Posts by Olin Lathrop
It's definitely one of the cascade peaks, which are all old volcanoes. The question is which one. As others have pointed out Mt Baker is a possibility. Another might be Mt Hood. It's often not ...
It's usually not that hard to detect clouds at night after your eyes have adjusted to the darkness. So assessing weather at night is not much different from doing it when the sun is out. However,...
It sounds like you are referring to a pedometer. These things basically count footsteps or strides. The purpose is usually to infer distance walked or hiked, although there is some error in going...
Your requirements are conflicting. Think about it. It costs money to build showers and toilets and to provide running water. It's quite unlikely that someone or some organization is going to bui...
It is impossible to generalize which will make someone feel more tired. That depends on how fast you go, how you handle the intermittent steep parts, etc. You may feel more tired from trail A bec...
The vast majority of picnic sites are available on a first-come first-served basis. This is true across the many local, state, and federal agencies that provide picnic sites. These sites are for ...
Probably the single most important thing I do is to tuck the bottom of my pants into the socks. Ticks like to crawl upwards. If they drop onto your feet, they will crawls upwards on your leg look...
It seems you are asking about risks of lightning striking close by, but not directly on you. In other words, the lightning current isn't passing thru you on its way between the ground and the sky....
I don't know how to compute the odds, but being out on a lake in a lightning storm is a really bad idea. The mountains around the lake aren't going to provide cover. There are several models about...
Personally I want to be as unobtrusive in the wilderness as possible. There seems to be a lot of focus on, even fanatical devotion to, leave no trace. While bright colors aren't technically leavi...
This does look like some sort of turtle. Snapping turtles can easily get to the size you mention, and are fairly common. The picture doesn't give the impression the tracks are really 10 inches ap...
In general, you want to be in the south during winter. Another problem is that parks are more dispersed in the east. One strategy might be to start in the northeast (which basically means Acadia)...
Since you want more open rocky areas at lower elevation than above treeline in the middle latitudes of the country, you have two choices. As gerrit so aptly pointed out, one choice is to go north....
There is no universal answer. Each property is managed separately, so the only real answer is you have to ask the management of each property that you intend to camp in. By separate property, I m...
The robin should be quite capable of building the nest on her own. Almost anywhere there should be enough dried grass and small twigs around. It is unlikely your robin is having trouble finding b...
Five hours from San Francisco is enough to reach a good chunk of the Sierras and even further north in the area of Lassen and Shasta. There are large areas of national forest within this range. G...
I picture would greatly help. However, I suspect you are looking at the lines on the part you manually rotate relative to the fixed base part. Good compasses have something you can rotate to set ...
GPS is simply not a good way to measure trail distance. This is because the raw GPS fixes have a lot of noise on them. If you take them literally, then you get a much longer distance than you act...
Most hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers in the wild. Therefore, a hummingbird feeder should mimic red flowers for best results. The color of the "nectar" itself doesn't matter. After all,...
You don't, or at least shouldn't. As you say, it's public property, not yours. What you are asking is no different from how to leave garbage around your campsite so that casual observers won't se...
Hail is a result of the same type of instability that causes thunderstorms. Not all thunderstorms have hail, but most hail is part of a thunderstorm. Therefore, all the same warnings for thunders...
There are no electric backcountry stoves because there aren't long enough extension cords. Seriously, where do you propose to get the energy from? Batteries of current technology don't have the s...
I've never been to RMNP in the winter, so this is a wild guess. I'm assuming the higher elevation roads will all be closed. Look into how far you can drive up Fall River Road. If I remember righ...
I'm not sure how well this meets all your somewhat conflicting criteria, but take a look at Mt Taylor northeast of Grants. Grants is right on the interstate, and its not that far into the national...
You really should not leave anything. I disagree that the fire ring with logs around it is OK. That is only OK if it is in a designated camp site. Wilderness is just that, and should be left the...
