Proposed Title: Comforts on the Trail
Some of you out there have been patiently waiting for some good tips on how to make hiking an activity that you actually enjoy. This version of my column is for you.
Since man walks upright on two feet, let’s start with the footwear you hike in. If you are hiking a flat, dirt path in Illinois, you can wear gym shoes. If you are hiking a steep, rocky trail in the mountains of Colorado, you better opt for hiking shoes or boots. Note to self, stepping on rocks with a soft soled shoe can be painful. Your ankle bones can also get pinned between rocks on the trail and this is not good either when you are wearing the wrong footwear.
Hiking boots don’t have to be like tanks if you are not carrying a heavy load. Lighter boots can actually help prevent foot fatigue and increase your agility on the trail. Think of it as dancing with the mountain and your hiking boots are your ballet slippers. For those of you with bad knees, try zigzagging down the trail on your descents to help alleviate stress on your knees. So, if you have the right footwear, you now need the right socks.
Hot, scratchy wool socks are not the best option for hiking in the summer because hot, sweating feet just don’t stink, they create blisters. Blisters are a hiker’s worst nightmare. They are caused by footwear that is moving around and rubbing on your feet. When your feet get too hot, they sweat and your skin becomes soft. The sweat creates a lubricant and your shoes begin to rub. The trick is to wear a thin liner sock that wicks the moisture away from your feet and into an outer layer of sock. This moisture then evaporates out of your boots thus keeping your feet cool and dry.
A good tip when hiking near cold streams on hot days is to stop, take off your shoes and socks, and soak your feet in the freezing water. This trick helps toughen up the skin on your feet and prevent blisters.
Let’s now talk about overheating on the trial. Hiking uphill in the mountains can be strenuous. You are huffing and puffing and dehydrating yourself with each step you take. You need to drink liquids before you are thirsty. Think of it as fuel, like gas for your car, and fill up before you go on that road trip across the desert.
When you wear a daypack filled with all your goodies, including your water, you tend to sweat on your back. Try slinging your daypack over your shoulder and alternating from side to side from time to time. The cool air on your back is refreshing.
And speaking of refreshing, carry a bandana on hot days and dip it into a cold stream. Then ring it out and tie it around your neck. I guarantee refreshment, at least until the bandana dries.
Finally, your energy supply is another important factor contributing to your enjoyment of hiking. Bring along some treats to munch on as you hike. A mixture of raisins, M&M’s, nuts, and any combination thereof can keep you moving along the trail until it is time for lunch.
Lunch can be fancy or as simple as a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole grain bread. Either way, plan ahead and pack a lunch that you can look forward to as a reward for all your effort on the trail.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
On the trail - May 29, 2011
Proposed title: Leashes for Labs – See attached photo to be run with the column
We had a black lab named Shasta that greeted me when I got home by nipping at my ears, while I was standing up. This dog was so friendly it once tried to climb into a convertible sports car that had pulled up across the street from us. I had to apologize to the owner of the car and hope that Shasta’s nails didn’t scratch the door on his car while she jumped up to greet him. And one time, we let Shasta out without a leash in the winter. She ran straight into the side of a car in the street that had stopped because the driver had seen her come charging out into the snow. She was a good dog, but she needed to be leashed when we went out, for her own good.
Regulations about dogs needing to be on a leash while hiking are kind of like that. They are there to protect your dog, not hamper his “wilderness experience” or yours.
Here are 4 questions I would like to ask you if you like to hike with your dog:
1. Do you care about your dog?
2. Do you want your dog to be healthy and live a long, happy life?
3. Do you take care of your dog, feed it, give it water, take it to the vet, etc.?
4. The dog can’t take care of itself, can it?
Leashing your dog while you hike is part of taking care of your dog.
Here are just some of the things that can harm your dog by having them roam free off leash while hiking:
• Your dog can contract diseases like rabies, tapeworms, and salmonella by coming into contact or eating dead animals in the wild.
• Your dog can contract Guardia by drinking from the streams. Yes dogs and humans can get sick from drinking water that other animals have used as their toilets.
