Hiking Dude Blog

I had the trail to myself this beautiful morning - too bad for everyone else because it was a spectacular 10-mile hike. No wildlife either so maybe I just missed the memo that today was a sleep-in day. Only a few gorgeous maple trees left strutting their bright yellow leaves, but they'll soon be as bare as the rest.



I caught the sun rising through a summac thicket about 4 miles down the trail. Not much of a picture, but I'll keep trying.

I started more than an hour before sunrise so I could get some dark walking in and watch the skies brighten over the miles. We're down to only 10 hours of daylight now and we'll continue to drop all the way down to 8 hours 46 minutes on the winter solstice. That's not many hours in which to hike!

We're finally supposed to get a bit of rain tonight but no snow for at least a week. Looks like Colorado continues to steal it all!

Hike On

Yesterday's 8-mile hike was mostly just covering miles. It was dreary, even a few drizzles of rain. Not much to see.

But, when I stepped outside today I was greeted by Orion, Cassiopeia, the Pleiades, Ursa Major, and Polaris. A perfectly bright, crystal clear night sky making it easy for a quick review of the constellations and direction finding, even though it was just a bit before 7:00am. That will all change this weekend when the clocks get kicked back an hour - Don't Forget!!!

I was also greeted with frost since it was 30°F and it didn't take long for my knees and rear to get cold. Just overnight the small pond along the trail froze completely across. It will melt today, but it's certainly a sign of what's coming.

Tomorrow, I'll have to switch to warmer pants from my zip-off nylons. If you are interested in forecast and historic weather info for your location, I've found that wunderground.com is a good site. If you use a different site, let me know.

Hike On

On the trail this morning, I watched these two jays. They were scouring a bank above the trail, I assume looking for acorns or other nuts.

I also had two big turkeys come up the hill to the side of the trail just as I was passing. I thought they were squirrels since the little rodents are always so noisy rustling through the dry leaves. The turkeys spied me at the same time I saw them, about 10 feet away. They stopped but scurried off before I could take a picture.

Including the ravens, robins, geese, ducks, chickadees, woodpecker, and one muskrat I saw today, it was a pretty wild 8-mile hike! It was cold too - about 25 degrees.

The trail is an old railroad grade and about a mile stretch is cut lower than the surrounding terrain and gently sloping downhill. When I entered this portion I noticably felt the temperature drop. I bet it was at least 5° colder than other parts of the trail. It was a great demonstration about choosing a campsite location - cold air can gather in lower areas, especially when there is no wind keeping it circulating.

Hike On

I got in 40 miles this past week, 8 miles each morning. It continues to be crisp (that's 'cold' for some of you down south) so I have the trail almost all to myself.
There's not much to see for the first 45 minutes since it's so dark, but as the sky lightens I can make out critters ahead and birds around.
Yesterday I was entertained by a young eagle. It was very windy blowing across a lake enough to cause whitecaps. The trail skirts by the shore and the eagle was riding the wind above the trees along the shore scanning the water for an easy breakfast - maybe a dead fish blown to beach.
He floated effortlesssly, slightly twisting his tailfeathers or neck to work his way down the shoreline. I was jealous.
A murder of crows (look it up) was harassing the eagle, swooping in and banking off at the last instant. If you've not seen crows do this to hawks or other large birds, you've missed out. I'd think the eagle would get fed up and turn on them, but he just seems to ignore them and they keep acting tough.

Next week's forecast is just 10% chance of precipitation and more 'crisp' mornings, so it looks like another great week of hikes ahead. They (whoever they are) are calling for snow showers Thanksgiving week, but we'll see.

Hike On

I personally appreciate this service project by scouts of Troop 747 out of Tucson, Arizona. The project involved making and installing wildlife escape ramps in livestock water troughs. This lets rodents climb out rather than drowning and rotting in the water.
This is obviously better for livestock using the trough, but hikers that refill their water bottles benefit as well. There's a good chance I might need to use one of these water troughs while I'm hiking the Arizona Trail next spring, so 'Thanks, Scouts!'

See this page.

Hike On

I was planning on hiking 6 miles this morning, but when I hit 3 miles it just seemed like I needed to go further. I'm glad I did.

Click the image to see a short video of the three deer I saw, plus one. They were beautiful. And, they were at about 7 miles of my 11-mile hike.

