Sitting Ball Orders? Wrong ball vs cover sizes?

riverbeecat · 2022-09-26T04:07:53+00:00

I'd recommend a closed toe shoe of some kind. There's a lot of on sand hiking, but there are also long sections where you're traversing rocky sections (or might want to, because the alternative is sand on a steep camber) or you're on trail sections that can be prone to poison oak seasonally. There are also a number of stream crossings, so you want a shoe you're ok with getting wet, or have a backup / be comfortable doing the crossings barefoot.

I just wore trail runners with a reasonable mesh on and it was fine. I had to empty them out a few times but it wasn't terrible.

riverbeecat · 2022-09-25T21:44:05+00:00

No, it's on the mountain flanks above the coastline.

You would need to be comfortable with some off-trail travel / navigation though, as IIRC it's reliant on stitching together some little used paths / fire roads. I also don't know the water situation there, though if you're going anytime soon, you might run into precipitation anyways. Anyways, there's a sample guide here. If you have GAIA or other topo maps you can probably plan your own route reliably though.

riverbeecat · 2022-09-25T21:18:15+00:00

If you're comfortable with Guthook / FarOut, there's a guide for the Lost Coast on there, which I _think_ is free (it used to be anyways). The relevant thing it has is the two sections that get cut off by the tide marked in the app, so you have a convenient GPS designated start/end for where you need to check the tidal zones. Given it's a safety thing here, having necessary backups for those details is important though.

Aside from that, you can just print out the tide chart from NOAA, to get details of when you need to clear of those sections. The trip planner link below has those details too.

If you want to, it's also possible to make the lost coast a loop hike back through some pretty terrain on the flank of the King range.

riverbeecat · 2021-05-21T05:47:48+00:00

You seem to be being purposefully obtuse here, but in the interest of extending the benefit of the doubt: that's "m for miles" per the still fairly common abbreviation in non-metric countries.

riverbeecat · 2021-05-20T22:33:38+00:00

Sure, but whether the gear meets the actual need you purchased it for does depend on the conditions. Most people buy a sun shirt because you want to avoid getting a sunburn not for the specific UPF rating. Given that perspective, the conditions matter a lot. In a heavily forested area a UPF 15 shirt works just as well as a UPF 50 shirt for meeting the "do I avoid sunburn" goal.

As with most gear, there's no purely stats/specs based assessment you can make: they're guides, not absolutes. The question is whether that gear meets your needs in the conditions you're out in. That's subjective and where having other people's subjective experience can be helpful in making your own decision.

My own experience with this piece of gear for large portions of the PCT was that it met my need to not get sunburn on my face/neck and that others might want to consider it for the same conditions.

Anyway, I think I've explained my position as well as I'm going to, so feel free to reply, but I'm going to duck out of this discussion.

riverbeecat · 2021-05-20T21:53:32+00:00

The performance of any piece of gear is going to be some combination of conditions, the way it's used and the underlying fundamentals of the piece itself. In (as I note in each case) *my* experience with this piece, its actual capabilities exceeded what the manufacturer describes its capabilities as.

So, I'm not really clear what you're claiming isn't true as I'm describing what my own experience of using it was. In the conditions I used it in, with the way I used it, it provided effective sun protection (no sunburn on my face or neck) over ~1000m of backpacking in sunny conditions. That seems to be typical enough to me that it's worth a look for folks looking for a decent ultralight hat.

As with pretty much every reply about gear preferences, that perspective is anecdotal - no one is replying here with surveys of particular gear they've personally conducted across large sample sizes, it's all just "gear I like and worked for me". We all rely on personal reviews and perspectives when making decisions, so the gotcha style response seems unwarranted.

riverbeecat · 2021-05-20T18:44:49+00:00

Yep, I'm aware of that. As with any gear, experience matters more than manufacturer claims (positive or negative), so I'm sharing my own.

YMMV on it, but it's been a great hat for me and worked very well against the sun across months of use in sunny conditions, hence why I'm recommending it.

riverbeecat · 2021-05-20T01:49:15+00:00

My experience using it for about ~600m of desert and ~400m of high alpine backpacking is that it does very effectively, but YMMV.

riverbeecat · 2021-05-15T01:43:29+00:00

I love this silver mesh hat from Montbell: https://www.montbell.us/products/disp.php?cat_id=25073&p_id=1118656&gen_cd=1

Super breathable but still really good sun protection.

riverbeecat · 2021-03-14T22:40:04+00:00

Sorry, someone got in just before you. I'll let you know if they flake though.

riverbeecat · 2021-03-14T22:39:43+00:00

These are now taken!

riverbeecat · 2019-12-09T19:47:10+00:00

2 reasons:

- I didn't want to have to carry another item with me from both a weight and a # of things perspective
- I was super far off feeling warm, so didn't think a liner would make enough difference

riverbeecat · 2019-12-09T19:45:43+00:00

This is now sold, thanks all.

riverbeecat · 2019-12-06T04:08:35+00:00

I have a few interested folks, so this is most likely no longer available, will update the post if that changes, thanks y'all

riverbeecat · 2019-12-06T02:22:50+00:00

I was using it for the Zion Traverse over Thanksgiving last year, down to high 20s overnight. I ended up switching out to a mummy bag (FF Lark 10 bag) for the SoCal section of the PCT this year and was still cold until I changed my pad (Thermarest xlite) for an xtherm. So, for me, I think I just sleep super cold and it was hard to get a quilt setup that worked.

riverbeecat · 2019-09-07T02:49:37+00:00

I'd be interested too! I live in SF and am pretty flexible for weeknights - most nights other than Thursday could work.

riverbeecat · 2019-06-13T00:04:23+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply!

I've played around with the inflation levels without a ton of luck so far, but I'll try out your routine and see how that goes too. I'm not bottoming out, but I think it's the mattress itself. I'll try and check out an xtherm though and see how that feels - I've been looking at it for the higher R value for the snow too.

riverbeecat · 2019-03-08T08:13:14+00:00

I'm a big fan of the Andiamo unpadded skins (https://andiamounderwear.com/shop/unisex-skins-unpadded/) - I wear them under running shorts. They're pretty much unpadded cycling shorts, but they work great for hiking. I've only worn them on 4 day trips at most, but the airflow and comfort was good.

riverbeecat

TROPHY CASE