OT: Hiking/Backpacking

[raulgmanzo]

>I'm getting back into backpacking. Anyone else here who

>likes to hike/backpack? Any particular trips/routes that

>you've especially enjoyed?

 

Nothing beats backpacking in my opinion. I think backpacking is fantastic conditioning. Obviously it is great for the legs but also can help tone ones core for sure. Backpacking ( along with bicycling) is one of the primary things that keeps me in shape because I sure don't have the discipline to go to the gym regularly.

 

As a kid I regularly backpacked where I grew up in Hawai'i, and fairly regularly hiked in southern california's San Gabriels and took the occasional trip in the sierras. All fabulous and very accessible yet easy to get away from the masses. My longest hike was a 38 day dawdling trek around Annapurna many years ago in Nepal. It may be my favorite. Though maybe not better than the memory of my grandfather and I sleeping under the Giant Sequoia a couple days walk from the nearest road in the Sierra Nevadas.

 

I'd happily trade a cushy hotel room for a sleeping bag in the middle of nowhere. Especially if someone wants to crawl in my bag to help keep me warm.

 

Raul

[Rick Munroe]

>I'd happily trade a cushy hotel room for a sleeping bag in the

>middle of nowhere.

 

I'm with you. However, I'd need to make a few stipulations: the sleeping bag would have to be climate controlled, have built-in down pillows (one for head, one for legs) and at least 500 thread-count crisp linen sheets. Oh, and no bugs or insects, please (ick). Otherwise, yeah, let's backpack in the wilderness!

[OneFinger]

I own 20 acres about 1 hour East of SLC. Lots of deer, moose, and elk. It's part of a 50 mile parcel and is very private and secluded.

 

So, when you coming for a personal visit? Would love to spend the weekend with you in my my own private wilderness. ;-)

[raulgmanzo]

Is that still in the Wasatch mountains? I've always wanted to explore them. I bet it's beautiful. And I'd never worry about bugs anywhere in Utah, as long as the famous Salt Lake seagulls that saved the mormons from the locusts are still at the ready.

 

Raul

[Rick Munroe]

>the famous Salt Lake seagulls

 

Aren't they the ice skaters who used to open the Donny & Marie show?

 

http://landofos.com/collectn/dmskates.jpg

[OneFinger]

>Is that still in the Wasatch mountains? I've always wanted to explore them.

 

That's the place. My property is about 15 miles east of Park City (near Coalville Dam). It's a serious offer if you ever come to SLC.

 

Driving from the door of my home to the door of my trailer is less than 1 hour. (Only about 1.25 hours from the SLC airport.) I'm up there most weekends. I've lived all over the USA but haven't been in another area where the wilderness is so close (and affordable) to a metropolitan city. ;-)

[Luv2play]

Spoken like a true Manhattanite!

[doctordoctor]

>

>

>That's the place.

 

 

great little play-on words there, One Finger!.....

 

I love Utah....fantastic, varied landscapes....high mountains to burning deserts....SLC has a great downtown (rare in the west) and year-round recreation....

[soccerjock624]

personally, enjoying the outdoors myself, I think some of the nicest places to go backpacking are in Maine, New Hampshire and western Mass area along with on the western coast, Oregon and Washington state.

[Traveler North]

Hey Brett. You are right about New England. Backpacking in Maine, New Hamphire and the Berkshires of western Mass is awesome. Really like to do it in fall with the brilliant colors of the leaves in the trees.

[OneFinger]

>>That's the place.

>

>

> great little play-on words there, One Finger!.....

 

I honestly didn't think anyone would catch the phrasing. You're sharp!!

 

Don't know if you've heard that downtown SLC is going through a major change. The Mormon Church owned one Mall and just bought the one across the street. Both are being torn down and a new mall built. It will cover about 8 city blocks and include a mixture of stores, housing, and open space. They're also bringing City Creek above ground again which I feel it a great move.

 

Not sure I like so much of downtown being owned by a church. But, they usually do a spectacular job on their architecture and property management. Should be a real shot-in-the-arm to an aging downtown.

[Luv2play]

I live in Montreal where many spots in the downtown were owned by the Catholic Church from the seventeenth century onwards. As a result we have some beautiful architecture and green spaces where monasteries and nunneries once stood. Also beautiful old churches everywhere, some of which are now being turned into condos or other institutional uses such as community colleges.

 

I grew up on a city block that had three church institutions on three of the four blocks surrounding us and our apartment was on land leased from the church for 99 years. Although I'm not Catholic I loved going into the grounds as a kid which were literally acres of trees, grass, old reflecting pools, just very peaceful and right in the heart of the city. You could do worse than having a church as custodian of public spaces in urban settings.

[doctordoctor]

Hey Boston Guy:

 

you still around?....wondering if you found that great spot...I'm an avid hiker and backpacker and can still offer advice and ideas.....

