Hiking/Backpacking

[mwgfghost]

Hey everybody. I'm kinda bored so I figured I'd start this up. Is anybody here into hiking/backpacking? If so, where do you hike and what's the terrain like? I hike here in MD, USA and I hike along a dirtroad in a field of powerlines near my house and then I cut off into the woods. The terrains rocky and sandy near the powerlines but the trail I hike is a dirt path used by four wheelers and dirt bikes. I also just got a pair of Merrell Sawtooth boots which have been holding up very well considering what I've put them through so far. You can see em in my avatar pic.

[WP33]

Well, this goes back some years, but I used to spend a week at a time in California's central Sierras. You can get into some pretty rugged country back there, I'll ya. Whole lotta up and down.

[mwgfghost]

Oh man that's awesome. Yeah I'm looking to get into heavier hiking and hopefully hike parts of the Appalachian trail sometime. But the Sierras. Wow. That is some rugged terrain. I was just hiking the dirt road by the powerlines one day when I found my trail. I love it. Anyways, I'm out. Keep up with the feedback.

[supasniper]

Lake District FTW!

[dporter]

I did my serious hiking in Montana. Every summer we did a 40 mile hike from Cooke City through the Beartooth mountains. You hike at such a high elevation on that route that you are actually above the tree line on one of the nights you stop and camp. Beautiful country though. Huge waterfalls, all sorts of wildlife.

It requires a pretty good investment though to do that kind of hiking. You need a good back packing stove for around $60 or so and I good water filter pump. Mine cost me somewhere around $80 I think. A quality sleeping bag is also pretty important. You should always hike as a group of course for safety reasons and it also helps so that one person carries the poles and the other carries the rest of the tent. Even though we camped on a lake every evening we never planned fish for our meals any of the nights. We would always have some sort of freeze dried dinner for every night. Mostly because you could never tell what the fishing would be like at each lake. Sometimes they would all be tiny fish or the fishing was just plain bad. You don't want to miss a meal when you are spending a lot of energy hiking. If we did catch fish and have it for dinner we would just double up on food the next night and eat like kings. Pop tarts and cereal bars are good for breakfast, plenty of top ramon (cup of noodles), and bring a good bag of trail mix with m&m's, peanuts, raisons, and what not for a good snack/energy boost.

I haven't done any hiking in VA since I went right into school since I moved here and then on to my profession. I would like to test a couple day hikes around the harrisonburg area near skyline drive in the applachians.

Edited August 17, 2007 by dporter

[mwgfghost]

Wow D. That must've been amazing. I heard Montana's like heaven for backpackers, hikers, and campers. I'm actually thinking of doing an outward bound course for about 10 days and the one I have my mind set on is the Montana Backpacking course cause it just looks so awesome. Cause I've lived in the suburbs here in Maryland my whole life and when growing up, my brother and cousins would always go build forts and stuff back in the woods near my cousins' house and now those woods are gone so I just found a trail that's about 3 or 4 miles in the woods in a field near my house. I usually hit that trail in the daytime cause I've only hiked it by myself but when my friend gets some free time, I hope to hike it with him at night. There's actually a lot of makeshift shelters where homeless people have stayed in the woods so I don't feel too comfortable going in there by myself at night. My pack holds 25 liters. My sleeping bag is under the house. And for food and water, I usually take a bag of jerky and fill my canteen up with bottled water. That holds one quart. I usually wear a boonie hat, recon wrap(like a bandana. do a google search on it) or a shemagh(also known as a keffiyeh worn by Arabs) to keep the sun out of my face and neck. As for clothing I usually wear cargo pants with a moisture wicking shirt. Reason I wear pants is cause of ticks but regardless, I always shake out my clothes and check myself when I get back to make sure I don't have any hitch-hikers on me. I used to run cross country in highschool. Never could get into track cause it's so repetitive and boring to me. Just going around in a circle until you're done. Cross country had differen't terrains that could be effected by the weather. But I am really hoping to hike part of the Appalachian trail soon. My main goal is to hike the Grand Canyon some time in my life. But right now, I'm not shape for that. Well I'm gonna head out before this gets any bigger cause I could talk about this all day.

[TRC]

The Rockies in Colorado, also like Dporter, I've done the Beartooth Mtns on border of Montana/Wyoming, the Tetons, Snowy Range and Bighorn Mtns in Wyoming, Glacier Nat'l Park, Yellowstone Park. and parts of the beautiful and less crowded Canadian Rockies. It's a wonderful way to relax, get some flyfishing in, meet some interesting folks, and a grizzly bear or two.

Ghost, if you do get the chance to hike in Montana do so, beautiful country up there.

[mwgfghost]

Oh no doubt man. If the opportunity arises, I'm taking it. I love the wild and am really hoping to get a chance to hike in Montana. Anyways, I'm out. have a good 'un.