The Black Cloud Knives Shark is a great player here also. It has the best steel, an excellent handle, and holds an edge best while still being easy to sharpen. It is "Black Cloud Sharp"! Again, the BCK Shark and the Bahco Laplander are an ideal combination that I feel confident can handle every outdoors situation.

Steels:

Cold Steel Master Hunter: Carbon V

Cold Steel Scout: Carbon V

Mora Heavy Duty: Sandvik

Black Cloud Knives Shark: ATS-34 with special heat treatment.

Marmot Ether DriClime Jacket Review

This is a review of one of the classic best, all-time hall-of-fame outdoors jackets. The DriClime series has been one of the slimmest, lightest and highest warmth-to-weight-ratio jackets ever made. I have had an older model for more than 15 years and I am still using it. I have brought it on uncounted backpacking and hiking trips as well as an every-day in-town jacket. The Marmot DriClime series has withstood the test of time, durability and design.

The new Ether DriClime is no exception, I fully expect this to be part of every trip I take for the next 15 years.

Hennessey Hammock Ridge Line Modification

This video will show you the ridge line modification that allows the Hennessey Hammock to be used as a very comfortable chair, lounger and an open hammock for sleeping. The model used is the Backpacker Hyperlight. Please forgive the low volume in the beginning and sudden increase later, I am still working out my audio setup! Thanks!

A Dark Night at Frying Pan Lake

Oregon Grape is blooming

It was wet, misty, cool and mysterious. I started at the trail head to trail 492, headed toward Jackpot Meadows, then on to Frying Pan Lake. It was alternating misty and slightly drizzly. The trail had more than a few blowdowns that had not been cleared yet.

I have not identified this one yet

White Trillium was blooming on the way down to the Salmon River. From there, I made the looong climb of to Jackpot Meadows. There were some nice places to camp near the rushing, steep creek, but I decided to push on to my original destination, Frying Pan Lake.

I made it to the lake just near dusk, with enough time to set up camp and get water, then take a walk to the mist-shrouded lake. This is a very nice area near some logging activities. The lake has a large swamp area on the east side where I camped. It is full of Swamp Marigold, one of my favorite edibles from long ago in New England.

The lake was very misty and mysterious. I felt like the Loch Ness Monster was going to float by and tip its hat to me as it passed. I could just barely make out some island looking spots in the lake.

At camp, I made dinner and relaxed. I disconnected the center line of my Hennessey hammock and was very comfortable while I ate and the mist rolled in more heavily, accompanied by a steady light drizzle. It cooled down but did not get very cold. I reconnect the center line, and the Hennessey Hammock was as cozy as ever.

I slept well, woke up to hot chocolate and oatmeal, and packed. I wanted to leave a little early to have time to finish all the stuff I had left to do at home, and to prep the house for the return of my best friend Valerie from her four-week trip to Arizona to help out her mom.

The walk out was a bit long but very pleasant, 95% downhill. We will return!

Twin Lakes Weekender

My loadout for the trip. I am still trying to reduce my base weight. For this trip, base weight = 16.5 lbs., and packed weight including water, food, test knives, etc. = 36 lbs.

Oregon never ceases to amaze and please me with its outdoors opportunities. Last weekend I packed into Twin Lakes. I hiked in Friday night to Lower Twin Lake, then Saturday morning into Upper Twin Lake. The hike is not strenuous; more like pleasant. The weather was amazing. Temperatures in the 50s daytime, 40s night. I met a great pair on the north shore of Lower; Eric and JoEllen. I hope I spelled their names right! We talked about hammocks and quilts for a few minutes. Their young dogler ran around enthusiastically and boldly rubbed himself on our legs like a big scruffy cat.

I hiked around to the south end of the lake and backtracked to the spot I liked best. Evening was heralded by calmness and a gradual drop in temperature. I took a video as I set up my hammock. I slept very well and awoke to some hot chocolate and oatmeal for breakfast. I tried bringing honey this trip instead of maple syrup, but the honey was cold and therefore very difficult to get out of the bottle and into the oatmeal. I also noticed over the weekend that I am using about 30% to 50% more alcohol in the cool outdoors than in my kitchen testing. I expected this, and am not very surprised. I need to re-calculate the advantage of alcohol vs. butane now for my cooking. Slow cooking things like biscuits and pizza are problematic with alcohol; not so with my Peak 1 butane stove, which has the best simmer control of any butane stove I have used.

The hike up to Upper Twin Lake was very nice. I watched a deer float up the hillside, as you can see in the video.

Upper Twin Lake is a great spot. I hiked up past the lake, where the trails come together for the PCT and the trail up to Palmateer Creek. I was looking for a good camping spot and a standing, fairly young, dead Balsam Fir tree to cut up for a bow drill set, and to provide some bushcraft knife testing. Camping was possible, but too much blowdowns and bushwhacking for this trip, so I decided to hike back and make camp at Upper Twin Lake. I did find the dead balsam, and use my new Laplander saw. Great piece of kit!

I set up camp and filmed knife testing videos while sets of people and sets of horse riders went by. I was a little off the edge of the lake, so most did not see me.

Evening with a nice fire going and some good food, was spent watching a pair of deer, mother and child, working up the courage to get closer and closer to me in my camp. Lovely sight.

Night came on with the choirs of frogs singing all around the edges of the lake. The deer constantly walked in and out of my camp, sometimes snuffling and pawing at my kit near the fire, waking me many times from another restful sleep.

I stayed in late, lazily dozing in my ultra-comfortable Hennessey hammock and Jacks-R-Better quilts, until nature called me to duty. Hot chocolate and oatmeal with too much honey and some cinnamon later, I packed up and left about 10:30. I made some selfie videos to use as a basis for some Mother's Day video cards.

