Wildcat Hollow Northern Loop
I've hit Wildcats northern loop a few times , Notably a year ago after a large blow-down. Hiking over trees in freezing temperatures , a heavy pack , and a 6 pound rifle was torture. Looking over reviews on the internet , you'd think this trail as impassable to the novice hiker. I can happily report all blow-downs have been removed or circumvented. Another surprise was the distance hiked was only 12 miles. Most references cite it as a 15 mile loop. Trip Odometer of 12.1 miles , Moving average of of 2.9mph in 4 hours 9 minutes. This was accomplished "slack packing" with a base weight of mostly 3 liters water , about 10 Lbs.
Terry demonstrating the proper technique for dispatching a horde of approaching Bloods. Hike-by style. I actually fired the Ruger LCP for the first time: missed a pop can from about 5 yards. With the low sites, and double action only, this is truly a last ditch weapon.
Found a cool little primitive camp less than a mile from the trail-head; i wouldn't sleep in it.
Overall with the trail maintenance this is one of my favorite hikes. No water is provided , and this time of year their is very little for filtering. The views are spectacular . although not picture worthy , as your under trees for most of the hike. Game evidence was pretty sparse this year , I only saw one squirrel , no deer and very little track sightings. Bring some water during dry seasons , and enjoy the hike.
Tar Hollow Fall Hike
Located east of Chillicothe, Ohio this 20+ mile figure 8 offers a challenging day hike/ car camping trip. Unfortunately I thought it was a nice overnighter with a backpacking camp on the ODNR website. About 2 miles in; the backpacking camp had a parking lot and the campsites needed reservations from the general store. Not an easy thing to come by @ 7oclock in the morning . Next time I'll reserve a campsite and have steaks and cool beverage waiting for me.
The trail itself was pretty challenging with steep climbs , a lot of dead-fall, and sometimes confusing red blazes. Being a new trail , I made the mistake of starting the trip on a side trail (blue blazed homestead trail which added 3 miles to the trip). The trip was 15.5 miles with 6 hours of moving time with a moving average of 2.6mph.
The 75 foot fire tower @ the not-so-backpack camp 2 miles in. The tower is climbable , but felt a little to rickety for me.
Zaleski South Loop
Took an overnight trip for the first hike of the summer. I only managed 12 miles in about 8 hours between the 2 days. The second day I abandoned the planned hike of the north loop due to sore calves and heat.
An overlook about 4 miles in.
The same cliff at another angle.
An overgrown pond.
A slightly nibbled on mushroom.
Tarp Tent Squall 2
I've been beating the heat by staying inside , but figured I'd shake out , and clean out my favorite tent. I did some research before buying the Squall 2. It's a non-freestanding single wall tent. Non-freestanding tents have a disadvantage of needing a place to stake. Sand , rocks , and hard dirt present challenges. I've used large rocks , logs , and burying my stakes sides-ways in the snow to get a taught pitch. It's advantage is weight.
This thing is light , 2lbs 6 oz's with seam sealing , and silicone beading on the floor to prevent slippage. I choose to seam seal it myself , but they'll do it at the factory for a nominal fee. I recommend using the same seam sealing mixture of 50/50 white gas and GE silicone 2 on the floor (recommended by the manufacturer). If you pitch this tent at an angle , you'll find yourself scooting down to the lowest point without it. I used a a tic-tac-toe pattern to accommodate vertical and horizontal baffled pads.
Handing 70 mph gusts , the Squall 2 is a little shaky but held it's ground. To be honest , if I wasn't more worried about logs blowing down and killing me, I'd of fretted more. This isn't a 4 season bomber and it wouldn't handle a snow load. I've never had it in a driving rainstorm , but imagine, and have heard the tent has an issue with misting. I can't say for sure , but I suspect this has to do with it's phenomenal ventilation. Having ventilation all the way around; humidity and condensation shouldn't be a problem , unlike most single wall tents.
Packs down fairly small with the rear aluminum poles removed I can halve this size.
Front half requires 1 or 2 hiking poles. I prefer 1 for ease of entry . 2 is supposed increase stability , but requires yoga skills I don't possess. Their is a carbon fiber strut between the front guylines. The beak is rolled up in this picture but extends out to the front.
