Embrace the Suck! - It's Your Perspective the Counts

Something you hear a lot in the backpacking community is 'embrace the suck' or 'become comfortable being uncomfortable'. When we first heard these sayings, Roslyn and I figured that it was all about having a large amount of will power and overcoming difficult situations. That we would be able to power through the truly miserable moments and come out successful on the other side having suffered through it. And that is partially true. Over the last couple weeks though we have realized it's more than that.

For some background, we have been trying to plan out a trip for some of the weekends over the summer. One of the most consistent comments we've heard when talking about the weather is that it looks like we shouldn't go, or that its pretty poor weather to be outdoors. Roslyn and I were very confused about this at first. To us the weather looked okay, not good but more than reasonable for going outdoors in. The only thing that we would've wanted changed was the light rain that was in the forecast, about 3-5 mm per day.

It honestly took us 5-6 times to realize that to others, that level of rain made the trips we were planning cancellable. And looking back on it, we might have avoided doing some of our trips if the weather had come up like that in the past as well.

Roslyn and I talked about it a bit and we realized that to us 3-5 mm a day was not a big deal. We figured we were also willing to hike through small amounts of snow and sleet without really caring. It's not so much that we could bear down and will our way through the bad parts of a trip, but that those parts didn't seem all that bad anymore due to our accumulated experiences. Now we could easily get through the 5 mm of rain or sleet days and use our will power on the even worse days.

Anyone can do this. It will take time and practice, but you can slowly ease yourself into building up more confidence and a different perspective if you want to. We have realized that it's not much different than physical conditioning, you just need to go at your own pace and you can slowly expand your comfort zone.

Carry Your Weight - Shelter Systems

As one of the Big 3 items, your shelter system will be a significant portion of the weight you carry. The main shelter systems that you will come across are tents, hammocks, bivys, tarps, and cowboy camping. Each of these systems comes with a number of trade offs, but trying to keep them as light as possible is always one of the goals you should be trying for. This article is about a process you can use to help figure out which shelter system to use, and goes through how Roslyn and I went about deciding to use a tent.

The first thing you need to pick a shelter system is the following information about your backpacking habits: expected weather conditions, expected camping terrain, ease of setup required, and space requirements

The above pieces of information will drive what type of shelter you choose in the first place, the types of materials you will choose from, and help guide you when deciding between small differences in shelters. Here is how Roslyn and I addressed needing that information.

Expected weather conditions - Anything except for snow/sleet

Expected camping terrain - Anything from grassy fields, to thick forests, to beaches

Ease of setup required - We want something easy to use and setup.

Space requirements - We need room for two people and their gear. Gear can go in vestibules

Once you have the answers, you need to figure out which shelter types will not let you meet those expectations so that you can rule them out:

Expected weather conditions - With pretty poor weather conditions expected combined with the desire to always be able to dry out, tarps and cowboy camping were not possible as potential shelters.

Ease of setup - Given that trees are not a guarantee, hammocks were out.

Expected camping terrain - Due to expecting to use the shelter in varied and potentially damaging terrain we need something that can avoid damage (hammock, tarp, cowboy camping) or is strong enough to not care (thick floored tents, bivy's).

Space requirements - since we need room for two people and gear, hammocks and bivy's were out. We wanted to share the shelter weight so having individual shelters was not an option.

From the above hammock's, bivys, tarps, and cowboy camping were out, leaving us with just a tent as a possibility. We did revisit this a couple times, but in the end we always leaned back towards a tent. Once you've settled on a type of shelter system, you then need to research the different sub-types. In general though you will be comparing four criteria: cost, weight, durability, and comfort.

Knowing where you sit with each of the above four criteria is important, and you should figure it out before sitting down to compare different shelter systems (you can even figure it out before picking a type of shelter system if it helps). Here is how Roslyn and I viewed each of the criteria.

Cost - we were willing to spend more money for a better product

Weight - we wanted the tent to be as light as possible

Durability - It needed to be fairly durable, but we were willing to be more careful with the tent if it meant either a lower cost or lighter weight

Comfort - we wanted a tent that would keep us dry no matter what, had plenty of space, didn't have condensation issues, and where the fly would be able to flip up to expose more of the mesh for either airflow or star gazing.

This gave us the following hierarchy: Comfort > Weight > Durability > Cost

We then compared a few dozen tents, looked at hammocks and bivys, decided we still wanted a tent, and then looked at more tents. You should definitely take all the time you need to figure out what you are comfortable with buying, and going back and reevaluating your needs is always a good idea if you find yourself stumped after looking at a lot of options.

That's how Roslyn and I went about picking a tent, specifically the Marmot Tungsten Ultralight 2 Person, and hopefully the process will help you with figuring out what you want to buy as well.

Rockwall Trail - Helmet Falls Loop

Date: June 28, 29, 30, 2019

Length: 11.9 km, 13.7 km, 15.2 km - 40.8 km total

Time: 6 hours, 9 hours, 7 hours

Elevation: 758m, 620 m, 438m

River near Paint Pots Trailhead

July long weekend 2019 we took advantage of the extra time off work and headed out to Kootenay National Park for a three day trip. Roslyn and I hiked the Tumbling Creek-Helmet Falls-Ochre River loop, which contains a portion of the Rockwall Trail. To get to the trail, we flew into Calgary with our gear, rented a car, and stayed at an AirBnB for the night. The next day we drove into Banff to pick up ice axes and bear spray, which you can rent there for a reasonable price from the outfitters. Finally, we drove off to the Paint Pots trailhead to start our hike.

