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Backpacking in a kilt and sandals

6/17/2012

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Summer is coming, get a kilt for backpacking.



For most of us, getting closer to nature is one of the best parts of backpacking -- fresh air flowing through our hair, sun on our skin, the feel of mountain grasses brushing across our legs; the texture of dirt and stone, bark and branch, grass and dew. Many backpackers may not know what they're missing by donning the encumbrance of boots and pant.

In 2007, I started wearing a kilt and sandals on backpacking trips, and ever since I have resisted wearing

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Trip Report: Yosemite Creek at Tioga Rd. to Tuolumne Meadows

6/15/2012

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Route: TH#14 Yosemite Creek to Glen Aulin HSC to TH#22 Glen Aulin
Date: 6 weeks after Tioga Road Opening
Duration: 3 days
Author: Jason
I received a head start on this trip by working in the Tuolumne Meadows area. I finished work at 4PM, showered and got a ride from Gary to the trailhead where Tioga Rd. met with Yosemite Creek. I ambled merrily up the easy clear trail while admiring the summer flowers, ge (read more here)
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Spring Gardening

6/11/2012

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Living where we do, we can have a productive garden year round. We grow kale, Brussels sprouts (sorta), onion, cauliflower and others in the winter, but I love watching how everything takes off in the spring.
We think that having a productive garden, no matter how big really, is an important part of a well rounded life. There is something elemental, a closer bond with nature, that comes with tending the soil and harvesting one's own food. I am grateful to have a little bit of land to have a garden. For this summer, we've planted cucumber, crookneck squash, zucchini, long beans, snap peas, four kinds of tomatoes, Anaheim peppers, a ton of basil and corn.
We're also fortunate to have an apricot tree, two peach trees, two juvenile Minneola trees, a blueberry bush, a baby avocado tree, three different kinds of grape vines, a walnut tree and a raspberry bush. We also have onion spread all over the place.

Most of the trees were here when we bought this small, ramshackle house. The rest are part of our plan to reduce expenses, to eat better and to have the confidence in knowing how our food is produced. Everything we grow here is organic and we do a lot of composting. We've planted from seed from trays and tend to them in our work room, we buy plants off of 'death row'.

We hope to be able to provide food for us, as well as be able to provide some for other local families. As we learn more, perhaps we'll be able to share what we've learned about productive gardening, and help it to spread in our community.
It's nearly summer, what are you growing?
(click on any photo to start a slideshow)
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Trip report: Yosemite's Lyell Canyon to Rafferty Creek Canyon

6/10/2012

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Snow cups near Ireland Lake
I've posted another trip report—this one for a trip that I always look back on with a great deal of fondness. This was my third backpacking trip in Yosemite, and it took place over the Independence Day holiday. I've always favored that holiday because of the time of year and the hot weather. The Sierra may still be showing signs of winter in July, but the days are generally warm even at high elevation, and there's likely to be plenty of sun. In fact, the sun and the lingering snow together create this interesting effect called snow cups. It's so fun to be hiking around in sandals on a warm day with patches of snow nearby. High-elevation trips are incredible—I just love them. Perhaps that's why this trip stands out to me, as it was my first to these altitudes in the Sierra. Here's my trip report!

~Nancy

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Trip report: North Rim of Yosemite Valley

6/8/2012

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I'm always especially excited when May arrives in the Sierra. Water is plentiful on trail and off, snow still lays on the high peaks to add drama to the landscape, and I can ditch my winter gear list and anticipate four lovely months of hiking in skirts and sandals under the warm Sierra sun. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy winter backpacking. But I'm a hot-weather girl through and through, and for me, even the beautiful hush of the snow-covered wilderness can't compete with hot days at high elevation.

Yosemite's North Rim Trail is a popular trail. Dayhikers, backpackers, and El Cap climbers and their supporters are common sights on this route. It's a good early season trip, however, because it's relatively low elevation and it gives you a bit of a physical workout without straining you beyond what winter muscles may be capable of. And if you enjoy appreciating Yosemite Valley landmarks, well, this trail will show them to you like no other.

Here's my trip report.

~Nancy
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Off trail in Yosemite, north of Fireplace Bluffs

6/7/2012

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Route: Entered in at Tioga Road and the South Fork of the Tuolumne River, Exited at TH#8 - "Big Oak Flat Road"
Duration: 4 days
Date: 3 weeks after Tioga Road opening
Plenty of water, no mosquitoes
Author: Jason Lucero
Our first trip of the season was an off-trail exploration in an section of Yosemite National Park that we've been curious about—a trailless area north of Fireplace Bluffs. During the early part of Yosemite's . . . (read more here)
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Trip report: Yosemite's Western Cathedral Range (my first backpacking trip)

6/6/2012

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I'm a relative newcomer to backpacking even though I've had the good fortune of going on nearly a dozen trips since my first, which took place only four summers ago. Although later trips have perhaps eclipsed my first in duration or adventure, few have been more scenic or more memorable. When I went out backpacking for the first time, I knew next to nothing about gear, preparations, or wilderness travel, and I had only my experience as a car camper to prepare me to walk into the wilderness. I was fortunate enough to have an experienced and knowledgeable guide for the trip, my partner Jason (at the time someone I'd known for only a few months), who was willing to take care of most of the details, loan me some gear, and look out for hazards and and variables I didn't even know existed.

I learned a lot on that first trip, and it laid the groundwork for the planning and successful enjoyment of subsequent trips. Thinking back on this trip makes me wonder about other couples whose relationships started with backpacking and also about everyone's first backpacking trip. I'd love to hear your stories and memories of your first trip out or how your backpacking partner became your life partner.

You can read more about my experience on this trip here.

~Nancy

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