The wonderful staff at Jay’s Sporting Goods have asked me to speak at this year’s Hiking and Backpacking Extravaganza.  Representatives from several major hiking brands will be there to answer questions, as well as daily drawings.  I will be speaking at 11am and will be going over ‘Backpacking 101’ covering the basics of backpacking and hiking.

Saturday, May 21^st

11:00 am @ Jay’s Sporting Goods, Clare Michigan

Come in and join the fun!

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This last summer the crew of The Mad Backpacker decided to check off another hike on our ever expanding list.  We had talked about heading to one of the Manitou Islands for years, and decided that this year we’re going to do it, come hell or high water (pun intended!).

To begin with, we contacted the Park service of Sleeping Bear Dunes and inquired on the cost of permits, transportation, ect.  We were told to contact Manitou Island Transit and schedule our departure dates.  Everyone at Manitou Island Transit was very polite, and with a little scribbling on the calendar, we had our dates set and tickets purchased.

I will spare you the gear and food packing, and get right to the meat and potatoes of the experience.

Day 1:

We arrived in Leeland early in the morning.  If you’ve never been to the town of Leeland, you will be pleasantly surprised by its small town feel and traditional décor.  The MIT office is part of a fishing wharf that has the look, feel, and smell of a fishing wharf of days long past.  It was perfect.

We waited for MIT to open, and dropped our gear off near the docks.  I was then told to get back in the car, and follow a worker to the extended stay parking lot.  I had figured that he was a shuttle.  I had figured wrong.  After parking my car, I realized it was just myself and my own two feet to get me back to the docks (some ¾ of a mile away).  I had to hike, and the hike hadn’t even begun yet!

A little while later we were waiting with a very large crowd of anxious hikers, church groups, boy scouts, and even a group from MAC (Michigan Adventurers Club).  Everyone was excited and the feel of anxiousness and giddiness was in the air.

Our ferry boat arrived, and much to my surprise, it looked as if it could have seen service as a minelayer in WWII.  An iron giant!  We stowed our gear beneath the bow, and climbed the ladders to sit on top of the cabin.   We were on our way!

Ok, so the hour long shuttle across the water was uneventful.  Actually, it was VERY uneventful.  We did experience some beautiful if not distant views of Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Now the fun begins…  We landed on the break wall of North Manitou Island, and were met by some rather ‘point of fact’ rangers.  They informed us to form an orderly bucket line, and begin unloading our gear, pack by pack.  No problem!

Ranger Lynn (who we only knew as Ranger Lynn) advised us to all meet at the ‘city hall’, which is basically a covered porch with a lost and found, 3D map of the island, a chest to place extra food, and a table for the rangers.  We gathered outside and were called in one by one to verify our permits, and to let them know an ‘idea’ of where we were going to camp each night, and the route we were taking.  I suppose this is a good idea if you’re stuck on an island with no vehicles, electricity, or hope of rescue.

We experienced a quick breakdown of the rules of the island, and then we were free!  Kelly and I gathered up our things, and set to the trail.

As you can see from the picture, North Manitou has several route options, and we opted to head towards the middle of the island, then north and hook around the western coast of the island.  The trail began with a warm grassland, near some old apple trees from days gone past, and then quickly entered a canopied forest.  The hiking was easy, as most of it was flat and had very few obstacles.  Here’s the important thing to remember… bring some industrial bug repellant.  Because of the route we took, which skirts dangerously close to a very large inland lake and swamplands, the bugs began to feast upon us like an army of zombies.  I had experienced worse (much much worse…) but for Kelly, I think this was the worst she’d seen, so we put a bit more speed into our steps.

We eventually exited the woods into warm grasslands and we took the liberty to take a long break to refuel and bandage our bug-wounds.    Once we had gotten our carbs and spirits back up, we set back into the trail, and quickly realized that we didn’t have that much further to go.  We found a nice spot to setup camp just north of Crecent City, and indulged in a few liberties of swimming in a warm Lake Michigan, with the sun setting and warm sand beneath our feet.  It was a nice day for a swim, and the perfect thing to fix a bug-bitten soul.

