Four Dog Stove sponsors Uncle Tom’s CDT hike

Don pitching to the hikers at Trail Days 2011

Four Dog Stove is the major sponsor for my upcoming ( April 17, 2013) attempt to thru-hike the Continental Divide Trail, AKA “ King of Trails”.
I will be using Four Dog’s Bushcooker LT1 multi-fuel stove kit. In addition, Four Dog Stove has provided financial support for purchase of maps, solid fuel tablets, and 55 days of Mountainhouse freeze-dried meals for the remote sections requiring food drops.

My connection with Don Kevilus and Four Dog Stove goes back 15 years, when I purchased one of his 11 x 11 x 22 titanium Ultralight tent stoves. I still use it to heat my 9 x 12 Egyptian cotton wall tent in the winter and fall on toboggan/snowshoe and canoeing trips.

Four Dog stove, winter setup

Since then, I’ve purchased saws, books, titanium pots, as well as the only titanium tent stakes made in the USA.

I first met Don in Vermont at the Snow Walkers’ Rendezvous. He gave a couple of stove and fire building workshops and tended a vendor table, where he sold his handcrafted stoves, as well as a variety of survival and outdoor skills-related tools, strikers, books, videos, and knives.

I was intrigued by his newest creation, a small titanium backpacker’s model. I inquired about a purchase and Don encouraged me to make my own, and try it rather than purchase his $100+ creation. I liked him immediately.

I enrolled in his half-day workshop, where I had fun and successfully built my own twin-walled, secondary-burn multi-fuel stove. At the time I was backpacking with a highly modified ultra-light Sierra Zip stove, where the electrical components were the Achille’s Heel of the unit, and Don’s lure of lure of simplicity and efficiency appealed to me. After I built the stove, I made more of them at home. I was worked up about the little firepots, and gave them to my friends and family for Christmas gifts. I used that stove on my 2007 Appalachian Trail thru-hike.

In 2010 I completed a thru-hike of the 2,700 mile Pacific Crest Trail. This time, Don provided me with a Bushcooker LT 1, a 2.5 ounce single-person alcohol, solid-fuel, and wood/charcoal burning titanium unit that that nested in a Snow Peak Trek 600 ml cook pot/mug. An alcohol fuel cup, a windscreen, and my MSR coffee filter also fit in the mug, capped by a custom titanium lid. Don recommended welding two titanium tabs to the top of the cup that secured a wired bail handle to the pot, for moving it in and out of campfires as well as on and off the stove itself. The stove performed flawlessly, boiling up two to three times a day for 156 days. What convinced me that I had the best unit out there was when my traveling companions used mine whenever they ran out of fuel and were unable to locate isobutane canisters for their Pocket Rockets or Jetboils.

Five years ago, Don presented at Snow Walker’s again. This time, he asked me if I would serve as an assistant in his build-your-own Bushcooker class. I agreed, and learned a lot, mostly what-not-to-do, and how things can go wrong. I also became more skilled at explaining the details of the stove, and learned additional assembly tricks and tips. As part of the course, Don has also expanded what he calls his “Potology 101” talk, a working presentation of facts and table-top examples on the current use of biofuel for cooking on the planet ( over 2.4 billion people), with practical physics of heat values of the fuel types, and the science of heat transfer and efficiency, when the flame meets the pot.

In 2011, I assisted in sales and stove demonstrations at the Four Dog Stove booth at Appalachian Trail Days in Damascus, VA.

I now have 3,000 trail miles on my present Bushcooker LT1 and I’m planning another to use it on my upcoming CDT hike of 2,800 miles. Readers can follow
my daily Trailjournal .

Since then Don, has encouraged me to offer these build-your-own stove workshops here in Maine, where I have sold-out two of the adult-education programs in the past 6 months. I Don continues to provide me with a custom fabricated, titanium base plate that we use in assembling these units.

Simpler is better.

Carey Kish: “His toughest trek beckons”

In Maine’s Sunday Telegram.