• Your dog can become dinner for a mountain lion...other large hoofed animals may just try and stomp them to death...and you may not even know your dog was bitten by a rattlesnake until it is too late.
• Your dog is much more likely to get ticks and bee stings off trail off leash.
• Hidden off trail hazards including rusty barbed wire and broken glass can injure your dog and lead to nasty infections.
• Confrontations with other dogs also off leash can lead to injury or worse.
The chances of your dog being hit in the parking lot or crossing the street, or coming in contact with mountain bikers or horseback riders on the trail, well all of these possible tragedies can be avoided if you take the simple precaution of leashing your dog when you go for a hike. And if you go for a hike to relax and enjoy the outdoors, why not increase your chances of doing so by leashing your dog when you take him or her with you?
Happy Trails begins with a leash for your dog and ends with Happy Tails of safe hiking adventures you took with your dog for years to come.
We had a black lab named Shasta that greeted me when I got home by nipping at my ears, while I was standing up. This dog was so friendly it once tried to climb into a convertible sports car that had pulled up across the street from us. I had to apologize to the owner of the car and hope that Shasta’s nails didn’t scratch the door on his car while she jumped up to greet him. And one time, we let Shasta out without a leash in the winter. She ran straight into the side of a car in the street that had stopped because the driver had seen her come charging out into the snow. She was a good dog, but she needed to be leashed when we went out, for her own good.
Regulations about dogs needing to be on a leash while hiking are kind of like that. They are there to protect your dog, not hamper his “wilderness experience” or yours.
Here are 4 questions I would like to ask you if you like to hike with your dog:
1. Do you care about your dog?
2. Do you want your dog to be healthy and live a long, happy life?
3. Do you take care of your dog, feed it, give it water, take it to the vet, etc.?
4. The dog can’t take care of itself, can it?
Leashing your dog while you hike is part of taking care of your dog.
Here are just some of the things that can harm your dog by having them roam free off leash while hiking:
• Your dog can contract diseases like rabies, tapeworms, and salmonella by coming into contact or eating dead animals in the wild.
• Your dog can contract Guardia by drinking from the streams. Yes dogs and humans can get sick from drinking water that other animals have used as their toilets.
• Your dog can become dinner for a mountain lion...other large hoofed animals may just try and stomp them to death...and you may not even know your dog was bitten by a rattlesnake until it is too late.
• Your dog is much more likely to get ticks and bee stings off trail off leash.
• Hidden off trail hazards including rusty barbed wire and broken glass can injure your dog and lead to nasty infections.
• Confrontations with other dogs also off leash can lead to injury or worse.
The chances of your dog being hit in the parking lot or crossing the street, or coming in contact with mountain bikers or horseback riders on the trail, well all of these possible tragedies can be avoided if you take the simple precaution of leashing your dog when you go for a hike. And if you go for a hike to relax and enjoy the outdoors, why not increase your chances of doing so by leashing your dog when you take him or her with you?
Happy Trails begins with a leash for your dog and ends with Happy Tails of safe hiking adventures you took with your dog for years to come.
On the trail - May 22, 2011
Proposed Title: Risk Management
Risk is a part of life and the activity of hiking has its fair share of it. The risks involved in hiking seem to expand in direct proportion with the amount of hiking we do and the knowledge we gain from those experiences. The more we know, the more we are aware of what can happen to us out there.
Ignorance was once bliss. For example, as a child, lightning was very cool and very aloof. The chances of being hit by lightning were as good as winning the lottery. The sudden flash and subsequent boom were awe inspiring and only to be feared at night in the comfort of your bed as you were suddenly awaken by very loud thunder. Who knew that lightning from a thunderstorm could actually be a lot more dangerous than a passing adrenaline rush?
In Colorado, we have more lightning related fatalities each year than any other state except Florida, which cheats by having thunderstorms year round. Some 80% of those deaths are men between the ages of 18-40. So you lady hikers can relax, for now. I’ll get to another hazard of hiking that doesn’t discriminate in a moment.
