On the trail and off—never wash another dish.

Backwood dishwasherLiving without running water is easy.   Truth is, it’s easier than with running water if you consider the time and money you have to spend on plumbing,  paying water bills, fixing pluming, worrying about it freezing, etc.     I don’t spend 10 minutes a week on water.

You just do things differently so you don’t waste any water.   Take for example making spaghetti:

no wash spaggetti

So you see, no washing, no wasted water.

Once in awhile I wash a few dishes but for the most part my system is:  1. Eat from pot, 2.  clean with spatula, 3. boil water in pot and use for hot beverage.

Related Post: A Vagabond’s guide to kitchenware and dish washing.

My morning happiness tea concoction.

tea in a jarI’ve been off daily coffee for almost a year.   This is what I drink in the mornings now:

  1. In saucepan put grated fresh ginger—the more the better, cinnamon, black pepper, and water.
  2. Bring to a boil
  3. Put 2 Good Earth Original  tea bags and 2 black tea bags into quart container.  Pour water over tea.   Don’t take out tea bags; that way it gets stronger as you drink it.

Don’t strain it,  chew on the ginger pieces while you drink.  I’m using about 2 pounds of fresh ginger a month these days.

Cheapest way, I have found, to get Good Earth Tea is from Amazon “subscribe and save” plan.  It works out to 3.00 for a box of 25, delivered.

WARNING:  May cause euphoria.

Cows shit firewood.

sticks and cow patties for my fires

Last year as I was walking around picking up sticks to store for kindling, I saw some dried cow patties and thought, “I think I remember something about people burning cow patties.”

I picked up some and threw it on my fire.  It’s amazing stuff;  burns hot and long.   I think I’d rather have a cord of cow patties than a cord of oak, it burned so well.

I was talking to a friend that just came back from India and she said people pick it up, dry it, and sell it over there for firewood.

I feel better about the cows roaming around my place now that I know they shit firewood.

Trail Food: Butter Toffee nuts

King Henry butter toffee peanuts My buddy Pinball writes that his power food is Powerbar Triple Threat Fusion bars.   I remember in 2007 he was hot on these bars too.    Every time I look at the energy bar aisle I think of his enthusiasm for Fusion bars.

But they never did it for me and I have gotten so I can’t hardly stand to eat energy bars.   My power food is butter toffee nuts.

Usually they are hanging from a rack with other cheap bulk candy and can be found at almost every little store.    They cost  1.99 for a 9.5 ounce bag, making them one of the best “resupply as you go” buys.

They are a good source of protein, carbs, fat, and salt.    The stores sometimes carry other kinds of  butter toffee nuts like cashews and almonds but they usually cost more.

Calories per ounce varies from 120 – 150 depending on the brand.

Comparison of Power bar and butter toffee peanuts per ounce:

Name calories protein fat carbs sodium price taste
Power Bar Triple Threat Fusion 115 5 grams 4.5 grams 15.5 grams 110 mg $1.00 Meh
Butter toffee peanuts(King Henry) 120 3 grams 5.6 grams 15.1 grams 42 mg .20¢ Yea!

Back from BC.

On my way home from British Columbia I crossed  Rainy Pass.   That’s were the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the road in the North Cascades.   It looked cold, wet, and a little snowy.   There aren’t many times I’m happy to not be on the tail but this was one of them.

Blog posts should be more regular now.

Hauling water

Water delivery Where I live, lots of people haul water.   I see them at the community spigot in town filling large 55 gallon drums full of water.

1-3 gallons of water a day fulfills all my water needs, so, I just use 7 gallons water jugs with spigots that I got at Walmart in the camping aisle.  They cost about 10 dollars a piece.  They are very durable, I have been using mine for 2-3 years now.  I believe they are called, Reliance Aqua-Tainers.

One sits on my counter all the time.   When I melt snow I refill it by scooping out water from the snow melting pot.

In the summer, when one is empty I put in the back of my truck and when I go to town I fill it with water from the community spigot.    It’s easy, it only takes a few minutes.

Water carriers that aren’t so good:
  • One gallon plastic jugs are made to decompose in landfills quickly, making them not very durable.   Try the 3 liter Arrowhead bottles instead.
  • I tried the reusable 1 gallon jugs sold at the water filling stations in grocery stores—less durable than the disposable 1 gallon jugs.
  • The collapsible water jugs are not durable enough either.
55 gallon drum in loft gravity feeds to sink below. I fill it using one gallon jugs and a funnel. 3 liter arrowhead water bottles are much studier.
Water storage. 55 gallon drum in loft gravity feeds to sink below. I fill it using one gallon jugs and a funnel. 3 liter Arrowhead water bottles are much studier.
Hot water heater
Hot water heater

Related post: living without running water

Free store

free signI’m heading up to BC for a bit and that means I’ll miss the local Barter Fair.   I don’t buy anything except food.   I usually just come and volunteer to sit with people in the calm tepee and  I leave a bunch of stuff at the free store.

I love the free store.    It’s a big covered area where you can bring stuff you want to give away.   There are hangers and shelves to display your wares.

