Pandemic? What pandemic?

fossana said:
I saw someone post on the wildernessbackpacking subreddit, asking if someone could draw out a gpx track for them using a written description from Backpacker with trails and landmarks easily identifiable on a topo map. So many people are lazy, and incapable of routefinding without a GPS. I once ran into a couple in Lee Vining (E of the easternmost entrance to Yosemite) near dusk. They asked me where San Jose was, and I said 5-6 hours in the other direction. I asked if they knew in which direction the sun set, and they shrugged. They blindly drove east instead of west for hours b/c they didn't have a data connection for their mobile mapping app.
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I gave up on r/wildernessbackpacking when they started requiring people to post locations of their photos, along with descriptions. Lots of lazy people on there that want someone to plan their entire trip for them.
 
I need a hitch put on my new van. Everyone is booked 5 weeks out. I need it to tow a small boat trailer and for my bike rack. But because Everyone is out buying RVs they are complicating my life.

Have you been in a bike shop lately? It is surreal. Every shop I have been in is sold out of adult bikes. And have tons of back orders. I am hoping very much that this translates into an awesome used bike deal for me next year. We shall see.

Sarah is working at Fitzgerald's in IF and luckily the one manager anticipated this bike craze. They have done really good this summer.

For the most part I have managed to play hard this summer and stay away from the ridiculous crowds. It truly is insane.


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blueeyes said:
I need a hitch put on my new van. Everyone is booked 5 weeks out. I need it to tow a small boat trailer and for my bike rack. But because Everyone is out buying RVs they are complicating my life.
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I ordered a hitch receiver and wiring harness from e-trailer and installed it myself. It's a half day kind of project.
 
regehr said:
a friend who was annoyed by mountain bikers in the Moab vicinity used to fantasize about painting over a sign that said "dismount, cliff ahead" with "sandy trail ahead, maintain speed"
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I know exactly where that sign is. :)

A few weekends ago I was heading back from the Tushars (again), and got multiple emergency evac notifications at the I-15 on-ramp. I hurried back home to retrieve my cats, but there was an est 2h traffic jam on I-15 starting ~10 miles before my exit. They had closed the highway due to the fire. I knew there was a high clearance 4WD frontage road that linked Pintura to the Toquerville exit, so I got off there to bypass the traffic jam. There was a line of trucks and SUVs doing the same thing. The road got progressively worse, but there were places for the unequipped to bail. At the final technical downhill the line of vehicles stopped. Some idiot from Vegas had attempted to take a Dodge Charger down it, and high centered it on a rock, rupturing his oil pan and gas line/tank. His girlfriend/wife said, "the GPS told us to go this way." A bunch of us pushed his car off the rock. He managed to bounce his way down the hill and out of the way, so the rest of us could pass. I didn't stay for Matt's Offroad Recovery to arrive.

The cops let me through, and luckily the evac order for our neighborhood was lifted as I was packing.
 
fossana said:
I know exactly where that sign is. :)

A few weekends ago I was heading back from the Tushars (again), and got multiple emergency evac notifications at the I-15 on-ramp. I hurried back home to retrieve my cats, but there was an est 2h traffic jam on I-15 starting ~10 miles before my exit. They had closed the highway due to the fire. I knew there was a high clearance 4WD frontage road that linked Pintura to the Toquerville exit, so I got off there to bypass the traffic jam. There was a line of trucks and SUVs doing the same thing. The road got progressively worse, but there were places for the unequipped to bail. At the final technical downhill the line of vehicles stopped. Some idiot from Vegas had attempted to take a Dodge Charger down it, and high centered it on a rock, rupturing his oil pan and gas line/tank. His girlfriend/wife said, "the GPS told us to go this way." A bunch of us pushed his car off the rock. He managed to bounce his way down the hill and out of the way, so the rest of us could pass. I didn't stay for Matt's Offroad Recovery to arrive.

The cops let me through, and luckily the evac order for our neighborhood was lifted as I was packing.
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Thanks Google maps. [emoji849]

I am glad the evac order was lifted.

Also thanks for the tip on the hitch. I will look into it.

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blueeyes said:
I need a hitch put on my new van. Everyone is booked 5 weeks out. I need it to tow a small boat trailer and for my bike rack. But because Everyone is out buying RVs they are complicating my life.

