Backpacking

[bluegoose]

How much of the John Muir trail will your wife be hiking? Sounds fun. I wish I had the time off work to do it.

[BigPiney]

How much of the John Muir trail will your wife be hiking? Sounds fun. I wish I had the time off work to do it.

She is doing the whole thing, south to north, and then some. Because of permit issues, she is going to add on about 35 miles and start at Cottonwood Lakes and go over New army Pass and join the PCT down there. She will hit Whitney on Day 4 and officially start the JMT there. She has it scheduled for 24 days, but I think they will be faster. I am the resupply guy, so I will be making a few trips in there.

[bluegoose]

She is doing the whole thing, south to north, and then some. Because of permit issues, she is going to add on about 35 miles and start at Cottonwood Lakes and go over New army Pass and join the PCT down there. She will hit Whitney on Day 4 and officially start the JMT there. She has it scheduled for 24 days, but I think they will be faster. I am the resupply guy, so I will be making a few trips in there.

Wow. That is awesome. A patient of mine brought in her picture collection from a similar trip a few years ago. Thats some amazing country.

[SteelBlue]

No idea of the quality here, but this is Amazon's deal of the day today. Getting a parachute hammock and anchors for less than $30 total if you go with one of the $19 hammocks.

[bluegoose]

No idea of the quality here, but this is Amazon's deal of the day today. Getting a parachute hammock and anchors for less than $30 total if you go with one of the $19 hammocks.

That looks like a killer deal.

I got the Grand Trunk version of those parachute hammocks last year and am looking forward to using it this weekend.

[SteelBlue]

That looks like a killer deal.

I got the Grand Trunk version of those parachute hammocks last year and am looking forward to using it this weekend.

I waited until the end of the day and when I checked back in, there were only 2 models left. I grabbed a double for $25. Not bad at all.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

I thought that this map site was pretty cool. Maybe someone would find it interesting.

http://www.hillmap.com/

[pellegrino]

I thought that this map site was pretty cool. Maybe someone would find it interesting.

http://www.hillmap.com/

that's cool. thanks, man.

[BigPiney]

I thought that this map site was pretty cool. Maybe someone would find it interesting.

http://www.hillmap.com/

Very cool.

My favorite web map right now for planning my trips is from high sierra topix. http://www.highsierratopix.com/high-sierra-map/map.php but it is very focused on the high sierra, good for me and my backyard.

[bluegoose]

While it wasn't a backpacking trip, it was a trip and I had a backpack, so I will post about it here.

This past weekend I took the young men in our ward to the Northern California coast near Fort Bragg. Our plan was to do some abalone diving, weather permitting. We had seven boys and 5 Leaders. We arrived at the camp at nearly midnight on Wednesday night so that we could spend the entire day on Thursday and Friday at the beach. Weather was absolutely perfect, 70° and sunny the whole time. There was a light fog in the early morning, but even that was burned off by 8 AM. The ocean was also very calm, and visibility was phenomenal at probably 50-60 feet underwater. Water temp was a chilly 45 degrees, but with full wetsuits was very tolerable.



We spent our first day in the water getting everyone comfortable in their gear and adjusting weight belts to the proper weight for each kid. We had done some practice in swimming pools and lakes, but the rental suits that most of the boys were using had different buoyancy than our practice suits so the weight belts needed to be fine tuned. It was also helpful getting the guys comfortable diving and swimming through the kelp forests.


The second full day at the coast we took the guys to a remote area of the Mendocino headlands which was really difficult to access, as it was a pretty sketchy climb down the bluff to the beach while carrying all of our bulky gear. Because it was so difficult to reach we had the place to ourselves all morning long, which was really unusual, as the other beach area we visited on the first morning had about 50-60 other divers.

Once entering the water we had to swim through about 75-100 yards of kelp to reach the open water. It was easier than expected as long as you stayed on top of the water and kept the fins up high. Once getting through the kelp we entered a tunnel in the rock which formed sort of a sea cave.

In the cave it was like swimming through a tank at the Monterrey bay aquarium. Rock Fish and cod everywhere, star fish, sea anemone, sea urchins, and, of course abalone. And not just a few abalone. We had found the mother lode of abalone. Dozens, if not hundreds, of those suckers all over the place. We really had the pickings of the bunch. And they were really easy to get to. Other divers had told us we were going to have to go searching around the rocks and crevices to find them, but these were sitting out in plain sight waiting to be taken. Some were as shallow as 5 feet, while others were as deep as 20 feet.

Each of the divers in our group came home with at least one abalone, while most of us limited out with three.

We had also thrown several crab pots out the night before and caught 7 big Dungeness crabs. So between the fried abalone and the boiled crab, we ate well that night.


I had an absolute blast. I couldn't believe how much fun it was. This was helped by perfect weather and incredible water conditions.

The boys all had a great time. It was very cool to be able to share the weekend with my 14 year son as well. He loved it and wants to go back.

[TripletDaddy]

that sounds awesome. miss those ward activities that were centered around the ocean. im sure all the boys had a blast.

[ERCougar]

So cool, BG.
And DDD reads this thread! Who knew?

[BigPiney]

Dropped my girls and wife off for their big adventure. They should be out for 24 days. 240 miles is what is planned. I did the first 2 miles on the new army pass trail with them this morning.

They hit Whitney this Thursday and then I will see then again next Monday with a food resupply over Kearsarge pass.

My oldest daughter's (13) pack was about 15 lbs. The younger (8) had about 7 lbs. My wife took up the slack with around 45. Should be interesting to see them next week and see if they want to keep going.

[BigPiney]

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[Sullyute]

BP, I think that is the awesomest thing ever for your wife and daughters to do. Kudos to them. Your daughters will remember that for the rest of their lives. Best of luck.

P.S. I love the converted 7-up water bottle.