Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 16:39:02 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Bedichek To: pct-l@edina.hack.net Subject: through-hiker permits; start dates; stevenson 3rs and 2x tents i called the pcta office just now to ask about through-hiker permits. they said that they needed: 1. name and address 2. starting point 3. starting date (within a few days) 4. ending point 5. approximate ending date 6. number of people in the party 7. if climbing mt. whitney, approximate date of climb 8. signature the fellow at pcta said it would take about two weeks to issue the permit. is this what most through-hiker's do, get this permit? -------------------------------------------------------- i am tentatively planning to start april 15th and take the first two weeks slow, like 15 miles a day. this is a pace i found comfortable with a 40 pound pack, so i assume it will be easy with a 20-25 pound pack (16.5 dry, plus food and water). my thought is to take it easy at first to make sure i get in top shape with low chance of injury. also, since there is a lot of snow up north, if i go through the south fast, i would want to start later. does this make sense? -------------------------------------------------------- i'd like to put in a plug for margo chisholm's list of people planning to through-hike the pct this year. someone asked about possible partners: you could look at this list and perhaps send mail to people leaving about the time you want to leave. the url is: http://www.tothesummit.com/PCTRoster.html also, you can look at web pages of folks in this list to get more information about other people's preparations. mine is http://www.bedichek.org/robert/pct if you have suggestions or corrections, please let me know. -------------------------------------------------------- i have both a stevenson's 3rs and a 2x. the 3rs got heavier after i sent it back to be recoated. i think it is 5.6 pounds now. i'll check tonight. it has stood up to howling high altitude winds, but ripped apart as soon as tension was taken off the ends (we tried to collapse it as quickly as we could, but the metal poles tore like paper in a few seconds). stevenson's repaired it for a small charge. i've never had a stephenson's tent fail me while i was in it. the 2x is fragile, though. i think the 2x is 2.6 lbs now. my attitude towards equipment is that if i can abuse it and it doesn't suffer, it is probably too heavy. otoh, i wasn't abusing my 3rs when it ripped, but i also didn't mind too much because i no longer needed it that trip for protection. i've had the tents for about 16 years and like them. i may take the 2x on the pct, haven't decided yet. 've never met jack stephenson or ray jardine. but from reading their stuff, i think they are kindred souls. both into lightweight gear. both with strong opinions. both sound like they'd be difficult to be around. ------------------------------------------------------- thanks to brick (and others) for his great posts. rob ps. i make no claims to be a big authority on backpacking -- heavy or light. i've never done anything on the scale of through-hiking the pct. i appreciate most of the advice i've gotten from people on this list. pps. sorry about cc'ing the list on that reply to an individual earlier today -- i didn't mean to do that. =================================================================================== Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 09:40:21 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Bedichek To: Jeff Jones Cc: PCT list Subject: Re: [pct-l] Potassium permanganate jeff, i was on a trip where we used potassium permanganate to wash our hands before eating and decanted saturated iodine solution to sterilize our water. i don't know what when wrong with our system, but nine out of ten of us got very ill. perhaps the PP solution did its job and something else went wrong. i've recently heard that the iodine-based water sterilization techniques are not effective. i am planning to through-hike the pct this year with a water filter. they are heavy (close to a pound when wet, which they usually are), but it is the right tradeoff for my risk/comfort/weight profile. (the trip was in 1983. we tried to walk from kashmir through zanskar to ladakh (northern india). we failed, but not due to illness. my girlfriend at the time wrote a book about the trip, which i hope to add to my web site soon.) rob bedichek http://www.bedichek.org/robert On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Jeff Jones wrote: > Howdy listers, > I was talking yesterday with a pilot that had just completed a 2 day > survival school here in the desert. He was singing the praises of > potassium permanganate (KMn04 if my memory of chemistry is correct). > The pilot has spoken with some municipal water treatment agencies that > use it and it was reported to be more effective than iodine or > chlorine. I asked about taste and color (it's dark purple) and he said > that at the concentrations used for water purification (don't know the > exact numbers), the color and taste were not noticeable. At higher > concentrations where the water is purple, it can be used as a soak to > treat athletes foot. From my aquarium days, I vaguely remember > something about it's antifungal properties. Lastly, he mentioned that > they used it as a fire starter. A gram or two sprinkled on an ounce of > sugar was wrapped in a gauze pad (the kindling). Place on a hard > surface and then scrape hard with a stick. Poof!!! Fire. The gauze > pad caught on fire long enough for small sticks to be added. Thought > I'd throw this out on the list to see if anyone has pros or cons, or the > concentrations that should be used. Sounds intriguing to me, at least > enough to start some investigating anyway. > Jeff Jones > > * From the Pacific Crest Trail Email List | http://www.backcountry.net * > ==================================================================================== Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 14:01:00 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Bedichek To: pct-l@backcountry.net Subject: Re: [pct-l] Bic Stoves On Sun, 7 Mar 1999 Montedodge@aol.com wrote: > Butane stoves are just glorified Bic Lighters with grills on top. These are i realize that the poster likes to bait people here. i'd like to add some facts to the excellent responses already made. 1. propane and butane have significantly higher energy density than white gas, about 35 btu's per gram as opposed to about 25 for "coleman fuel". that means that you don't have as much weight on your back for the amount of potential heat energy you are carrying. 