Musings on backpacking, whitewater rafting, and other random stuff

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Rocky's Hardtack Recipe

I really miss a bread-like food while backpacking, especially on longer trips. I tried many off-the-shelf bread, cracker, and tortilla variations, but they either tasted terrible or didn't last long in my pack or in storage.

Sometimes I would see references to hardtack, but hardtack is hard to find in local stores. I found a few recipes online, tried them, changed them, and came up with mine.

Don't let the name scare you, these aren't that hard (more like hard cookies), they taste pretty good, and they are easy to make for baking novices like me.

Lightweight backpacking in the early 1980s

Some people write as if the lightweight backpacking movement that started in the late 1990s was never tried before, and that all backpacking before that focused on comfort at the expense of weight.

Wrong.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

100 mile Backpack Trip in Santa Cruz Mountains

You can backpack for 10 days in a loop in the Santa Cruz Mountains, between Silicon Valley and the Pacific Ocean, hiking 8-12 miles per day. This trip is roughly 100 miles, depending on which trails you take, and which maps and signs you believe!


Trip Overview
Click to Enlarge
Image from Google Earth



Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Staying warm on the river

On a guides mailing list we were asked for tips on keeping paddler guests warm late in the day.

Here are some of mine:

Saturday, January 9, 2010

"Call and response" on the river

I've taught hundreds of boats full of whitewater paddlers how to paddle. The basic paddle commands for Class III whitewater are: