As The Crow Flies

Stewart Anderson, MD of The Thru-Hikers Medical Guide fame, recommends carrying, “Flagyl OR Tinidazole for chronic diarrhea (Giardia)–(Tinidazole is only one time dosing, so I prefer it)”    So, I thought I’d  carry Tinidazole instead of metronidazole(flagyl) this trip. 

I wish I had known that (1) it is really hard to find a pharmacy that has Tinidazole.  And (2) Tinidazole is expensive–30 dollars for one dose from Wallgreens– were as Metrondidazole(flagyl) is only 4 dollars at Wallmart.   

So if you are going to get Tinidazole be sure and order it well in advance, so it will be there before your trip.   Walmart said that they would order it and it would be about 1/2 the price of Wallgreens, but I need to get hiking, so I bought it from Wallgreens.   

This is my newest supplement for the trail— ProLab Caffeine

It seems a little sleazy to take caffeine in pill form instead of getting it from coffee and colas, but I don’t know why it does. I pay extra for energy bars that have caffeine. Often when I buy a coke it’s the caffeine I’m after. I got to thinking why not just buy a bottle of caffeine. It’s cheap —5.00 dollars for 100 pills of performance enhancing goodness.

This is my GPS; it’s the Garmin 60c. It weighs 6.7 ounces(190 grams) with lithium batteries. I bought it in 2004 for hiking the Continental Divide Trail. Since I have it, I thought it might be fun to bring it on the Pacific Crest Trail(PCT) with me.

I was able to get all the topos for the entire trail plus quite a bit of the area around the trail on it. To figure out what maps I needed, I marked all the towns along the way on the program “mapsource” and than just clicked on all the maps that they were in and the ones that connected them.

At first I was just kicking around the idea and seeing if all the topos would fit but then I started thinking that it might be useful and fun to bring it along.

Last year as I was hiking through the Sierras, I thought, “You know, if a bunch of new snow fell, I would have a really hard time navigating through here.” I don’t want to be a person who follows footprints.

Another area where it might come in handy, is if there is a fire, I would be able to see the ways around it. The guide book maps are great when you are on the trail but if you, say, asked me where I was in relation to something outside of the guide book maps, I probably couldn’t tell you. It’s nice to be able to get a big picture of things.

It could also give me more freedom and confidence to try different routes. Often I just stick to the PCT because it’s easy to follow and my maps cut off other routes.

I’ll just see how it goes. If I decide that it’s not useful, I can put it in my resupply/bounce box and ship it along.

Note: The DVD with all the topos on it is called: Garmin MapSource Topo U.S. 2008

Related Posts:
My GPS
Keeping your GPS screen from getting scratched.

This is my resupply box. It took me a trip into town and all day with a tape measurer to find it. My ice ax just fits in it. Even if I had Photoshop, I don’t think I would put a big sunburst coming off of it, but I guess it will do. In the picture it looks pretty good. After I took the picture, I wrapped more cardboard around it so the ice ax won’t punch a hole in it. I used tape and wood glue. Now it looks like a big mess that is going to be caught up in the automated machine at the post office.

I have made big signs with my name and brightly colored dots on them to decorate each side. I did that so that at the post office I can say, “It’s the big box with my name and big colored dots on it” and they can quickly find it.

Once I used a plastic bin to mail my maps and stuff I needed for a trail. I think the post office thought it looked suspicious because it disappeared and I didn’t get it until my trip was done.

My dream box is a plastic or waxed corrugated box with a lid that fits all the way over it so that it’s doubled. I would make it a couple inches too big so that my ice ax could be seated in foam to keep it from gouging my box. When I wasn’t off hiking, the box could be used to store my gear in.

Maybe that is too big of a dream for this year but I did find a a place on the internet called custommadeboxes.com that makes boxes like this. I wrote away for an estimate.

Update: custommadeboxes.com got back to me with a quote. The price for 1 of a double cover box in a coroplast material with the dimensions 26 x 12 x 14 is $37.58 plus shipping. That sounds like a nice box but I think I will use the box I have for this year and continue to think about my options for my permanent  resupply/gear box.

