Hiking Dude Blog

It's treacherous on the trails this time of year, for sure. We're in the midst of days warming up but nights still being freezing cold. This freeze - thaw - freeze - thaw daily cycle creates dangerous terrain on trails, paths, and sidewalks. Now, my friend Bren in Alabama can ignore this post (Hi, Bren!), but this bit of advice might help keep the rest of you upright and out of the doctor's office.

I noticed that:

• During the spring, summer, and fall, trails can be wet and muddy, or dry and dusty, but the risk of slipping is slim when the trail is tan.
• During deep winter, all trails are white - completely covered with snow and not very slippery. The snow makes going tougher, but actually slipping, falling, and getting hurt is not a big concern.
• It's the early spring or late winter that is especially slippery and risky to be out walking. Daytime sun melts snow enough to flow water over the trail, but not enough to dry it out. Once the sun gets low enough for the trail to be in shade, the cold air and subterranean ice work to freeze the new water into a shiney, smooth, slick surface of gray ice suitable for iceskating.

If you're like me, you can't sit at home and not hike just because the trail is a bit menacing. We go out and we take our chances, probably pussyfooting along not really enjoying the walk. Well, today I realized that I've developed an easy-to-remember method for picking my safest way along a trail this time of year. I'm calling it the TWiG Safety method.

TWiG is how to remember the relative safety of the different colors of trail you may need to walk on. It goes like this:

• Tan - dirt, gravel, leaves are all tan or brown and tend to have friction and are the safest.
• White - snow is the next best. It can be packed and slick, but usually has some grit to it.
• Gray - the most dangerous because it is ice and probably very slick.

So, while briskly hiking down the trail, I scan ahead to see what colors are there. All Tan and I'm good to go, some White and I avoid it, but as Gray shows up I use the white snow and avoid the ice. If there's no option but gray ice, then I slow down and take no chances by slow stepping as needed.

Just Remember TWiG - Tan, White, Gray for safety and your hikes will be safer and more enjoyable.

Hike On!

Last year, my fellow hiker, scouter, blogger, and all-around good person named Super Jen or Wandering Pine, participated in the third year of a trash collecting program put on by Granite Gear. Granite Gear is based in Two Harbors, MN and sells outdoors gear. They are also aware of our responsibility as adventurers in the outdoors to take care of all our natural places. To that end, they created The Grounds Keepers to help enable and motivate folks to leave it better through removing trash found in the wilds, and have removed over 10,000 pounds of trash in its first 3 years.

Anyway, Granite Gear is continuing the Ground Keepers in 2020 and I've been asked to join the team! Well, actually, I asked to join, but they accepted me!
As a Grounds Keeper, I'm committed to hike at least 300 miles of trails, pick up whatever trash I find and can carry (not old car chassis), and report back monthly. Gosh, I do that anyway as a Leave No Trace educator, so it's a perfect fit for me.

I expect to hike over 1,000 miles on local trails near home throughout the year, plus these anticipated trips should give me plenty of trail miles:

• Florida - Done - While visiting the in-laws in January, I hiked about 50 miles on beaches and trails, collecting 21 pounds of trash, mostly one big hunk of marine waste on the beach.
• Two Appalachian Trail Trips - in May and July, we'll be visiting the south and north ends of the A.T. for a book I'm writing. I expect plenty of opportunities to clean up.
• Cloud Peak Wilderness - a week of wilderness backpacking where most trash will be around old campsites and probably quite rare.
• Kekekabic Trail - a remote, 43 mile Minnesota trail with little traffic so I might need to hunt hard for trash.
• Border Route Trail - another Minnesota wilderness trail, 65 miles long and hopefully clean.

That's about 250 miles, but there's a good chance I'll yo-yo the Kek and BRT for another 100 miles. So, I'm looking at 1300 to 1500 miles total.

My personal goal is to remove an average of 1 pound of trash each day - that would be 365 pounds by year's end. We'll see how I do. Oh, and that does not count my own trash I generate on my trips.
Super Jen is also a repeat member of the 2020 team. You can see the entire 30 person 2020 Grounds Keepers team - they're a motley crew for sure.

A slogan of this program is Leave It Better, and I want to share my thought about that slogan. Generally, people say 'Sure, it makes sense to leave it better,' but from my experiences, 'Better' means something different to different people. Someone might feel that cutting some logs and building a bench makes a remote campsite 'better'. Someone might feel stacking rocks, weaving branches, or arranging found bits of nature into artwork is 'better'. Someone might feel marking a shorter route than the worn trail is 'better'.
So, I really like that the goal of Grounds Keepers is to remove human trash - it's a specific, tangible, measurable activity that is not a general feeling for us all to interpret. We are removing things that were put there by humans and serve no purpose - makes sense to me.

These are the socially responsible companies sponsoring the 2020 Grounds Keepers program, and the bling they provided each of us. Later this year, I'll share how well these items worked for me:

• 
  Ultralight Virga 2 backpack to carry my home on the trail. Plus, a couple stuff sacks and a scale to weigh the trash I find.
   
• 
    Nice pair of TR1 trail shoes so I can cover more miles, and I guess find more trash.
   
• 
  Lightweight inflatable sleeping pad. Need a good night's sleep to lug all that trash.
   
• 
  Eight backpacking meals. These will be new for me to try since my long hike nutrition tends to be poor.
   
• 
  Metal water bottle. I'm looking forward to sharing before and after photos of it at the end of the year. Member of 1% for the Planet.
   
• 
  Kula Cloth - my wife is very happy that this was provided.
   