Map of the Route, at the junction we went counter clockwise around the loop

Starting out at the Paint Pots Trailhead, we started hiking up the main valley. The Paint Pots is an area full of different clays used for pottery, and the bright colors shown in many of the soils was pretty interesting to see. The trail between the parking lot and the Paint Pots was pretty busy with people out for the day, but as we moved into the forest past the Paint Pots other people disappeared until we reached camp for the night.

Creek tumbling down the clay at the Paint Pots

One of the ponds at the Paint Pots

After getting into the forest past the Paint Pots, we had a wonderful morning climbing the mountain. A few mountain side glades opened up for us to get a great view through the trees, and there were a lot of different flowers to looks at in them as well.

Further up the mountain side, the trail started following a river. At times we were right beside it and then we would climb a couple hundred feet above it before it rose up to meet us again. The further up the mountain we ascended, the more waterfalls we could see as well. Most of them were only a couple feet across, with their streams flowing down into the larger river, but a few of the waterfalls were part of the river itself and were quite large and powerful.

One of the more powerful waterfalls we saw on the hike

Looking down on another waterfall from a bridge over it

About halfway through the first day it began to hail on us while we tried to eat lunch, and then hailed on and off for the rest of the day. During our second attempt at lunch, we also realized that we had forgotten our camp fuel... So cold food for three days for us!

We arrived at the campsite a bit before 5 pm and setup our sent and set about making supper. The camping pads along the trail are very well maintained, and the bear boxes, cooking area, and outhouses are well laid out. After supper we talked to a couple of other people around camp, and pretty much everyone was headed in the same direction as us; over Helmet Pass.

Day 2 we were up early to give ourselves as much time as possible to get through the snow we were expecting. We started up the mountain side early, starting to hit snow about halfway up. Once we arrived at the top, we stopped for a look out over the valley we had slept in and it was an amazing view. By the time we finished ascending near the approach to Wolverine Pass (which we didn't go through) we had been above the tree line on and off for a half hour and it was a crazy feeling to be up there.

View from halfway up the mountain side

Near the base of Wolverine Pass, we had our only moment of uncertainty. The trail went across a sheer snow slope with a fifty or so foot drop to a creek. We had seen another group forge the trail ahead of us, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking crossing the section. Making it across felt like a pretty big accomplishment though and the experience was pretty awesome.

The rest of Day 2 was basically spent grinding through a snowfield. For about half the day it snowed or hailed on and off while we walked. Fortunately a couple groups had gone before us, so the trail was easy to follow and we didn't post-hole too much.

Roslyn looking out at the Rockwall

Crossing one of the nicer bridges

Looking back on our travels of the day

Our favorite picture from the trip is the one just above. We stopped near the top of Helmet Pass to look back over what we had traversed through out the day. Our day started a few hundred meters below where the snow makes a white 'V' far off in the distance. We then walked through all the snow in the middle of the picture before entering the trees on the left and making our way down to a lake that is obscured by the trees in the center.

After taking the picture above, we finished out ascent of Helmet Pass and then began climbing down the mountain to the campground. The top of the pass was full of snow, but it was a great feeling to keep looking ahead as seeing less snow, then some clear patches of trail, and then all of a sudden there was no snow left at all and it was easy going from then on.

We arrived at camp at a decent time again, setup our tent, then walked over closer to the base of Helmet Falls. Watching the water fall 1000 ft to the base of the rock wall and just relaxing to the sound of it was one of the best moments of the trip.

Most of the way down Helmet Pass we could see Helmet Falls and took a picture

Day 3 we woke up bright and early to try and get to the car as soon as possible so we could spend some time in Banff before driving to our AirBnB in Calgary. Unfortunately, bright and early in the mountains means cold. It likely dropped to at least -3C overnight and when we woke up our tent poles were frozen together. Roslyn gathered our food and put most of our stuff away while I did my best to thaw everything out so we could actually take the tent down.

Once we were all packed up the day went pretty quickly from there. Descending was definitely faster than the climb up, and just as enjoyable. A couple hours into the day we started looking back more and more as the trees started obscuring our view of the snow capped peaks behind us. Around lunch we got our last glimpse of the glorious snow covered mountains before the trees cut our view off for good.

One of the many beautiful streams we came across

Roslyn looking out at whats ahead of us

The weather was great all day, no snow or rain, and it became steadily warmer as we approached the parking lot. The trip down along Ochre River was very nice and we met quite a few people going in and out around the Ochre Junction campsite.

Once we arrived back at the parking lot, we quickly put our gear away and headed into Banff. Once we arrived we got to experience walking through a packed townsite with tourists everywhere while carried out bear spray and ice axes. We received a lot of weird looks. After dropping the rentals off we went to the hot springs, spent some time walking around, and ate supper before starting the trip home.

If you want to see more of this trip, check out our videos about it on YouTube: Banff and Kootenay Hike - July Long 2019, Part 1

Pre-Season Preparations, Part 2

In Pre-Season Preparations, Part 1, we covered how to start getting physically prepared for the season. Unfortunately, getting physically prepared is only half the battle and you also need to make sure that your gear is ready to go as well. Doing a pre-season gear check means that there won't be as many surprises once you get out onto the trail.