This week I've been trying to identify at least 10 animals on each hike. Today, I got eight - deer, crow, goose, duck, red squirrel, grey squirrel, cardinal, robin. We've had exceptionally nice weather since summer, but that's due to end tomorrow with rain/snow right around 35° all day. But then we're right back to sun for another week.

So, it's not too late to invite some folks out on a hike and stretch your legs.

Hike On

You may have heard that the Appalachian Trail takes 5,000,000 (that's 5 million) steps to thru-hike. Well, my legs are longer than most, so I thought it would be fun to find out exactly how many Hiking Dude steps it takes to thru-hike the scenic trails. After I've hiked a trail, I'll post my step count on the informational page for that trail. Last month, I started looking around for a good pedometer to take on my hikes.

At just the perfect time, an opportunity to test a new GeoPal pedometer came up at OBN and I got chosen as a participant. So, I've been wearing a GeoPal on my hikes for the past week or so to see if it does what I need. I just clip it on my shoelace and walk - pretty simple. When I get home, I look at the number of steps displayed.
It's a very cool little gadget, doing more than just count my steps - which it does very well. It's an accelerometer pedometer which is better than pendulum design. It has the date and time so I don't really need a watch. It stores 21 days of data, automatically starting a new day of steps at midnight. You can wear it on your wrist, hip, or shoe - I use the shoe so it's out of the way and more accurate.

The market for GeoPalz is youth, with a goal of increasing physical activity levels by making running around rewarding. To reach this goal, they've created a fun website called GeoPalz.com where kids can track their steps and earn stuff, ranging from frisbees to gift cards - I've already got almost enough steps for a sports bottle! Each person can set up their step length, height, weight, age, and other details to accurately track miles walked and calories burned. That's probably more interesting to parents or someone on a fitness program. My favorite part of the GeoPalz website is a map that automatically shows how far you walked, from your hometown to neighboring towns. As your accumulated miles grow, you reach distant towns.

Since GeoPalz are aimed at youth, the pedometers have tons of different emblems from which to choose to make them more personal, from butterflies to skateboards. In my case, I didn't really want to walk aroud with a flower on my foot, so I trimmed off the soft plastic piece, reducing the weight of the device as well - it's just 0.6oz now. It has a very strong clip and dust/water cover that I could remove and probably drop it to 0.3oz but I'm not that much of a gram weenie.

I plan to keep tracking my training hikes and then wear my GeoPal across Arizona in the spring. I'll let you know how many steps it is from Mexico to Utah, and other trails after that.

Hike On

After just researching, planning, and training for the past few months, I finally set foot on one of the national scenic trails I plan to thru-hike in 2012. Over Thanksgiving break, I got a taste of the trail by hiking the Kewaskum and West Bend segments of the Ice Age Trail plus the connecting routes between them. It was just 14 miles with on-and-off drizzle but was a wonderful hike!

The volunteers that maintain those segments have done a great job. Along the way, there were four or five placards that described the terrain from the glaciers, the people that created the trail, and other interesting tidbits. If the rest of the trail has such kiosks, and well-marked routes, it will be a wonderful trek.

I did notice that someone had vandalized some of the trail signage - what a shameful way to waste money, effort, and time put out by volunteers to improve life for all of us.

Not all the trail blazes are easy to find, though.
Walking down a sidewalk in West Bend, I could have easily walked right past this pole if not expecting the cut-off into the forest. I found that I got tuned into keeping an eye out for yellow blazes and had no problems.

I stopped at a gas station for a Snickers bar and almost asked the clerk if he knew about the Ice Age Trail just to see. I can see I'll have to work on being a bit more outgoing with strangers to get the most fun out of these hikes. Just a bit over 3 months before I start for real.

Hike On

After my hike last weekend, I'm pondering something. I found this, and a few more, balancing rock formations that someone created along the trail. I think they look pretty neat and I've seen them done as art before.

The quandry comes from the location of this person's efforts. It is in a state park and along a well-trafficked trail. Most people come here, I believe, to walk through the woods and enjoy the natural beauty around them. None are expecting man-made artistic structures along the trail.

So my perceived dilemma is, should I admire the rock pile and leave it as I continue my hike, or should I take off each rock and toss it out into the woods?

The first response recognizes the efforts of the person and leaves the art for others to enjoy because it really does look pretty cool. The second puts more importance on the natural beauty and feeling that the wilds are unspoiled, and also supporting the minimal impact and leave no trace ethics.

