Wow, you're awesome! Loved the mountain pictures there, those are amazing...and the wildlife! Thanks for the blog report!

I think i figured it out..here's some pictures from two weeks ago when I went hiking on several days in different spots...we had some late snow one night.

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I just got my pack all packed up to go on Tuesday morning for either one or two nights! My new pack! My first backpacking trip in years! I hope I didn't forget to pack anything although I went over the checklist three times. It would really be lousy to get out there and have forgotten something vital LOL. Like my hammock tree straps or something. With three pounds of food (which is kind of a lot but well ...ya know how it is!) it weighs 18 lbs. Which surprised me even though it is close to what was figured on this gear list thing I have. That is without water though. I'm kind of nervous but excited too. I've got it narrowed down to two places, either this area where there are no trails but a couple of remote "mystery" multi stage geocaches where you find one and then it will say something like "ok a 244 bearing from here at 1.2 miles" and so on. Or my preferred one is to go to the top of this peak which is remote but doesn't apparently require any real "climbing" but that will depend on if the snow melted off these last couple of weeks, so I won't know til I get up that way...both options are in the same direction. Anyway, can't wait! Here is a picture of my packed up Circuit!

ssdivot, I'll be interested to hear what you think of the Ursack. I've been using the Garcia cans for years and they are _so_ heavy for a small person. Like you, I don't like dealing with hanging and I am often above tree line anyway. Hopefully the Ursack keeps the squirrels out, too!

I'm going on my first trip of the year tomorrow, just a short one. Looking forward to getting out of town and hoping the mosquitos aren't bad yet! We have a nice new 2 person + 1 dog tent that we'll be trying out :happy:

trail_rnr: I think for me the Ursack was a good idea..I'd decided if I was going to get back into backpacking then taking the weight penalty of the bear canister was going to just have to be accepted. The tree hang was always a thorn in my side, the amount of time I spent while tired trying to find a good tree branch then trying to get the rope over it etc etc, well I'm just not good at it. Then came across the Ursack and for my uses think its great. I have so far stayed away from the places where the bears are habituated and know that a bag=food. I think the odorproof liners they sell for them are probably really great too, as they are something like 1000 times more non-permeable to odors than a ziploc. You are supposed to tie the ursack to some kind of immovable object so I'm not sure above treeline what you'd do, maybe hang it over a cliff or something? It definitely will keep out squirrels etc though, it's made of Kevlar. If a bear does decide to have a go at it, I imagine you'd have crushed up food with bear slobber on it though haha! My Ursack with the odorproof liner is 9 ounces.

sweetbippy: Its a gopher snake. We have tons of rattlesnakes but I hardly ever see them. Other people see them all the time so I'm lucky I guess!

trail_rnr: Yep this is a wonderful area to live in if you like the outdoors. I have lived here for four years and have not really taken advantage of the outdoor activities available. Alot of the reason being my weight but I am rectifying that situation! Have a great time on your trip!


I just got back from my first backpacking trip in years and wrote a report on the blog here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ssdivot/view/lake-moraine-and-mokelumne-peak-trip-281528


And here are the pictures!!:

http://s1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj576/ssdivot/Hiking/Mokelumne Peak trip 2012/

edit: anyone know why the photobucket link is not clickable? it works if you copy and paste?

In the past month, I've done four hikes:

1. Attempt on Bandera Mountain on August 4 (turned back 350 vertical feet from the summit, after a 1700'-in-one-mile Class 2 scramble, because I'd run out of water and it was a hot day);

2. A hike to Surprise Lake, off US-2 near Stevens Pass (about 9 miles RT, 2400' gain, with several stream crossings) on August 11;

3. A hike to Summerland, on Mt. Rainier (8 miles RT, 1950' elevation gain) on August 18;

4. A hike to Heliotrope Ridge via the Climber's Route, on Mt. Baker (6.5 miles RT, 2000' elevation gain, again with several stream crossings) on August 26.

This month, I have four hikes planned:

1. Kendall Katwalk, on the PCT near Snoqualmie Pass (11 miles RT, 2700' gain) on September 15;

2. Annette Lake, off I-90 near Snoqualmie Pass (7.5 miles RT, 1400' gain) on September 23;

3. Monte Cristo, off the Mountain Loop Highway in north Snohomish County (~10 miles RT, 400' gain, with one river crossing) on September 29;

4. American Lake, near Mt. Rainier (14 miles RT--a half-marathon!--1000' elevation gain) on September 30.

Phew ~ some nice photographs u folks have got there!

Loved how the mountains where u are, are so different from the ones I've hiked (I'm in SE Asia, and all I've done so far are a few small mountains in Malaysia). Makes me wish I can afford more vacations & check out mountains outside my continent :bigsmile:

I was recently in Albuquerque, NM and did a very brief hike along the Sandia Crest trail. I'm a flatlander so being at 10,000+ feet was challenging. It was quite pretty and we arrived just after a rain shower so the air was clean and fresh, smelled nice a piney. As we rode the tram back to town, we spotted a black bear.

I have my first class for my Naturalist Certification this weekend. We will be visiting 4 different types of forests so plenty of hiking. will post some pics later.

LaGondaV