To do the pre-season gear check, Roslyn and I put together a list of what we have, a list of what we need, and a list of what we want. We don't personally write the lists down, but for some people that might be a good idea. After creating the lists, we go through our actual gear and make sure it is still usable and that we can find it. Turns out a pot lid can hide in a really small spot and it can take you 3 weeks to find it.

Once we know what functioning gear we have, the hard part begins. Trying to split the remaining gear into what we need and what we want is the most annoying part, but since gear is expensive we have to prioritize it. This year we both needed new rain jackets since the West Coast Trail ruined our last ones. We also both want some new shoes, a new 3 person tent for canoeing and car camping, a new set of tent stakes, a new head lamp, and a lighter trowel.

Having split things into needs and wants we set out to buy what we needed. This was pretty easily done online after comparing a dozen or so rain jackets each. Next we figured out what we wanted to buy and picked up another tent. We got lucky and had the head lamp, tent stakes, and trowel gifted to us!

Once we have all the gear, we will try it out around the house. Setting the tent up to make sure all the parts are there and there is no major damage. Making sure the jackets are comfortable. Just a basic review of all of it to make sure it is in functioning order.

With that done we pack it all away and wait for a chance to use it! We also keep adding items to the want to buy list... because trying out different gear is fun!

Carry Your Weight - Water Weight

Water is an incredibly important part of long distance backpacking to make sure you stay hydrated and healthy. Unfortunately, water is heavy so minimizing the amount you carry is always helpful as long as you can access enough of it along the trail. To figure out how much to carry you need know; how much you drink, how easy it is for you to filter water, and how frequent water sources are.

How much water do you drink in a day of backpacking? Roslyn and I have figured out that we use 5 to 6 litres of water each per day if its about 20C out and we are doing moderate hiking. 6 litres of water weighs just over 13 lbs, which us about half of the 'safe' weight maximum of 30 lbs we try to stay at. If we are doing strenuous hiking or the temperature is higher we pretty quickly hit 9 to 10 litres of water each. 10 litres of water comes in at 22 lbs, which is just a back breaking amount to add on top of everything else if you are trying to cover 20 km.

I also want to point out that a large portion of the water is used in the morning when we wake up, and at night for supper and before bed. We use about 2 litres of water at camp per day, so on a moderate hiking day only 3 litres is used on trail.

Now that we know how much we need in a moderate day (5 litres), how easy is it for us to get that water filtered? Roslyn and I use the Sawyer Mini, which is a very simple and quick filtering system. We can filter about 3 litres of water in 10 to 15 minutes if we get to a water source. Other systems like gravity feed systems or tablets required more time or at least more care to make sure you don't run out of water before having more ready to go.

With our setup, we can filter quickly and easily so down time is not a large issue. If you are using a water purification method that takes longer though you might want to consider timing water filtration with larger breaks (lunch or another 30+ minutes break) in order to minimize unnecessary downtime. Unfortunately, filtering less often means carrying more between filtering periods.

The last piece of information you need to figure out is how frequent water sources are on the trail. Whatever source of navigation you are using should have water sources on it, and you can then figure out what the distances between all of them are. Roslyn and I try to make sure we have enough water to travel between 2 to 4 water sources with out refilling and then aim to refill at source number 2 or 3 depending on how they are looking and how much we are drinking. This means that we are likely to get to a source before running out even if our first planned stop is dry.

Now to bring it all together with an example. For a moderate day of hiking we each need 5 litres of water to cover about 20 km, 3 litres while hiking and 2 litres at camp. With these numbers we are drinking about 0.15 litres per km. If the water sources are spaced every 3 to 4 km then we can easily carry 2 litres of water each to get about 10 to 13 km with out needing to refill and have plenty of opportunities to do so before running out.

If its a hot day on strenuous terrain and we need 10 litres of water (2 litres at camp and 8 litre while hiking), for a 20 km day we are drinking about 0.4 litres per km. On 2 litres of water we can get about 5 km. If water sources are still every 3 to 4 km we need to carry at least 3 litres cover two water sources in case the first one is dry. To easily cover 10 to 13 km without worries like in the first example we would need a bit over 5 litres. That's a difference of about 7 lbs of water, and something we would like to avoid. In this situation, instead of taking enough to get 10 to 13 km we would only bring about 3 litres each so we can get to two water sources and then plan on filling up at every water source.

The second example shows how quickly you can go from 2 litres is okay and only needing to refill once or twice in a day, to 2 litres gets us to the next water source I hope its not dry. Making sure to plan out your water is one of the most important parts of a backpacking trip to make sure you don't injure yourself, especially in hot and strenuous conditions.

Pre-Season Preparations, Part 1

As the backpacking season fast approaches, Roslyn and I have identified some ways to improve our backpacking trips. We want to improve our distance, reduce injury and fatigue, and become more efficient in what we do around camp.

The first thing to do is get back into shape for the backpacking season. We have slowly been adding more winter activities to remain in shape, but hauling a backpack up and down hills for 10+ hours a day puts a lot of stress on your feet an knees. Proper conditioning is one of the things we have decided to focus on to help reduce injury and fatigue issues.

