Spent the day out hiking through the Blackfoot Recreation area just east of Edmonton today. I've been out there many times kayaking, biking and hiking. Today was different as I went with the intention of testing my diy stove and getting used to carrying a full pack which I never have carried before. When it was done I had covered 14km in 4 hours. The weather was -1c, overcast and a bit breezy but all in all it was nice day.
I was fortunate to be able stay on the trails that are used by xc skiers and they were actually well packed so the footing was good. Some of the skiers said it was a bit to hard and icy for them.
I had just made a diy stove and was wanting to give it a try so I found a shelter after about 2 hours and set it up. I was surprised to see that it didn't fit together as well as it had prior to painting it. Never realized paint would make it that much thicker. It went together okay and I fired it up with my steel and dryer lint. Once I had it going I was surprised to see the paint start to bubble a bit. Strange considering it is high heat bbq paint. Because the fit was not as snug, the inside can eventually dropped from the top which mean't the flame was farther from the pot but I was able to heat the water enough to christen the stove. As a tribute to the Minnesota hangers who seem to like their cocoa, that was the drink of choice.
So some things I learned and or discovered during this hike were;
- hiking poles would be a big help
- if you want to step off the trail, gaiters would be nice
- snow shoes would get you into a lot of places off the trail, I've never used them and I'm not sure what conditions would be best to use them
- gotta try and figure a way to carry my camera other than around my neck
- I wish I started doing this stuff 30 years ago!!
Sorry there are no hammock pics, I'm waiting on my incubator and burrow so I didn't want to haul the BB out, it wasn't on my to do list today.
This has been a long post but I've included some pics from the day I wanted to share.
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