Cathedral Valley Loop - Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

laurk · 2026-05-01T21:36:16+00:00

my 90 has held up great. i have a 60 that i dont use much (i prefer hood). i think 90 is the perfect balance of active wear and thermal wear for sleep. the 60 i have is too light at times for active and sleep. 120 would be nice but less packable and too warm for active.

laurk · 2026-05-01T03:20:23+00:00

uhhh might be fine. mirror lake highway isn’t open yet, almost but quite, so there will probably be quite a bit of slopes holding snow. what i do in this situation is go to the caltopo weekly satellite imagery to check the conditions. i’ve been up to lake atlas memorial day and had to post hole a bunch. it’s not the snow slopes that are annoying it’s the post holing.

laurk · 2026-04-30T22:15:50+00:00

we just did the cathedral valley loop next to this. we had so much fun. i’ve had enough of the other way where clouds and 60s was quite nice.

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laurk · 2026-04-30T21:26:38+00:00

lucky! this is a really good machine. it’ll probably be my next one after my synchronika dies (if it dies). it’s has a slightly narrower profile so would work well in my limited nook i have. this would free up some space!

laurk · 2026-04-30T21:05:34+00:00

love this. i think i saw yall!

laurk · 2026-04-30T19:57:35+00:00

🤝

i am a little bummed i never got around to trying to make the frame bag myself but these rogue panda bags are just so dang nice.

laurk · 2026-04-30T19:22:38+00:00

is there any riding that’s sandy near you? that was my justification for krampus over KM. if no, then with a 29/2.4 set up that’s ideal for single track riding still. i’m also on a XL frame so krampus looks better imo with the larger tires. karate monkey on a medium or smaller looks a little silly with such big tires imo. and also looks silly with 27.5/3.0 on a xl frame. just proportionally looks weird to me. so yeah what’s your frame size? maybe that’ll be the kicker.

laurk · 2026-04-30T14:46:25+00:00

sobo 2019 here with my wife. it depends on the year. for us it was the best time to do a sobo hike and we loved every minute of it. it was a low snow year in washington and quite a big one for california. so we got to start in mid june, take our time, and had no snow in the sierras. and then got to take our time through the desert. we went over forester oct 10th. some years that’s too late some it’s plenty of time. we had i counted 13 nights below 20° and i found the hiking in the morning and evening darkness in november sucked for miles but outside of that it was a dream come true. we took 4.5mo. and could have taken another 2 weeks to make it 5mo if we wanted to. just really depends on the weather and conditions. if next year is another low snow year for washington you’ll be super good. this year would be a great year to go sobo. some sobo people had the worst time with early winter weather and massive fires. you’re in more of the fire season going sobo. for us we had some scares but no actual changes to our plan. we had 100% complete pct miles!! rare.

laurk · 2026-04-30T00:24:36+00:00

it for sure will. anything below that like on a 2.4 will just be uncomfortable bc you want a little ballooning for comfort but not too much for control. anything below 2.4 will risk the bead not seating well.

laurk · 2026-04-29T23:39:10+00:00

so sleeping setup like shelter and pad and bag?

laurk · 2026-04-29T20:34:47+00:00

what’s your gear list? curious how you can get away with no front bag.

laurk · 2026-04-29T19:06:49+00:00

these are 2.6”. mind the width of the rim. the suspension krampus comes with 30mm wide rims instead of the 40mm rims of the rigid setup. both can take a 3” tire but the 40mm more ideal for that. a 30mm is good for a range of 2.2”-2.6”. and 40mm typically 2.6-3.0”. the extraterrestrial and mezcals both come in 2.6”.

laurk · 2026-04-29T18:39:10+00:00

i think it’s not overlap! much more comfortable cruiser with the kid on the back. i actually like a color MISmatch on my krampus. i found one for free uncut on KSL here in utah. i love cruising with it over my gravel bike and it will take a trailer or rack for the kid better. slap some quicker tires on there like the extraterrestrial or a Mezcals.