I was reading the Wikipedia article on bisphenol A, the compound found in the hard clear (lexan)Nalgene bottles that has been getting so much press lately. I have always preferred the softer milky Nalgenes because they are lighter and more durable.

The plastics marked “7″ are the ones there seems to be concerns about. The soft milky Nalgene bottles are marked with a “2″ which according to this article, “Types 2, 4, and 5 (HDPE, LDPE, and Polypropylene, respectively) are believed to not leach chemicals in any significant amount.”

15-20 years ago I took a 9 month course called, “Developing the heart and hands of a healer” We did stuff like crystal healing, shamanic drumming, chanting, and meditation. At the end of the course we were supposed to make a power object. There were some cleaver and artistic people in the class that made some really nice objects.

I cut a hole for my head in the middle of a blanket and draped it over me like a tunic. I used some of the extra blanket to make a hood and a hand warmer pocket, then I sewed a bell on the end of the hood, and called it my journey cloak.

On Mungo says Bah’s site he writes about a cool way to make a hooded journey cloak out of a blanket without having to cut up your blanket.

When you set out hiking a long trail and along the way, in a hot exposed waterless stretch, someone gives you water and a place to sleep out of the wind and when next morning you are rattling around in their kitchen fixing yourself a cup of tea and they tell you that you need to leave because something has come up, you should cheerfully thank them for their hospitality, leave a donation and hike on. Staying on to do your laundry, stiffing the donation box, angrily huffing off, and taking a picture of you flipping off your host’s house is considered very bad form.

Yeah, I’m reading trail journals, again. Maybe, I understand the former resident a little better.

Maybe you read, “A Walk in the Woods”, and when Katz throws his food over the mountain, thought, “What an idiot to not realize that he is jeopardizing the safety of animals and other hikers.”  Well, apparently some people thought “A Walk in the Woods” was not a comical tale of two inexperienced hikers stumbling down the trail, but rather a manual on how to hike, and filed that bit of information away under, “Tips for when your pack is too heavy.”

As a PSA, I would like to emphasize that when you are out backpacking, it is not okay to fling your English muffins off the mountainside because you don’t want to carry them.

“The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) cautions everyone that feeding wildlife, whether directly or indirectly, is never a good idea. Problems from wildlife often increase with the availability of food, and feeding could result in an attack, damaged property, and often the death of the animal. “

Yeah, I’ve been reading trail journals….sad, sad, sad…..

My benevolent son bought me this Wilderness Medicine book. I’ve wanted it for a long time but didn’t want to part with the money. I have the field guide by the same author but this book has a lot more detail, better pictures and more information. It’s a great book for people who might want to form a plan for when they get hurt in the wilderness besides lay in the dirt and mewl for help.

It has lots of ways to improvise first aid treatment. For instance, this nifty way to close a gaping head wound.

The new snow pack chart is out for this month–things are looking much better than they did last month. Although it looks like Oregon got a crazy amount of snow.

Related post: Snow Levels on the CDT and the PCT

At first look, a small store may appear to not have much to resupply with. You need to look at everything. Just keep circling the shelves and look at every single thing in the store. Soon you will find plenty to resupply with. The smaller the selection, the more times you may need to circle the shelves. Know that a good resupply is there, but you need to discover it. Be creative and flexible.

I didn’t send myself any food for the entire Pacific Crest Trail and I didn’t meet anyone who had a better food bag than me.

Related Post: My PCT resupply schedule 

I just discovered this site last night called minibulldesign.com. This guy makes a huge variety of pop can stoves, a Heniken can pot (with lip guard), and has instructions on how to turn a cheap blue plastic tarp into a 20 ounce tarp tent for two.

Even though I hike with about 2 grand worth of gear, I have this dream of being able to outfit myself for a couple hundred dollars . When I go to Walmart I always think, “Now what if you had nothing, and you needed to outfit yourself for living completely out of your pack and you could only spend like 100 to 200 dollars and it had to be lightweight. What would you buy?” So, blue plastic tarp and contact cement would now be on my list.