If I were to encounter this in a wild area, my choice would easily be made to dismantle the structure. In my view, the wilds should remain as natural and wild as possible and man-made impacts should be removed.

But, this was along a frontcountry trail where folks hike for an hour or so and there are rest benches, toilets, water fountains, and picnic tables in the area. For all I know, it's possible this art was approved by the land manager to make the trail more interesting. After all, lots of other people have walked past them and left them there.

In this case, I left them alone but have sent an email to the Department of Natural Resources contact to ask what they would prefer to have done with them.

Whatever the response (I'll let you know), I do hope we all agree that it is not our place to create artistic sculptures, structures, drawings, or whatnot out in the public wild places. Minimizing our impact and allowing future visitors to experience as wild and natural a place as we enjoyed is our duty.

Would you have taken the rock piles apart or left them for others to enjoy?

Hike On

I'd like to elaborate on two points that came up in the comments of my last post - and thank you for all your thoughts.

Cairns vs. Art
Some people mentioned that rock cairns are useful for marking the trail so the rock stack I found should be left alone. The rock stacks were most definitely NOT cairns. The trail is manicured and so encompassed by forest that a person would need to work at getting off the trail.

Rock Art does not adhere to the ethics of Leave No Trace. Some of the specific LNT items to consider are:

• Use a map and compass to eliminate the use of marking paint, rock cairns or flagging.
• Leave rocks, plants and other natural objects as you find them.
• Do not build structures, furniture, or dig trenches.
• Respect other visitors and protect the quality of their experience.

If a person subscribes to the LNT philosophy, then piling rocks isn't something that person would do. It is something we should be teaching youth not to do when we have the opportunity.

There is certainly a place for rock art, and nature art in general. Some people make a living from it - see Andy Goldsworthy. But, we shouldn't be building artworks in the wild, or on public lands, and leaving them for others to observe after our hike.


Building Cairns
Cairns are definitely useful in some areas. Many land management groups build and maintain cairns to mark the trail, similar to blazes on trees. For example, see this cairn construction page. A group spends time removing unofficial cairns and rock art to improve the usefulness of the maintained cairns.

In a pristine environment, hikers should have the opportunity to feel like they are the first explorers. No trail markings are needed through an area with no trail. Cairns in a pristine area may concentrate traffic to a specific path, creating a trail counter to LNT philosophy, rather than dispersing traffic to keep the area pristine.

In an area with established trails, cairns or blazes made by the responsible land agency are adequate. Individuals adding to them can cause confusion and unneeded visual impact.

Here are a couple other pages you might review - Leave what you find, LNT Blog

If you are a proponent of LNT, please take care in how the philosophy is shared with others. You can do it reasonably in an effort to help others understand the value, or this way - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdfr9x8M8Vw

Hike On

On this hike, it was 5 degrees - see the frost all over my head? :-)

I've decided 5 degrees is about as cold as I enjoy being out hiking miles. Colder and the layers of clothes make walking less enjoyable. But, down to 5 and my trail shoes, longjohns and nylon pants, fleece jacket and rain coat, mittens, hat, and scarf work perfectly without being overly bulky. This week it's popped back up to 40 with mist and fog so I've got at least a few more days to hike.

In wilderness first aid, we discuss what time of year is the most dangerous for hypothermia. When your body loses more heat than it can generate for long enough, your core temperature drops, resulting in hypothermia. Often, the first thought right out of the gate is 'January!' but then we chat a bit.

Hypothermia can happen any time of year, but the colder the temperature gets, the faster your body loses heat. So, January makes sense. But, in the dead of winter around here with -20° days, we expect cold so we wear parkas, mukluks, mittens, and balaclavas to insulate us. Besides that, and just as important, everything is frozen solid - that means it's not wet. You can hike through miles of snow and stay completely dry.

Staying dry is a great defense against hypothermia. Hiking at a steady rate without working up a sweat, dressing in layers, ventilating your clothes, and wearing rain gear are all good ways to minimize moisture on your skin. Water transfers heat 50+ times as much as air.

So, spring and fall tend to have more wet weather. Which is worse?
After warm summer days, a wet Fall day feels cold so we protect ourselves. A 35 or 40 degree day in Spring feels tropical and people are tempted to go out with inadequate protection - especially youth. When they get wet, real trouble can happen quickly.

Whether heading out for an afternoon hike or a long trek, staying warm and dry should be part of your preparation.

The cold won't kill ya - the wet will.

Hike On