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Showing posts from 2011

Fly-Hike-Fly: The Rincon Mountains Hike

On the flight to Atlanta the guy next to me was commenting that flying through Salt Lake City would have been much shorter. Well since this was a mileage run the extra long flights were on purpose. Now I'm a proud Delta Silver Medallion member. Was it worth it? Well,yeah! I got to go backpacking in the Rincon Mountains by Tucson, AZ. I packed light. The only things I didn't take along on the hike where my iPod,sport shorts (for the hotel pool), a nylon laundry bag (in case the backpack needed to be checked) and a "man-purse". I used the extra bag to keep the backpack within the dimensions of the carry on. It worked well. The pack fit into the overhead compartments of the MD88 and the 757 without trouble. TSA didn't made a fuss about the camping gear either. Driving to Summithut (an outdoor sports store) to get the camping fuel did take some time. There I also filled my water bladders. I decided to take six liters with me. On the way out I stopped at a grocery ...

Fly-Hike-Fly Notes

Food The apples, cucumbers, and Subway sandwich were a hit. I'm still packing too much food and too large portions. This is specially true with the oat-granola mix and milk-chocolate mix for breakfast. The chicken (bag), mashed potatoes (plain flakes), Nido (whole milk powder), and vegetable (Just-Plain-Vegetables freeze dried mix) with pepper was a great dinner. Instead of just adding everything to hot water I might try to add the vegetables earlier so they rehydrate better. Water The six liter water worked out great. It's just the right amount to hike to the Happy Valley camp, overnight, climb Rincon and hike to Manning. Although I actually only use up all of the four liters. Water for filtering at Happy Valley isn't great. There were a couple of stagnant puddles that didn't look very inviting. Manning on the other hand has clear running water. The best place to get it is on the rock by the fence where the water comes out of the holding pond. The gravity wat...

Packing List

The packing list is still a work in progress.  I'll update this page as changes are done.  Last I weight the pack it was 25lbs most of the stuff but no water.  Water adds another 9 to 13 lbs depending on how much I need to take along. I'm still pondering if I can just take the pack as a carry on on the flights. Pack Backpack ( SwissGear Elite Series XL from Sam's Club ) Shelter and Sleep System Tent ( Tarptent Moment ), with 4 sakes and window shrink wrap as ground sheet Mattress (Therm-a-Rest Guidelite) Sleeping Bag (The North Face Cat's Meow 20°F) in compression bag (Sea To Summit eVent 15 liter) Cooking and Water Two 2 liter water bags and filter ( Sawyer 2 Liter Complete Water Filter System ) with Camelbak bite and shut-off valve. 2 liter Platypus (extra water bag if first camp's water source is dry) Cook pot with lid and fabric bag ( Evernew Titanium 1.3 liter ) Regular and small Big lighters. Stove ( MRS PocketRocket ) Fuel canis...

A Fly-Hike-Fly coming up

Because I'm crazy I'm going to fly to Tucson just for a hike in early October.  I'll be arriving at noon, stop by an outdoor store to get the necessities (mainly the camping fuel that I can't take on the plane) and be heading for the trail head for a two night hike.  After my hike I'll be spending the night at a hotel to wash up and fly back the next day. I picket the Saguaro National Park / Rincon Mountains since I already hiked in the Tucson Mountains and the lower parts of Coronado National Forrest / Pusch Ridge Wilderness.  The biggest challenge will be water supply.  The campsites should have water available for treating but I have to verify that before heading out.  I certainly will need a water filtration system.  I'm eying some gravity flow solution. I drafted a route but things could change depending on water availability, flash flooding (which are common there after strong rains and the trail head is on a gravel road that would get washed out)...

Little Kayaking Adventures

Ever since we took part of the DNR's intro to kayaking, while we stayed at the Honey Creek Resort on Rathbun lake in Iowa, did Oskar want to kayaking.  One night after sailing at Big Creek we rented kayaks from the marina and took them for a spin.  We got to check out some blue-green algae really close up.  These were the sit-on-top type that I don't care much for. This weekend we rented rented two single and one tandem kayaks from ISU's recreational services.  Saturday we went to Brushy Creek state park.  The dammed lake is fairly new and has lot of dead trees in it.  That makes exploring the lake with kayaks that much more fun.  A drawback that the lake has is that the shore doesn't offer places to beach a kayak for lunch.  So we ended up eating it on the lake.  Oskar kayaking on Brushy Creek lake Heidi and Melissa kayaking on Brushy Creek lake Lunch on Brushy Creek lake Its amazing how well Oskar can handle the ka...

Seattle (Puget Sound) Tour - Day 2 & 3

I started riding at 9 am to ensure I had enough time to make today's section since I didn't know exactly how hilly the route is and how exhausting it will be riding the folding bike.  Neither the route nor the bike gave me trouble and I made good time.  I even added a small detour past South Whidbey Island State Park to ride a quieter road.  The total mileage for that day ended up 71 miles which included the ferry ride since I didn't turn of my GPS.  This certainly shows that the folding bike is up for the task.  In the beginning I was still hesitant riding on the shoulder.  Having fatter tires would certainly help improve my confidence and make the ride more comfortable.  I'm not sure if the NWT can handle fatties but the BikeFriday I was riding couldn't handle bigger tires.  I was also reminded the need of fenders.  While I was lucky and didn't had any rain, part of the day I was riding wet roads from recent heavy localized rain.  Wate...