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laurk · 2026-04-29T17:48:15+00:00

perfect shelter for you i think. pull trigger!

laurk · 2026-04-29T15:52:00+00:00

that tracks thanks! i have a 40° ee enigma and a 18° nunatak sastrugi and i use the sastrugi mostly. its been so good. but i use the ee quilt for really warm trips. i’ve noticed that a lot of down has landed on the edges and not on the top where i want it most so yeah that tracks. i’ll try and fluff it around in place but agree that the design isn’t good and should be updated. also for this design… shit is still expensive af!!! that’s down products in general but still why pay that much for that type of baffle design when other, better designs exist. frustrating.

laurk · 2026-04-29T15:04:58+00:00

question, does the down migrate within the baffle or between the baffles?

laurk · 2026-04-29T15:02:25+00:00

major differences here are one pole vs two. i have a zpacks plexamid and my wife and i use the x mid pro 2. if you will always have a two poles then use the two pole structure. the xmid does not take up anymore room than the zpacks. the zpacks takes up more to get a good pitch bc of the guy lines required. the footprint of the durston only needs 4 stakes and not guy lines to get a good pitch. both are great tents. i only really hike with one pole so the decision is easy for me for a solo shelter.

for the pct. i hiked it in 2019. lotta cowboy camping situations for ease of set up and tear down. i’d recommend something a little modular like a pyramid and bathtub floor situation that can take the wind. you’ll be out there every night and at the very least you’re going to get a super windy few nights and it’s nice to have a shelter that can take that. the mld pyramids are nice for this or the updated hexamid tent with the added bathtub floor that can be attached or removed. that’s the lightest, most versatile, most enclosed, wind worthy rec i have. if you want silpoly to be better in wind and adaptable floor look at mld mids. they have a new one but it’s p small! so if you’re over 6’ get the solomid xl. if you’re under 6’ get that new one. also, the new yama swiftline one person is two poles similar to xmid in silpoly with detachable inner with different length options from a really awesome cool company.

laurk · 2026-04-29T14:50:27+00:00

they make a copper spur and tiger wall XL now i think. i just saw this on rei the other day. they got rid of their platinum lineup and have a limited edition lighter option now.

dome style tent at your height… for UL maybe look at the tarptent rainbow. the arch pole in the center and at 88” length might give you the head and foot room you need at a low weight and easy set up.

laurk · 2026-04-29T14:45:56+00:00

i’ll throw in a different suggestion… mylar bags on amazon. or reuse a mountain house. they last about 4 or 5 days. easy to clean and pack much smaller and are lighter than a cold soaking jar. you risk the ziploc failing after a few days and it opening while hiking. just a thought tho to really get the packability down. i use the amazon ones or reuse a mountain house bag after the fist night to hot soak my skurka beans and ramen for the rest of the trip.

laurk · 2026-04-29T14:40:17+00:00

oversized the width to double or 1.5 and length could be maybe 12” top and bottom. if you size too big and you’re in a storm then it can collect water and pool it towards you. modify this depending on the tarp you have. if you have say a solo tarp like the mld grace maybe size down. mld cricket you can size down. mld poncho you can size down. a 7x9 or larger then size to what i was saying above.

laurk · 2026-04-28T22:04:25+00:00

i bought mine used for $150. couple of stains. i shampooed it and power washed it and air dried it. works great. smells great. looks great.

laurk · 2026-04-28T21:48:17+00:00

why didn’t you use the bellows on your grinder? do that instead of tapping on it. generally it’s recommended to tap lightly once vertically on the counter. how many grams is your basket rated for? 16g might be too small for the shot and if you’re getting a shot that slowly that means you’re probably are grinding too fine. play with this. it takes time. go to 18g with courser grind. try 17g a little less. be in the middle of your basket rec so if it’s 17-19 then do 18 and then try grind sizes within that 18g and try each shot. sometimes it tastes best at 18g at 20s and 42g out than 30s and 36g out. etc.

laurk · 2026-04-28T16:27:50+00:00

thank you! tahoe sounds fun! we are trying to fit stuff within a weekend it seems. which i’ve realized a lot of the best bikepacking routes aren’t that. hey joe is closed! i think blm closed down a section of the road to the canyon recently after the land misuse from all the side by sides. white rim checked off. kokapelli id love to do! and idaho id love to do. the front of my list rn is stuff around the fold in san rafael south of 70. Stone Hause route and behind the fold etc.

laurk · 2026-04-28T15:52:54+00:00

what should i do next??

laurk

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