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I have never been to Great Basin NP, but a few years ago I did a 4 day loop in the Rubies. The main issue with loops in the Rubies is the way the mountains are laid out. There is one main ridge that the Ruby Crest Trail follows. To do any sort of loop you end up having to hike to the ridge, then...

I prefer to use a bottle with a tube. Then if your tube freezes you can still drink your water. You can also use the bottle for hot tea in the morning when you backpack. For desert hiking I simply do not trust a bladder. On Amazon you can find a lot of different bottle tubes.

I've been wanting to buy an altimeter for years now. I feel that using a GPS is "cheating". Most higher end GPS units have a built in physical barometer. I always have my GPs unit off and therefore never use it to find the altitude. A Suunto barometric watch would make navigating by map and...

@Matt Price be aware that many of the 3rd/4th/5th class sections in Steve Allen's books cannot be protected. Sandstone in Southern Utah is often very smooth with no features to place gear. I have been in situations where my partner wanted a belay, but I was unable to secure the rope to...

I am trying to embed this map using the "Media" button, but it says that "The specified URL can not be embedded as Media". I have also tried using and that does not work. Any ideas on the proper way to embed the below URL in a post...

Thanks!!! It works great now.

Backcountrypost has always been really fast to load. Just recently, maybe a week ago, after I login to backcountrypost through facebook, the site becomes so slow I can not use it. If I am not logged in, then backcountrypost loads normally. There appears to be some issue with the backcountrypost...

I am surprised that no one has mentioned carrying a gun. I would have imaged that in the old days it would have been more common to carry a rife or handgun into the Wilderness on a backpacking trip. Every year I see a few people with a firearm outside of hunting season. I assume for protection...

The issue I have with the MSR "plastic" snowshoes (Evo line) is that warm snow will ball up under the show. That makes the snowshoe heaver because the snow clings to the bottom. It also reduces/eliminates the traction provided by the teeth on the bottom of the snowshoe. The MSR Lightning...

GPS's are nice, but they break. The last two Garmin GPS's I had broke within the first year. Both broke while I was trying to figure out where I was. One of the times the GPS said I was 5 miles from my real location. I knew that because my friend also has a GPS, and the terrain around us did not...

My Bogley trip report got messed up, but here are a few pictures from the Youngs and Lean To Canyon loop off of Dark Canyon. It is not an easy trip, but you are not going to see anyone once you get out of Dark Canyon. There may be a few people in Dark Canyon, but not normally. I would only...

If Utah takes over the Federal lands the cost of managing wildfires will actually be much less then in the past. The State will sell off all the land to private developers, who will then take over the responsibility of managing their land. That is the point of the land transfer, it is to get the...

For what ever reason, boaters tend to camp and otherwise concentrate their activities on or near water. While land based activities such as backpacking, tend to roam over larger "land" based areas. There are always limited camping along rivers, while as a backpacker I can simply move on down the...

SirDonB, where will you be hiking and with what kind of load on your back? Using minimalist shoes to climb a scree covered mountain is not going to work well. Or using them with a 40 lbs backpack is just asking for trouble. I have yet to see a pair of minimalist shoes with quarter inch lugs. You...

A jacked up Taco looks cool, but are you really going to use it? I rarely see lifted trucks at any of the trailheads I go to, and I have been all over the state. I have an Xterra and the main reason why I bought it was because two people under 6ft can sleep comfortably in the back. The rear...

I have the copper spur UL2, and it is roomy enough for two people. The Copper spur is a beefy UL tent. When all the guide lines are out, it handles high winds, +30mph without a problem. If you camp above treeline, like I do, you need a tent that can handle thunderstorms. The Fly Creek UL tent...

A friend of mine says that he thinks the xtherm is build with too light a fabric. That is why I went with the neoair all-season. It is heavier due to the more robust nylon it is made with.

Steve Allen's Canyoneering 3 book has a 5-7 day backpacking route that goes up Stevens Canyon. The loop is not very easy. I am looking at doing a variation of the loop in Mid April. During my research I ran across this trip report. For my variation to work I need to be able to go down Fold...

Looks like my dividend is the highest so far at, $293.55. I use my REI credit card for all my purchases.

I really recommend purchasing a dehydrator. I bought mine at Costco for $45. Mountain House meals are very expansive and do not taste very good compared to home dried foods. It doesn't take long to prepare food for dehydration, and then package it up after its dry. You can dehydrate large...