• 
  Camp mug and a big bag of sustainably sourced coffee to get us started each morning. Well, I hope they don't mind me using the mug for cocoa and my wife loves the coffee. They contribute proceeds to outdoors volunteer efforts.
   
• 
  Earthy green 'Grounds Keepers' t-shirt made from old plastic bottles - I'll be wearing it on trail, so look for me! They've diverted over 8 million bottles into new clothing, so far.
   
• 
  Lightweight, super bright headlamp for finding more trash after the sun sets.
   

Hike On!

Enjoyed a wonderful short week on Marco Island in Florida! It was a nice treat to escape the frigid Great White North for a few days, but now I'm back to my daily hikes all bundled up from the frosty wind chills.

I got to hike every day in Florida, walking 4 miles the afternoon we landed and finishing with 14 miles on the last day. With a few bicycle rides thrown in, I got plenty of movement to work off the succulent seafood dinners I was forced to endure. :-)

The Marco Island beaches are beautiful and they get a ton of people since there are many huge hotels lining the beach for almost 3 miles. I was expecting hoping to walk the beach and clean up some trash at least a couple days. To my surprise, the beach was nearly spotless! Maybe it's because the average age is over 60, but folks really do a great job of cleaning up after themselves here. So, I got to enjoy the osprey, pelicans, and many other sea birds along the beach. The sand, water, and weather were all perfect for the entire time.

I did manage to find some trash on the far northern end of the beach where fewer people explore. Just a few plastic cups and bottles, but also this very cool, barnacle covered, tank. The handle and fixtures were brass, but the tank had rust, so I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it weighed over 20 pounds and I carried it over 2 miles off the beach.
I found plenty more normal trash along the pathways and parks in town and filled a couple bags.

As a special hike, we headed east to the southern terminus of the Florida Trail at the Oasis Visitor Center in the Everglades. From this point, the trail heads north up the spine of Florida and then cuts west to the far tip of the panhandle, ending about 1200 miles from here. I hiked about 400 miles of it a few years ago. That was an extremely wet year, with water to our knees, but this year the trail is clear and dry.

Along our 8-mile out and back trek, we saw no wildlife but did run into 11 other hikers. None were doing a thru=hike, but a few were heading out for a couple days. When we got back to the visitor center, we did come across this alligator with no worries in the world.

Hike On!

Sometimes best intentions don't turn out so well.
This morning, I hiked 7.5 miles around the island, including a nice, long walk up the beach at low tide. My plan was to keep an eye out for trash and pick up what I could find. To be prepared, I grabbed a plastic grocery bag and stuffed it in my pocket.
The hike was wonderful with water birds like these, some pelicans diving for fish, some big white fish doing big leaps with a couple fishermen trying to catch them, a couple joggers, lots of shell collectors, and hardly any trash at all.
I did manage to find an old rusty bottle cap and put it in my trash bag. Then, I stuffed the bag back in my pocket. When we reached the north end of the beach, there was a garbage can, so I figured I would deposit that one bit of litter.
When I reached in my pocket - no bag! I checked all my pockets - nothing. Somewhere along the beach, it had fallen out unnoticed.
With all the walkers on the beach, I'm very surprised someone didn't holler at me when it dropped. But, I'm sure someone picked it up. So, not only did I not find any trash to pick up (good thing), I actually made the place worse by unknowing dropping litter. Super Fail! Now, I have search harder for more trash to make up for today. Oh well!


Other than that, today's hike was great. Saw these burrowing owls again today, as well as dozens of other kinds of birds, from little brown chirpers up to big osprey, with ducks, cormorans, and gulls thrown in.

We did get the start of a couple blisters since quite a bit of walking on sidewalks is required to reach any trails or sand.
You can track my hike progress to see my route.

Hike On

Whether you call them resolutions, goals, or dreams, it's good to occasionally plan what you would like to accomplish. Your plan can include short, mid, and long-term objectives - some big and some not so much.

In 2020, I hope to have a few adventures and produce something of value before the year is complete. I'll share my plan with you and hopefully have them all checked off in 12 months.

• Do 6 Hiking Adventures - I don't have any very long treks this year, but will do these:
  • Florida Beaches - three days of hiking around Marco Island
  • Two Appalachian Trail Trips - in May and July, but not a thru-hike
  • Cloud Peak Wilderness - another week long backpacking trip in the mountains with some fishing and introducing newbies to backpacking
  • Kekekabic Trail - probably a yo-yo of this Minnesota wilderness trail, about 85 miles total
  • Border Route Trail - yo-yo hike of this other Minnesota wilderness trail, 120 miles
• Walk 1500 Miles - I'll do 25-30 miles a week on local trails, plus these other trips should reach the goal.
• Write 2 Hiking Books - I've started a book about the Superior Hiking Trail that I will finish, and I've been asked by a publisher to write a book about the Appalachian Trail.
• Do 2 Trail Work Trips - volunteer trail maintenance to keep the trails accessible to other hikers. Trail work is a great way to learn a trail, get exercise, meet fun people, and give back.
• Do 2 Hiking Presentations - Passing on knowledge and experiences to others is a good thing. Midwest Mountaineering puts on an Expo each spring and fall. I presented to about 100 people this past fall and hope to do it again.

In the next few posts, I'll tell you about a couple other exciting (to me anyway) things happening in my hiking world this year. It looks to be a fun, busy year ahead.

What about you? I'd love to hear about any hikes, treks, or adventures you plan to tackle this year...

Hike On!