Carey Kish: His toughest trek beckons | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

Tiki-man survives near drowning

Dateline: Spring Brook, Camden Hills State Park, Camden, ME

The normally staid water bottle, AKA Tiki- Man, barely survived a harrowing fall into the rushing, frigid  Class V rapids along Spring Brook on March 16, 2013, in Midcoast Maine.

Tiki-man taking well-earned rest on Vermont’s Long Trail

When Tenzing was getting refills for multiple water bottles near the bloated culvert containing Spring Brook, Tiki-man  leapt from his hand into the raging torrent.
While Tiki-man remained  collected, Tenzing became gravely distraught about the situation.Tiki-man was engulfed by the torrent that quickly propelled  him under the multi-purpose road above.  In panic mode, Tenzing scrambled up the embankment, only to become further frantic as he realized that the revered, purple, and ( at times) luminescent head was no where to be seen.

Glancing straight down the side of the road to the surface of the maelstrom below, Tiki-man was sighted, in an  immobilized state  within the backwaters of an eddy, but beyond human  reach.   Tenzing leaped into rescue mode, and quickly fashioned a three-pronged branch,  that he used to dislodge and release Tiki man, only to realize that the valiant water bottle was facing yet another harrowing scoot down the icy water.
Tiki-man courageously traversed at a diagonal across the channel, where he eventually struggled to maintain a tentative hold on the far-side shore.

Gripping on for dear life!

At this point, Tiki-man was clearly up against very thin ice.

The three-pronged stick guided Tiki-man past this last challenge into a still pool, where he was airlifted to safety by the selfsame stick.
Most importantly, Tiki-Man lived to tell the tale. He described his dunking as the most harrowing experience that he has ever been through.

Tiki-man is a seasoned, 6 year old water bottle. Tiki-Man has recently become  increasingly despondent at his persistent failure to lose enough weight to qualify him as an ultralight backpacking accessory. He occasionally mumbles about being teased as “a bloated relic” by Platypi and even the young upstart plastic soda bottles.
The colorful character has risen through the ranks of backpacking water bottles through his persistent dedication to thru-hiker hydration.

A veteran of three National Scenic Trails, Tiki man has endured unparalleled adventures on the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and  Vermont’s Long Trails.

The closest the battered water bottle had come to the slag heap of also-ran hiker gear was in 2007, when he was dropped from a day pack on the AT and left for dead in a crevice between a rock and a hard place. Extracted from his impending tomb by a hiker named Big Sky,  the revived Tiki-Man survived a dark passage through the US Postal Service, adorned with a mere one dollar and thirty-two cent stamp and a tattered Uncle Tom address label.

Undaunted by his early morning sub-freezing soak today, Tiki- man bucked up, and settled into place in the backpack, where the wizened vessel  supplied his human partner, Uncle Tom, with hydration on a  long winter day hike in the Camden Hills.

Uncle Tom, why are you wearing boots?

“Uncle Tom, why are you wearing boots? “ – One of the Kiwis, at Third Gate on the PCT (2010)
“I’m curious about your choice of shoes.  Comment please…”- Dennis on tjamrog.wordpress.com (3/2/2013)

You’ll see a fairly regular number of hikers wearing boots on the Appalachian Trail. You won’t see many boots worn by long-distance hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail.  I bet I’ll be the only long-distance hiker wearing boots on the Continental Divide Trail this season.

Here are some of the reasons from today’s Google about boot shunning, mostly from hikers on Whiteblaze.com:
Boots are considered so old-school as to be relegated to the slag heap of slide rulers and hand-held calculators that cost $50.  They are considered unnecessary, and so heavy that they are  a sysiphean drag on the energy required to lift each foot. They don’t dry out as fast as lighter, fabric trail runners. They supposedly “reduce blood circulation” (therefore your feet won’t be as warm than if they were in trail runners). Boots, ”increase the chance of ankle injury by masking features in the terrain that would turn an ankle”.  Boots cost too much to replace when your feet grow on a thru-hike ( compared to trail runners).  Gore-tex and other membrane boots don’t stay waterproof for long (Thru hiking “abuses the membrane” through dirt, sweat, and body oil….in as little as 45 days.)
Here’s an answer (whiteblaze.com) that begs critical analysis – “I thru hiked with boots. I had no issues with ankle support. ..Boots kept me from spraining or injuring my ankle”.  This answer illustrates the generalization fallacy, illustrated by substituting one word to change the statement to, “ I thru hiked with sandals. I had no issues with ankle support. Sandals kept me from spraining or injuring my ankles”.
People do complete thru hikes in minimalist footwear.  In fact, I saw a barefoot thru hiker on September 13 this year on the  summit of Katahdin.  It was this guy:

photo by Laura Hartenstein

He swears in this most interesting blog entry, “I will never wear hiking boots again.”