Our plan has 3 main parts to it, each helping build towards a goal of doing repeated 20 km days with minimal soreness at the end.

Part 1 - Frequent Use

Part one of our plan is to get frequent use out of our feet and knees. We have been doing this by heading out for about 30 to 60 minutes every day after work in the city. We have been making sure to keep the pace fairly high and to do about 2 to 4 km every day. Since pretty much all the walking in the city is on pavement/concrete this has been helping keep our bodies in a lightly used state.

Part 2 - A Weekly Push

Once per week we have been going out for a longer walk in the 8 to 12 km range.Our goal for these has been to keep a brisk 5 to 6 km per hour pace up the entire time. We've managed to get out for the last three weeks now early on a Sunday, which has been nice. Our plan is to keep these up and potentially push out to a 15 km in 3 to 3.5 hours by the end of the summer. Since this is without any weight and usually on fairly easy trail its a good work out and helps with some of the cardio side of things.

Part 3 - Sprints!

Now that the snow and ice are gone (for the most part) we are going to add intervals into three of our daily walking trips. To start we are going to do a 10 to 15 second sprint every two minutes. This will help get our cardio and heart rate up, but also help by putting more force onto our feet and joints during the sprint. The extra load will help with conditioning over time.

That's our current plan to get back into shape for the backpacking season. Our main concerns are avoiding any injuries on the way there, as repeated stress injuries are fairly common when hiking/backpacking with lots of weight for long periods of time. Slowly conditioning ourselves back into shape should both help reduce the chance of injury and help us go further.

Carry Your Weight - Food, Glorious Food!

After your base weight, food, water, and fuel make up the rest of the weight in your pack. Food weight is likely to be the heaviest of the three, at least for the first day or two out. Properly managing food weight will help the most out of the three consumables to keep your top pack weight to a minimum. However, you need to make sure you eat enough, otherwise you will fatigue too quickly and the day will be a lot harder.

The general rule of thumb used for food is 2 lbs of food per day. This includes all meals and snacks for the day. The trick is to pack as many calories as possible into that two pounds as you can, while still eating enough vitamins and minerals to remain healthy. And enough calories to fuel your body.

First up, here's two things to avoid while preparing meals for a backpacking trip.

1 - Avoid food with a lot of water in it. Water is dense at 2.2 lbs per litre, and has no nutritional value and zero calories. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and canned goods are heavy for what you get and should be avoided as the main part of your food supply. Roslyn and I bring some fresh food on day 1 when it will keep but after that everything should be as low water content as possible to keep weight down.

Leaving water out means using dehydrated or dried foods, and adding water to them on trail. This method works best if you can camp near water sources so that you don't need to carry water with you to make your meals at camp. If you do need to dry camp you can plan to have a supper that doesn't require water that night to minimize your water weight.

2 - Avoid eating just sugars. While candy, chocolate bars, and sweets can be low in water weight and high in calories they lack other nutrients and sugar is technically a toxin. Your body does not want to consume an all sugar diet, and even though you're getting a lot of calories you will not feel good or energetic. Sugar also acts as a minor diuretic due to your body trying to flush it out of your system, this means you will have to consume more water than normal to remain hydrated. Take some candy as a snack or morale booster, but don't make it your main source of food.

With those out of the way, here's some examples of what Roslyn and I typically bring for food.

Breakfasts

In a lot of cases we don’t bring breakfast. We find it slows us down and I don't lie eating in the morning. When we do bring breakfasts, they are usually 2 instant oatmeal packets each, or about 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal. We have also brought breakfast bars, and usually 2 of those is enough for breakfast.

Both oatmeal and breakfast bars tend to have a good blend of calories, vitamins, and sugar. They also don't have much water. The oatmeal will need to be either cooked with water or cold soaked, and most backpacking bars are pretty dry.

Lunch

Lunch on day 1 is almost always some cheese and 1/3 of a garlic sausage each (2/3 of a sausage is used). Lunch on day 2 and 3 is either beef jerky and cheese, maybe a bagel and cheese, or some bars and cheese. Cheese keeps well on trail for 2 to 3 days depending on temperature. The garlic sausage gets completely eaten day 1 between lunch and supper each trip because its heavy, but it's one of our luxury items.

Supper

For supper we either eat instant ramen noodles, instant mashed potatoes, or side kicks packages with dehydrated veggies flakes. On day 1 we treat ourselves and dice up the remaining 1/3 of the garlic sausage and throw it in too. We either eat 1 ramen or side kicks each or split 1 package of instant mashed potatoes. All of these meals need water added to them and are okay cold soaked if you don't want to bring any fuel (or if you forget it!).

Snacks

Since we generally skip breakfast and our meals are on the ‘light’ side, we usually bring at least 3 snacks per day each. We will have 2 cliff bars, 15 to 20 pieces of gummy candy, and some trail mix/nut mix/muchies mix each per day. We eat a cliff bar about an hour into the day, and then snack of the candy and trail mix as we go. If we are really hungry we eat the extra cliff bar at the end of the day.

Flavoring

To help make the food more interesting, we also bring some ways to flavour them. Spices packets and flavoured tuna packets work wonders on making 20 cent ramen packets taste amazing, and they are usually either inexpensive or easy to make yourself. We also try to bring either Mio or some water crystals to flavour our water occasionally as well as tea and hot chocolate powder for a nice evening drink.

