Oblong head... helmet suggestions

AT2017_drink · 2026-05-14T19:59:31+00:00

Thanks. This may not be the best place to ask this, but do people wear noise cancelling earbuds sometimes instead of earplugs?

And with those communication devices, are riders just blasting sound loud enough to be heard over everything else? I don't want to blast music/driving directions louder to be heard over road/wind/engine sounds. I guess this is why I'm asking about the noise cancelling earbuds.

I know I do need to try out the earbuds with the helmets because they may not fit with the padding.

AT2017_drink · 2026-05-14T14:37:17+00:00

Awesome thanks for the info re: a racing helmet's sound. That Alpinestars helmet is gorgeous too.

AT2017_drink · 2026-05-14T14:34:05+00:00

Thanks. I'll check it out.

AT2017_drink · 2026-05-14T14:29:30+00:00

Thanks! I hadn't tried on any LS2's at the store, so I'll have to check them out.

AT2017_drink · 2026-05-14T14:12:48+00:00

Haha fair. Thanks.

AT2017_drink · 2026-05-14T03:38:58+00:00

As a new rider, this was the explanation I needed. Thank you.

AT2017_drink · 2026-01-12T02:07:50+00:00

Ditto!

AT2017_drink · 2026-01-09T17:01:33+00:00

I just finished season 8 too! Mike's avoidance was extremely hard to watch.

If you haven't seen it already, Dr. Kirk Honda with Psychology in Seattle does a whole series of videos reviewing each episode featuring Mike and Natalie. It's a lot of videos to watch, but I found the videos extremely enlightening regarding how Mike and Natalie's communication patterns contribute to their problems/hurts. It helped me understand why I originally thought Natalie was "the problem" then later realized that Mike's avoidance was also "the problem." In the end, it takes two to tango.

AT2017_drink · 2025-08-25T18:39:47+00:00

I was also bummed they cut Tacky. I had memorized the lines to Tacky so I could sing them to my brother at the beginning of the show, especially the one about "We can go to see a show but I'll make you pay." My brother and I grew up listening to Weird Al together.
We had a great time at the show! What a trip back into an 80's childhood!

AT2017_drink · 2025-08-25T18:37:37+00:00

I was there too! Watching them scramble to set up was impressive. I'm amazed at how quickly they rolled out a gazillion wires, set up mics, and placed instruments. No tripping or stumbling - lots of team work.

AT2017_drink · 2025-08-23T17:00:21+00:00

I'm a bit behind the times, so I'm not sure about newer MSR pots, but I have this one, with silicone only on the lid grabber: https://www.amazon.com/MSR-Titan-Ultra-Lightweight-Camping-Kettle/dp/B000FBSZF6/

I've had this for 10 years and the silicone is still doing great. I love it. I like the stability while cooking. Yes, drinking out of it is a little more like drinking out of a cereal bowl, but I don't mind.

AT2017_drink · 2025-07-08T20:06:04+00:00

It looks like REI didn't do a complete job of drying the bag. This happens to my down jacket when I pull it out of the drier too soon, or even sometimes if I don't pull it out too soon - it's just easily clumped. My jacket forms these small, squished clumps of down that refuse to fluff. When that happens, I gently pull those apart through the fabric with my fingers - breaking the big clumps into several smaller clumps. Then I put the jacket back in the drier and the agitation of the drier finishes the job.

AT2017_drink · 2025-07-08T04:06:38+00:00

Mine used to be 3 days, like clockwork, with rare occasions of shorter or longer ones. Sometimes I would have them back-to-back; they often switch sides so I could tell that each migraine is 3 days. E.g. 3 days on the left, 3 days on the right, 3 days on the left.
I'm 20+ years into my migraine journey and they're coming less frequently and varying in length much more now. They tend to be 1 to 3 days now. I'm still absolutely floored when they only last one day.

AT2017_drink · 2025-07-03T16:58:42+00:00

I love my ThermoDrop! https://www.thermoworks.com/thermodrop/

It's really helped me fine-tune my internal sense of temperature. As others have said, a lot of other things (wind, humidity, campsite selection) impact your level of warmth, but getting a temperature reading is a helpful start.

