Posts by Ben Crowell
What you want to do seems to be referred to by the Forest Service as "dispersed camping," and you can find a lot of information by googling on that phrase. Different jurisdictions seem to have diff...
It sounds like what you want is a personal locator beacon (PLB). They cost about $250, and there is zero cost after you buy it. It's not a phone. It's just a beacon that broadcasts your position so...
IMO you totally don't need a tent. Plenty of people, including me, prefer to sleep out under the stars even if there's no hut. It can be difficult to sleep with a wind blowing across one's face, bu...
Maybe Pinnacles National Park. Or if you go across the Golden Gate, Point Reyes is gorgeous. Watch out, because some of the trails in the more remote central coast backcountry areas have not seen ...
Any 8-10 mm nylon rope will hold many, many times more than your body weight. Climbing ropes are designed to hold dynamic falls, not just static body weight. You could easily get away with 6 mm ac...
American black bears They are somewhat common in some wilderness areas of California, mostly in the mountains. In their natural state, black bears are thinly populated on the landscape because it ...
What wild animals are there in California that can be dangerous or create hassles, and how do I avoid problems with them?
The US doesn't have anything like the Scandinavian right to roam (Swedish allemansrätten, etc.). Private land is usually fenced, and it's against the law to enter private land while hiking without ...
Welcome to outdoors.SE! Most of us have probably flown in airplanes on altitudes greater than that in pressurized passenger airplanes and didn't feel any fatigue at all. I think you gave a pa...
I see an ultralight tent as an expensive piece of backpacking equipment, with the alternative being a tarp. Compared to the tarp, the tent is slightly heaver, much more expensive, easier to set up,...
I normally climb with a single 10 mm x 60 m rope. On some multipitch trad climbs, I don't expect to have to rappel off, but I might have to in an emergency. Many people carry a special-purpose 6 mm...
You could think through some of the possible problems based on your knowledge of the area: roads with fast traffic; cattle that could hurt the dog; livestock such as chickens that the dog could kil...
I have a pair with the big-toe strap, and they're very comfortable when I wear them with toe socks. When I first got them, I tried wearing them barefoot, and found that I could only walk a few mile...
This question has some information about when to retire a rope. The core of a rope doesn't become weak from top-roping or from sustaining lead falls with a small fall factor. It becomes weak from s...
The idea that caffeinated drinks dehydrate you or "don't count" toward your body's water requirement is a myth. Laboratory studies have shown that caffeinated soda is just as hydrating as water, i....
You certainly don't want to climb so high that your hips are above the clip before you do the clip. Your arms aren't long enough to reach down that far. When leading trad, I would typically prefer...
The guy who taught me to lead sport in the gym suggested that when I'm going for a clip, I position my body so that the clip is somewhere between my hips and my chest. He claimed it was a bad thing...
Others might be able to give a more authoritative answer to this, or relate personal experiences where too much distance was a problem. However, I think there would be a clear problem if you were t...
Big, heavy "waffle stomper" boots are mainly a relic of the past, along with wool knickers and steel canteens. For most conditions, modern running shoes work far better. Any weight on your feet cut...
Here in California, a lot of trails have signs with a triangular diagram, showing that cyclists should yield to hikers, and both cyclists and hikers should yield to people on horses. I don't have a...
What do you mean by a directional figure 8? Is that a figure 8 on a bight? An overhand on a bight is quite secure if carefully dressed and pre-tensioned on every strand in opposition to every stra...
Interesting question! Here is an article describing the techniques used by arborists. The article describes a number of different techniques and different pieces of gear. I'll describe one specific...
Although theoretically one can do canyoneering alone, in reality it's not something you can safely start doing all by yourself, especially since you don't have mountaineering or rock climbing exper...
Welcome to outdoors.SE! Older buildings often contain asbestos in solid form, and it may be sealed up (under floorboards, in tape around heating ducts, etc.). As long as it's not ground up into dus...
This is an example of a general topic called self-rescue. There are textbooks on the subject: Reference request: books on self-rescue while climbing . The simplest situation would be where the arm...