Inside front. The bathtub floor un-clips for more space , clips up for weather protection.
Rear. This end should be placed into the wind for maximum strength.This isn't staked out and perfectly taught. In actual use I find it's nice to get it set up , let it stretch for an hour or so , then tweak it.
Check them out @ http://www.tarptent.com/products.html
Caldera Cone for the MSR .85L Titan
Caldera Cones have peaked my interest for some time. With supposedly 5 minute 1/2 ounce alcohol burns achieving 2 cup boils, this is worth looking into. An issue with alcohol, is long distance trekking. A 1/2 ounce stove is nice , but after carrying 14 oz's of fuel of fuel for a 7 day hike , your better off carrying an IsoButane canister and burner for the same weight. I've personally used Minibull design stoves , white box stoves, and made a few. I tested this stove this weekend but didn't bring my camera. Test bed is my Weber Grill with well used pizza stone. 60 degree weather . 60 degree water. 9mph wind speed.
Total weight of kit is 4.2 ounces.
Kit comes with Fuel bottle , measuring cup, stove ( calibrated for cone) , plastic container(The plastic container also doubles as a cup), and the aluminum cone.
A 1/2 oz of Heet alcohol. The measuring cup comes in handy when measuring 1/2 oz's.
Boil time was reached 5:30 , total time burned was 6:30.
My cone sticks to the pot when I lift it , I hear this can be remedied by slightly working the aluminum , but it doesn't bother me. This will be my go-to stove , for more than an overnighter. Pick one up at antigravitygear.com.
Update 8/27/10
I picked up some 91% rubbing alcohol and tested with 8:30 full boil time and a total burn time of 14 minutes, with 1 oz. I'm guessing 3/4 oz would probably be the perfect amount. Rubbing alcohol also burns with a visible flame. This also creates a light layer of soot which washes off pretty easily. I may start carrying it instead of methanol because it double duties as an effective foot dryer/cleaner.
Another trip to Zaleski
Did a quick overnight @ Zaleskis south loop. Walked in 2 miles in the dark through a thunderstorm and made camp. I'm in process of reviewing and testing out a new Garmin 60cx GPS. It has a cool feature of calculating distance and time. My trip was 11.3 miles , moving time 4 hours and 30 minutes. Moving average 2.4 miles an hour. Stopped 1 hour 26 minutes overall average 1.9 miles an hour. This did not include camp time or lunch. I did stop a few times and go off trail looking for produce.
Picked up some ramps and 2 measly dried out morels.
RECIPE ?! Rays down and dirty ramp soup.
Ingredients.
Ramps cleaned , roots removed.
Morels , preferably more than 2 shriveled up , soaked in brine.
3 cups of Beef broth
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut up ramps as desired, I like to keep the bulbs intact , dicing the stems and some of the leaves. Julian morels.
Heat vegetable oil in cast iron skillet. Saute leaves , stems and morels. I leave bulbs out to get a firm , almost raw bite.
Deglaze with beef broth and add bulbs. Serve and enjoy. Total cook and prep time 10 minutes.
A few things that would have made this better. A slice of bacon and rendered grease to saute. A few cloves of garlic. Homemade broth ( I used Tones beef base and half a cup of cheap beer).
Testing Esbit on a Wetfire Stove
Looking through REI I found this cool little stove that weighs a half an ounce. After reading a few blogs and reviews I determined the fuel that's supplied with it is junk. Stories of short burn times , tons of soot , and it's inability to attain boils will keep me from even trying it. Having used Esbit before , and knowing it burns 12-15 minutes I figured I'd give it another shot. The biggest gripe with Esbit is the soot it leaves at the bottom of pans. I tried to remedy this with tin foil rapped around my pan. Esbit burned through and failed to boil 3 cups of 50 F water @ 48 F air temps. Unsure if it was the tin foil or possibly 3 cups , I tried 2 cups and no tinfoil. Boil was a achieved @ 13 1/2 minutes.
Incredibly light and made of Titanium. It's three legs fold down very compact.
