241–250 of 281 posts
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> despite being a literal pain in the ass A good saddle helps with that. :) My preference is the Brooks B-17.
Such a heavy saddle but once you wear it in its the most comfortable ride out there.
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I don't think is a good idea to feed a healthy activity with unhealthy palm oil. That peanut butter has palm oil probably, but Nutella has it for sure. Palm oil is very bad for your health, and it's very bad for the environment.
You can't throw something like this out there without the evidence to back it up, because right now there is too much bullshit nutrition advice floating around out there.
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we don't use the word 'hiking' Yes we do.
I don't have many sources but I believe the word 'hiking' is a relatively recent American import. The OED lists a lot of American historical examples, but only relatively recent ones in the UK I would just call it walking, or tabbing if it's at an aggressive pace. Old people seem to call it rambling, but that makes it sound a bit lazy I think.
Tabbing tends to be a military term as far as I'm aware. I don't remember using the term hiking until recently.
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The best foods for backpacking are actually peanut butter, salami (depending on the brand), cheese, and nutella. They all have roughly the same calorie density at about 70% fat. Toblerone actually comes surprisingly close (even compared to other chocolates/candies). Raman noodles or tortillas or something like that are generally used as a carrier for those foods to keep you sane, but they aren't very good from a weig…
I don't think is a good idea to feed a healthy activity with unhealthy palm oil. That peanut butter has palm oil probably, but Nutella has it for sure. Palm oil is very bad for your health, and it's very bad for the environment.
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A good way is to sign up for group hikes and camping trips from REI and other places. You can also look for hiking clubs and ask for help, or find people at work/school who hike. Finally, you can start doing research by yourself and learn by (sometimes painful) trial and error. My first major hike (9 days at Torres del Paine, solo, I was 19) was hell, shitty gear, overweight backpack and so on, but was amazing and I…
Just a small comment I don't recommend anyone to try to learn hikes/camping by themselves. Hike and camp with a buddy until you are very, very experienced (even then I still recommend not being alone).
I must admit I was pretty stupid to do Torres del Paine alone with little experience and bad equipment, but hey, I was 19.
I've done it two more times since then, both alone. But one detail worth mentioning is that for famous hikes like TdP, you're rarely alone, there are usually dozens of people doing the same hike, and you end up teaming up with them and hiking together. I'm still good friends with most of the people I met on the trail, especially remote trails.
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Indeed. One of my favorite things about thru-hiking is that you get a ton of sleep: it's not unusual go to bed shortly after sunset and wake up at sunrise.
I usually feel like crap hiking if I'm not in bed for 10+ hours. Mostly that's not hard - you're tired, and just sleep all night. It was a pain in the ass in Alaska, though; I think I'd have real trouble with long hikes there in the summer.
I came across three emaciated, bearded men on the continental divide trail in glacier national park. When I asked one of them where he was from he looked at his buddies and they all replied excitedly, in unison, "Mexico!". It was at that moment that I came to realize that these men were one day away from completing the entire thru-hike. I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag.…
> I vividly recall one of their dinners: Dried ramen noodle, straight from the bag. I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've eaten that on hikes. For my next long hike I'm probably going to ditch my stove completely: it's not so much the weight, but personally the last thing I want to do after a day of hiking is cook.
A poll of Facebook friends showed that EVERYONE in the northwest in my age group found it normal and common, and it was common in Hawaii and really all over the west coast -- but nationwide as well. I think the idea originated with families of Japanese origin.
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Take it from me, pemmican is the best thing ever, and if you are a hiker, Hunter, or general outdoorsperson, you owe it to yourself to try a few different recipes. (Wrap it extra good in bear country though!) Fun tidbit of the day: in the Marine Corps our long full pack hikes (~90lbs) were called "humps". In the old days they were death marches.
What changed about the humps? I've heard that boots are dramatically better, but you're still hauling 90 lbs...
I've done quite a few very strenuous, multi-week races on bike, including riding the Colorado Trail in 7 days [0], and riding to, then summiting all the Colorado 14ers in 34 [1] - as well as participating in the Tour Divide [2] twice. I would call my fitness before these races as "peak", but I wouldn't call myself anything but near, "onset of over training syndrome" afterwards. The only thing I experienced similar to…
"One thing that stuck out with me is that they only hiked for 8 hours/day. That seems like a light day! compared to these races," Really. Carrying a 20kg pack for eight hours over rough terrain is less strenuous than bike riding? Do this for over 500 miles? Ever done this before? Hike on foot with 20kg packs on consecutive days? Make camp, make food, rest, break camp. Everything on your back. This is a lot more stren…
I've done 100- and 200-mile bike rides in one day, and foot races up to half marathon, and I'd absolutely consider those to be harder.
For one, the backpacking I could get up and do TOMORROW. The racing, not so much.
And the racing I could not do 2 days in a row. The backpacking I could do, again, tomorrow, for 2 weeks, without a doubt.
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The CT is about 500 miles long and has about 90,000 feet of accumulated elevation gain, which averages out to 3,200 feet over each 18 miles. That's not especially much for mountain hiking. One thing that makes the CT a bit harder is that it lies mostly at altitudes over 10,000 feet, where the air is thinner. Hiking 18 miles/day is quite an effort in any case, but still doing it on a hike like the CT is something the…
"One thing that makes the CT a bit harder is that it lies mostly at altitudes over 10,000 feet, where the air is thinner. Hiking 18 miles/day is quite an effort in any case, " Altitude would stop a lot of people. How long to acclimatise living at sea level?