Few plusses are found for boots:  Boots provide “ankle support”, “keep feet cleaner”, protect if something heavy falls or whacks against your foot, and  are, “more durable”.  Here’s a durablility dreamer, “Do I want a pair that will see me through this hike and others in the years ahead?”  Obviously from someone who is still contemplating a thru-hike.

     So why buck the current trend?
History–> I started the AT in boots that were highly recommended to me from experienced staff up at Winterport Boot shop. They sold me a pair of Merrill Phaser Peaks
In 2007, I  began to get blisters within a week of hiking in Georgia, and some of the people I was hiking with encouraged me switch to ventilated trail runners, so I went to a pair of New Balance, and the blisters stopped. I then switched to Inov-8’s in Virginia with Superfeet insoles that took me all the way to Maine.  Unfortunately that combo left me with nerve damage and low-grade left forefoot pain.  Despite physical therapy, occupational therapy, acupuncture, medication, custom orthotics, and consulting the best sports podiatrist in Maine, I’m still affected.  It hasn’t gotten any better, but is no worse, even after two more thru hikes.

I was ready to start the PCT in April of 2010 in Asics Gel Trabucos when my brother Roy, who works as a costing manager for New Balance, told me that NB had just acquired a Vermont company, On the Beach, that manufactures military and tactical footwear.
“You are going to hiking in the desert, right?  These are the exact boots worn by Navy Seals in Afghanistan and Iraq.  I can get you a pair to try out.”
Long story short, I received free New Balance Tactical 802  boots for whole 2,700 miles, where I encountered NO blisters.

NB Tactical 802

I did jump up to a size 14, with PLENTY of room in the forefoot, that ensured my toes were not able to rub when I walked.

That,  plus 2 pair of thin merino wool micro-crew Cushion Darn Tough socks that survived the whole trip. There is no finer hiker deal than Darn Tough.  There is NO other manufacturer whose hiking socks last like Darn Tough, and even better,  the $20 that you spend on a pair is a lifetime deal.  Made in Vermont. “If you wear these socks out, we’ll replace them. Free of charge. No questions asked.”  It’s true, I have 2 new pair of replaced Darn Tough socks for the CDT.
People get blisters on the PCT, even General Lee, who is usually blister free, but whose feet succumbed to the volcanic grit that was present in Northern California and Oregon.
I now hike three seasons in the Bushmasters,  now renamed the NB Tactical 802, which also allowed me a blister free completion of  Vermont’s Long Trail  (2011).
I like being free of blisters.  The boots ventilate exceedingly well, and this trip starts in the Chihuahuan desert in New Mexico.  After they are soaked from rain or stream crossings, they dry our very quickly.  The specialized Vibram soles wear and grip nicely. The laces don’t wear. They are fairly light, and don’t have any metal in them, which is a military consideration.  They weigh 1.5 pounds each, where my Inov-8’s with Superfeet insoles weigh 1 pound each.  No big deal.

My beef with the boots continues to be the exposed stitching on the toe and heel cups.  I  went through 4 pair on the PCT and in each case, the stitching rubbed through, and made a hole between the plastic cup and and fabric where debris entered, and the separations increased, primarily on the toe cups. I communicated my concerns back to NB. The primary manager for these particular boots assured me that there would be a design modification in future factory runs of the boot that would recess and then cover these areas, but it hasn’t happened yet.