Lightning is kind of like a backpacker who is desperately looking for a place to drop his or her pack. The pack feels heavier and heavier until the backpacker can take it no more. He or she eventually drops the pack and releases its burden. The electrical charges that thunderstorms create are kind of like that burden. The charges build and eventually need to be released.
Here is the frightening part. The lightning sends out feelers looking for a target like an appliance with an electrical cord looking for an outlet. If it finds a suitable connection, its go time baby and lights out if you happen to be the unfortunate receptor.
The safest place to be during a lightning storm is inside. Since we hike outside, we need to be aware of our surroundings and the current weather conditions at all times. If your hair is standing on end, this may be your last laugh before you are fried off the planet.
So hike early in the morning before the afternoon thunderstorms build in the mountains.
Get off high ridges into the uniformity of the trees.
Stay away from outlooks, points and peaks.
If you see a tree that has been hit by lightning before, it’s not a good idea to be there either, for lightning can and does strike twice in the same place.
Now that I’ve scared you off the trails for life, let me tell you about another trail risk that is new and shockingly wide spread. Do you realize that trees can fall on you? This new threat to our activity is caused by a horrible little insect called the pine beetle. All of those red pine trees you now see are dead and have become real hazards to us hikers. These tree corpses are waiting for the first gusty wind to send them plummeting earthward.
If you can avoid it, try and not hike on days that strong winds are forecast.
Thunderstorms create strong winds, so now you have to manage two things at once when inclement weather appears on the trail: not to get hit by lightning and not to get squished by a falling tree.
But look at the bright side, the next time someone asks you if you are a risk taker, you can now answer: “yes, of course, I’m a hiker.”
Risk is a part of life and the activity of hiking has its fair share of it. The risks involved in hiking seem to expand in direct proportion with the amount of hiking we do and the knowledge we gain from those experiences. The more we know, the more we are aware of what can happen to us out there.
Ignorance was once bliss. For example, as a child, lightning was very cool and very aloof. The chances of being hit by lightning were as good as winning the lottery. The sudden flash and subsequent boom were awe inspiring and only to be feared at night in the comfort of your bed as you were suddenly awaken by very loud thunder. Who knew that lightning from a thunderstorm could actually be a lot more dangerous than a passing adrenaline rush?
In Colorado, we have more lightning related fatalities each year than any other state except Florida, which cheats by having thunderstorms year round. Some 80% of those deaths are men between the ages of 18-40. So you lady hikers can relax, for now. I’ll get to another hazard of hiking that doesn’t discriminate in a moment.
Lightning is kind of like a backpacker who is desperately looking for a place to drop his or her pack. The pack feels heavier and heavier until the backpacker can take it no more. He or she eventually drops the pack and releases its burden. The electrical charges that thunderstorms create are kind of like that burden. The charges build and eventually need to be released.
Here is the frightening part. The lightning sends out feelers looking for a target like an appliance with an electrical cord looking for an outlet. If it finds a suitable connection, its go time baby and lights out if you happen to be the unfortunate receptor.
The safest place to be during a lightning storm is inside. Since we hike outside, we need to be aware of our surroundings and the current weather conditions at all times. If your hair is standing on end, this may be your last laugh before you are fried off the planet.
So hike early in the morning before the afternoon thunderstorms build in the mountains.
Get off high ridges into the uniformity of the trees.
Stay away from outlooks, points and peaks.
If you see a tree that has been hit by lightning before, it’s not a good idea to be there either, for lightning can and does strike twice in the same place.
Now that I’ve scared you off the trails for life, let me tell you about another trail risk that is new and shockingly wide spread. Do you realize that trees can fall on you? This new threat to our activity is caused by a horrible little insect called the pine beetle. All of those red pine trees you now see are dead and have become real hazards to us hikers. These tree corpses are waiting for the first gusty wind to send them plummeting earthward.
If you can avoid it, try and not hike on days that strong winds are forecast.
Thunderstorms create strong winds, so now you have to manage two things at once when inclement weather appears on the trail: not to get hit by lightning and not to get squished by a falling tree.
