Posts by Sherwood Botsford
I don't think you will get consistent 40-60 daytime highs (what I assumed you meant) anywhere that isn't moderated by the ocean. However Fiasco is correct: The Olympic Penninsula around Sequim is...
Some good answers here: Gotchas that can get the unready: A contour interval of 100 feet or 20 meters is common on mountain maps. Even a slope that shows an even gradient can have lots of stairs...
A tarp is significantly warmer. On a clear night the surface of your bag is radiating into interstellar space. Not much radiation back. With a tarp, you have one absorb/reradiate layer which wi...
Here's the way I would go about it: Firstly, don't worry about efficiency. Heaters by their nature are close to 100% efficient. All the energy is turned to heat. That said, thermostatically con...
Materials to consider: Counter tops: Formica on marine or pressure treated plywood. Working with formica is fairly straight forward. You need a battery laminate trimming tool. HDPE. High dens...
Numbers: You are asking the right questions. From 30 years of running about 4 weeks of trips annually: About 1 trip in 5 we would have an 'epidemic' of upset stomach and loose bowels. Usually t...
I don't think rabbits migrate. Disease cycles Rabbit and hare populations can crash by as much as 90% just from disease. If the disease crash is coupled with a high predator population, the rema...
Unless you are exposed constantly, you can probably deal with this by setting up reasonable ventilation. Either work outside, and stand crossways to the wind, or set up an exhaust hood or fan to p...
A good burning barrel needs holes near the bottom to supply air. A pick axe or a geology hammer works well for putting in the holes. Put most of them between 6 and 12 inches from the base. Used ...
I had permission to a bunch of adjacent farm/pasture/bush land near a school I worked at. I think this would be reasonable also in utility type public land: community pasture, national forest, wi...
If I slice across your knit rope, in a flat cut, how many strands would I cut. Looks like 8. Now use the best lies you can find about the strength reduction in a bend in kernmantle rope. My reco...
Edit: My bad. Poster is asking for globe -- the glass enclosure on the outside, not the fine thorium oxide ash mantle that breaks so easily. In passing: The lantern can be operated without a gl...
Rubbing alchohol is also an effective disinfectant. However, the problem is more general: Wearing socks inside foot boxes on a day in, day out basis is the root. Recommendations to prevent a r...
You are correct: Mittens work better than gloves, but are usually harder to find. The best mittens come as separate outers and inners. They dry much faster at the end of the day. If they soak...
Real examples abound. The best one from a story perspective is Wallace's "Lure of the Labrador" An entertaining read for so many bad decisions. They were out 5 months, expected to live by huntin...
I only wear hiking boots if there is significant off trail or heavy scree. The last dozen or so expeditions (1 week + trips ~50 lb pack) I did I mostly wore MEC reef boots, or divers boots, sized ...
If the water is sufficiently clean that you are willing to eat the fish, it's clean enough to use to bleed the fish. Dirt as such isn't poisonous. Clear water isn't necessarily safe. Two ways ...
I used to do canoe trips on the English River, in western Ontario. One of the mills polluted the river with mercury, and it made the fish poisonous to eat in quantity. Throughout the lakes downstr...
I have traveled the back country for 4-6 weeks a year for 30 years, mostly in the Canadian rockies and on the pre-cambrian shield. I've never used water purification, nor did we generally in our g...
Good zipper may keep out more water, but a rain flap will do the trick. A rain flap has a vulnerable direction. Driving rain from side with the open edge of the flap will seep further. Rain gear...
I think you did just fine. Key factors: You want the leather to be non flat, so the stone sits in in one place. This will get you far more consistent throws. You have in essence created the poc...
This is in the category with swimming pools, and trampolines, and jungle gyms. There is no way to be completely safe and still have it fun. Keep it close to the ground. This may mean getting a ...
Suggest you confirm by observation: This is sort of what I would expect to see from a squirrel eating. Take a closer look and see if you can figure out if they are crap, or just cores and peels...
This sort of hard decision happens at lower elevations. In some ways harder: The Death Zone scenarios obliges you to abandon the victim to save the rest of the party. At lower elevations it's of...
On a dare with a friend I went into the Saskatchewan River while the river was still running with broken ice, and there were bergybits in the main current. The bet was to stay in 1 minute up to ou...