No matter how hard I try,  I end up with too much stuff in my life, so, I have a rule that everyday I have to get rid of something.    When I lived in a house my rule was  that I had to get rid of 10 things a day because I had a lot more stuff.

It’s such a great feeling of abundance to give away your stuff.   There is more than enough stuff for everyone, if people would just let go of the stuff they aren’t using.

Up in BC there is a free store at the dump; that’s a good place for it.   People can give away good stuff instead of tossing it into the landfill.

I wish we had a year-round free store.   Where you can free up what you don’t need and take what you do; like the hiker boxes in the trail towns.

It’s sometimes hard for me to give away good stuff that I paid a bunch of money for but that’s the challenge.   Last year I gave away: an expensive sleeping bag, a z-rest, a therma-rest and chair kit, a sil-nylon poncho tarp, stuff sacks, a stove,  and a bunch of other things.   Everything I put in the free store got taken.

In my mind, wealth is measured by how much time a person has  and how few possessions they can own.

Related post: Moving Guide

Tip for not loosing small pieces of gear.

reflective tape and flagging ribbon. I put red reflective tape and bright flagging tape on small pieces of gear that would be easy to lose.   Neither of them makes a recordable difference in weight.

I got the red reflective tape at Walmart in the auto supply aisle.   They probably have flagging ribbon as well; most likely with the tools.  But flagging ribbon is also easy to attain  hanging from trees in the wilderness; help your self.

Related post:  No-lose ‘em Tent Stakes

Phrophlatic pain relief—maybe not such a good idea.

ibuprofenI used to take ibuprofen  almost every day when I was hiking.

I remember on my first hike of the PCT(Pacific Crest Trail) having to buy 5 little bottles of ibuprofen just to finish the last 90 miles.

On my last day on the Appalachian Trail,  I got up early, swallowed every last pain reliever I had, and said, “That’s enough to get me up Katahdin; I don’t know about back down but I’ll make it up.”

No one should take as many pain relievers as I did.    It’s a wonder I didn’t end up dead.   In later hikes I felt I could use less ibuprofen by taking it  prophetically in the morning before the pain started.

This article, “Does Ibuprofen Help or Hurt During Exercise?”,  says taking ibuprofen before and during exercise could have a detrimental effect on your health and performance.

Good thing I don’t need pain relievers anymore.      My last two thru-hikes of the PCT, I hardly used any pain relievers.   I attribute this miracle  to taking Acetyl L-Carnitine HCl & Alpha Lipoic Acid.

I started taking it to improve brain function.  Old mice given Acetyl L-Carnitine HCl & Alpha Lipoic Acid were able to to run a maze as fast a young mice.   The scientist said this pointed to an increase in mental function.

Maybe the reason the old mice could run the maze as fast as the young ones is the supplement stopped their knees from hurting….that’s what it did for me.

Related post: The Cure for Sore Knees (I think)

Super glue with brush on applicator

super glue---brush-onThis is the kind of super glue I carry  to repair cracks in my feet—the kind in a bottle with a brush-on applicator.   It’s the best vehicle for carrying and applying it—it doesn’t break open and it’s easy to apply.

I got mine at Walmart in the office supplies aisle.

Super glue is easy to find in the towns along the trail but the kind with the brush on applicator is not, so, I get a bottle before I leave.   Mine weighs .4 ounces full.

Here is a link to a physicians forum discussing using super glue to close wounds and cracks.

Related Post: Cracked feet

Buying gear at REI.

reiI buy a lot of my gear at REI.    They don’t have everything for lightweight backpackers but they are getting better.

The reason I shop there is they take back any gear that fails you—you don’t have to deal with the manufacture.

You pay 20 dollars for a lifetime membership, then at the end of every year you get about 10% back of the money you spent there.

If you loose your card they will look it up for you.  So you don’t have to worry about hanging on to it.

They also have a record of every piece of gear you bought from them so you don’t have to save receipts.

They are friendly about taking back your gear.

This is the REI guarantee:  If you’re ever dissatisfied with an item, you may return or exchange your REI.com or REI-OUTLET.com purchases at any REI store or through mail order.

I used my Black Diamond Spot headlamp every day for 2 years and then it quit working.   It had a 3 year warranty, so I brought it back to REI and since the price had gone down, I got a new headlamp and some money back.

Some people kind of push the envelope, like one guy I know returned his backpack because a mouse chewed a hole in it.

There are  people that say REI stands for Return and Exchange Indefinitely.

Carrying fruit backpacking

When the trail doesn’t supply you with fruit, it’s a good strategy to carry some fruit with you when you are backpacking, particularly in the desert.   It’s like a having a spare orb of concentrated water;  a 6 ounce orange or apple will revive me far better than 6 ounces of water.

The Peace Pilgrim walked over 25,000 miles– sometimes walking 50 miles a day, yet she didn’t carry a water bottle.   She says,  “Water is something you think of in hot weather, but I have discovered that if I eat nothing but fruit until my day’s walk is over I do not get thirsty. Our physical needs are so simple.”