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On a recommendation I bought a used Lowe Alpine Contour IV 90+15 for my winter pack, due to none of my others being big enough for my -25F bag and other gear. The pack has aluminum stays, and I’m looking for the procedure to contour the stays to my back. They’re in long pockets on the edges of...

It’s up now, and they’re still sending Rewards emails.

The most powerful place I ever encountered gave off a power of a different kind. While stationed in Germany from 1992-95, I visited the site of the WW1 Battle of the Somme. Let me tell you this: if you don’t believe in the soul, spirits, life force, etc, visit that battlefield. 30 years later...

Looking for regular torso size (18-22”) and large hip belt & shoulder straps. Color doesn’t matter, if the lid is missing that’s fine. All compression straps, both inside and out, should be there, but if you cut the fanny pack waist belt out of the lid that’s fine.

Mine are my Feather Pack down jacket and a pair of Ascent Summit gloves I got maybe 10-12 years ago. Pittard’s leather for most of the hand and a nylon wrist & gauntlet, and GTX membrane. The new style isn’t bad, but only the palm & fingers are leather with everything else being a softshell...

A few years ago a friend and I went to the N. Conway REI for the first time and I was a little surprised to see it where EMS had been, with EMS in a building only a little bigger than an Aroma Joe’s a block or 2 up the road.

My right knee is especially bad but the left isn’t exactly good. Right knee mobility is pretty poor, I can’t flex it 90 degrees without a lot of pain but I can physically pull it past 90° with less pain. If I hit my toe on something that jars my knee it’s really painful. Over the past year or so...

I guess it was early ‘99 when I started going to EMS, I’d just gotten out of the army a few months earlier and was looking for some luxuries like a stove and tent that I’d never used when hiking and backpacking. I was only 30 and still in pretty phenomenal shape so humping my large ALICE full of...

Most of the places I hike have plenty of water, so I carry 2 empty 1l bottles in my pack and a 1l Katadyn BeFree in my pocket. When I’m thirsty I fill it and drink. At the last water source before my campsite I fill and drink, fill my other bottles with it, and then fill the BeFree. That gives...

I used to belong to a couple Meetup hiking groups and had pretty good times on them, but I’m just not a “head up the trail, no stopping, no looking around, 5 minutes for pics on the summit then back down the same way so we’re not out after dark.” I like to stop, look, and listen, check out...

Another thing I like about Jackman - no deer ticks! In 5 1/2 years up here I’ve pulled exactly one tick off my indoor/outdoor cats and haven’t had a single one on myself.

“All his clothing and gear was soaking wet from the rain over the past couple days.” Which is why every piece of my gear that MUST stay dry gets its own dry bag. I’ll comment to that effect on YouTube backpacker videos and get the expected “do you know how much that will WEIGH???” responses...

I solo hike 99.44% of the time, this is what I did when I got tired of non-hiking friends telling me I shouldn’t be out alone in winter.

“Open” as in yes, you could physically climb it, but there are a couple signs on it stating that it’s condemned. Number 5 Mtn is probably the closest thing to a free lunch that there is. You almost feel like you cheated when you get up there.

Yesterday morning I decided I needed to hike, so I loaded up my Osprey Stratos 24, strapped snowshoes onto it, and headed out. My destination was Number 5 Mountain, about 1/3 of the way as the crow flies to Eustis from Jackman. The trailhead is at mile 17 on Spencer Road off Route 201, there’s a...

It was busy in Jackman, estimates are 30K people came to the area over the weekend. Traffic outbound was bumper-to-bumper on US 201 all the way to Skowhegan - about 70 miles. Coming back from where I viewed the eclipse in West Forks I say maybe 10 vehicles northbound. All in all it wasn’t bad at...

A new acquaintance from the UK (who’d never snowshoed before) and I snowshoed up Pleasant Pond Mtn in Caratunk ME today, the trip up was as close to perfect as it could be. On the descent, though, the snow was falling off the trees from the bright sunlight and soaking us, and what had been...

I think I’ll be heading up Pleasant Pond Mtn in Caratunk ME. A friend here in town has a houseguest from the UK who wants to try snowshoeing, and she knew who to talk to LOL. So Sunday we’re going up it, and I’ll be heading back up Monday. Hopefully it won’t be too crazy. Most logging/dirt roads...

Is it white with a snorkel and were you just at Bishop’s store in Jackman?

I’ve thought about renting snowshoes for exorbitant rates LOL