Have you been in a bike shop lately? It is surreal. Every shop I have been in is sold out of adult bikes. And have tons of back orders. I am hoping very much that this translates into an awesome used bike deal for me next year. We shall see.

Sarah is working at Fitzgerald's in IF and luckily the one manager anticipated this bike craze. They have done really good this summer.

For the most part I have managed to play hard this summer and stay away from the ridiculous crowds. It truly is insane.


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A couple years back I bought hitch online and installed it by myself. Really wasn't too bad. You might consider that option. Aren't you in the Ogden area? If so, I might be able to help you out. You should probably exhaust all other options first. You probably want someone more pro than me working on your sweet new van, but I would hate to see you wait 5 weeks if you need it sooner.
 
With the local pool closed my kids wanted to get an above ground pool but the only things that were available when I looked were little kiddie splash pools which would have bored them in less than 0.1 sec as they're well over 3 years old. Apparently Intex has been severely impacted by California's COVID shutdown order. My kids think pool makers should be classified as essential workers, but I'm not sure I agree, although it would help to keep them (the kids) occupied this summer!
 
wabenho said:
A couple years back I bought hitch online and installed it by myself. Really wasn't too bad. You might consider that option. Aren't you in the Ogden area? If so, I might be able to help you out. You should probably exhaust all other options first. You probably want someone more pro than me working on your sweet new van, but I would hate to see you wait 5 weeks if you need it sooner.
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Thank you! I am in Ogden north end. I won't have time for awhile to take my kayak out. I just found it funny that the places I called said they only had appointments to put hitches on 5 weeks out.

I will let you know if I need help.

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Jackson said:
After thinking a bit more about it, message boards probably don't contribute much at all to the problem when compared with social media and Alltrails.
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I hope not. I'm torn because I just started backpacking 4 years ago. I was hiking on the Mist Trail and had this desire to keep going and not come back for a while. I'm part of the "problem". I get ALL of my trip ideas and routes from the internet. I spend hours planning trips I probably won't take. I've been able to experience places few people have gone because I've seen a report somewhere. I still take GPS tracks with me when I can find them because I'm not 100% confident in my orienteering. I took a map and compass class and I practice LNT religiously, but I owe almost all of the joy I experience out there to people's information generosity on the internet.

So, it feels hypocritical for me to keep places secret. Generally, if someone asks about an instagram post or something, I'll DM them the information I have as opposed to publicly disclosing it. That's the compromise I'm OK with. Selfishly, at 50 with maybe one trip out west a year, I don't have the luxury of time to do extensive exploration on my own and I really rely on pointers to areas that I'm interested in.
 
It's been crazy here in the rockies of Alberta. Popular trailheads are packed and overflowing onto the roads for 100's of metres, even on weekdays. Rescue services hauling people out of trouble at an unprecedented rate. Often this is exacerbated by postings on several local Facebook hiking groups- someone posts something, and next thing you know there are hordes of instagrammers looking for that same photo. An increase in outdoor activity had been building over the past several years, but has now exploded in this "summer of covid". All these people need to get back to work or school so I can enjoy my first year of retirement to it's fullest!
Fortunately we have loads of great lesser known, trail-less, and harder to get to spots (until someone blows it on FB:mad: ).
Plus- although we haven't been up that way yet this summer- apparently the Icefields Parkway in Banff and Jasper national parks is mercifully free of the usual parade of tourists crawling along in rental RV's.
 
Ben said:
unpopular opinion:
for years now i've thought it a little hypocritical all the people on here (BCP) complaining about 'other people going places i like to go'. and often elitist as well.
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I think that's a fair criticism, given that BCP is probably one of the best single resources for specific info and first-hand reports for large portions of (mostly) the intermountain west. I've definitely taken advantage of the hive mind here on several occasions.

That said, I think there's a significant difference between "recommend a cool place for me to go!" questions and "is the pouroff in Flapjack Canyon passable?" questions. Over the years, I've gravitated more toward answering the second question and less the first question. And if I'm going to give general recommendations, I often give recommendations for places that already have a quota system to prevent overcrowding.
 
LarryBoy said:
I think that's a fair criticism, given that BCP is probably one of the best single resources for specific info and first-hand reports for large portions of (mostly) the intermountain west. I've definitely taken advantage of the hive mind here on several occasions.