But look at the bright side, the next time someone asks you if you are a risk taker, you can now answer: “yes, of course, I’m a hiker.”
On the trail - May 15, 2011
Suggested Title: Dying Ain’t Much of a Living
“Most men stranded in the wilderness die of shame. They just sit there and try and think of the one thing that will save their life, when the one thing that will save their life has been with them all along, thinking.” - Anthony Hopkins in the movie The Edge
There are 5 basic needs a human being needs to survive in the wilderness. They are in no particular order: food, water, shelter, heat, and spiritual needs. Take away any 2 of these needs and you are in trouble.
The general rule of thumb for a human being to live without something is illustrated in 3’s: 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Given that priority list, if you ever found yourself stranded in the wilderness, what would you do?
Now you may be thinking, this is not a problem, if I ever get stranded or lost in the wilderness, I’ll just call someone on my cell phone to come and get me. This seems to be happening more and more these days. People are calling search and rescue to come get them because they just don’t feel like hiking back. But what if you fall crossing a stream and your cell phone gets wet? Now what?
First off, try and not panic. Sit down and access your situation. Your fight or flight response is probably stuck in the on position, so this may be more difficult than you think. But lost or injured is lost or injured and compounding the problem by panicking is not going to help. You can do this. You have the ability to reason and think things through.
Where are you? Are you on a trail? If so, other hikers will be by to help you. If not, then that is a whole other ballgame. If you get into trouble, how you prepared for the trouble if it did accidently occur can make all the difference. Basic items such as extra water, extra food, a space blanket, a rain poncho, matches, aspirin, Band-Aids, a whistle and a signal mirror can literally save your life.
An example of what not to do happened to me years ago when I went hiking in May up at Beaver Meadows near Red Feather Lakes. It was a nice spring day with temperatures in the low 70’s when I decided to take a hike. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt when I set off to hike around the well marked trails sitting at around 9,000 feet in elevation. A storm quickly moved in. The winds picked up and the temperature dropped into the 40’s. It started to rain. It was time to get back to the lodge. Now which way was it again?
I was soon cold and shivering. I took out my trail map but I was confused. I started to jog to stay warm. I went the wrong way and went farther away from the lodge. Nothing looked familiar. I started to panic a little. The first stages of hypothermia were setting in.
Well like I said, the trails were well marked and after going completely around the long way back to the lodge, I saw people with winter coats on going in. Doo! The lodge fireplace slowly warmed me up and I got a hot meal and went home. I was lucky. I had made my mistake in a fairly confined area.
Being prepared is not paranoid, it is smart and responsible. Do yourself a favor and plan for the unexpected. Trust me; you’ll be glad you did.
“Most men stranded in the wilderness die of shame. They just sit there and try and think of the one thing that will save their life, when the one thing that will save their life has been with them all along, thinking.” - Anthony Hopkins in the movie The Edge
There are 5 basic needs a human being needs to survive in the wilderness. They are in no particular order: food, water, shelter, heat, and spiritual needs. Take away any 2 of these needs and you are in trouble.
The general rule of thumb for a human being to live without something is illustrated in 3’s: 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Given that priority list, if you ever found yourself stranded in the wilderness, what would you do?
Now you may be thinking, this is not a problem, if I ever get stranded or lost in the wilderness, I’ll just call someone on my cell phone to come and get me. This seems to be happening more and more these days. People are calling search and rescue to come get them because they just don’t feel like hiking back. But what if you fall crossing a stream and your cell phone gets wet? Now what?
First off, try and not panic. Sit down and access your situation. Your fight or flight response is probably stuck in the on position, so this may be more difficult than you think. But lost or injured is lost or injured and compounding the problem by panicking is not going to help. You can do this. You have the ability to reason and think things through.
Where are you? Are you on a trail? If so, other hikers will be by to help you. If not, then that is a whole other ballgame. If you get into trouble, how you prepared for the trouble if it did accidently occur can make all the difference. Basic items such as extra water, extra food, a space blanket, a rain poncho, matches, aspirin, Band-Aids, a whistle and a signal mirror can literally save your life.