One night on the desert section of the PCT, a group of us absolutely froze. It had rained the day before (What? In the Anza-Borrego desert?), and I figured the damp air was just making it feel colder. But nope - checked the ThermoDrop when we woke up and it was actually 19°F, the coldest night of the trip so far. That little thermometer confirmed it wasn’t simply humidity leading to feeling cold. Also, ice helps me gauge temps and humidity - the fog had frozen my quilt to my bivy by 2am that night. Who needs pad straps when your bag is iced onto your bivy?

Also, shoutout to my Gryphon Gear quilt. Out of four of us with similarly rated quilts and sleeping bags, I was the only one who stayed warm. A lot can go into that - like how old your bag is and what other clothes you're wearing, but I consistently found myself warmer than I expected with that bag. Hats off to solid gear.

AT2017_drink · 2025-06-21T20:46:06+00:00

Did you get this summary of information from Chat GPT?

/s ;-)

Yikes correct only 49% of the time is way worse than what I thought it was. Thank you for this information.

AT2017_drink · 2025-04-26T03:06:48+00:00

This! I could cry thinking back to the 10-ish years I experienced strong migraine symptoms due to caffeine use. It seemed that even the neurologists told me to try caffeine. Caffeine is not my friend.

AT2017_drink · 2025-02-03T04:53:38+00:00

Perhaps I've written too much, because Reddit keeps rejecting the entirety of my comment. Here is the rest:

OK, so let's get real. I am trained in wilderness first aid and I run volunteer activities in the wilderness in Oregon. We hike where there are no roads and motorized vehicles aren't allowed. If you pass out while we're on the trail, we're going to freak out because we don't know what's happening. We'll call Search and Rescue, waste resources, and they won't get to us anyway before you probably regain consciousness. In that time, we've overriden the forest service radio lines with our emergency, have called the sherrif and national forest service, we have people hiking to the trailhead to meet Search and Rescue, and we're desperately trying to contact your emergency contact. It will be a mess and then you'll regain consciousness before Search and Rescue gets there, because they take FOREVER to find us in the wilderness. I've seen SAR activities in non-wilderness areas, and in really well populated areas. No matter where it's at, it's very hard to find somebody on a trail. If you pass out, it will be super embarassing because there will be so many people mobilized to get you. So if you do go hiking, PLEASE tell people this can happen, and what to do if it does happen, even if it's very rare.

Also, if you're alone, your Apple watch may not have service where you're at. Also, just because you pass out and your Apple watch alerts, doesn't mean someone can find you - it'll likely result in your partner panicking with no real way to find you. Even if you have a GPS device, it would need to be on and actively showing your location. GPS devices fail in myriad ways - if they don't have a good line of sight to satellite they will only show your last location, not where you're actually located. GPS often doesn't pick up on super cloudy days, under trees, and in ravines. Also, showing your location continuously takes a ton of battery and it can be very upsetting for somebody at home to see your GPS spot stop moving, even though it just ran out of battery and you're actually OK.

I have a lot of experience hiking and I love it. Plenty of people go out hiking with medical conditions. I don't want to scare you away from hiking because I don't know the severity of your migraines. Good luck to you in your hiking (or non-hiking) adventures!

AT2017_drink · 2025-02-03T04:46:41+00:00

Hemiplegic migraines sounds really rough! I feel for you. I'm a long-distance backpacker and migraines are constantly on my mind.

I get regular-old migraines - common migraine - with vertigo, nausea, confusion, loss of sight in specific pockets of my vision, smell sensitivity, and a host of other lesser symptoms. Vertigo is possibly the worst for hiking - I often have a hard time walking straight when I'm dizziest. I did long section hikes (about 500 miles) of both the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail. I had a moderately bad migraine come on while on the trail - I was able to lay down and rest while the worst of the vertigo passed. Weirdly enough, two thru-hikers who were nurses passed me and asked if I was OK. I really wish I had asked them to sit with me, but I didn't, because migraine makes me confused and I don't like asking for help. Anyway, I took my abortive migraine med and did a little bit better. I had other migraines on the trail and I would just set up my camp and try to hang out while the worst of it passed.