We settled in for a very uneventful night, and I awoke to the gentle pitter-patter of….rain.

Day 2:

With a little improvisation, rope and a tarp, we had a breakfast shelter.  We ate a hearty breakfast of warm oatmeal and dried cranberries, sipped on some coffee, and set out to expect a wet, depressing day.

It must have been the expectations that made the rain go away!  Within an hour of setting out, the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining.   I’ll take that!

We put quite a few miles behind us before stopping for lunch near Fredrickson Place.  We sat on a bluff 30 feet above the water, and enjoyed a relaxing lunch.  It was still early in the day, but we had set out early so most hikers were still just getting out of their tents.  Refueled and ready to rock, we make our sharp turn and went right back into the woods… uphill.  It was not a steep incline by any means, but more of a long and gradual incline.  There didn’t seem to be any bugs on this side of the island, and lord knows we were NOT complaining about that.  We eventually passed into the East shore of the island, and stopped to view a very old cemetery that contained the original inhabitants of the island.  It was a bit eerie, I’ll admit, but interesting nonetheless.

It was at that point that we began passing a TON of hikers, all headed from what appeared to be the directions of the docks, and all of them asking a load of questions.  “Ah.” I thought.  “New arrivals.”

We slowed our pace as we had made our mileage for the day and found a very peaceful campsite.  (I’ll omit the parts regarding giant anthills and rude kayakers.)  We took advantage of the daylight we had left, and took another relaxing swim.  The beach was very rocky compared to the west coast, and I would recommend to anyone to wear some sort of aqua shoe or crocs when walking out there.  Some of those rocks are quite sharp.

We dried off and I took a nap, eventually waking up and making a dinner of chicken pad thai and we spent the remainder of our daylight chatting and relaxing.  Sleep came easy that night.

Day 3:

We awoke to another beautiful morning with a slight breeze and lapping waves.  Life is good on the island.

We began to rehydrate some breakfast cous cous, and then decided to just let it sit in the cozy until we got to the docks.  We only had just over a mile to get to the docks.  So we packed up camp and set on our way.  We passed two of the male rangers on their daily informational walk and had a nice chat with them.  It wasn’t long before the docks were next to us.

We dismounted the packs and enjoyed our breakfast, and waited for near 2 hours for the ferry to arrive.   We had done it.  Over 30 miles on a deserted island!  We felt like veterans coming home for shore leave, and especially so when we saw the ferry unload her cargo of fresh hikers, anxious and excited.  As we all lined up and they walked past, we barked out little snippets of important information and advice, such as “Bug spray on the middle trails!” and “Head south first!”

The trip back was both relaxing and sad.  We were glad to be headed back successful, but at the same time a part of us was still on the island, bound to it’s rugged isolation.  I hope this review can help another group of hikers have an equally enjoyable experience in the desolate beauty of Lake Michigan.

Pictures can be found HERE.

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There was nothing harder than the decision to hang up my old and trusted hiking boots.  I felt as if I was moving away from an old friend, but alas they had holes in them, and the tread was worn down to something resembling bowling shoes.  I dreaded the search for a new pair, but it was a trek I had to take (pun intended)…

As it turns out, I ended up with a pair of Merrell Moab Mid GTX.  I had tried on dozens of other pairs from stores within a radius of about 60 miles, and these were the clear winners in comfort.  From the moment I put them on, I felt as if they had been on my feet for 40 miles already.  The price was about what I wanted to pay as well, roughly $100.  I was a month away from my next trek, so as every good hiker should, I left them glued to my feet, taking them off only to sleep.  I would have thought that the breaking-in process would have been more drastic, but these boots were so comfortable and form fitting, that they hardly changed during the whole process.  I wore them up and down my hike, and I still wear them as my daily walkers as well.  They are an excellent fit, completely waterproof (I mean it!) and are comfortably lightweight.  I would recommend buying a pair of Merrells to anyone, and even did so to a team of hikers we caught up with on the trek.  Even my partner Kelly bought a pair, and it’s almost a struggle getting them off of her before bed!  Trust me folks, they’re worth the price!