An example of what not to do happened to me years ago when I went hiking in May up at Beaver Meadows near Red Feather Lakes. It was a nice spring day with temperatures in the low 70’s when I decided to take a hike. I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt when I set off to hike around the well marked trails sitting at around 9,000 feet in elevation. A storm quickly moved in. The winds picked up and the temperature dropped into the 40’s. It started to rain. It was time to get back to the lodge. Now which way was it again?
I was soon cold and shivering. I took out my trail map but I was confused. I started to jog to stay warm. I went the wrong way and went farther away from the lodge. Nothing looked familiar. I started to panic a little. The first stages of hypothermia were setting in.
Well like I said, the trails were well marked and after going completely around the long way back to the lodge, I saw people with winter coats on going in. Doo! The lodge fireplace slowly warmed me up and I got a hot meal and went home. I was lucky. I had made my mistake in a fairly confined area.
Being prepared is not paranoid, it is smart and responsible. Do yourself a favor and plan for the unexpected. Trust me; you’ll be glad you did.
On the trail - May 1, 2011
When he hikes, mountain lions hope to catch a glimpse of HIM. Sunny days are reserved for when HE is on the trail. The ground rises up to meet HIS stride.
He is the most interesting hiker in the world.
“I don’t always hike, but when I do, I prefer to hike in Colorado.”
When asked to write this weekly column about hiking in Colorado, I figured my audience might appreciate the lighter side of journalism, in other words, funny. Funny comes in many shapes and sizes and for the next 6 months, I will try and entertain as well as educate those of you out there looking for some helpful tips on the activity we call hiking.
Hiking is not a sport. You do not compete against anyone. Some people think that it is, but those Type A personalities probably won’t be reading this column anyway. They will be too busy knocking off their 3rd 14er of the weekend by the time the newspaper hits their driveway or rests snuggly in their front bushes. For those of you looking for a little humor and insight, welcome.
We all hopefully learn from our mistakes. As far as hiking is concerned, I have made my fair share. For example, I used to be so excited and eager to go hike some place, I would jump in my Jeep and be on the trail before I knew it. All I would forget to bring along in those days were little things like food and water. It was amazing how long the hike back was when I was dehydrated and weakened by hunger. Those kinds of errors were not just stupid, they were dangerous.
Since then, I have taken several wilderness survival classes and learned just how stupid ignorance can be. If I had gotten into any real trouble back then, nobody would have known where I was or where I had planned to go. I learned that being an island in the world of hiking was not what you wanted to be.
So, for starters, tell someone where you are going to hike and when you plan on being back. Check.
Force yourself to take the time to make that peanut butter and honey sandwich for your lunch. Check.
Bring more water than you think you need. Water good, delirium bad. Check.
If possible, hike with a partner. First, unless they are more trouble than they’re worth, they can help you if some unfortunate accident happens. Second, talking to yourself is a little embarrassing, especially when other hikers hear you answering yourself.
Avoid wearing anything cotton. T-shirts get soaked with exertion perspiration and become refrigerators. And everyone knows that blue jeans are for people to ski in when you are from Texas and not what you want to be caught dead in while hiking.
There is not much of the human condition that I have not made fun of, so if you see me coming down the trail heading in your direction, I would hide if I were you. Maybe pretend nature was calling. But if you do happen to run into me on the trail, say hi, and you might just find yourself reading about that time on the trail in the coming months on a Sunday while drinking your morning coffee.
“Stay thirsty my friends”.
He is the most interesting hiker in the world.
“I don’t always hike, but when I do, I prefer to hike in Colorado.”
When asked to write this weekly column about hiking in Colorado, I figured my audience might appreciate the lighter side of journalism, in other words, funny. Funny comes in many shapes and sizes and for the next 6 months, I will try and entertain as well as educate those of you out there looking for some helpful tips on the activity we call hiking.
Hiking is not a sport. You do not compete against anyone. Some people think that it is, but those Type A personalities probably won’t be reading this column anyway. They will be too busy knocking off their 3rd 14er of the weekend by the time the newspaper hits their driveway or rests snuggly in their front bushes. For those of you looking for a little humor and insight, welcome.
