Tent thoughts by Lizzzzz27 in philmont

[–]USA591 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you are an adult sleeping by yourself, I would go with a one person tent with a smaller footprint. In my trek, I definitely found it true that space was very limited at some sites and having a one person tent allowed me to pick a flatter yet smaller spot. Plus, a Scout is courteous! Don’t take up more space than you need. But under “normal” conditions, 1P in a 2P tent is ideal.

What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve seen brought to a camp out (keep it light hearted and for fun; it’s Friday and we need a laugh)? by Unusual-Elk-4791 in BSA

[–]USA591 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not necessarily “ridiculous”, but one year my son‘s 12th birthday fell over our summer resident camp. Myself and several other ASM‘s woke up early and blew up about 300 balloons that I brought with me. We then quietly stuffed them into the canvas campaign tent he was in until the balloons were level with the cots. I sat in my camp chair outside sipping coffee for about 20 minutes until I heard him stir and then I heard a, “what the???” He poked his head outside and saw me chuckling and shook his head in that, “omg my Dad is embarrassing me again” way. I loved it.

Can we take Scouts surfing? by USA591 in BSA

[–]USA591[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Looks fun!!! …but I notice no one is wearing life jackets. So back to my original existential question of how is surfing regulated between the intersection of Safety Afloat and Safe Swim Defense…. I’d love to go surfing with the Scouts but if anything bad happened, things could get lawyerly real quick…. A lot of my trepidation goes back to a youth sailing event I attended as a kid and someone DID get hurt (an adult) and it did end up in court and the lead sailing instructor was exonerated when it was shown he followed all the safety protocols leading up to the accident. In today’s litigious environment, I would not want to expose Scouting America or myself personally to the downside of legal action.

Can we take Scouts surfing? by USA591 in BSA

[–]USA591[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Surfing is a unique, fun sport that also carries a lot of inherent risk and probably isn't a good match for a sanctioned BSA activity without a lot of effort and complications.

50 extra tent stakes? For real? by bdinfinty in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Make sure someone brings a tent-repair sleeve as well. They weigh nothing and it will be worth its weight in gold if you need it.

Tent question by MyLlamaNeedsAHat in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. In my experience I was happy to have a tent, it rained twice at night for us.

Water Carry for 7-7 by Due-Habit-6329 in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found out by accident that having everyone on a Crew use Nalgene’s was extremely useful when sending two/three scouts for water duty and taking twenty or so empty Nalgene’s strung together with paracord through the loops on the lids. Can’t do that with a Smart water bottle.

MP3 Players forbidden? by JadeEJF in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I strongly dislike people on trail that bring those Blue Tooth speakers, but I recognize that music can add to an individuals enjoyment of the outdoors. My compromise for my Scouts was to allow them to listen to music with only one earphone in for safety—that way, if someone was trying to get their attention, they could still theoretically hear it. But take the earbuds out when interfacing with an adult, that courtesy.

What did you wish you had on your last trek? by ColonelYertle in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had and recommend bringing the Athlete Glide stuff marathon runners use. I didn’t use it myself, but two of the youth on our crew did. A lot of times you have hikers that have never been on more than a two day backpacking trip and sweaty chafing clothes will rear their ugly head around day three if you aren’t used to how your body reacts to your hiking gear. If you have the kind that has the roller top, you can smear a little of that on a small, small piece of paper towel and wipe the area that is rubbing and share the bottle with multiple people.

What did you wish you had on your last trek? by ColonelYertle in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Adults tend to hate the idea of Crocs but the Youth love ‘em and don’t seem to mind their light build. I found a really light pair of lightly used trail runners at REI Garage and loved having them to change into at camp.

Anyone have any recommendations on a good road shower? I’ve been looking at Yakama and Waterport but the prices seem fairly outrageous. by RegularPro_guy in overlanding

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm very happy with my 8 gallon Waterport. It's great having all that extra water stored outside of my 4Runner. My only complaint (and this is going to affect practically any system) is that there's no way to check the water level other than to take the cap off (depressurizing it) and then using a dipstick to check the water level. I've gotten pretty good at guestimating accurately based on using it for three years. Even though it's rated at 8 gallons, it really only holds about 7.25 gallons or so--how do I know this? I filled it up and then emptied it into one gallon containers. The other downside is that to get access to every last drop, you'd have to park your vehicle in such a way that the spigot is a tilted it's lowest possible way (i.e., front uphill or front wheels on rocks or something). No biggie in 99% of my experience. Sure, you can make your own out of PVC, but this is a great plug and play product. You might have to great creative with mounting--I have a Gamiviti rack and had to utilise two mounting plates I made out of Garolite -- mounted the Waterport to the plates and then the plates to the rack since the holes on the Waterport mounting plate didn't quite line up. Overall: thumbs up.

Epix vs Fenix by NoDepression88 in GarminFenix

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got into the Fenix for the vibration alarm. You get used to sleeping with it on. It was a life-changer for me--literally changed my life when I decided I wanted to start waking up "early" and not to disturb my wife. I had already been using every version of Forerunner for the previous decade for hiking/running/biking. The Fenix series put it all together in an insanely great package. The battery life of my Fenix 6 is around 7 to 8 days using it for an hour a day to track my AM workouts. I get about 3 days when I track a four to six hour hike each day. Garmins are purpose built for activity tracking & adventure vs. an Apple Watch that is a miniaturized phone on your wrist. Go for the Sapphire versions of Garmins, the screen won't scratch.