Breakdown and Features:

UPPER/LINING
• Waterproof Dura leather and mesh upper
• Bellows tongue keeps debris out
• Synthetic leather toe cap and heel counter
• GORE-TEX® Performance Comfort Footwear lining protects feet and keeps them dry
• Breathable mesh lining treated with Aegis® Antimicrobial solution maintains foot comfort
• Ortholite® Anatomical Footbed

MIDSOLE/OUTSOLE
• Molded nylon arch shank
• Compression molded EVA footframe provides cushioning
• Merrell® Air Cushion in the heel absorbs shock and adds stability
• 5mm Sole lug depth
• Vibram® Multi-Sport Sole/TC5+ Rubber
• Weight: 1 lb 15 ozs.

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One thing you will notice in all of my pictures is that I am wearing a headband or bandana.  I can’t express enough of handy they are to have.  They can serve as a tourniquet in times of trouble, a washcloth on a hot day, head covering from bugs, and even preventing sunburn for the ‘hair challenged’.

When I found my first buff, I was rather skeptical.  I didn’t think it would do all of the things that they boasted it would.  Boy was I wrong.  The sheer combinations of configurations that this glorified loop of synthetic fabric can create are just staggering.  The best part of all is that when you no longer wish to wear it on your head, you can simply wrap it around your wrist for easy access next time.  Most Buffs are UV protected to prevent burning your pretty little head.  They are also comfortably soft and stretchy, and even moisture wicking!

They also have hundreds if not thousands of patterns to choose from.  I would strongly recommend going to their sales website and looking to see if there is one you love.  http://planetbuff.com

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Permethrin

Well if you’ve read any of my reviews, you’ll know that I don’t typically talk bad about products.  I won’t talk bad about Permethrin spray, but I can’t honestly say anything beneficial either.

The product states that after applying the permethrin spray to your clothes and allowing it to dry, your clothes will become a deathtrap to any ticks or flying bugs and mosquitoes that come into contact with it.  I wouldn’t put my money on that…

The directions state that you should completely spray down your clothes before going out, allowing them to dry for at least 24 hours before wearing them.  DO NOT get this on your skin.  It burns rather harshly.  So spray down your pants and shirts, even your jackets and bandana, and let them dry very well before wearing them.  The directions state that you can even wash them several times before you have to spray them again.

Well, I’ve used this spray on dozens of my hikes, including those with rampant mosquitoes and ticks.   I have not noticed any difference in the attitude of bloodthirsty mosquitoes biting through my shirt, or the demeanor of the tick I had to dig out of my shoulder.  Ticks are supposed to die on contact with permethrin, yet this tick managed to get through 2 layers of clothes, both sprayed with this product.  I have been thoroughly unimpressed with this product for years, and I’ve given it dozens of chances.

In my opinion folks, I would look into other options or just go the old-fashioned route and buy some DEET-based bug spray.

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Well it’s that time of the year again, and that time is the American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day 2010.  This year, we decided to head to Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan for their annual ‘Hike Between ‘da Falls’ day.

If you have never been to Tahquamenon Falls, you should really make time to head up there, even if for a weekend and check out the beauty and splendor of some of Michigan’s natural wonders.  There are two sets of falls, the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls, both of which are equally astonishing.