He also has a blog. It looks like he makes a lot of youtube videos. I have a dial-up connection; to watch a youtube video is almost impossible. But this morning I managed to get through part 1 of his water filter video. It’s hilarious. Favorite quotes, “See this water filter? If it fails me and I’m twenty miles from nowhere, I’m dead.” And “People won’t trust their life to technology they don’t understand.” Ha!

Anyway I subscribed to his blog and I may buy his CD called, 10 POUND BASELOAD BACKPACK PLANS, because I love stuff like this.

I bought the Sawyer Just Drink Water Purifier. Someone on the Yahoo group, “PCT 2007″, was big on it. It was supposed to be lightweight and purify–not just filter, but purify– out all bacteria and viruses for 3000 gallons and then you backflush it and it’s good again. I liked the idea because sometimes I run out of Aqua Mira and it’s hard to find along the way.

Sawyer advertises this as something to not only camp with but to have on hand for emergency water purification in case of the municipal water source becoming polluted. Their big thing is all you do is “Just Drink.”

But the instructions call for you to have a safe source of tap water to prime it with. Why would someone who had a safe source of tap water, need a water purifier? They say not every faucet will work with it and if you can’t get it to work on one faucet find another. My only faucet is a gravity feed system from a 55 gallon barrel up in my loft; it didn’t work. I took it into town and tried the library’s faucet and that didn’t work either. Once it quits freezing, the town will have the community facet turned on; maybe I will try it there. I don’t know if once it is primed then it stays that way or if you need to keep finding faucets that work with it to prime it.

I do know that is heavy. With what water I have managed to get in it, it already weighs 9.5 ounces(269 grams), then you have to add a ring, a cap, some hose, and a big plastic bottle ( it won’t fit into a regular wide mouth Nalgene).

Also the instructions warn against it freezing and they say you need to drain the water out of it to store it… but I can’t get what water I have managed to get into it, to drain out, so I’m guessing mold will be a problem. Probably, I should just toss it.

Maybe I’m missing something here; there is a video on justdrink.com. If I find some high speed internet, I’ll watch it and then maybe it will all become clear to me. I see a problem with requiring a safe source of tap water and high speed internet to get a water purifier to work.

I would warn you not to buy this unless you hear from people who actually used it and had a good experience with it.

I’m thinking that this Mcflurry* spoon would double as a tent stake holder and a spoon. I like my tent stakes immediately accessible for quick tent setups. I also don’t want them to be poking a hole in my tent. This set up fits nicely in the inside pocket of my pack for immediate accessibility of my spoon and my tent stakes. The tent stakes fit snugly in the spoon so I don’t foresee a problem using the spoon while the tent stakes remain in the handle. It weighs .20 ounces or 6 grams.

*A Mcflurry is an ice cream and candy dessert at Mcdonalds.

If you want to use a stove or have a fire in California you need a permit. It looks like in some areas, alcohol stoves, wood burning stoves, and fires are prohibited even if you have a permit. Here is a link to the permit. You just print it out; it’s already signed.

I don’t need one, because I won’t be bringing my stove. I carried my stove for awhile last year, but couldn’t find any food that was so good that it was worth carrying a stove plus fuel and a pot for, so I sent it all home. Having a stove also eats up a lot of time. I use to lay in my bag until I had drank 3 hot beverages in the mornings; last year I got earlier starts–and early starts are key if I want to get some good mileage in. There were a few times that I missed having a hot beverage.

‘

One really windy night in the Sierras, I was camping with Just Dave. He gave me this staking advice.

1. Brush the surface duff away so that you are staking in as solid ground as you can.

2. Put your stakes in at an angle towards the tent.

After those two things failed me, I went searching for some big rocks to anchor my tent with. Only able to find two rocks, I decided it wasn’t going to rain, took down my tent and slept under the stars. Just Dave was afraid that the wind was going to rip his tarp so he did the same.