Another update for the Gear Reviews page. A Winter that gave us a lot more ice than snow on the trails gave me plenty of opportunities to appreciate the size and strength of these cleats. Check out the full review at Trailspace via the link above for the full story and lots more pics. Wondering about those boots you can see peeking out from behind the gaiters and spikes? Keep your eyes open for a complete review of those coming soon!
This was an interesting jacket made by an interesting company in the Basque region of Spain. It incorporates post consumer down that has been cleaned, sterilized and reconditioned into a light, breathable jacket that was made for active use. Check out the full review at Trailspace via the link above for details on both the jacket and the company as well as a bunch more pictures.
Updating the Gear Review page with links to recent stuff published on Trailspace. These little things are great for carrying fuel, oil, soap or whatever other liquids you need in small quantities. Check out the detailed reviews via the links below. Look for more soon as I have boot and jacket reviews I’ll be adding here in the next few days.
Easy Traveler Extra Squeeze Tubes 1.5oz Set
An investment in my future on many levels; I began the break in process yesterday. It will be a while before they are ready for the trail as they will take quite some effort to break in. Just wearing them around the house is painful right now. The cobbler who fitted me at their shop in NH said they probably won’t be finished breaking in by the time I wear the first set of soles off, but I’m hoping to have them trail ready by April, at least for day hiking. If they keep getting more comfortable that’s fine because I have a lot of miles to cover this year.
New pack, new boots and some new trails to explore along with a few old ones I’m sure. Hope to see you out there!
Sneaking out for a morning snowshoe together after dropping our daughter off at preschool has become a wonderful guilty pleasure this Winter. Seemed a mistake for her to buy these shoes when we had no snow until recently. Now it seems like the best idea ever!
Birches in snow always look nice, but add in some sunshine and it tends to put a smile on a person’s face. We have several different spots we like to go wandering in the snow, but this town woodlot has become a favorite. There are some good hills to get a workout climbing and though we see some tracks we’ve yet to meet anyone out there since the snow fell.
There are several of these old stone walls in this forest. They used to mark property lines and as one of my favorite Frost poems goes; Good fences make good neighbors.
The sight of a broken trail and the sound of crunching snowshoes is lovely of course, but there is just something about the sight of unbroken snow laying in the Winter sun that makes the world seem a peaceful place. I’ve been suffering greatly with the lack of opportunities for Winter camping this year. Thankfully these wonderful hikes in the woods are keeping me from feeling too bad. Getting the chance to take some of them with my wife has made it all the more special. Even I’m willing to share my paths less traveled sometimes!
Open water on the Androscoggin in January? Despite a few bursts of chilly weather the river has remained unfrozen this year. Considering there is a dam just a couple miles downstream and the channel is deep keeping the current relatively gentle this is very unusual!
Thankfully we finally have some snow that didn’t melt within a few days. Last weekend there were quite a few folks out on the golf course taking advantage of the opportunity to do some skiing or snowshoeing. My wife has been waiting for months to try out her new snowshoes so she has been sneaking out whenever she gets a chance.
With the unseasonal weather my Winter camping plans have not been given a chance to be implemented. I’d been working on a gear sled, but haven’t bothered to finish it. I did get a chance to test out parts of the system by giving my daughter a ride around the golf course on it. She makes a great testing load and didn’t even complain when we lost control on a steep downhill tossing her into the snow. Actually I think she liked that part best!
Hope you folks are enjoying whatever your Winter is bringing you. As much as I love getting out into it this time of year I’ve sort of given up on this season and have started thinking about what comes next. I do have a few cold weather gear items in testing right now so hopefully Spring doesn’t come too soon, but either way I’ll be out there!
Well, that year certainly went fast! Lots of great adventures, alone, with family and with friends. I’m usually focused on what comes next, but sometimes it is good to turn around and look where you’ve been.
Last year we had plenty of snow by this point, so there were lots of day hikes and even a few overnight trips on snowshoes. With the lack of snow this year I’ve been limited to remembering rather than doing. Still, that is why we stockpile those memories; They keep us going when things aren’t as great. This winter weekend trip to New Hampshire has been on my mind while working on the pulk I’ve been building. I’d expected to be making regular trips to the Whites by this point, but snow has been sparse there as well.
There were a few Spring trips last year that straddled the mud season’s worst. A trip up the back side of the Hancocks on snowshoes in early May was followed up with a snow free trip up the back side of Carrigain late in the month.
The Summer started with a trip to the Bonds for the solstice. Captured an amazing sunset video that I turned into a time lapse I find very relaxing to watch. There were family trips to Baxter with wife and daughter as well as the annual visit from the Texas boys. There also was a second attempt at the 70 mile loop down the length of BSP and back up via the International Appalachian Trail, this time successfully, albeit quite wet.
With my Long Trail plans delayed for another year the Fall was spent working on redlining the Pemigewasset Wilderness including finally doing a traditional Pemi Loop.
I’m still a bit behind on my Fall trip reports, but there were a few more trips to the Whites and a very relaxing week up in Baxter for a late season trip with some new friends. Of course I did my annual failed attempt at doing the Grafton Loop clockwise and even managed to get up to the Bay of Fundy for the Winter solstice (sunrise video).
If you’ve been reading here since the start you may have noticed I’ve been a bit quieter this year than last. What I haven’t been doing is writing opinion pieces or waxing philosophical. Even gear reviews have been sparse this year, though I have several items in the pipeline currently. Partially that is because the more time I spend in the woods the less important words seem to be to me. I still passionately desire to inspire others to get out into the world and experience it, so I try to post reports on my adventures that both make people want to go themselves and be realistic about the difficulties and dangers of back country adventuring.