That said, I think there's a significant difference between "recommend a cool place for me to go!" questions and "is the pouroff in Flapjack Canyon passable?" questions. Over the years, I've gravitated more toward answering the second question and less the first question. And if I'm going to give general recommendations, I often give recommendations for places that already have a quota system to prevent overcrowding.
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totally agree with the difference in types of questions. an 'is this passable' question is what originally brought me to this site. on the other hand, i think the 'where are the best places to go in x area' questions contribute to overuse problems just as instagram posts do. and i feel that they show up in the trip planning more and more here. i personally think that they're best left alone. one of my favorite things about this site is that it serves as such a repository for places that people can see and judge for their selves where they want to go. and i think it helps if they know where those places are, so they don't just have to go to Horseshoe Bend.
 
Ben said:
unpopular opinion:
for years now i've thought it a little hypocritical all the people on here (BCP) complaining about 'other people going places i like to go'. and often elitist as well.
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Definitely hypocritical. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a privileged hypocrite and probably a bit elitist about it because I believe in everyone's right to enjoy the outdoors but also don't want to see places I hold special and keep quiet about get visited to death. And that's why I feel internally conflicted about previously unknown places blowing up in popularity. Cognitive dissonance for sure. There's a lot of additional nuances and caveats to my contradictory opinions, but I recognize they remain contradictory regardless, and I won't get into the details here.
 
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I have posted specific locations on BCP mainly because the level of awareness on this site is greater than the general population, locations I would not reveal on Instagram. As many are aware this topic has been discussed extensively on BCP, and no consensus will ever be reached, other than we want our places preserved and cared for as much as possible.
On another note, we were taking a day hike with friends in Thompson Creek near Carbondale, it was a semi crowded day on the trail, people wearing masks, then 2 trail runners announced themselves forcing us off the trail, they wore no masks, breathing heavy as they ran buy. I was too busy not falling off the edge of the trail to bash them in the heads with a rock. Our county has surging Covid cases right now. They were risking other peoples lives, so they could go for a run on a tight crowded trail, when they could have chosen numerous places to excercise without people. Inconsidrate assholes.
 
I admit to having an "elitist" attitude, but a lot of what I have observed, especially this summer, confirms that.
Trailheads littered with trash, and mounds of toilet paper in the bushes. Instagram hot spots engulfed by unprepared throngs hiking mountain trails in gym shoes (a factor in many recent rescues), waiting their turn to strike a yoga pose, to the accompaniment of someone's bluetooth speaker. I could go on...
If I sound old and grumpy- hell yes! I don't worry much about posting things here as this is a responsible and aware group. Hopefully some of the Facebook hordes keep at it, and learn a true appreciation of our wilder places, which will be needed to ensure that they remain protected.
 
SteveR said:
I admit to having an "elitist" attitude, but a lot of what I have observed, especially this summer, confirms that.
Trailheads littered with trash, and mounds of toilet paper in the bushes. Instagram hot spots engulfed by unprepared throngs hiking mountain trails in gym shoes (a factor in many recent rescues), waiting their turn to strike a yoga pose, to the accompaniment of someone's bluetooth speaker. I could go on...
If I sound old and grumpy- hell yes! I don't worry much about posting things here as this is a responsible and aware group. Hopefully some of the Facebook hordes keep at it, and learn a true appreciation of our wilder places, which will be needed to ensure that they remain protected.
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This is, sadly, nothing new. Before bluetooth there were walkmans,
etc.
And yoga has been around for 5000 years. :)
At least that is my experience
 
Pianomover said:
Read the recent reviews. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/four-lakes-and-siligo-peak-loop
I did this walk last year last week of August saw maybe 12 other hikers.
Humans are the worst thing to ever happen to this planet.
www.nytimes.com

The New Panic Buys: Kayaks, Pools, Tents and Trampolines (Published 2020)

Americans seeking getaways (or staycations) in the pandemic are putting outdoor retailers in a supply crunch.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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I was planning to take my 9 year old son on his first backpacking trip this summer in the Sawtooths until I started reading all the reviews on AllTrails. I could not believe how many reviews there were over the last couple weeks on this 1 app on the 1 trail I was planning to do. People saying cars parked in the meadows and up and down the road and hundreds of people on the trail. I guess our trip will have to wait until September or next summer... Glad I have land where I live to get away from everyone since you can't do that in the mountains this year.
 
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