So that's a break down of how plan our meals, with an eye on keeping weight down. We find that the 2 lbs of food per day rule of thumb is a pretty accurate metric to go by as long as you are taking low water weight foods. Unfortunately, this means that a 4 day trip adds 8 lbs of weight to your pack, putting Roslyn and I up to around 26 lbs, 18 lb base weight and 8 lbs of food. Once water and fuel are added in we start getting pretty close to the 30 lb limit we want to stay under.

Carry Your Weight - Backpack Weight!

This is the first in a series of posts I plan on writing about weight! Backpack weight, food and water weight, maintaining body weight on trail. Weight is one of the main topics on every backpacker's mind and is related to pretty much every topic in the hobby.

The most commonly talked about is backpack weight. Backpack weight is the easiest to measure, easiest to change, and the target weight is as low as possible while remaining in budget and comfortable. Because of this you'll generally be able to find a lot of information about how to minimize pack weight.

The only real question surrounding backpack weight is: What is the correct weight?

The rule of thumb many people use is to have a 15 to 16 lb base weight. Base weight includes everything except for your worn set of clothing, water, fuel, and food. Once you've gotten the consumables put together, your pack ends up weighing about 30 to 35 lbs for a 5-6 day trip. This is about as light as most people are going to go without starting to spend a lot of money (though you can find decent light weight gear for a low cost if you look for it).

One problem with this rule of thumb is that it neglects different body sizes. Smaller people can not carry the same amount of weight without risking injury. One study (linked here) shows that you should not carry more than 20% of your body weight, or 30 lbs, which ever is lower. The 30 lb limit falls in line with the above rule of thumb, but only for people weighing 150 lbs or more.

Why does pack weight matter? 

There are three main reasons pack weight matters: Fatigue, Energy Consumption, and Risk of Injury. 

The heavier your pack is, the faster you will fatigue. Increased fatigue means you won't go as far in a day, you will have an increased risk of injury, and you won't recover as quickly during down time. All of these issues mean that you lower your chance of completing your hike on time and injury free.

Energy consumption is somewhat related to fatigue, but increased energy consumption is a problem all on its own. Backpacking long distances with weight requires a lot of energy and many long distance trips require 4000 to 6000 calories per day to keep up with energy needs. If your pack increases your energy consumption even more then you may have to carry more food. Which leads to a heavier pack and a slower speed. A slower speed potentially means more food is required, which again increases pack weight. From what I have read, a fair sized group of people lose a lot of weight and many people stop hiking due to malnutrition. Lower pack weights can help with this by reducing energy consumption.

Increased risk of injury is probably the most significant impact of a heavier pack. The more you carry, the more stress you put on your feet, ankles, and shins. These parts of your body are prone to repeated stress injuries, and lower weights help to reduce the risk. You are also better able to control you body with a lighter backpack, mitigating the potential of tripping or reducing the severity of a fall when it does happen.

Our Pack Weight Journey

Roslyn and I started out with about 40 to 45 lbs of gear each on our first hike. By the end of it our feet were painful to walk on and we decided to start losing pack weight. Over two years we have succeeded in getting down to an 18 lb base weight or about 30 lbs for a 4 day trip. Over the next year we plan on trimming small amounts of weight from items until we can hit about a 15 lb base weight. This is both our comfort zone for pack weight and we get to keep some extra items we'd rather not go without.

If you struggle or have struggled with pack weight, or want advice on how to lower it, drop us a comment and let us know about it!

Two Person vs Three Person Tents

There's lots of discussion around the "Big Three" pieces of hiking equipment (tent, sleeping gear, backpack), but rarely have Roslyn or I found anything on the differences in what the size of a tent means when two people are using it. Having used a three person tent for all of the summer of 2018, and a two person tent for all our backpacking in 2019, here's some discussion on the differences.

Ease of Use

Three person tents are easier to use. Setting up two person or three person tents is about the same once you've practiced with your tent, but sleeping setup and gear storage is much easier in a three person tent that in a two person tent when you have two people sleeping in it. With the three person tent, there's enough room for two people and all their gear to sit inside the tent with some space left over, and you don't need to worry about organizing your stuff very much. With a two person tent, the entire floor space will likely be taken up with the sleeping pads being used with a bit of space left at either the foot or head of the bed.

What this means in practice is that in a two person tent you will need to be comfortable with the person you are sharing the tent with. Any slope in the camping area will mean the two of you are sliding together during the night and getting pretty close. You will also need to either sleep with your feet on top of your backpack or keep your back pack in the vestibule, along with quite a bit of other gear you would normally keep inside if there was room.

Roslyn and my setup with our two person tent has each of us put our backpack, shoes, one water bottle, trekking poles, wet clothes, bear spray (my side only), sit pads, and some other small items in our tent vestibules. In the tent we only have our sleeping pads, sleeping bags, clothing and other items in our dry bag, and electronics. We also hang some damp clothing inside the two person tent hoping it will dry off. If we have the three person tent everything except shoes goes in the tent.

Keeping organized with a two person tent will help a lot. Roslyn and I have laid out exactly where everything goes and make sure to always put our gear in the same spot. This also helps with packing up the tent in the morning and gets us out on the trail faster.