 

and OneFinger:

 

thanks for the comments on downtown SLC...I'd heard a little tiny bit of what you said was happening, but am interested in more....I go thru SLC at least once a year....a cousin lives there, too....have done all the touristy and not-so-touristy stuff...I don't seem to find a way to private message you here on the board, but am interested in learning more from you....greatly interested in all things Utah...can you set up your profile so I can write you privately?....don't want to make us give out email addys here, unless you don't mind...

 

thanks

[OneFinger]

I'm changing my profile now to allow messages. (Turned it off quite a while ago when a couple of former trolls misused it. They seem to be gone so I'm open for messages.)

 

:*

[Louis]

The Bruce Trail along the Niagara Escarpment is nice. I think the Niagara Escparpment has been designated a natural biosphere by the UN. There is also the Trans Canada Trail.

Algonquin Park has many nice trails, but lots of people.

I like just walking in the bush trying to go places that are not that well known, and we have several places like that in Northwestern Ontario.

[+ Tygerscent]

Yaaaaaeee! Outdoor kind of guy! Great ot hear that! I spend a good dael of time outdoors! Do some moutaineering as well! Have climbed Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and some of the higher regions in the Vilcabamaba range in Peru. One year I walked the Inka trail and up along the Runkarucay pass... (waaayyy up there in altitude). Chewed on coca beans to battle off Sarocha, (mountain sickness or cerebral edema). Mostly hike around Oregon now though as you can see by the pix on my site. I take the majority of them up in the muotains in the rain forests or along the oregon Coast. Had some amazing times there. One time, while I was out in the Wallowa Whitman Wilderness area on the eastern side of Oregon in the lakes basin region, I climed the Eagle cap. I climbed up the south face from Mirror lake and when I got to the top I looked around and just wept! There is a metal box up there at the top and everyone either leaves something or writes something down in the log book up there. Very cool! My hike back down the Eagle cap, (on the North face), was not quite as joyful but equally inspiring since I scaled down the moutain side and then came to a sheer 200 foot drop off and found I could not make my way back up the way I had come down. I had origially wanted to climb down that way and then walk along a glcial ice field and slide down on my ass... Instead, I had to try to climb back up and started an avalanch! I have the scar on my right knee to prove it! I huge graniite bolder carved out a nice bone exposing slice out of my knee. I tried to "swim" sideways up the cascading rock and debrie until I could get to stable earth. I was hanging on by my finger tips and toes. My wolf dog nanook was with me and had jumped quickly up to higher ground before things really started to slide. he tried to come down to get me but I told him to stay up there. I thought to myself... Holy Shit! I can't die now! Nanook is up there and he would not know how to survive out here! So, I shimmied and inched my way back up the mountain side by shifting my weight and really pushing into the rock with my body. I finally made it up with the help of Nanook, ( He is a semi-retired Avalanche and Fire rescue service team member). He would come down towards me and then go back up showing me the stable rock to climb back up on. Kind of an edgie experience but I like that in all Honesty. Last year both Nanook and I almost drowned. He fell into the Wilson river while I was doing a photo shoot and I got sucked into a sea tunnel near Cape Kawanda in Pacific City. I was trying to get this crab net bouy that was down in this sea cave. I had to jump into that cave where it was lodged, inbetween the incoming tidal flow when the water would receed anough for me to go down ther and run into the cave. Then a sneaker wave would come up and I would have to climb back out until the water receeded again. I did that three times and did not make it out the third time. So, I grabbed onto that crab net bouy rope and wrapped it around my wrists. The water rushed in and pulled me out into the tunnel, (the other side is open ocean that harbors some rather nasty Great Whites BTW. I was spinning around like I was in a wash machine. I held on though and when the water rose I grabbed onto some rock and held on tight! As the water level dropped I pulled myself up and coughed out the sea water. I went back in though and brought that fucking boiy home! Hee Hee! It was so freaky that both Nanook and I almost drowned on the same trip... him at the river and me in the ocean. Whew! I always take him out in the wilderness with me on my photo shoots though! It's nice to have an adventure and rescue buddy in case you get into trouble~ I have trouble trying to find people to go with me though. Hard to find guys that don't have a problem with cooking over a fire, pissing on a tree and shitting in the woods! Hee Hee! Love all that though. I useually jerk off while I am out there. Something very freeing about that. makes me feel good inside as well as... well you know~ Naked, running around wild in the woods! Mmmmmmmm! Love that! In August, Spetember and late November of 06 I was taking one and two day trips to the coast while working on my screenplay DANTE. Lots of Whales this year!!!Nanook and I would climb down the cliffs and get right up next to them! They came in realllly close this year! Like twenty feet away! You could see their eyes and barnacles and seeing them spout was a huge rush. Of course seeing anything spout excites me~!

I'd be happy to share some pix of the places I have been if you like! All of my pix on my website except for the DANTE pix are taken in various places in Oregon. I love the Ocean and rain forests the best! Do you like to dive as well? DIVING is HOT!!!!

Tyger!

http://www.tygerscent.biz

503.317.8055

http://www.daddysreviews.com/area.php?loc=63150&who=tyger_portland

men4rentnow.com tygerscent in Portland, Oregon