We all hopefully learn from our mistakes. As far as hiking is concerned, I have made my fair share. For example, I used to be so excited and eager to go hike some place, I would jump in my Jeep and be on the trail before I knew it. All I would forget to bring along in those days were little things like food and water. It was amazing how long the hike back was when I was dehydrated and weakened by hunger. Those kinds of errors were not just stupid, they were dangerous.
Since then, I have taken several wilderness survival classes and learned just how stupid ignorance can be. If I had gotten into any real trouble back then, nobody would have known where I was or where I had planned to go. I learned that being an island in the world of hiking was not what you wanted to be.
So, for starters, tell someone where you are going to hike and when you plan on being back. Check.
Force yourself to take the time to make that peanut butter and honey sandwich for your lunch. Check.
Bring more water than you think you need. Water good, delirium bad. Check.
If possible, hike with a partner. First, unless they are more trouble than they’re worth, they can help you if some unfortunate accident happens. Second, talking to yourself is a little embarrassing, especially when other hikers hear you answering yourself.
Avoid wearing anything cotton. T-shirts get soaked with exertion perspiration and become refrigerators. And everyone knows that blue jeans are for people to ski in when you are from Texas and not what you want to be caught dead in while hiking.
There is not much of the human condition that I have not made fun of, so if you see me coming down the trail heading in your direction, I would hide if I were you. Maybe pretend nature was calling. But if you do happen to run into me on the trail, say hi, and you might just find yourself reading about that time on the trail in the coming months on a Sunday while drinking your morning coffee.
“Stay thirsty my friends”.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Shut the Front Door
Since I was a philosophy minor in college, I sometimes get carried away with deep thoughts. So as I was sitting in our front room early this morning drinking my coffee, something occurred to me. As I was gazing out our front door, which was recently fitted with a storm door, I suddenly realized what I had been missing all these years.
Our front door was solid wood with a tiny peep hole in it. Now, we can leave it wide open, as the new storm door creates the barrier to the outside world. This barrier is made of glass and the world beyond, that has always been there, is now visible.
The new door opens up the whole area. It brightens up the room with light. It lets us see what is happening in our front yard. We now can watch the twins running around and eating grass. The twins are this year's crop of bunnies that have taken residence under our front stoop. We can also watch the sprinklers go off. And, we can now see the birds as they dart around from tree to tree.
Life is a lot like that I guess. Good things are out there. Sometimes, all we need to do is have a new storm door put on in order to see them.
Our front door was solid wood with a tiny peep hole in it. Now, we can leave it wide open, as the new storm door creates the barrier to the outside world. This barrier is made of glass and the world beyond, that has always been there, is now visible.
The new door opens up the whole area. It brightens up the room with light. It lets us see what is happening in our front yard. We now can watch the twins running around and eating grass. The twins are this year's crop of bunnies that have taken residence under our front stoop. We can also watch the sprinklers go off. And, we can now see the birds as they dart around from tree to tree.
Life is a lot like that I guess. Good things are out there. Sometimes, all we need to do is have a new storm door put on in order to see them.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The Eyes of Texas are Upon Me
"YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND * THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE"
I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin on May 19, 1984. I was 23 years old. Oh, the places you will go...
27 years have come and gone since that day. I remember sitting on some steps on campus a couple of days before graduation and looking out into the distance wondering what my future would hold.
Of course I couldn't have imagined all the twists and turns my life would take up until this point in time.
Back then, college was something you did to better yourself. You could get a better job if you went to college. College was also a 4 year buffer from the real world. It was the bridge that you crossed on your journey towards adulthood.
I spent about $25,000 for my college education. That amount was for room and board and all the privileges of youth we spent money on at the time. Today, $25,000 may buy you a year of college. It is really hard to believe.
College is a part of my life, a chapter in time that I remember fondly. I was lucky enough and determined enough to have that opportunity to get to know some of the truth and it has made all the difference.
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