Ahhh, yer all a bunch a woosies

[Pete_Hickey]

Since I was wearing a cotton t-shirt, the entire time back down to the trailhead, I must have heard "cotton kills" about a hundred times....

Converse thing for me.

One spring, while returning from blowdown clearing on the Dix trail, I took off my boots to cross the bouquet near the lean-to, because it was kind of deep, and I didn't want to hike back with my boots full of water.

When I got to the other side, being barefoot felt good, in spite of the snow, so I continued hiking barefoot. Now, soon after the lean-to, there was a group... a scout group?... with the leader teaching the young'uns about the ways of the woods. He was on the topic of the importance of good footware. I know that, because my son had been ahead of me, and was listening to him while he waited for me.

So, here is this guy telling his troup all about the importance of having good footware, when this guy, carrying an axe, walks past barefoot.

I sure got strange looks from them.

 

[Skyclimber]

So, here is this guy telling his troup all about the importance of having good footware, when this guy, carrying an axe, walks past barefoot.

I sure got strange looks from them.

Come on Pete, So you were the "Barefoot 46er" in disguise?

 

[oldfogie]

Love these responses to my initial post!

Actually, I'm a hypocrite. If it weren't for all the traffic the winter Dak peaks get, I'd never get to a winter summit. Hoping to get Gothics/Arm/UWJ on the 13th and I know I wouldn't be able to without the dozens of people who will have gone ahead of me.

My 14 oz GoLite pack doesn't hurt either!

And phoning my wife with the celphone on top to share the experience (and assure her I haven't had a stroke) ain't too shabby either.

And tree bark tastes like crap anyways.

 

[Neil]

And phoning my wife with the celphone on top to share the experience (and assure her I haven't had a stroke) ain't too shabby either.

Did you use your phone to shoot a few pics and e-mail those to your wife while you were at it?

 

[oldfogie]

Nope. Don't have one of them there fancy foto-fones. But I can get about 250 1.5 mb digital images with my Panasonic DMC-FZ20 with 12X tele. Sure beats the 12 shot black & white Kodak brownie!!! The good old daze weren't all that good 'cept when I'm in an argumentin' mood. Hehe.

 

[Pete_Hickey]

The good old daze weren't all that good 'cept when I'm in an argumentin' mood. Hehe.

Yeah... Like the Indian Falls lean-to, or my favorite, the Plateau lean-to. And then there was drinking water direct from the streams.... and not having to worry about bears...

 

[Rick]

Aha!
....Since I was wearing a cotton t-shirt, the entire time back down to the trailhead, I must have heard "cotton kills" about a hundred times and that I wouldn't be allowed on an AMC hike if I was wearing cotton. Then they spend the next half-hour trying to recruit me. I asked why I would want to join them if I would have to buy all new clothes?....

ROTFL....And that's exactly what I am doing with the $50 I had earmarked for 2005 AMC Membership renewal. I am going out and buying some new gear - And I might even risk death by dayhiking in a cotton poly blend t-shirt this summer!!!!!

 

[Rick]

Yeah... Like the Indian Falls lean-to, or my favorite, the Plateau lean-to. And then there was drinking water direct from the streams.... and not having to worry about bears...

I don't think I go back quite as far as you older types, but I do remember:
- a Tent fly that you had to stake out completely separately & away from
the tent body, rather than clipping them on.
- My holubar sleeping bag.
- Sierra cup on the back of my external Frame.
- Wearing a nylon tool belt completely around my external frame pack to act
as a newfangled hipbelt. (and tieing it to the packframe with a shoestring)
- Seeing for the first time, a First Need Water filter for around $29.95and
immediately wanting it.
- A lightweight 7-lb tent.
- The first time seeing an internal frame pack and thinking it looked like a
bundled sausage.
- The intoxicating smell of a vinyl rainjacket.
- Ragg Wool socks that had no preformed shape and really looked like raggs
after a few wears
- Walking around in my lace-to-the-toe Danner stitchdown leather boots and
gym shorts looking like a special needs kid.

 

[Neil]

Anybody here ever hike with a cast iron frying pan swinging to and fro from the bottom of their pack and banging into the back of their knees?

 

[beaner]

You guys are dangerously funny. I'm beginning to see the light now: I truly am a wimp and nothing but a wimp, so help me God. For instance that time on Cathedral when I cried like a baby. Then after being lowered in a basket(no wait a minute that's a basket-case being lowered) I made my way to the local bar where fortunately it was happy hour at 25cents a drink. I disintegrated in the woods sometime between 12:00 and 2:00am. It's the only time I ever remeber being conscious of blacking out. (30X0.25....that was a good deal even for those days)
I remember Lederhosen, or is it hausen, big puffy down parkas, the little round goggles that worked so much better than ski goggles(whoever came up with that idea), leather-chamois face masks, deerskin mittens, wool, lots of wool, going out all alone on a weekend at Crag to (oops!) cut some dead wood, dragging it back to the wood shed, still all alone, just the wind, the snow, the distant valley, Adams looming over me above King's ravine, that was God in them there trees, in that there wind, in those 100 sunrises over Durand ridge through glazed glass with a moistened finger print for peep-hole.

 

[Grumpy]

Anybody here ever hike with a cast iron frying pan swinging to and fro from the bottom of their pack and banging into the back of their knees?

No. I was very savvy and stashed mine inside or lashed it securely to the pack so it wouldn't swing around.

G.

 

[Dalraida]

Frypan

Miss Emily Klug kept one tied to her waist, and her supplies rolled up in her skirts in the old days. Before WWII. She never returned to the Whites after the war. She was a German nurse. I spent the night in one of her shelters a few years ago. She reputedly had them all over the Whites.

 

[John K]

my new herman survivor boots and collapsable cup, swiss army knife and canvas tent.

 

[Grumpy]

Frypan . . .

Another note on that cast iron frying pan.

Never was a better cooking utensil than such a thing, over a good bed of coals. Canned bacon, pancakes, fried eggs for breakfast . . .. Yum! We also carried a small coffee pot.

G.

 

[robohiker]

Emily Klug used to roam the White Mountains back in the 1920’s-30’s with cookware dangling from her belt and carrying a kerosene stove. I on the otherhand am a lucky robot. Mrs. Robo is equipped with a microwave oven (solar powered)

We have also been to her shelter on Little Monroe, but have not found any others.

 

[Neil]

Another note on that cast iron frying pan.

Never was a better cooking utensil than such a thing, over a good bed of coals. Canned bacon, pancakes, fried eggs for breakfast . . .. Yum! We also carried a small coffee pot.

G.

Now do you use a Jetboil or a pepsi can stove so you can pour boiling water over your 5 buck portion of two rubbery dehydrated eggs?