Weight and Packability

Two person tents weigh less and pack better. Our two person tent weighs about 3.5 lbs, while our three person tent weights about 7 lbs. The two person tent takes up less than half the space that our three person tent does in a backpack. The smaller size means we can do 4 day trips with our 30 litre backpacks instead of needing our larger 55/65 litre packs. The smaller size also lets us split the weight more evenly because we can divide up the food/fuel/cooking gear better instead of the tent taking up the space.

Setup Location

Two person tents are easier to find spots to setup. This is due to the smaller foot print that a two person tent has compared to a three person then. On well maintained trails with designated camping spots this may not be a big deal. On more rugged trails, places that get very busy with limited scramble sites, or in densely treed areas, having a smaller foot print has helped us get more tents in or get our tent into a nicer spot our three person tent would not fit.

Overall Comfort

Three person tents are more comfortable overall. The extra foot print size and head room in a three person tent makes stretching out, getting dressed, packing and unpacking much easier and less cramped. Being able to spread out a bit more while sleeping also makes the night much more comfortable.

Given the above four points, Roslyn and I have decided to have both a three person tent and a two person tent. When weight isn't a factor on canoe trips or car camping trips we opt to take the three person tent since the major downsides of weight and packability are moot. For backpacking trips we take our two person tent because we would rather cut out some weight and make the trail easier for ourselves at the expense of comfort at camp. Everyone has a different set of priorities though, so I hope that the above will help you come to a decision on what size of tent to choose.

Epinnette Trail Day 2

Just finishing up the last of the 2018 hike posts. New hikes and content coming up after this!

Date: September 16, 2018

Length: 21.6 km

Elevation: 200 m

Time: 8 hours 6 minutes

Day 2 of the Epinnette Trail dawned early and dark. We woke up around 6 am and slowly struggled to get going. The skies were over cast with a light rain, so we packed up most of our stuff then moved it all into the cabin that was about 40 feet away. In the cabin Roslyn heated up some water for a morning tea to try and warm up while Joel and I went back out into the rain to pack up the tents.

We started out around 7:30 am, which was pretty good considering the less than ideal conditions. On the way out we managed to get one decent view over the valley. The rest of the morning was spent trying to remain dry while hiking through the drizzle. Unfortunately, Joel was pretty fatigued from the day before, and Roslyn's knee was hurting pretty badly by the time we reached out break spot about 11 km in.

After our lunch break, the going got even slower as we tired out even more. The cool rain was not helping since we we couldn't get our muscles and joints warmed up and limber. We ended up taking another brake in the first cabin with about 2 km left to go. Luckily a group was just leaving and had the wood stove going, so it was pretty warm. Roslyn had to help Joel lift his legs up to elevate them because his thighs wouldn't work.

All in all, the trip was worth doing just because it got us out hiking. Joel is planning on coming on some more trips with us this summer, so at least we didn't scare him away from hiking!

Gear Review - Trekking Poles

So the next piece of gear I want to review is the Cascade Mountain Tech Carbon Fiber Cork Trekking Pole. I bought these trekking poles near the start of the season in 2018, around April, and used them for the entire summer. It took me until the end of April to buy the trekking poles because I was pretty skeptical that they would actually help. However, Roslyn bought a set and I tried them out, finding I quite liked them.

Usability

I found these trekking poles pretty versatile. They have quick-lock clamps for sizing, which makes it fairly painless to lengthen or shorten them when ever you need to. There is also a long choke handle below the cork handle that makes it comfortable to quickly shorten you grip by about 6 inches. I found this very helpful on the up hills because I could just shift my hand position down without removing them from the wrist straps and they remained comfortable and effective.

Durability

These trekking poles have been used is the snow, rain, and heat, for both cruising over flat terrain and for helping with rocky climbs. I've leaned on them both with the direction of the shaft and side on, and they never creak or seem like they are going to break. I've also gotten them stuck in cracks between rocks and yanked on them pretty hard by accident and they survived. The tungsten carbide tip is still in create shape as well, even though I've been slamming it into bedrock all summer. I would say that these are very durable and will last you for a long time as long as they're used for their intended purpose.

The only part of the trekking pole that I think might wear out is the cork handle. It shrinks a bit as it dries out, especially in high heat environments, and your hands will slowly chafe away at the cork material causing it to fall off. There is an option for an EVA grip which would last longer, but I went with the more comfortable option.

Comfort

The cork gripped handle is amazing. After using it for a few weeks it completely conformed to my hand, kept them from getting too sweaty, and stayed tight in my grasp the entire time. The extra handle is made out of EVA foam, which is comfortable as well, but I prefer the cork as the main handle material.

While in use, the poles also generate very little vibration that your hand feels. This helps reduce fatigue in your hands and forearms, making extended use more comfortable and less taxing.

The quick-locks also provide a lot of comfort in my eyes. They easily snap in and out of the tight position, and are much nicer to use than the twist-locks.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a light weight, sturdy, comfortable trekking pole then these will work perfectly. There are aluminum options as well which are a bit heavier but less expensive, and a more durable 3K version of the carbon fiber pole which is more expensive. I think the regular carbon fiber is a nice balance between all the options.

