Posts by Olin Lathrop
I can't answer for Ontario or that route specifically, but only give you a general idea how private property and trespassing works in the US and Canada. You are right in that we don't have Alleman...
No, 100 ml per hour is way too little in many circumstances. That would mean only 1 l over a 10 hour hike. Anyone that's been on a 10 hour hike, even not in particularly hot or dry weather, can t...
Yes, there have been studies on how much various fabrics insulate when wet and dry. I remember Dr Murray Hamlet mentioning these statistics in one of his lectures on outdoor survival in the cold. ...
No, it doesn't matter much. The regulations for what can be done in a national monument or park (the only difference between the two is that one is established by presidential edict, the other by ...
What you are specifically asking for is quite rare. That is because any place wet enough to have the kind of grass you want will have trees. There are vast grassy areas in the center of North Ame...
Many printer drivers and other software allow you to "tile" a large document or a magnified one on multiple pages. You can usually specify the overlap between pages, which only needs to be enough ...
Since wide open plains is one of your objectives, I'd stick to the relatively drier areas east and north of the northern end of the Sacramento Valley. The coastal range is quite wet in comparison,...
35° is 35°, whether in your car, in your pack, or in your refrigerator back home. However, handling raw meat otherwise is very different outdoors than at home. Personally, I think bringing raw me...
Mountains change height on geologic time scales. If a list of mountains above a certain height changes in one or two human lifetimes, then very likely this is due to measurement errors or refineme...
No, there is nothing on the AT that justifies carrying a firearm. The extra weight and space is much more of a detriment than the extremely unlikely and frankly inconceivable case where a firearm ...
Unfortunately your picture doesn't give a good sense of scale, but my first reaction was that it looked like dog poop. Some other canid is also possible, with coyote being the most probable, then ...
By "black bear", I'll assume you mean Ursus americanus, the North American black bear. These bears are opportunists and aren't looking for a fight. In all the encounters I have had with them in t...
The Henry W Coe State Park is within reasonable driving range, and offers many hiking trails with good vistas and surprisingly few people. I go into more detail here.
There are quite a number of options, although the 4000 foot requirement pretty much limits it to the White Mountains of NH, the northern Green Mountains of VT, and a few peaks in ME. It's not clea...
No, you should definitely have stayed in your vehicle. Think about what lightning will do. It is attracted to tall conductive things, but that's not the whole story. A vehicle on a flat plane is...
About 20 years ago, I had a whole day free between two business engagements in the Bay area. I stumbled upon a apparently little-known state park that if I remember right was south and a little ea...
I'd give them whatever my device or map provided me, and let them convert to whatever their devices or maps use. Anyone used to receiving lat/lon coordinates regularly should be able to convert fr...
I have been researching sign construction various ways, with asking a question here being one of them. I was just forwarded a email from Adobe Signs, replying to questions from the Groton Conserva...
My town (Groton MA, USA) has 110 miles of trails open to the public, but virtually no signs helping people navigate at intersections in the woods. I am on the Trails Committee, and I'm pushing har...
To answer your other questions: No, don't insulate the pole at the bottom with a sandal, and yes, you are overthinking this. In the relatively unlikely (but possible) event that lightning does sti...
The first thing to do is to not pitch your tent in the middle of a flat area when there is a chance of thunderstorms. Sometimes that's not so easy, but that doesn't make it any less a good thing t...
I would avoid swimming across if possible. For fording the stream, find a wide and shallow section. If you have a group of people, interlock arms and walk across together with the line of the gro...
Personally I would not want to mount a camera on a backpack. Sooner or later you're going to slip or bump into something and the camera is going to get hurt. Mounted on the backpack doesn't sound...
Unless you're talking way above treeline, you can get some idea by what the vegetation looks like at the top or how far the peak seems to be above the treeline. This works reasonably well in the W...
Consider whether you really need to have dry shoes before going thru all the trouble. In the winter, wet footwear can be a serious problem. However, when it's warm out there is really no danger f...