We arrived at the Lower Falls, greeted by Park Rangers wielding brochures, maps, and bug spray.  I cannot begin to tell you how friendly and kind the rangers up at TFSP acted.  It is a blessing to begin a hike with a friendly visit with some local rangers.  They informed us of a few dangers and tips before we were to depart.  After our friendly chat wound to an end, the shuttle bus arrived to take ourselves and a dozen other hikers to the Upper Falls.  The ride was short and before we knew it we had arrived.  We took a quick side trip over to see the Upper Falls and take in all of their loveliness.  Once a few pictures were taken, and pleasantries said, we set out for the Tahquamenon River Trail, which connects the Upper Falls to the Lower Falls.  The beginning of the trail was level and easy, with very few bugs and even less people.  Several times we stopped to just to enjoy the canopy of old growth forests and the stillness of the woods, with only the sounds of the river to break the relaxing silence.  We progressed down the trail at a relaxing pace, and the elevation and trail difficulty increased a fair amount.  I would not call the trail difficult, but certain spots required a bit of a breather.  As this was a day hike, we were not carrying full backpacks, and only had some water bottles and a sling back to weigh us down.  The repetition of the dirt trails was broken  a few times by some man-made wooden boardwalks, some of which tilted at almost dangerous angles.  The local chapter of the NCTA had setup a snack-stop half way through the hike, and we halted to enjoying a quick snack before trying to race the bugs attempting to get their quick snack, of us!

Eventually we arrived at the Lower Falls, and were greeting by a large tent sponsored by the local chapter of the NCTA.  We received a small gift bag with a wooden ‘achievement’ coin, as well as some maps and information on the NCT.  The staff at the tent was excellent and very friendly, and was a nice compliment to the end of a perfect day at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  If you are even wondering which event to take on National Trails Day, I would strongly suggest this relaxing and beautiful hike, and take some time to enjoy the natural beauty that Michigan has to offer.

Pictures from our wonderful trip can be found by clicking HERE!

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The Casio Pathfinder PAW1500T-7V is the latest addition to my hiking and backpacking arsenal.  There are a few reasons to purchase this watch, the main one being it makes you feel eerily like James Bond with a new gadget.

Getting back to all seriousness, this watch is fantastic to take out on the trails. The range of functions that this watch can perform will stagger the senses.  I will list just a few for you;

Multi-Band Atomic Timekeeping

It automatically calls out to the national atomic time broadcast towers and updates itself up to 6 times a night, so your time is always accurate.

Solar Power

How do you make a watch better?  Make it run off the sun!  With as little as 5 minutes a day exposure to direct sunlight, this watch will keep it’s main charge for up to 5 months.  Just with 5 minutes a day!  Any more than that, it will always keep the battery fresh and charged.

600ft Water Resistant

For those tough days hiking in a horrible, driving rain.

Tide Graph

I haven’t really figured out how this will benefit me, but I’ll admit I find myself checking EXACTLY what the current tide is every hour!  I suppose it would be useful for beach hiking, but around Michigan that’s not exactly our main trail system…

Moon Data

Notably, one of the best functions ever put into a watch.  You may be asking yourself “Why the hell would I want to know the phase of the moon when I’m backpacking?”  Well I’ll tell you!  There are several good reasons, such as you can more accurately predict the movement of nocturnal animals (i.e. deer, bear) as corresponds to the moon and moonlight rating.  Also, you can tell when there is going to be a full moon, so you can plan a romantic moon-watching session on the beach!… or turn into a werewolf.  Both are interesting, and this watch will help!

Digital Compass

This wonderful bond-esqe watch comes with a live compass that will change the main directions, as well as the compass degrees as you walk.  Given a proper map, you can actually use this watch to find your compass bearings and location, therefore combining NEW technology, with TRUSTED paper.

Altimeter

Climb a lot of mountains?  Yeah, me neither.  I try to keep it to at least one a year though!  So when you do, this watch will tell you exactly how high you are, and how much further you have to go.  As an added bonus, it will store the max altitude reached, so when your friends don’t believe you just came back from that easy stroll up K2, bust out the watch and show them EXACTLY how high you were!