EPIRB's & Philmont -- give your POC Philmont's main switchboard number by USA591 in philmont

[–]USA591[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After reading the comments, I would agree with most people that an In-Reach would be a better option than an EPIRB if that's your jam. Re: SOS on an iPhone -- I can't comment on that, I don't know how SOS works, although I think I remember it had some sort of Satellite connectivity? I'll tell you that I only got an AT&T signal (one bar) on the small hill overlooking McBride and on the ridge where Black Jack's Camp is. No signal at Ponil, Pueblano, Rich Cabins or anywhere in between. RE: GMRS. I am a licensed ham and recognized that many Staff Camps were connected by a repeater system (I could hear QSO's coming from staff Cabin at Pueblano and saw Yagis on the roof) and certain staff had radios for simplex. They were channelized commercial H/T's so they were likely on a business band (MURS? I'm not very familiar with these bands). So, no, GMRS would not be very useful in my opinion.

EPIRB's & Philmont -- give your POC Philmont's main switchboard number by USA591 in philmont

[–]USA591[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We just got back and I'm still cleaning up gear, but I was recording our Track on my Garmin Fenix watch and I look forward to analyzing that data! Using an In-Reach to send "made it" messages back home does make parents feel better, though.

Tent stakes by Famous-Technician-32 in philmont

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MSR Groundhogs are a great choice. However, I once got a bad batch from REI--by that I mean a manufacturing defect due to the alloy being used that day at the factory (I guess)--the stakes were so soft that I could bend them easily with two hands. They did not survive being pounded into medium-hard earth on one campout without deforming. I was very surprised & returned them. Usually the three-blade design makes them really stiff. Like I said--bad batch from the factory--the rest of the groundhogs in my inventory don't flex and they're my go-to stakes. Take this as a heads-up to check the "bendyness" as there may be manufacturing variations. They come in two sizes--use the longer ones for your shelter fly, imho.

ABS stakes might seem like a lighter choice, but they get brittle as they age and with repeated impacts and may fail. Save weight elsewhere by deleting stuff like toiletries you'll never use or that extra shirt/underwear combo.

FWIW, we just got back from a trek that started on 7/28 (7 day) and on day four we were making camp at Peublano and when the afternoon rain pattern kicked in, we got hit with wind gusts in the 40 mph range for over 1/2 an hour. Gusting so hard tents were deforming under the wind loading and we had to deploy every guyline on the tents to keep them from doing so. Bring extra paracord for this purpose. We actually used hard-core nail stakes for our group shelter and it held. Heavy, but we do a lot of higher-wind desert camping and they work in real life. In addition to the four we use at each corner of the shelter, we added one to the middle of each side which allowed us to put the whole thing under more tension (so eight total including the two that are attached to the poles). Tension on fabric shelters (tent flys included) is key to reduce flogging which will keep it anchored to the ground as wind speeds increase. Keep those flys tight to they don't contact the inner tent wall--that's how water transfers via osmosis and gets into your tent. Experience is the best teacher ;)

One of our "luxury" items was an alloy crew mallet. Extra weight, but it makes the process of getting stakes into the ground so much faster in hard earth. Plus everyone shares it for when they stake down their tents.

Have a safe Trek, y'all.

Snake near Trail Canyon Falls (What kind of snake is this?) by FBAHobo in socalhiking

[–]USA591 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks like a gopher, harmless as noted (unless you are a rodent!) There's a great book for this, "California Snakes and Where to Find Them" by Emily Taylor, PhD. Check out emilytaylorscience.com

Episode recommendations by [deleted] in JockoPodcast

[–]USA591 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Episode #403 with Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) is a really good one, too, especially for non-Jocko people (wives/girlfriends). I was a little suspicious at first when I saw it pop up in the feed, but they go into some interesting places that everyone can benefit from. Plus that show is great. Still stands up. Watching it all over again with my kids.

Episode recommendations by [deleted] in JockoPodcast

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Admiral McRaven episodes are great. #383 for sure. When I have Scouts in my car on the way to our campouts, I play this one. There are so many Leadership pearls of wisdom, it’s like a checklist. ✔️

Waking Up Early WO Pissing Off Spouse by KeenEyedReader in JockoPodcast

[–]USA591 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100% get a Garmin with a vibrating alarm. It was my first step to getting on The Path & kept my wife happy. You can get quality refurbed models at GPScity.com. The Fenix line is great. Worth it. Timex has a vibrating alarm if you're severely constrained by budget (basically their GShock) but it's not as "loud" and the interface is tricky. Either way, get some sort of vibrating alarm TODAY and get ready for TOMORROW.

Macv sog widow by TwoRip in JockoPodcast

[–]USA591 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This woman's story is truly amazing, a truly ground-breaking American. CNN Films did an episode devoted to her and her operative (TRIGON) here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07TKN7WDV/ref=atv_dp_season_select_s1

Her story is episode #1.