My point of saying this isn’t to rattle the cage too much, it’s more to talk about the unknown (or known) and how challenges are sometimes the thing we remember and appreciate most in life. I won’t lie: The idea of a dreary Saturday searching for wood while I get poured on isn’t the most attractive idea ever. Yet, with the right outlook, it might end up being one of the most rewarding things you could end up doing. Out of all the adventures I’ve taken, it’s the ones with some kind of adversity that I remember best. It really makes you appreciate when everything is “just right.” It brings a little sense and modesty to an individual.

Some of my trips have been relaxing and smooth. Others, not so much. That’s just the gamble you take. But regardless of what is given, I hope I can continue to appreciate and take the opportunities that are given.

All that to say, once I’m done my home renovations and I plan a trip, you two aren’t getting off so lightly. Have fun this weekend, come help me with my house if you get bored, and definitely make sure to invite me along next trip.

My fourth time ever skiing (and having tried slalom skiing a couple times before), I felt comfortable enough to give up on the two ski thing and go slalom. I finally made it up out of the water on my first start (yeah!) but fell after just a few seconds. Second try, I got up and stayed up for a good long run. That was my first time ever doing so and quite exciting.

Round two came along and I opted to wake board. Having never done it before, I wondered what it’d be like. It’s definitely easier than slalom skiing. I’m not sure if it was more fun or not. The idea of jumping off the wake is cool but I had a hard time keeping my balance enough to even move through the wake, much less try and jump. I did face-plant a few times. Sommer and the others laughed at me but as I told her, if I’m going to hurt, I might as well hurt and give everyone else a little entertainment.

What fun! I can’t wait to go again.

Friday hovered just above freezing, and of course we had lots of precipitation. We arrived, took note of the horrible conditions, and decided it would be best to have a raging fire. After putting on a bunch of my rain gear including one of my favorite pieces of gear I had for the trip, a REI taku rain hat, I set out looking for recently fallen trees and kindling for the fire. Ice rain led way to snow later in the evening, just after we ate dinner. The snow fell for a few hours and stopped around midnight. I was somewhat bummed the snow stopped because there wasn’t really any snow on the ground to begin with.

We drank lots of beer and bourbon Friday night and Saturday morning I woke up last with a raging headache. As soon as I got up Adam gave me some hot coffee. Then, Adam and Ed prepared a breakfast full of sausage, scrapple, and eggs for Dom and I. I got to clean up after the meal — but hey, I won’t complain about that.

It drizzled off and on Saturday morning but by the afternoon it was only cloudy. Precipitation aside, I decided it was time to take a long hike while most everyone else went to the gun range. Ed’s dog Rascal came along with me on the five or so mile hike. One of the most interesting things about the hike is that there is no trail, no man-made markers, nothing letting you know where you really are. You really have to pay attention down in the valley too because every twist or turn looks the same. I usually end up marking my way at a few points with very stick creations of some sort. Also useful though is the dog, sun, and the occasional semi-waterfall. The dog actually knows his way best I think. Each time I’ve gone hiking with dogs, they’ve been incredibly adept at finding their way back home.

We had a very hard time keeping the fire going Saturday night. The wood was so wet from continual rain/ice rain/snow that it was just soaked right through. I think our biggest mistake was choosing to cut up a few trees that were slightly dry-rotted, which meant that they were all the more soaked. We did have a chainsaw with us so we’d take a truck and the chainsaw with a couple axes and bring back an entire bed of wood. I think we made five total runs with the truck during the entire trip.

Saturday’s dinner was incredible. Never underestimate the beauty of good steak — filet mignon to be exact — – while you’re toughing the elements. We grilled those babies on kabobs along with peppers and onions right on top of the fire. Delicious!

I think it may have been a bit too delicious though because a few hours later we heard a pack of coyotes stalking our campground and howling. Adam, Dom, and I packed up some weapons and joked we were coyote hunting and set out in the dark woods looking for some trouble. Nothing happened, we never found anything, but it was fun to joke around and hunt a little at night.

We started packing up early Sunday morning and left. Nothing exciting to talk about there. Got home safe and learned a bunch about my gear which I’ll probably write about another time.

We just drove up sidling hill and there was a ton of ice and slush on the road. Almost at my exit though so I gotta go! Lots of firewood to find and cut to keep us warm.

I decided a little while ago I wanted to have a small collection of knives. “Small” so that I can easily choose a knife when I go on a trip instead of going through 30 knives and remembering why I like each. Because the idea is to have a collection of cool knives, this actually took some research. One of the most interesting knives to me was the Becker Necker BK11.

This knife is very light and can be lashed to quite a few things with or without its sheath. I think the neck lanyard is a pretty neat idea but I’m not sure it would actually work well under clothing in a life-or-death situation simply because it’s hard to access. Even once you grab it from under your shirt, you have to consider that you have an open blade inside your clothing so you better be willing to shred something if you’re pulling it out quick. You probably wouldn’t shred your skin but I wouldn’t be surprised if you caught the bottom of your shirt. I’m sure there are some tips and theories out there on how to quickly access a neck knife without butchering yourself. I’m not all that worried though.

Becker is well known for their survival knives. Unfortunately, except for the BK11 all of them are rather large so I’m not interested in anything else by them right now. I think this was the perfect purchase for me in their line and hopefully I’ll be able to test it out camping next weekend. Now I’m moving on to my next knife which will probably be a folding knife. Emerson and Benchmade are two brands I’d like to own.

It was worth it though. I found some cool bouldering in a little cave just off the trail. The picture below was taken before I put my five fingers on and tried climbing in them. Unfortunately, I was a little high so I needed Chris to spot me which means no pictures of what I ended up putting together. My plan is to go back there on Saturday with a crash pad, real climbing shoes, and a brush or two to clean the rock. I forgot how annoying dirt was. I also forgot how sharp real rocks feel compared to rocks in the gym. Hope I don’t tear up my hands too bad!

I happened to come across a blog entry over at Trailspace that I thought I should share that talks about the importance of wicking layers. Without it results in the following:

I now have a small, red, blistered patch of skin on the middle of my torso—mild frostbite. Next time it’s so cold I’ll leave the heart rate monitor at home.

Continue reading “A Lesson on Wicking” »

Camping in the cold is a pretty interesting experience. I’m glad to do it and would do it again, however there are a lot of things you have to consider. For example, how do you keep your water from freezing? What do you do if you run out of firewood? How to keep your toes warm once you get a little perspiration? How do you dry out your shoes and socks? And how many layers and sets of clothing do you need?

The temperature varied between 15 and 25F night and day. I used a combination of a 10 degree down sleeping bag and inside of that a 20 degree down sleeping bag, along with two roll-up air pads from REI. I also got to use my one-person tent for the first time and boy was it small once you have a lot of sleeping bag area and padding! I think next time I’ll lug along my two-person tent for a similar endeavor.

I’ll be a bit more prepared next time, but there were some great things learned this time. For one, I know that longer treks aren’t so good in as many layers as I had, because they really impeded on my ability to move properly. They did keep me warm though.

Also, I learned a lot about how a dog is an awesome companion. The guys had some dogs with them and taking the dogs for a really long hike with me was incredibly fun and almost serves as reason enough to have a dog. Last thing I need right now is something like that taking up my time, but if anyone ever wants to lend me a dog to go camping with I’ll gladly take your dog temporarily. He just better listen and be big enough to scare away the bears.

The coolest thing about this mountain is that it is host to both climbing and backpacking, something I can easily relate and aspire to do. I think this might be in my new list of top 10 destinations to visit before I turn 30.