Barometer

My favorite function.  Not only will the Pathfinder tell you the current barometric pressure, but it graphs the changes in pressure too!  With simply a push of one button, you can see the barometric change over the last 18 hours.  I can not begin to tell you how handy this is when you’re stuck on a trail and the clouds turn iffy.  It’s like having a weatherman strapped to your wrist!  …only lighter, and less hair gel.

Thermometer

Ok, I’m not terribly thrilled with this function, but it still doesn’t turn me off of the watch as a whole.  The temperature is very inaccurate, mostly because it’s strapped to a big sweaty Polish wrist when I keep hitting the button.  Even in the user’s guide, it says to take off the watch and let it set for at least 5 minutes in order to get an accurate temp.  I guess it’s a small price to pay, and when taken off and let stand, the watch does read very accurately.  It’s just a bit of a hassle.

Low Temperature Resistant (For those really, REALLY cold mornings.  You know which ones I’m talking about.)

World Time (29 times zones for when you’re hiking abroad)

So basically as I’m wrapping this up, this watch is a wonderful toy to have.  Not necessary on the trail, but given the opportunity, it would be a nice addition to anyone’s repertoire of hiking goodies.  At a retail price of $400, it’s… well… very expensive.  You can find it on sale quite a bit, and with as many vendors that carry it, you shouldn’t pay more than $230 for it.

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Have you ever had that one book that you’ve always wanted to get, but never found the chance to get it?  Well thanks to my brother and his wonderful gift card, I finally bought that book.  That book is the Appalachian Trail Food Planner.

For most hikers that have experienced the joy of the AT, they realize that it takes careful planning to resupply their larder of goods and equipment.  You can not rely on finding a store or a ride to said store anymore.  So a wonderful alternative is a process called Mail Drops.  The concept is that you will send yourself a package in advance of your arrival at a predefined post office and then hike to that office, picking up your package.  It takes a bit of future prediction, but if you design it right it will make your time hiking and your food stores much easier to plan and resupply. 

The Appalachian Trail Food Planner is the book that helps you accomplish that planning.  The book begins with a quick lesson on how much food to take with you, explaining how much (per pound) food you should take, and how many calories you should ingest each day.  This is a valuable part of your planning, as taking something weight-intensive (i.e. canned goods) will cause your pack to be too heavy and leave with you with lots of large trash to hike out.

The next section is perhaps my favorite; recipes.   I will admit, as I am a pseudo-ultralight backpacker, these recipes are rather large, and use a vast amount of water.  I guess these recipes would be good if you’re just planning a trip that will last a week or under, but I would think that perhaps you should read these and rethink the water and amount ratios, otherwise you will be carrying quite a bit of water to do your cooking. I’ve tried several recipes already and they came out rather well, with a little doctoring. 

The last section of this book contains mileage charts on each leg of the AT.  The best part of that is it also contains the distances between trail legs and the closest post office.  How could you make that chart even better?  They’ve included 3 columns, based on how much you hike a day, and the days until your next leg, and post drop pickup.  Wonderful!

If you are thinking of hiking the AT, or any leg of it, I would seriously recommend that you read this book before hitting the trail.  It will educate you on what to expect, and give you a better bearing on how to plan.

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The Mad Backpacker team has taken a trip out of Michigan and visited one of the most beautiful parks ever to be declared such: The Great Smokey Mountains.

While staying in this beautiful  park, we decided to take a short day hike to a beautiful mountain named Mount Le Conte.  While ranked 3^rd highest in the Great Smokey Mountains, Mt. Le Conte is actually the tallest mountain in the eastern United States, when measured from the mountain’s base to it’s summit.

As we only had a short time to climb, we decided to take a trail called the Alum Cave Bluff trail.  The Alum Cave Bluff trail runs from it’s trailhead at 441 and runs roughly 5 miles to the Le Conte Lodge, located at the top of Mt. Le Conte.  During those 5 miles it passes through Alum Cave, which is a man-made cave / bluff made while mining salt for the Epsom Salt Co. as well as the Confederate Army during the civil war.

