Knowing that the Mallard Slough trail and Don Edwards National Wildlife Reserve would be closed soon for duck hunting season, I planned for a Hillside Stragglers hike for the last weekend in September. We had some scheduling conflicts arise, so the hike was rescheduled to the following Saturday, which was literally the last possible day […]

Moving on from food and drink… I was pleased to have the DWR coating on my Patagonia down sweater, which again performed very well. It also makes a fine pillow when in its stuffsack. Below 40F I’d prefer something warmer , although something heavier than my usual long-sleeve Capilene 1 shirt would help. When the […]

It’s a new week and time for a new blog post, so I’m going to jump right in here with the next set of my Frog Lake observations: the noms. Perhaps the most memorable chow we had was the Packit Gourmet burger kit. It will nicely fill four tortillas and was a big hit, despite […]

Continuing my series of observations and lessons learned, I have more post-trip notes this time because of the surprise weather we enjoyed. So I’m splitting this trip debrief into three parts. This post deals with the weather-related issues. As our backpacking trip approached, the forecast called for partly cloudy skies, a Saturday afternoon high of […]