My brother Roy has helped me to secure five new pairs of Tactical 802′s for this trip. One pair was free, and the other four were sold to me for 60% discount, with free shipping.
This time, I’m coating the toe and heel stitching with a sealant, probably more than one thin coat.  Auntie Mame will send them to me when I need them.
That’s why I wear boots.  These boots work for me, but as Auntie Mame so perceptively put, “You could also call them ankle height trail runners.”  Enough already.

Soon it will time to “Stop Talking, Start Walking”

It’s 2013: The Continental Divide Trail beckons!

Artwork by Michelle Ray

Today, it’s officially 2013 and time to take action toward my latest big-deal adventure: backpacking the Continental Divide Trail ( CDT). I’ve got 3 months and 15 days to pull things together. I already have my plane tickets. I had air miles accumulating from my credit card for the past 5 years so the flight from Portland, ME to El Paso, TX cost me just $10 as did the trip back to Portland from Bozeman, MT on October 1.

In the past 6 years I have completed three thru-hikes: the Appalachian Trail in 2007, the Pacific Crest Trail in 2010, and Vermont’s Long Trail in 2011. Readers can access my daily Trailjournals from these journeys on Trailjournals.com, or click the hot links on the right side of my blog to get there.

On March 27, 2007 on my first day on the AT I met General Lee and then encountered Richard Wizard a couple of weeks later. We and several others held up as a “AT family” that eventually reached Katahdin together. We’ve forged life-long bonds and we reunited to complete the PCT in 2010, and in Lee’s case, the Long Trail as well. Lee is from Georgia, and Wizard from Texas. On the trail, we’re known as MeGaTex, and all three of us are on “ the bus” for this one, plus other people that I’ll introduce you to in the weeks ahead.

I started a blog in 2008, after I enjoyed writing about the daily adventures on the AT. Between my trail journals and my WordPress blog site I have racked up over a half million “hits” from readers. I’ve been rewarded many fold for my time spent whacking away at these keyboards, sending out my thoughts from the house or in the tent. The kickbacks just keep on coming. So, just to be perfectly clear- I’ll take any and all the help I can get.

So far, I’ve spent close to $500 on maps about this “King of Trails”, which is of undetermined length, ranging somewhere between 2,700 and 3,100 miles. It’s undetermined because it is not like the AT or the PCT, or the LT. It’s undetermined because the trail is only 70% complete, and 58% complete in the most northern state of Montana. You get choices to go high, go low, go over mountains, or walk riverbeds, or walk roads. The one defining characteristic about the CDT that makes it especially challenging is the tendency for hikers to lose the trail. It’s unmarked and unsigned, for sections as long as a couple of hundreds of miles. Depending on the depth of winter snows, the trail generally gets buried in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

Right from the start, you get to choose three starting points along the Mexico/ New Mexico border. I’ve been spending the last month familiarizing myself with the New Mexico maps, and still am not sure I understand where the trail goes. For example, I have the latest 2009 edition of the New Mexico Delorme Atlas and Gazatteer where I believe there have been major changes from the Acoma Indian Reservation below the town of Grants all the way up to the Colorado border, and that’s 1/3 of the CDT in Mexico. I’m concerned about the fact that New Mexico is mostly a barren desert and that natural water sources are as much as 150 miles apart.
I plan to update my official Trailjournal at least once weekly as April approaches.

The Tunnel Creek Avalanche story- New York Times raises the bar for newspapers

Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek, by John Branch

In September of 2010, I crossed US Route 2 at Steven’s Pass in Washington state, on day 146 of my walk from Mexico to Canada. At that point, my life was a daily, face-to-face meeting with adversity as I marched those last ten days into Canada. As tough as it was moving forward through 5 days of mid-forty degree rain, I made it.

Flash two years forward to February of 2012, when deep fresh powered dropped a mantle of snow on the Steven’s Pass ski area, when 16 expert skiers had the worst day of their lives, one where three of the group died, and the survivors will never be whole again.

The New York Times has just produced a long-form newspaper documentary of sorts about that day. What’s different about this web read is the depth of the research, and the inclusion of multimedia clips, active graphics, and moveable maps that accompany and enrich the article, which has generated over 700 reader comments. The images from this read have lingered with me for over 24 hours so far, hours that have left me with a desire to share this account with anyone who goes out into the outdoors and brushes against danger. It’s going to take you at least an hour to experience the “read”,  but do carve out the time.