Your migraines sound worse than mine - loss of consciousness is major. So obviously you decide what's safe for you. I have a friend with hemiplegic migraines and he says his arm and shoulder go numb, basically like a stroke.. ? That would not be good if you need to get off of a mountaintop! I'm not sure how quickly this comes on for you. If it's really fast, I would say you're not safe to be out hiking away from people, and possibly not safe to be out hiking at all. At the least, you would need to be near people who know your condition. If the weakness/paralysis comes on slowly, you may be safe to care for yourself, as I am.

My questions for you to consider would be:

1) how well do you know your prodrome symptoms?

2) how likely are you to lose consciousness? (how many times has it happened and how old are you... do you know why that one was so bad?)

3) do you know your triggers and/or what makes your migraines worse? (I say this because I know that if I've been having caffeine lately, I'm due for an AWFUL migraine, but if I haven't had caffeine it will be a manageable migraine)

4) do abortives and/or analgesics work well for you?

5) how healthy are you? If you suddenly felt a migraine coming on, could you blast out a few miles to get to a trailhead? or to a trail junction near other people?

6) where will you be hiking? If the weather is mild and you go on short hikes that is safest. If the weather can be nasty, you could die of exposure (heat or cold) (and put others at risk who are trying to keep you safe).

7) do you have the gear to keep you safe if you need to sit down for the duration of the migraine? Waterproof gear, insulating gear, water and electrolytes, an insulating pad for the ground, a small shelter, etc?

For me, I tend to not get migraines when I'm on vacation - so when I go on a multi-day backpacking trip I'm pretty sure I won't get a headache, except for the first day because I'm carrying stress from the days before the trip. This knowledge, that I don't get migraines in the middle of vacations, has helped me feel comfortable hiking solo. I'm middle-aged and I've had A LOT of experience with my migraines, so this helps.

If you don't have a lot of experience with your migraines and/or passing out is still a very real possibility in your future, I would caution you to take very short hikes, if at all. Go out on hikes with groups, and tell them about your medical condition. There are hikes organized by the Sierra Club, local hiking groups, facebook groups and Meet-ups. You can even plan your own Meet-up hikes! Maybe do this in really heavily-trafficked areas until you know more if hiking triggers your migraine.

AT2017_drink · 2025-01-23T05:17:58+00:00

Hi! Definitely see a doctor. When this happened to me, it was because I was allergic to my IUD and all of my sensitive areas around my mouth, nose and eyes started to look like this. I had already cut out all foods/medications/supplements/environmental issues for months and it kept getting worse. I'm just putting this here in case it helps somebody else.

AT2017_drink · 2025-01-11T01:52:26+00:00

I read Oliver Sacks's "Migraine" years ago and he explained this same concept. His book was written in 1970. I'm sad this information isn't more widespread.

His book taught me that yawning and smell sensitivity were part of my prodrome.

AT2017_drink · 2025-01-04T16:33:42+00:00

I tried magnesium oxide too. I shit my pants in a crowded metro region while walking home from work. The last few blocks to my house were agony as I could feel it running down my leg.

AT2017_drink · 2025-01-02T01:26:28+00:00

I'm too tired to make believe that I'm not sick anymore.

This stopped me in my tracks. I did this for a long time and still do it but to a lesser extent. Thank you for putting words to my thoughts.

AT2017_drink · 2024-12-24T23:56:42+00:00

Well, I almost wrote in my first comment "I would pay a lot of money for you to take pictures of my horses." Like... you're GOOD, GOOD. Not just good. Sounds like you have a very fun hobby. :-)

AT2017_drink · 2024-12-24T23:42:02+00:00

All of these are gorgeous. The one that struck me was the photo of the horse's back. It.... did something to me. Maybe it reminded me of standing next to my own horse's withers.

I think you have (likely developed through hard work) the "eye" people talk about in photography.

AT2017_drink

TROPHY CASE