The hike out was as pleasant as the hike in. I found these flowers, which I later identified as Blue Anemone, or Oregon Anemone. Very pretty! I had a great and relaxing time here at Twin Lakes, identifying trees and making videos, exploring around and meeting up with a lot of wildlife. Be back soon!

Twin Lakes Long Day Hike

It was a spectacular, sunny Spring day in the Mt. Hood Wilderness! We arrived at the Frog Lake parking lot at 9:30, saddled up with our day packs and off we hiked onto the Pacific Crest Trail toward Twin Lakes. We have been here before several times in winter, snowshoeing into the frozen lake and white wonderland, having fun with the "robber birds" that swoop down boldly and snatch morsels from our hands.

The hike to Lower Twin Lake was uneventful and very pleasant. We hiked completely around the lake to see where all the camping spots are and to enjoy the area. We had been to the north side, but never around the lake.

South end of Lower Twin Lake

                      North Side of Lower Twin Lake

                                                                   South Side of Lower Twin Lake

Next was the short walk over the pass and up to Upper Twin Lake. 

                                                                      South Side of Upper Twin Lake

                                                             Northwest side of Upper Twin Lake

We found a small Hobbit hole! But no Hobbits.

Again, we hiked all the way around, then proceeded north on the trail toward Palmateer Creek, and the peak just to the north of the creek that overlooks Mt Hood, for lunch. We passed through some great areas with some remote camping possibilities, as well as some Cascade overlooks that were a little too close to cliff-edge for my comfort, so you only see a part of the view in my video.

                                                                    Cascades overlook from the trail

                                                            Camping spot above Palmateer Creek

                                                                        Crossing Palmateer Creek

                                                                  Found a snake near Palmateer Creek!

 Palmateer creek is a nice rushing, steep creek that starts in a small, marshy meadow at the base of the peak that looks on Mt Hood. We crossed the creek on some well-placed stones, then hiked up to the top. The views of Mt Hood to the north and the Cascades to the east and south were wonderful. This peak does not have quite the height or the 360 view that Tom Dick and Harry mountain has, but still worth the hike.

flowers near the top of the peak

looking south into the Cascades

Mt Hood

                                                          Up the trail to the overlook

                                                                      Mt Hood views

just me

my best friend and I

some weird red succulent plant

We had lunch here in the blazing sunlight, then hiked back down and toward the PCT. We were planning on going back south on the trail and connect with a west-running trail that would take us to the PCT, then go south back to the parking lot. The connecting trail turned north as we approached the PCT,  taking us in the wrong direction. The trails were marked incorrectly on my USGS topo map. We bushwhacked up a hill for a short distance and connected directly with the PCT. By this time we were getting tired, as we had gone farther than we had intended. We hiked back south to the truck, through a considerable amount of residual snow left from the week before. Total mileage was about 10.5 miles.

                                                               Walking in the snow to find the PCT

                                                                                    Found the PCT

Tired

Spring Break gave us an opportunity to bring our daughter to a place we have been to last year. It is a small lake in the Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness that we discovered last year.

This lake is a nice roundy lake in the top of an old volcano caldera cone. Some of the views from the rim as we descended into the lake are spectacular, as you can see!

Looking down into the mists of time....

Mt Hood is always beautiful

My wife and I

Last year we had great weather for our trip, but this year it rained wet and frozen mix. The morning left us with patches of wet, frozen snow on the tarps and ground. It was great!

The wetness was actually an advantage as I wanted my daughter and wife to practice more bushcraft skills. We were able to start, maintain and cook over a fire with EVERYTHING soaking wet. Instead of tinder, we found dry branches and made a large pile of shavings, while I split a bunch of wood via batoning. I had brought a baggie of bannock mix. We added water and mixed it to a think consistency, rolled it into a snake, then wrapped it around an alder stick and cooked it over the fire. Amazing how great simple things taste in the wilderness!

Setting up a classic tepee fire lay

Getting ready to light

We have fire!

A froggler we found haunting our camp site

I will be filming some videos and posting articles on much of my backpacking kit, including my Hennessey Hammock with mods, my Jacks'R'Better quilt sleeping system, different tarp pitches I use with the tarp, my alcohol and canister stove systems, etc.   Until then, let me know how you like the pix and videos! Thanks for visiting our blog!

A week before Spring Break we were out scouting to see which roads were open and which closed in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. We wanted to get in there for a backpacking trip the next week, as the younger daughter was available to join my wife and I.

We first checked out a small round lake in an old volcano. My wife and I had been here last year for an overnighter and loved it. Daughter #2 loved it also, so the trip for Spring break was set. There are some impressive vistas over the lake to Mt. Hood as you walk in over the edge of the caldera cone. The lake itself is quiet and has several secluded camp sites around it, mostly on the North side.

the view from above, before switchbacking in behind the cone.Mt Hood would be visible in the middle if not for the mist.

Another view over the edge of the cone

Looking up at the highest part of the cone

Looking down toward the lake from the switchback

The creek that runs past the campsite from a spring, into the lake

The lake

The youngling does not want to leave

The youngling is ok now

Looking back down as we leave

 Next stop was another small lake in the same area. The road is pretty rough out there, but nothing a little care and high clearance can't overcome. It is quite lovely this time of year, wet and windy and also quiet. The frogs are not out yet, and there were not many birds in the tall grasses at the edge of the lake.

My best friend at a camp site

An elaborate fireplace

Looking down at the lake from a camp site

In the forest near the lake

Squirrels have eaten the pine nuts like corn on the cob

What a lovely bunch of mushrooms