Burning an Esbit and surrounded by a windshield.
Stable enough with a MSR Titan Kettle. [ an Interesting fact about the MSR, is the three rows of spot welds mark the 1 cup measurement]
The dreaded Esbit soot will probably keep alcohol stoves in my pack. It scrubs off easy enough , but in the woods , with limited water can be a pain.
Zaleski South Loop
Hiking the south loop with minimal gear. Nothing is really new to review , just putting old gear through the paces. The Tarp Tent Squall 2 did good job with 50 mph gusts. I plan on doing the whole north and south loop in 2 days sometime before the heat of summer. Total weight is 21.5 lbs , including food and water & 1 PBR.
Old charcoal furnace used in the production of iron during the civil war.
Swamp at the start of the south loop.
Backpack is taking a break in a cave.
Terry on top of a cliff.
Worlds best energy drink after an 8 mile hike.
Bug Out Bag
If you troll enough survivalist websites you probably see BOB (Bug out bag) used frequently. Most of the times it's accompanied by a high power rife and enough ammo for a Red Dawn type scenario. I personally can't see the need , or don't have the means to pick up and head for the hills , living in central Ohio. I'll probably die defending my home from the zombie apocalypse. The thought of needing an emergency kit , or perhaps a car kit does seem plausible enough. So I guess I'm entering the tin-foil hat coalition.
My Kit is very basic. Shelter, water , and possibly fire are really enough to get through the night. A bivvy sack is perfect for these emergency type situations. Light weight , waterproof , and heat reflective , the Adventure Medical Kits Thermo-lite2 is a nice piece of emergency gear. Weighing in @ 7 ounces and seemingly durable enough for a couple nights out. The only reservations with this shelter are bug protection , breath-ability , and overhead protection from hard rains. Bug protection , I'll deal with it , it's an emergency and hopefully fire , and/or cold temperature of night drive the bugs out. Breath-ability can be solved by opening the sides at the expense of warmth , and drying out in the morning by the fire. Overhead protection from rain can be solved by carefully choosing a site with protection or building one.
Water and fire in my emergency kit requires I find it & make it. 1 750 ml empty platypus. 1 Titanium mug. 10 Katadyn Micropur tabs. 9 Esbit tabs with stove should be enough. I'll also have a bic lighter and may add vasoline soaked cotton balls.
Rounding out the necessities would be a knife , for building a shelter or other tools. Cordage for building shelters and possible assents. Normally I carry at least 50 foot of para-cord even on planned back-packing trips , but have never used or needed it. Med-kits, bandages , antibiotics , and painkillers all come in handy. A tiny backpack for keeping this gear is a hammock bliss from http://www.gofastandlight.com/ weighing a mere 6.5 oz's.
Overall my kits weighs 2 1/2 lbs , without firepower. If a weapon is needed , It'd be my 45 with hollow point +p ammo. You can take off your tinfoil hat now.
Nordhouse Dunes
Nordhouse Dunes in West Central Michigan affords an easy 2 mile hike to the beach of Lake Michigan. Camping is permitted year round with a $5 a night car tag. It seemed pretty deserted in the winter , but I imagine is pretty popular in warm weather.
The trail head. It stayed foggy the first day.
The beach was deserted. The footprints ahead are deer.
The dunes were pretty impressive , some @ 140 foot tall.
The Campsite on top of a dune. A bald eagle was spotted circling ahead , unfortunately I was too slow to get a picture.
After a restful night in my new Montbell #3 the plan was to show up at Founders for their release of Kentucky Breakfast Stout. Getting there @ 11am was a mistake because their were about 150-200 people in line and the place was full.
Hopcat In Grand Rapids is a good place to drown your Non KBS getting sorrows. They had something like 49 taps , with a lot of Michigan breweries. I finally got a chance to drink some Shorts brewing offerings. I had a deliciously sweet Cup Of Joe. The last beer was an over the top , Shorts Mystery Stout.
They happened to be having bike races inside Hopcat. You'd think these people would be sober , but the guy next to me was drinking and got called up to race. He lost.
I'm trying to bring back urban camping.