Wild gets endorsed by Oprah

The cash machine keeps on kachinging for Cheryl Strayed. In addition to the recent announcement of being made into a movie, the book about her 1100 mile hike 1995 backpacking trip on the PCT is now the first selection of Oprah’s new book club . Check out the Oprah website with photos or Strayed on her hike, PCT photos, and loads of sidebars, ready for eager readers.

More Big Love for Cheryl Strayed

Further hype fuel. Reposting a gushing interview with Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, a book about her 1995 hike on the PCT. I reviewed Wild recently.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail- my book review

   I was made aware about “Wild” in a very brief paragraph in Outside magazine, which stated that Knopf believed that they could sell 100,000 hard bound copies of this book. What was not revealed in the article was the extent of the media blitz that would accompany the book’s release. Within the next several days, I was approached by a half dozen people who asked me if had heard of the book. One woman I barely knew plunked down a clipping of a Boston Globe newspaper review in front of me.  She knew me as a hiker. Next, I heard an interview with Ms. Strayed on National Public Radio. The publicity machine was cranking.  When I went to Amazon to check it out, the book had not even been released yet, but there were already numerous positive review of the book on the web site.
Never witnessed before was this level of national publicity of a book about backpacking that preceded a publication date.  The closest anyone came to generating this much hiker buzz was Bill Bryson, whose A Walk In The Woods account of his aborted thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail entertained America to no end. In that account , Bryson may have even invented the sidekick character Katz, who oafed along as a fat, unprepared, untrained, bad judgement machine.
       I have read some half- dozen books about thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and published my own thru-hike account of the PCT in 2010.  I expected this account to be similar until a few details were laid out.
     First, Ms. Strayed’s hike was achieved in 1995, and wasn’t a 2700 mile thru hike, but a section of 1100 miles, from Tehachapi, CA to the Bridge of the Gods, a metallic structure spanning the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington.       
    I expected to read about the perils and challenges of a novice hiker, beginning with her initial bad decision in picking the hottest and windiest little town on the whole PCT to start one’s  hike. The book can be viewed as a compendium of bad decisions, but it is more than that.
  When one reads an account of a long distance backpacking trip, it becomes quickly apparent that the author had better be exceedingly funny, perceptive, detailed, or else. The “or else” part is all the boring stuff that surrounds an activity where one wakes up in the morning in a desolate setting, puts on the same exact clothes that have been worn for the past several months, eats the same unimaginative meals, and moves along some 20-25 miles a day though repetitively picturesque countrysides.
   Backpacking accounts are, well, mostly about backpacking.
A considerable part of this story invokes Ms. Strayed’s life before the hike, which focused on her mother’s premature death from cancer, failed marriage,  divorce,  sexual encounters, and heroin addiction, in non-sequential and revolving order. The book is a series of illustrations of what can simply be described as a woeful lack of common sense in a woman who is vastly superior at writing than she is at generating practical decisions. Ms. Strayed had changed her name to suit her style, but may Wanda Wild might have been a better fit for her.
     The reader is advised to keep several  historical aspects in mind.        First and foremost is the fact that Ms. Strayed was hiking seventeen years ago, a time that was pre-iPhone, and pre-Facebook, when information about the PCT was limited and difficult to locate. Also, few people had completed the PCT, so there weren’t many folks to lead the way. The ultralight backpacking revolution had not yet taken hold, as Ray Jardine’s Beyond Backpacking had it’s initial release in 1993, and was just gathering momentum at that time.  In it, Jardine’s throws out just about every commandment from the Hiker’s Catechism as he pares his own pack down to a seven pound load and launches a new way of doing things.
   “Wild” takes some 50 pages to get to the first hiking parts when Ms. Strayed attempts to lift an 8 pound backpack that contains 14 days of food (28 pounds) and two gallons of water (16 pounds).  That’s 52 pounds, before the saw, binoculars, folding chair, camera flash, multiple books, deodorant, and roll of condoms is stuffed in there. Add the clothes.. Got to be 70-80 pounds on her back!
      Ms. Strayed shares with us periodic reports of her very own and inevitable blisters (upon blisters), pain centers, bleeding and bruised body parts, in intimate detail, as she moves, mostly alone, through a footpath that advances her toward her graduation from a school of some very hard knocks.  
    I found the book overburdened by the background story of Ms. Strayed train wreck of a life. Make no mistake, the book is brutally direct, Strayed’s observations are fresh and often funny, and she is an accomplished writer. Strayed’s description of the sanctity and solace of her evening retreats into her tent are among the best I’ve every seen conveyed in print.
    However, I approached it as a hiking-obsessed male who truly enjoys witnessing the transformation of personality as one engages in step one and progresses to the five millionth step on that majestic path.  So I read the book a second time, starting on page 50 to the end, skipping the frequent references to experiences with old lovers, parents, step parents, and pets, as I attempted to stick with the trail talk. That definitely shortened the book.  
    Did Ms. Strayed learn anything from her hike? I think she did.  How could you not? She learned to push away fear, released buckets of pent-up tears, and focused on just moving forward. The wilderness is a truth crucible.
I trust she learned how to avoid bleeding from her shoulders to her toes so that her next backpacking trips would be easier.

