One of the places I hiked last year had warnings about Alligators. It made the whole hike VERY stressful. It didn't help that a storm was moving in and the sun was setting. A nice muddy, marshy hike. I kept looking for eyes staring at me :eyebrow:

It wouldn't be my first choice of a place to hike, but I could see myself getting into it. Trudging through and endless marsh.

It was a rainy time. I don't know if it's usually that muddy. My boots sunk a couple times. I thought I was going to lose it once. If I had been wearing my tennis shoes, I definitely would have!

I'll have to see if I can find a picture that does it justice

Been a wet year up and down the East Coast.
If you find yourself headed for a waterfall...

No trees to string up your hammock or rain fly?

I've seen bad reviews for that. Like, there's not a lot of room between you and the car. I thought about getting one initially.

Close is fine just roll the window down with the A/C on.;)

When you're camping you might have to retain your site or picnic table by arm wrestling for it. This is my can't lose system. ;)

Re: Step #2



Heh, can you imagine if someone made a movie based on a single arm-wrestling move?

Doesn't look all that different 100 years ago.

Playing with fire...

No bugs, no smoke choking, no weather worries, no noisy or nosey neighbors, going in style...

Do you hate the stressed out holiday season? Get away, leave the Maalox behind, go camping.

First rain and 29 degrees. Maybe next year.
That's a nice collection though.

One got repeated but it's the portable bar so acceptable. :blush:

Carrying fire...

Makes me think of Quest For Fire.

Speaking of fire, these could be dangerous...

http://cellar.org/img/campmatch.gif

...like a little tiny road flare...

That's pretty interesting.

Here's a link to the manufacturer's site:

Firestarters

There are a couple of brands on Amazon, apparently they burn for 15 seconds come hell or high water.

The literature says that if the striker on the box they come in gets wet, it won't light them.

Maybe that's why some come with extra strikers.

It just seems odd that they can make matches that burn when wet; but, can't make strikers that work when wet.

Yeah, with matches a wet striker wets the match head and everything goes to hell, but these fuckers burn underwater?

That's just weird.

Hmm...

Handy, and deadly!

If you are going off the beaten path, or even if you're not, know how to fall with the least damage.

That illustration is not particularly well done. Figure 3 says to bring the arms to the side of the body; but, doesn't mention that the forearms, wrists and hands should be brought towards the midline of the body to avoid injury. This is depicted in Figure 4 (on the down side) and should have been stated in the text. It should also have stated that the lower arms can be brought toward the midline of the body down low to the groin; or, up high to protect the head (preferred).

The lower arms should be brought up to protect the head in most cases. Sometimes they have to be in a low position such as pulling down on the risers and flaring a rectangular parachute before doing a parachute landing fall (PLF), controlling a rope through a rappelling/climbing harness, holding attached gear out of the way so as not to land on it...etc.

The technique is applicable to many situations, not just the ones mentioned. It is perhaps best known in parachuting application. Below are a couple of vids (the 2nd a 20 sec. excerpt) and a Wiki article that demonstrates the technique applied as a PLF. If it'll work there, it'll work just about anywhere:

If I fall it will be because I tripped or fainted, not climbing anything higher than a bar stool.
I'm certainly not jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. :headshake Only crazy people do that.

This makes sense although I recently read fugetaboutit, just hightail it for a car or building as fast as you can.

Attachment 69854

Don't forget to put a marker down in case the ball get blown away. :rolleyes:

"The only thing touching the ground should be the balls..."

- keep on reading, there --

How long do you think you could maintain that position? I figure about a millisecond as I'm passing through it on the way down.

That's too low.

DIY ladder...

Attachment 70023

I'm skeptical of that shrub he tied it to. :eyebrow:

If you're going to carry that much webbing, why not just carry a nylon web ladder? There're plenty on the market.

A lowering line is more practical. First lower your gear; then, climb (or body rappel) down yourself.

That way your line has to be twice as long as the drop in order to retrieve it, doesn't it?
This way the ladder will plummet with you when that twig rips out of the bank.

Making a ladder, the line has to be twice as long to make the loops and you don't have a line release either.

With a lowering line, you get twice the distance for the same weight; also, an equal length of lightweight 550 cord (makes the weight cut) can be carried for attachment to the release end of the line to retrieve it.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, stayin' afloat, stayin' afloat...

I've done this as an exercise and it's harder than it looks. Though, wetting my pants before going overboard from a sinking ship would probably be pretty easy.

At my high school, everyone had to bring an old pair of pants to gym class one day to do that in the pool.

:thumb:

I did that in boot camp.

What, wet your pants? :stickpoke
Seriously though, that was a training drill?

I’ve tried that out a couple times when I was a kid. It’s fun and works. Fun in July in a warm lake.

Back in 19diggity5 the Kaiser kept kept making people wet their pants. We fought a war to stop this!

I lost my pants on 9/11, you insensitive bastards!

And I lost my shirt in the recession of '08.:drummer:

What goes with the 2020 Depression?

Bourbon

Mota

Had to Google Mota, had never heard that term.

Use a flare gun without killing yourself...

I'd be nervous carrying a gas bottle as a bumper, but it is clever...

Drinking water from the ocean, or other polluted source...

SMRT

Yeah, that struck me as clever.

We're hiking a couple mountains this weekend for a veterans charity fund-raiser. Tip of the day, get an early start because the parking areas have been over-crowded since COVID lost its grip on NY. Also be careful of the alpine vegetation.

Maybe bring a garbage bag and fill it as you hike out towards a popular trailhead?

Yeah we generally do that. Usually there isn't much trash but the recent surge in hikers means a lot on newbies who don't know the ethics of the the place. Typically we also try to summit on weekdays.