We started out in 64 degree rain at the base of Mt. Le Conte.  The weather was not very pleasing to most, but we found it acceptable given our task ahead.  We gathered our day pack and hiking poles and set out.  We were instantly greeted with the roaring of water rushing down the mountain.  It had rained hard the night previous and the streams had turned quite quickly into rapids.  Noise aside, it still had a musical beauty behind it.

We crossed several bridges, made simply of a log split in half, and then covered with what appeared to be a form of cement.  They all were structurally sound and I found the concept wonderful.

After a short stint of climbing slippery rocks, we arrived at Arch rock.  It was a beautiful cave-like rock with stairs leading through it, hewn into the rock itself.

Miles passed on, and after a mildly easy stretch we arrived at Alum Cave.  Standing tall and ominous, Alum Cave laid before us as we stared agape at it’s beauty.  This clearly was a  turnaround point for most day hikers, as well as a rest stop for those pressing through.  We sat beneath it’s dark wonderment and regained our senses, refueling our thirst and having a quick snack.  There were several other groups doing the same.

We gathered up our things and set out again, this time newly recharged.  The trail went up for a short time, then dropped back down again, leaving us wondering if we had perhaps taken a wrong turn somewhere.  The views along the side of the mountain are beyond describing with words.  Although at this point we were into the deep mist of the Smokey Mountains, we could look down and see the shadowed silhouettes of other tree lines, far below us.  The temperature had also began to drop.

We continued on, with the trail raising steeper and steeper.  The air was also beginning to thin, and the visibility was low with the fog, clouds, and mist.  We slowed our climb, and took each leg of the trail with careful accuracy and deliberation.  We took several breaks, needless to say.

Eventually the trail leveled out and we found ourselves at the Mt. Le Conte Lodge.  We were greeted by a very friendly and informative park ranger, as well as dozens of other hikers and backpackers.  The lodge has a very long history that I will not get into in this review, but I suggest you take a moment to look it up as it is very interested.  The lodge even today is resupplied via Llamas, even the mail!

We looked through the history of the lodge, as well as purchased a few shirts and patches before wandering over to the dining lodge.  The beautiful wooden lodge was surrounded by oil lamps, as there is no electricity at the mountain’s summit, and the entire place has an air of nostalgia.  We purchased a sack lunch for $9.00, and I am here to tell you, that is the BEST nine bucks I’ve ever spent.  Inside the wondrous sack-lunch-of-holding was a bagel with cream cheese, a small summer sausage, applesauce, cookies, trail mix, and some Gatorade electrolyte mix.  Sweet nectar of the gods.  It also came with bottomless coffee or hot chocolate, which has got to be the BEST coffee I’ve ever had above 6500 ft.  This could also be because the temperature had dropped nearly 20 degrees and we could now see our breath.

With our biblical ambrosia in our stomachs, we set out on our decent back down the mountain with a newfound spring in our step.  The climb down was easy, although slippery with the water still running down the mountainside.  We passed and followed several dozen friendly fellow hikers and eventually made it back to the trailhead without much incident.  We were left with a Greek-like feeling of accomplishment, as if we ourselves were Zeus climbing down from Olympus.  I would suggest this hike to anyone with a few hard hikes under their belt, but the stress is but a minor bump in the mountain of beauty and majesty.

Pictures can be found HERE

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Have you ever paid $15 dollars for a spoon? Well then you just haven’t lived yet! Today I found a fantastic spoon, the Cadillac of the spoon world! The Sea to Summit™ AlphaLight Long Spoon weighs in at a mere .4 oz!!! The beauty of this spoon is that it is made of 7075-T6 aircraft aluminumalloy, which gives it the uncanny ability to cool down and dissipate heat in record time. Also, this metal beauty is 8.5 inches long! It’s perfect for your trail gourmet recipes from Freezer Bag Cooking, and getting that last delicious bite out of the bottom of your quart sized freezer bag! Pick yours up today and shed those pesky extra ounces!

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