Epinnette Trail - Day 1

Date: September 15, 2018

Length: 23.4 km

Elevation: 161 m

Time: 7 hours 10 minutes

The Epinnette Trail heads east from the highway in Sprucewoods Provincial Park and winds along the top of the valley. Roslyn, myself and our friend Joel headed out on it to see what it had to offer. This was Joel's first long distance trip, and he was pretty sore by the end of it carrying all the backpacking gear. Overall though, he said he enjoyed himself and were planning another trip with him this summer!

We spent most of the day walking the trail, as per usual. The weather was overcast with a breeze, which was nice when we were moving, but a bit chilly when we stopped for a break. We made pretty good time on the trail as its about 3 to 6 people wide and well kept. We made it to the third campsite it good time, setup the tents and enjoyed supper and hanging out at the picnic table.

Overall, the hike was okay. Roslyn and I enjoyed being out in nature and hiking with Joel, but the trail left something to be desired. There were no spectacular views or entrancing wild life sightings, which was expected given were we were travelling. The trail was also fairly easy (sorry Joel!) and didn't offer the challenge that we normally enjoy. All in all, the Epinnette Trail system is perfect for people looking for a leisurely hiking for the purpose of getting out into the woods, but lacks the extra punch of a challenge or spectacular views for the more experienced hiker.

Cedar Bog - First Hike of 2019!

Date: Febraury 11, 2019

Length: 2.6 km

Elevation: 37 m

Time : 42 minutes

Yay! First hike of 2019 complete! Roslyn and I went out for a night hike yesterday when it warmed up to -12C, we needed to get out side pretty badly after all the cold weather. Cedar Bog trail was a nice little loop, about three people wide and pretty level. About 300 m in there was a tree decked out in Christmas decorations, which was pretty interesting to stumble across in the dark.

The hike was short, but a good outlet for some energy we had built up. It was snowing the entire time, which turned my beard into block of ice. Other than that, there's not much to say about this short but sweet trail.

Gear Review - Salomon Quest 4D 3 GTX Hiking Boots

Last summer I used the Salomon Quest 4D 3 GTX Hiking Boots. I bought them early in the year and broke them in when the snow was still on the ground before wearing them all summer. So far, the boots have seen snow, rain, high and low temperatures, and 400+ km of use. They are an all around sturdy boot that I would recommend to anyone wanting a heavier backpacking boot. Here's a more in depth review.

The Break In Period

The break in period with these boots was quick and painless. I started wearing them and was worried they would be stiff at first, but after about 5 km of walking in them they started to conform to my foot and by the end of 10 km they were happily broken in. Since then they haven't changed much and are holding up well.

Support and Protection

These boots have kept my feet in one piece through some rocky and hill trails in the Canadian Shield. When laced properly they provide excellent support for both the arch of your foot and your ankle, and have helped prevent numerous rolled ankles. They are also rugged enough that I haven't hurt my feet yet by accidentally kicking a rock or step while doing a climb.

Temperature Control

Like all waterproof foot wear, these boots run a little warm. I was concerned about how they would perform heat control wise last July when we were hiking in temperatures of 30 degrees celcius, but they were still relatively comfortable and I wasn't really suffering from warm feet more than I expected. I also found that there were no hot spots in the boots where they were causing and sores to appear on my feet or heat rashes, so all in all I'd say they did quite well.

I have also been using these boots as my winter foot wear for the last few months in Winnipeg, Canada. With a decently warm sock they are good at keeping my feet warm down to about -20 degrees celcius. Any colder than that and my feet tend to start getting colder after about 25 to 30 minutes. They've been serving me pretty well during the polar vortex were experiencing (temperatures of -40 degrees celcius before the wind chill) as my commuting foot wear.

Water Proofing

The water proofing on these boots works very well. I've used them to walk through low streams and pools of water, stood in pools of water with them for 5 to 10 minutes, walked through dew soaked grass and bushes, and taken them out in a down pour. In all cases, the only time the boots were wet was because of operator error (I forgot to wear water proof pants once in a rain storm).

With that being said, the boots take forever to dry out if they do get wet. On a good day your looking at 4 to 5 hours to get them to dry out if its warm and you can get a good breeze blowing in to them. If its cooler, say around 15 degrees celcius, and there's either no breeze or its humid out, your looking at 10+ hours to get them to dry. When these boots were soaked on our hike of the Pisew-Kwasitchewan Falls trail I had them off and tried to dry them out for about 15 hours but the humidity and temperature meant they were still soaked the next morning. This is a pretty common problem with water proof boots that I new about before hand, but it still sucks to put wet boots on.

General Wear and Tear

These boots have been used pretty well and so far are holding up very well. All the eyelets are still in good condition, the arch support is functioning properly, the tongue is in good shape, the treads aren't deteriorating too quickly, and the laces are working well. Not much else to say here except that they are pretty sturdy.

Conclusion

I would recommend these to boots to people that are expecting to be putting in some miles in rugged terrain or with a moderate or greater amount of weight. For day hiking these boots are probably a bit more than you need, but on multi-day hikes like the Mantario trail with lots of elevation changes you would benefit from using these.

Hiking in the Winter (or Canadian Fall!)