2. everest expeditions use propane/butane (i've seen their used gear for sale in namche bazaar at 12,500', about 15 miles from the west buttress, and along with a lot of other sturdy high altitude gear are left over propane/butane stoves and canisters.) so along with the "good for girl scouts, etc.", please add "everest expeditions". 3. the hottest burning backpacker stove that i know of is the titanium primus. i have one and it is much hotter than any MSR i've used. in fact, i sometimes boil water w/o full throttle. with a small pot, the flames are so hot it can make it a little difficult to handle the pot. 4. as others have pointed out, temperatures on the pct may-octover, even in the worst conditions don't prevent propane/butane stoves from working. let me add that i have nothing against all the other stoves. i'm not telling anyone what kind of stove they should take. "hike your own hike", etc. some general comments about people giving advice: 1. when someone says "you are crazy to do X", i turn off. if they instead say "i've tried X or seen someone do X and the outcome was Y" (where Y is not good), i take it more seriously. 2. different people have different levels of acceptable risk and that will results in different decisions. 3. people who cast blanket criticisms on ray jardine's book haven't read it. people who have read the book realize that jardine was not making an unqualified and simple statement that all hikers should carry eight pound packs. he was showing how he and his wife did the trail and how others might learn something from it. 4. people who have hiked the whole pct in one season tend to favor light packs. 5. people who take a lot of gear (perhaps for the good reason that they need it to achieve their safety/goal/comfort tradeoff) have an emotional investment in their decision. this leads a few of them to criticize others for making different decisions. i recall climbing three fingered jack (in oregon) w/o helmets and getting "attitude" from some group climbers who were all wearing helmets. this was a climb where there was minimal exposure to rock fall. it wasn't crazy to either have or not have helmets. it was a personal decision. and for a group it made more sense to use helmets. i have seen plenty of people unprepared for extreme situations (e.g. winter camping in upstate n.y.) and i've only made a (friendly) comment once. that was when a father was using unsafe rock climbing technique with children. the children were correctly terrified. other climbers were also distressed by what they saw. together, we gently suggested to the unsafe leader/father that he not do what he was doing. 6. just as there is a risk of needing something you don't have, there is also a risk in taking something you don't need. jardine makes this point well. personally, i found ray's book interesting. like a number of people who have read the book, i have lowered my pack weight, but i don't go nearly as far as jardine himself does. i'm sure jardine would say "that's great, glad you found my book useful". i'd like to thank folks on this list for some great advice. rob bedichek http://www.arctic.org/~robert ================================================================================= Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 14:23:10 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Bedichek To: Greg Hummel Cc: pct-l@edina.hack.net Subject: Re: PCT Pack List On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Greg Hummel wrote: > You list bandaids and neosporin but no other provisions for your feet, ie: > tape, bandages, etc. Do you assume that the lightness of your pack will > negate the need for these? I wouldn't. greg, with much heavier packs and with less comfortable foot gear, i've found band aids work the best for me. when i was a kid, i liked moleskin, but the few times i've used it in the last several years, it seemed to do more harm than good. i've also had a bad experience with surgical tape, which tends to turn to a mushy gluey gob and cause blisters. the things that should help my feet are: 1. comfortable, light, new running shoes (replace every 700 miles) 2. a light pack 3. regular washing of them, my socks, and athelete's foot ointment 4. a hiking attitude of "i'm here 'cuse i love to be outdoors, making manning in september would be nice, but it is not the main goal". 5. a willingness to modify or even make foot gear. (the later is not as crazy at it might sound: one one trip i cut up part of my sleeping pad to make sandals. they didn't last long, but they gave my feet just the relief they needed from my light leather hiking boots.) i have heard good things about second-skin. i was thinking maybe i should take that along and give it a try. i have suffered greatly on a few past trips from foot problems, so know how bad it can be! but i rarely have problems when using running shoes. question: if you were in my situation, what else would you bring for your feet? rob =============================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 13:33:42 -0800 (PST) From: Robert Bedichek To: SFox Cc: pct-l@edina.hack.net, Annie Warren Subject: Re: [pct-l] sleeping bags > Haven't seen this discussed yet since I've been on the list. What kind of > sleeping bags y'all using? Down compresses so much better, but when it >... i've used nothing but down for a long time, but for my planned through hike this year, i bought a north face "climber 3d dry loft" sleeping bag. it weighs 859 grams (1.8 lbs). it compresses to be almost as small as my 2 lbs down bag (a north face blue kazoo bought 15 years ago). the new synthetic bag carries a rating of 30F. it seems hard to beat by much in either volume or weight by down. and i think it will hold up better, especially when wet (hopefully, i'll never have a bag that is wet, but just in case ...). on a related subject, i decided to go with just a tarp and ground sheet for shelter. i had had a bivy sack on my list (2lbs) in addition to ground sheet and tarp -- i figured that if it were really windy and raining that i'd suffer too much with just the tarp + ground sheet. but i found that i can comfortably use my pack as a bivy up to my thighs (i.e., me in my sleeping bag, then stuff the bottom part in the unloaded pack). my pack isn't perfectly waterproof, of course, but the tarp should keep 99% of the rain off. if the rain is being driven in at an angle by the wind i figure that i can use some combination of the ground sheet folded over me (it is 2x the area i need) and my umbrella. if it gets really bad, i do have an emergency foil blanket (53 grams) to provide an additional waterproof layer. my pack's dry weight is now 14.5 lbs. i very much appreciate the advice i got from people on this list. i think i have all my equipment set -- just need to continue training, make the mail drop parcels, etc. rob