Pre-trip Preparation

[OldBill]

Looks like they had some great weather. The monsoon-driven afternoon storms supposed to start again beginning this weekend - just in time for my trip

 

[scatman]

Wahoo!

 

[regehr]

Wahoo!

Scat! you survived!!!! give us one millions photos please. the more detailed photos of plants the better.

 

[scatman]

Scat! you survived!!!! give us one millions photos please. the more detailed photos of plants the better.

Will do @regehr. I’m sitting in a cabin at Old Faithful at the moment. My feet are pretty torn up, and I’ve got a bad case of diarrhea which I think may have been caused by @Bob’s elk wallow water. The other guys are out checking out Upper Geyser Basin. I’ll be back in Salt Lake City tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Bob]

My elk wallow water? Where was this? There were plenty of. Nice creeks and clear water

 

[Bob]

You will get a picture overload... Between Scat and Tractordoc I'll bet they took 8000 pics.

 

[regehr]

I’ll be back in Salt Lake City tomorrow afternoon.

looking forward to more details!!!

 

[kwc]

Can’t wait for the trip reports!!

 

[scatman]

You will get a picture overload... Between Scat and Tractordoc I'll bet they took 8000 pics.

Ha! I only took 3029.

 

[CodyL]

Also looking forward to this, no pressure on giving us a a great trip report....most anticipated trip ever ha ha.... this thread has 8 1/2 pages of "pre-trip preparation"

 

[Bob]

Coming soon to a post near you ................ the Thorofare Experience by Scat and company ........

 

[Bob]

Ha! I only took 3029.

No wonder my pack was lighter .... I only took 180.

 

[TractorDoc]

Made it back home, everything is drying out, and I'm trying gain some ground on the jungle that the yard has become. Bonus points if you can find the dog.



A couple of post trip thoughts/statistics:

1. Bob, Hugh, and Scott are excellent hiking partners and I'm grateful/lucky that they put up with me on this trip. Thank you guys again for letting me tag along.

2. Pictures. Hugh has me beat if he has over 3000. . . my quick math suggests that I took 1505 pictures with the Canon R5, 500 pictures with the cell phone, and 211 GoPro pictures. I also took 214 GoPro videos plus another 25 cell phone videos. Maybe those count as extra? I will be interested to see what Scott's shutter count was/is because he is a picture guy too.

3. Camera(s). I have no regrets over bringing the "big" camera -- the Canon R5 with 24-70mm lens. It accompanied a GoPro 11 Black and I-phone 12. Between cameras, batteries, charging banks, etc. it added an extra 10ish pounds to my pack, but by quickly looking at some of the photos/video I took it was worth it. I used every last bit of juice from the Goal Zero Sherpa 100PD power bank to keep the cell phone charged, but that allowed me to record each days track and take photos via GAIA GPS. The phone also helped as a guide when a trail was not as obvious as it could have been.

4. Yellowstone's Thorofare and the Teton Wilderness are amazing.

5. A BCP water bottle doubles as good flask if you have some bourbon to bring home on the plane and need to put it in your checked bag.

6. My food selection worked out perfectly. When we arrived at Hugh's Subaru all I had left was half a bag of almonds, one freeze dried meal, and a few Circus Peanuts left. I could have survived another day or two on those if I had to.

7. I would confidently say that I used 95% of everything I brought with me. I never had to bring out my rain jacket, but I'd gladly carry the extra weight and never need to use it. I brought two extra batteries that were not used for the Canon camera (better to have than to need), and I never used my bug/head net.

8. The 15 degree sleeping bag was the right choice for me. Several nights were chilly, but I was never cold and often zipped myself all the way in.

9. Hugh tells me he lost 11lbs. I checked the scale this morning and I seem to be down four or five. But that is after the "Mountain of Nachos" and "Wild Game Charcuterie Board" plus "Elk Bolognaise Ravioli" from Signal Mountain and the OF Snow Lodge, respectively.

10. A trip report will be coming. I do not know when as it will take some time to go thru all the pictures/video, but there will be one. Looking forward to sharing this amazing experience with everyone!

 

[Bob]

What everyone learned ........

 

[Bob]

Next hat is going along this line .......

 

[wsp_scott]

I ended up with 1300 photos on the big camera, no idea about my cell phone (a lot less).

A sampling of campsites to give a taste of this trip (all from my cell phone)

 

[wsp_scott]

My wife and kids are at her parents house which has made it easy to organize food for this trip. Since everyone else is showing their food, I figured I'd join in, never did one of these pics before

View attachment 123663

I'm too cheap to buy prepared meals, so I make my own.
Dinner (9 nights)
2x Beans and Rice
3x Pork Ramen with Chili Crisp and Sesame Oil (this might be my new favorite meal)
2x Thai Curry Rice
1x Tomato Sauce and Ramen
1x Freeze-dried Barley/Quinoa/Kale with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and a Tuna Pack (maybe some chili crisp)
4oz of EVOO
4oz of Chili Crisp/Sesame Oil
Breakfast
6x Bob's Red Mill Museli with freeze dried strawberries
3x Clif Bars
18x Starbucks Via

I usually just snack vs lunch, but I considered PB&J and Tortillas and Tuna and Tortillas for lunch. And then I went to the grocery store, so many snacks !!! So no tortillas

4 different kinds of M&Ms (Peanut, Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate, Cold Brew Caramel)
Raisins, dried cherries, apricots, prunes, mango
Smoked Almonds, Brown Sugar Cashews, Bold & Spicy Peanuts, Pistacio Mix (Pistacios, Cashews, Almonds)
Moon Cheese
A couple more Clif Bars and a couple Lara Bars and 4 mini (1/2 size) Lara Bars
4 packs of Combos
And @TractorDoc is bringing some home made freeze-dried ice cream from his neighbor? Co-worker? Somebody

Ends up being ~12.5# and 22000 calories for 9 nights or ~1.3# and 2500 calories per night. If I bother to do calculations like this, I do it based on total nights vs days since the first and last days are often short.

I think @scatman and @Bob were talking about Huckleberry Pancakes for a couple mornings, they are really generous guys to do that for @TractorDoc and me

Can you tell I'm super excited for this trip

Maybe useful to help other people think about a long backpacking trip and food

I came back with 1 Larabar, ~2oz of smoked almonds, ~2oz of honey roasted cashews. The freeze dried ice cream ended up adding a solid amount of calories, without that, I would have been hungry on the hike out, but I was ready for nachos so I was already hungry