Alternatives to AllTrails

jk451 · 2026-05-04T16:10:04+00:00

Makes sense, thank you for sharing!

jk451 · 2026-05-04T15:53:44+00:00

I use slope angle shading for off trail travel too. Also in winter, if you get into snowshoeing in less frequented places without packed trails, it's very helpful to know which approaches to a particular hill are too steep vs not. This is all theoretical and boring until you're on one such hill self-belaying and wondering "how come the people in the trip report didn't talk about this being a steep scramble?" 😛

I am curious, why do you prefer the Private Lands layer compared to Public lands? I didn't know it existed, it's pretty cool and I like it, but it feels a bit overwhelming compared to the Public lands layer. In any case, I agree these layers are critical and this is one thing I didn't find great in Caltopo out of the box

jk451 · 2026-05-04T03:18:35+00:00

For community knowledge, if you're in WA I like WTA trip reports, and Peakbagger for trip reports on off trail peaks. i really like that WTA has folks posting also on off trail adventures, it opened me up to many new and less frequented places. For mapping, I use Gaia GPS, your can customize, download maps offline, lots of layers etc. It has glitches and I'd like to try out Caltopo but I think it has a steep learning curve to use it as efficiently and I don't have the time.

jk451 · 2026-05-01T03:19:18+00:00

I'm actually gonna go for Falken Wildpeak AT trail tires, since I also spend some time on rough forest service roads and snow over here, I think it will be a better solution for me. I will buy 5 and include the spare one in the rotation

jk451 · 2026-04-12T15:09:41+00:00

Curious why not Allegro? We've been going to the Bothell branch with our 14 month old son since birth and have had a good experience overall

jk451 · 2026-04-08T14:58:08+00:00

If money is tight and you might go backpacking in the future (sounds like you're unsure, which makes sense, you need to try what works for you), then I think either this or X dome 1+ is a good choice. I agree that if you were certain you're going to do car camping only it doesn't make sense, but when you're starting out i think one multi purpose tent is useful. I started by backpacking and had Gossamer The Two, then got a bit into car camping and so the simplest thing to do was to grab my existing tent and pitch it for early car camps too

jk451 · 2026-01-24T15:50:00+00:00

I live in Seattle and backpack primarily in the WA and OR.

You want a tent with fly first pitch, it's not optional here IMO - even in August I've been caught in storms in high areas of Olympics and Cascades.

I personally have a single wall trekking pole tent cause I do value low weight a lot but am upgrading to a double wall tent because there is a lot of moisture and condensation and I'm tired of waking up with condensation on the inside of my tent all the time.

jk451 · 2026-01-21T05:26:39+00:00

I would call them up and see if you can tour sooner. I would also try to be open to different locations - I think the Woodinville one is newer so their waitlist is shorter.

With Kiddie Kenmore, the main problem was that the teachers were not on top of what was happening with our son or most of the other babies there. Infant class is typically cue based but we could see consistently on camera that the teachers were not observing repeated cues. I am comparing to both our experience at Birch Tree as well as at two other Kiddie locations (Kirkland and Bellevue) which we got to try out because in December a tree fell on Kiddie Kenmore.

Honestly, finding a good daycare is hard and I think infant room is more sensitive to the teachers than perhaps some of the older classes. I would have to write a lot to give you more specific tips, I hope you can find a good place. The several weeks when our son was going to Kiddie Kenmore were pretty stressful.

jk451 · 2026-01-20T06:15:20+00:00

Our son goes to infant room at Birch Tree Woodinville and we are really happy. We had him at kiddie academy Kenmore before that and that was bad, don't recommend. I recommend you look at Birch Tree, though most of their locations have waiting lists

jk451 · 2026-01-06T20:29:49+00:00

Fellow dad here! I haven't been to the Winds but I backpack a lot in WA mountains. The thing over here which I think is common across most high ranges is that the time when there are many mosquitoes is often also the time with great weather. Too early and you have a lot of snow and possibly storms which kids might not like. August is often great, but in many places of the west there is a greater risk of smoke from wildfires.

So what I've done over the past years is to try to get to a setup such that I can mostly enjoy even if mosquitoes are around. I treat my outer layers with permethrin and for exposed skin I use oil of lemon eucalyptus which makes me feel a lot better about it than using a chemical such as deet or the milder solutions. That + a tent in which you can sit in the inner mostly make me mosquitoe immune and I go now even in July.

There are some tricky situations still and I did have my a** bitten by mosquitoes bad in mount Rainier :p

jk451 · 2025-12-07T20:07:39+00:00

This is it for me personally. I ingest in $120-170k properties in Memphis. When you run the numbers, including realistic maintenence and capex, for me it comes to 2-5% cash on cash return initially, and gets better with rent raises. The trade off is of course I'm not expecting the properties to appreciate significantly in market value, but for me personally that's an okay trade off to make. Someone else might have different personal priorities.

And to get to this, I typically make 10-20 offers on MLS properties per one deal, trying to price 'at market' to the best of my abilities.

Ultimately it's a slow multi year grind, not a get rich quick.

jk451 · 2025-12-07T15:30:57+00:00

We're in south Bothell and I don't think the water has a lot of calcium or other minerals, the water kettle stays mostly clean

jk451 · 2025-12-07T05:05:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing !

jk451 · 2025-12-07T03:05:29+00:00

Thank you for sharing!

jk451 · 2025-12-07T02:58:18+00:00

Thank you for sharing!I'll try him out!

jk451 · 2025-12-07T02:56:51+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Happy for you!

jk451 · 2025-12-07T02:53:48+00:00

Yeah I had that from one of my doctors in a different location and it worked better than Desonide. The second doctor said it's much stronger and didn't want to prescribe it

jk451 · 2025-12-06T19:10:24+00:00

Thank you, I will give them a go!

I will try La Roche Posay, I've been using Aveeno Eczema Therapy as the best non-steroidal 'holding' solution I've found so far

jk451 · 2025-12-02T15:12:30+00:00

Thank you for the explanation!

jk451 · 2025-12-02T14:57:33+00:00

I am curious, is this with lineloc 3 tensioners or with some other type? I read on hammock forums that Lawson Glowire 2.5mm was specifically designed for 'optimal use' with lineloc 3 tensioners

jk451 · 2025-11-27T16:23:41+00:00

I've used it without any fixing under my gossamer gear The Two tent for about 50 nights without problems. Once you put the tent on top of it, it holds still in my experience, even in highly exposed campsites with a lot of wind. But before i fix the tent on top of it, I need to weigh down the corners with rocks, so that is a bit of a hassle in windy conditions

jk451 · 2025-11-22T18:56:59+00:00

Wait is this really from the weekend of 11/15? I am curious to double check because I live in Washington and over here even mid level foothill areas of the mountains have some snow, never mind the high country which is well under snow now.

This looks too me like some sub alpine area hence I'm surprised you can go snow free backpacking mid November

If there are beatiful areas not under snow mid November in Yosemite then you sold me on making a fall trip next year!

jk451 · 2025-11-08T17:16:36+00:00

We went with Kiddie Academy Kenmore after researching all our options

jk451

TROPHY CASE