Posts by Olin Lathrop
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....
15 km (9.3 miles) is really long for the average 5 year old, especially when it's 65% longer and at higher altitude than what she's used to. This sounds like a bad idea to me. You say you can car...
Unfortunately, much of the shoreline of Mt Desert Island looks like that, particularly on the east and south. Stop and think about what you were doing before and after being there. There is only ...
I'm not sure what exactly makes a trail more blind-friendly as apposed to something like wheelchair-friendly, so I'll answer for handicapped-accessible trails in general. The vast majority of trai...
Both words refer to the same topography, which is a saddle point. The land goes up in two opposite directions, and down in the two other opposite directions. To me at least, a col is just this ba...
I have never heard of wild boars charging a tent. I really don't imagine that happening, assuming there isn't a human visibly standing in the doorway or something. Wild boars predominantly charge...
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,...
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...
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....
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)...
This is a good question, and there are actually some scientific issues to consider. I think morally we can all agree that it would be wrong to kill someone to eat them. But let's consider the sit...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Our town (Groton Massachusetts) formed a town committee a few months ago to concentrate on invasive species issues. Since we are new, we are trying to find our way and decide what exactly we shoul...
There are several ways to determine true north, especially when you have a map and compass: Competent maps, like most intended for backcountry hiking, will have the magnetic declination marked. T...