One of the joys of living in Canada is the extended duration during which you can enjoy winter activities. The snow, cold, and ice lasts a long time, letting you get out snowboarding, skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, and skating for about 4 to 5 months. The main downside is that it makes hiking a bit more difficult. By about mid-December I can guarantee the snow will likely be too deep unless we get some snow shoes, but that turns it into a different activity entirely! (Not that we don't plan to get snow shoes in the next few months.)

Two of the last three hikes we did had about 2- inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was about -10C. Hiking is still very possible but a few things need to be done differently.

1 - You have to use boots

When the snow get above about a half inch deep, you have to use hiking boots instead of trail runners. The main benefit to this is that the snow won't be able to work its way up and into the area where your foot is. Keeping you feet warm and dry is really important to both the enjoyment of the hike and avoiding blisters and sores.

2 - Poles make and even bigger difference

Once it starts getting a bit slippery, trekking poles go from helping ease the load on your legs and knees from the weight if the backpack you're carrying, to also helping reduce fatigue from trying to keep your core stabilized. If its slippery, you will use more inner thigh and core muscles than normal to keep your legs under control. Over short times and distances this isn't much of an issue, but over 10+ kilometer it significantly increases muscle fatigue. Trekking poles help to put that load on your arms, shoulders and back muscles if used properly. Then you just feel like you've lightly worked your whole body instead of did a double leg day at the gym.

3 - Micro-spikes are not a gimmick

Along with using trekking poles, good quality micro-spikes on your boots will also help reduce fatigue. They help reduce the amount of slipping you feet do, which in turn reduces the load on your body from trying to remain stable.

4 - Thin layers trump thick layers

This may just be a preference thing, but I greatly prefer having 2-4 thin layers on than having 1 or 2 heavy layers on. I have a lot of problems with heat management, in that I will heat up and sweat at even the lightest amount of physical activity. Having more layers means I can gradually reduce the amount of insulation covering me so that I don't keep suddenly changing from too hot to too cold as I remove one or two large layers.

5 - Remember to drink water

The cold really inhibits your desire to drink water when you're out hiking. The problem with this is that you still need to do it! You won't need as much water as if it were warm outside, but you still need more than you normally would while sitting around at home. When its cold out, I aim to drink a liter of water every 8ish kilometers instead of every 4 to 6 kilometers when its hot outside.

With these tips in mind, get out there and try hiking in the snow fall! Its a beautiful sight and you can get an extra month or so out of the hiking season!

Mantario Trail - September Long Thru-Hike, Day 1

Date: August 31, 2018
Length: 19 km
Elevation: 221 m
Time: 8 hours 6 minutes

Map of Day 1

I've already covered this section of trail from the South Trail Head to Marion lake, but its definitely worth an update given that we knew what to expect and made far better time. The weather helped with this a lot as it was much cooler than during the July Long trip. I would recommend waiting to do this hike until September Long weekend if you can, but it entirely depends on the year.

This section of trail is getting very familiar to us, which is a good part of our improved time. The trail conditions were also great, with very little water and not a lot of over growth. A volunteer group must have gone through the week before because all the dead fall was cut away and there were fresh piles of saw dust every where. I just want to give a huge thanks to all the Trail Angels our there helping maintain everything in the park, without them our trips wouldn't be possible.

The three of us at the start of the trail

Some beautiful leaves

Us having lunch at the tower

Purple flower

Field of some kind of pink plant

Lots of blueberries along the trail

Ferns along the trail

One of the major differences for us this time was getting into Marion Lake campsite early in the day. We actually arrived around 3:15 pm so we had a nice relaxing evening. This was good because I managed to step on a hornets next about 150 m from the camping area. I managed to sprint the entire way to the camp site, and luckily Tyler and Roslyn didn't get stung. After counting, I ended up with about 10 sting marks on my right calf.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and talking to some people around camp. Each new group was announced by their screams as they too passed the hornets nest. Out of the 7 to 8 groups that showed up, only one got through with no stings.

Beautiful sky at Marion Lake

A great sunset after a great day

By bed time, about 20 to 25 people were happily setup around the campsite, with everyone except us planning to do a 3 day hike. We knew our limits though and planned to do a 4 day hike, with the first two days being 20ish kilometers and the last two being 10ish each. We figured it would be a much more enjoyable pace.

All in all, the first day was nice, easy going and a perfect start to our goal of completing the Mantario.

In Roslyn's words:

We finally did it! We finally got our throughike of the Mantario Trail in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. Yay!

Preparing for a throughike has definitely gotten easier since our first one. We still print out our list and check the boxes but there is less “am I forgetting something?”. For this trip we decided to spend the night before (Thursday night) at Keystone resort, only 20 min from the trailhead. This made it easy to get trekking by 7am. I would definitely recommend this if you wanna get on the trail nice and early.

The first section of trail has become familiar, yet has stayed anything but boring. It is always a new challenge of improving your pace, or picking out something that has changed since last time. We made great improvements on our pace this round and made it to camp by 4pm. As you have probably heard from Connor’s side of the story, there was a very unfortunately placed hornet nest (right on the trail before camp) whose inhabitants  were no fans of Connor. Lets just say we ran very fast to the camp.

Marion Lake campsite is by far my favorite by far (spoiler alert). The water is crystal clear and I was able to go for a little swim. Next time I will definitely bring a small pair of swimming goggles to look around. With lots of pitch sites, two picnic tables and a privy, you really can't go wrong.