POSTSCRIPT: Reese Witherspoon is slated to produce and star in director Lisa Cholodenko’s adaptation of Strayed’s “Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.” Chodolenko will write and direct, while Strayed will consult as the script is developed, and will be an associate producer on the film. From Rotten Tomatoes: “Lisa Cholodenko made her mark on the independent film scene with her moody examination of sexuality, ambition, and heroin chic in High Art (1998)”.
Seems like a good fit.

This is the story of Hurricane

The Hurricane is approaching!

I met Hurricane in South Tahoe while I was off the Pacific Crest Trail for resupply in 2010. He lives in New Zealand, and the PCT was his first experience of long distance backpacking. Hurricane and I stayed in the same crappy motel in Chester, then shared a room in Etna, California. We ate restaurant meals and hiked together for several days, before he stepped on the gas and left me in the dust. The last time I saw him he was using a thrift store aluminum cane to support his ailing knee. But he cranked up to 30 mile days and made it, along with a reputation for being the PCT Class of 2010′s Mr Angry.
In 2011, to everyone’s amazement, Hurricane struck out from the Mexican border on another thru hike, this time on The Continental Divide Trail. He lasted just a month, when sickness, bad water sources, and broiling heat sent him packing.
Somewhere between May of 2011 and the present Hurricane went back and completed a solo thru- hike of the 800 mile Arizona Trail. From the Arizona trail web site ” Some complete the trail from south to north, and others from north to south, all typically choosing spring or fall as the best time. Desert heat makes the summers too dangerous, and winter snow pack makes many areas almost impassable. All who complete portions or the entire trail do their homework; researching passages and access points, caching food and water, researching maps, guidebooks, and GPS coordinates, researching water sources and communities along the trail, honing their route finding abilities, following itineraries, and many keep journals and photographic records of their journeys to share their once-in-a-lifetime-experience.” Hurricane did none of this preparation, and he doesn’t keep a trail journal.
Last night I received a phone call from Hurricane, who is back in the USA, in Georgia- this time attempting a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. He had been hiking for just 4 days and was just about to reach North Carolina today, averaging 20 miles per day. He’s passing everybody, despite telling me he is 40 pounds heavier than when he reached Manning Park in Canada in 2010. He also said he’s out of shape, and that knee surgery to repair his ailing knee was unsuccessful, and that he’s down to ” bone on bone” on the bad knee.

Hurricane’s is a great story to tell. I’m sharing his story to show that this long distance hiking thing defies logic, for some of us. All you have to do is decide to reach beyond yourself and take action.
I told Hurricane that I will help him through Maine. Given his bum knee and Hurricane’s massive internal push machine, further damage could halt him again. I really want to pick him up at Baxter State Park and celebrate his latest accomplishment.
I turn 62 in 2 days. I plan to take the day off and hike a bunch. I’ll give the Hurricane a call and wish him well- it will be good for both of us.