Some of the opinions I’m not expressing here are pretty dang cranky too as I’m not too keen on some of the things I see on trail or in online backpacking communities. That also accounts for some of the quiet as I’m not sure my ranting would do any good and I hesitate to engage in pointless bickering when I could be happier forgetting it all and going for a walk in the woods. We’ll see what this next year brings though. Might be time to go on a rant or two 🙂
Definitely some adventuring on the agenda though! Once again the Long Trail is back in the plans, hopefully in late September/early October. Still hoping to try out my crazy, three week, unsupported attempt. To that end I have a two week, 200 mile, practice trip planned for June that would take me from Stratton to Katahdin. With those big adventures bookending the Summer that still leaves a lot of time on either side and in between for shorter trips. It is good to look back sometimes, but as usually I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Hope you have enjoyed reading here over the last year and that you’ll stop by from time to time again this year to see what I’ve been up to. It might inspire you to get out there in search of your own path less traveled!
Drove for four hours, hiked for three, arriving just before dark. Wind and rain overnight, then a few stars before a cold dawn. Captured this while making morning coffee, watching lobster boats and soaking it all in. What a great planet to live on!
I don’t usually write about food, other than eating it, but I thought this might be of interest to some other folks, whether they are backpackers or just like squash. This time of year you can often find great deals on winter squash and I’ve been cooking and freezing it in my spare time. I’ve also been making up huge pots of this very simple squash soup. We’ve eaten our share for lunches and dinners, but this batch is being dried for use on trail. If you’re tired of pasta and rice based meals this hearty soup is a nice change of pace.
Other than a little olive oil and a few spices this picture shows all you need to get started. I used a combination of acorn, butternut and kabocha squashes, but you can use whatever sort you can get your hands on. Start by heating some olive oil in a big pot, then toss in chopped garlic and onions. If you are planning on dehydrating keep the oil to a minimum or eliminate it entirely to aid drying. You can always add a squirt of oil after rehydrating.
Next add in chopped cauliflower and the squash after peeling and cutting into chunks. You can also add some peeled and cut up sweet potato if you’d like. Finally you want to toss in some vegetable stock, I used broth saved after cooking up squash for freezing, or water if you’ve nothing else. Let it cook for a while, stirring a few times until the veggies begin to soften.
At this point you could add spices, simmer for a bit and eat if you want a more rustic version. I like to run it through the blender to mix everything together, then return it to the pot before adding spices. This makes for a nice smooth soup that combines all the flavors and also dries well. My favorite spices to use include cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and curry, but you can experiment with your favorites to see what works for you. Previously I’ve used a little maple syrup with good result and my next batch I’m intending to use a few hot peppers to add some heat.
If you aren’t dehydrating you may want to skip the rest of this and go start making some soup. I’ll totally understand if you’re ready at this point.
Letting the soup set overnight seems to enhance the flavor so I wait a day before starting the drying process. Each tray holds roughly one good sized portion. I try to start with an evenly covered tray to help the drying process and use a relatively high heat setting of 140°f on the dehydrator.
This batch took roughly 10 hours total to reach a partially crunchy dryness. I peeled it off the tray and flipped it over at the 8 hour mark so the back of any thicker spots would dry. The drying process filled the house with the wonderful spiced smell of the soup, but thankfully we held some in reserve for eating now.
The dried soup breaks up easily into chunks that fit in the blender when ready. This step isn’t really necessary, you can just package the big pieces, but I find it easier to reconstitute the smaller pieces.
I don’t worry about turning all of it into powder. Getting it to the point where the largest pieces are smaller than a fingernail works well enough.
As you can see a fair bit of it has been reduced to powder. Besides eating this alone as a soup on trail, it also makes a great base for mixing in other ingredients. Dried veggies would give it some more texture and either freeze dried or pouched chicken would be a great add in for the meatatarians. I’m looking forward to enjoying some of this on my winter camping trips. Some hot soup warmed over the fire sounds like a great way to start a long winter’s night. Also pretty sure this stuff is going to come in handy on some of the longer trips I have planned for next year.
Now a question for those reading: Would you like to see more about my trail meal preparations? I’ve mentioned a few of my secret recipes in trip reports previously, but if there is interest I could share some of those secrets.
With a little dusting of snow this morning and a nice cool night ahead it looks like tonight will be great for testing out a few things in preparation for winter camping. I set up the new four season tent when I bought it a few months back, but I’m curious to see how well it vents in the cold. It is an Easton Torrent 2P with full double walls and large, zippered vents in the inner to move the moisture out. Well that is the idea anyway, but finding out will require sleeping in it on a cold night like tonight.
Just as well I suppose as it will give me a chance to refresh my memory on how well the Enlightened Equipment 20°F Prodigy quilt did at its rated temperature. Combined with my down quilt and lots of other insulation I took it sub zero last year, but I can’t recall how it did by itself. Getting ready to review that quilt for Trailspace and while I have been very happy with it as I’ve used it, that bit of data is important to include.
Trying to get back up to speed with writing reviews and writing here, but it seems hard after a long season on trail. I have almost caught up on trip reports though and have managed to post one new review last week. Hopefully the logjam is breaking and I’ll be more productive now…well unless we get some good snow and I get my sled together and my wife gets her new snowshoes…OK, if you don’t see me here you may have to find me out there!
Less traveled by 