The Outdoors Thread

Surely Southperry has hikers, bikers, campers, hunters, rock climbers, fishers, skiers, snowboarders, off-roaders, wayward vagabonds and the like.

Let's make this a broad thread. Tell me about a recent hike you took. Discuss camping gear. Relish in a beautiful park you went to. Post a few pictures.Complain about how your state is flat and awful and it takes three hours to get out of suburbia but at least there's a tiny city park with a decent running path, I don't care. Give and get advice on anything that gets you into nature.

Myself: I like hiking. I like biking. I like camping. I like driving. I'm a fledgling backpacker. I'm a Michigander, and I've done some extensive exploring in my home state. I'm still a newbie when all is said and done. I must admit an ulterior motive to this thread. I'm plotting a 2-3 month tour of western National Parks, and I'd love to get some input on things to see and do along this route?

Edit to resurrect.

A good thread with nice potential.
Probably I'll keep an eye on this thread merely as a lurker 'cause I've never done this before (camping,hiking) and I would really like to try some landscapes that this new state I'm in.
My first place to go

Ciudad Del Maíz, San Luis Potosí

http://www.mexicoenfotos.com/mx/MX12642245944715.jpg

To kick start, I'll talk about the first backpacking trip I went on. [Edit: Chew too fast]

Back in early October, I did the 18 mile Jordan River Pathway loop. It was a gorgeous, very beginner-friendly trail about a half hour west of Gaylord, MI. I nailed color season. I mean, damn. The trees were out of control. Only problem was that is was raining for 75% of the weekend. Had to buy a decent rain coat from plantain's when I started driving to the trail on Saturday morning. Turned out to be an awesome purchase. On the plus side, I never broke a sweat in the 40ish degree weather and there were only 3 or 4 other groups doing the trail that weekend.

Day one was 8 miles down in the Jordan River valley. Rather muddy on account of the rain. This trail would be miserable in spring and early summer between the flooding and mosquitos. Definitely something to do after Labor day. Criss-crossed the river a few times and get plenty of time along the water. I describe this as being a beginner-friendly backpacking trail because there's a state-maintained walk-in campground at roughly the half way point. Fifteen sites with clean water, an outhouse, and lantern poles that most people hung their food on to keep the raccoons off. Since it had been raining, I couldn't get a fire going (probably only the 2nd or 3rd time I'd tried to start a fire since my cub scout days) and ended up hanging out with these brothers who were just camping there for the weekend. The campsite was reachable by dirt road and a short walk of a few hundred feet, so they'd walked in with a few bundles of dry firewood. One of them ended up getting high and the other got drunk, and I have a few more stories about them, if anyone's interested. Trailfolk are weird. There was a great overlook no more than a quarter mile before hiking into the campground that would've made for a great sunrise, but it was cloudy and I can't be bothered to wake up that early.

Day 2 was 10 miles of the trail and an extra 1.5 miles to get down to and back out of a trout hatchery. You cross the Jordan River for the last time almost immediately after leaving the campground, and I stopped to watch for a while while finishing my nutritious Pop-Tart breakfast and managed to spot some rather large fish chilling out. This was the more challenging stretch, bringing you up to the valley edge and going up and down all day. Michigan doesn't have very challenging elevation, but it is hilly up north and it was definitely a workout for my shifty ass. This part of the trail was totally off the river, but instead there were at least a half dozen stream crossings over the course of the day which are extremely pleasant in their own way. The highlight of the day was definitely the trout hatchery. It was a hike down the side of a road back into the valley (which made it kinda rough to hike back out of) and some football field size buildings where they raise trout to release into the Great Lakes. They just let you wander around. There weren't any baby fish in October, but it turns out they had an abnormally high number of albino trout that season in the adolescent tanks. Good spot for lunch, roughly 7-8 miles into the hike. You know you're about done when you start running into people again near Deadman's Hill.

It was a great color season weekend hike and my 2nd favorite hike that I've done in Michigan. If, for some reason, I end up getting my next job in Michigan I can see myself coming here on a regular basis.

Pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=a89403ffff
Lemme know if the link doesn't work or you suddenly know more about me than I want you to know. Don't feel like resizing all my pictures to work on imgur. First pic was my food for the weekend before I repackaged it. I don't have a decent backpacking stove yet, so I took food that didn't need heating. I had about 2 pounds of trail mix, a even combination of dark chocolate M&Ms, Craisins, peanuts, and Almonds. Turns out I don't like very many dried fruits and that bag of Sun-Maid stuff was mostly wasted. I was well satiated for one weekend between the trail mix, the turkey jerky sticks, and if I remember right, two packs of Pop-tarts and two bagels with peanut butter. Probably gained weight over the weekend. Pictures are in chronological order, so the picture of my tent and the picture of the bridge shortly after mark the day 1/day 2 boundary. The trail is part of the North Country Trail, an incomplete (some sections still require hiking along a road) megatrail that covers a 4600 mile path and will, perhaps, one day be the Midwestern equivalent of the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail. The NCT starts in New York and works its way down to Ohio and up through Michigan, ending in North Dakota. I've been on some of the other stretches in Michigan in the Manistee National Forest and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Some day, I'd like to do the Appalachian or NCT or Pacific Crest. Or all three. Who knows.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chew

A good thread with nice potential.
Probably I'll keep an eye on this thread merely as a lurker 'cause I've never done this before (camping,hiking) and I would really like to try some landscapes that this new state I'm in.
My first place to go

Ciudad Del Maíz, San Luis Potosí

http://www.mexicoenfotos.com/mx/MX12642245944715.jpg

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That's a mighty pretty waterfall. Love me some elevation and water features. What park is that in? Google Maps isn't being too helpful. (Great looking area though. Light mountains AND within day trip to the ocean. @_@ Jelly.) Michigan is surprisingly bad for waterfalls, given the absurd amount of water and rivers it has (Tahquamenon Falls is great though. that'll be another post). Is this somewhere you've been to or want to go to?

Weather sucks here, and usually does till end of June, so there's not much I can do right now. However, last year, I'd bike roughly 30 km a day to and from school (15 km/trip).

As for hiking, there's not much scenery, but I love the challenge in it: http://www.grousemountain.com/grousegrind

Basically, you're literally hiking up a mountain, then taking a skyride (http://www.grousemountain.com/skyride) thing down after reaching the top. The elusive time I've been trying to get is under an hour. In high school, I did 1:05, and the fastest I did last year was 1:10. We got close this one time, getting to the 3/4 mark at 48 minutes, but then my friend, who made the genius decision to go on a low-carbohydrate diet a few days before going, got winded, and we spent 30 minutes with him on the last quarter. Waiting for the weather to go nice so I can do outdoor things again.

I longboard around San Jose, CA sometimes. It's nice. That's pretty much all I do for outdoors, though. Once I get better at skating I'm probably gonna start to get creative and find skate spots.

Looking forward to the summer and warmer weather myself. Once the summer is here i'll grab my bike daily for a nice long ride near the shore and through the countryside.
It's an amazing view and feels so fresh.

Spoiler

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...m/11653816.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Malthe

Looking forward to the summer and warmer weather myself. Once the summer is here i'll grab my bike daily for a nice long ride near the shore and through the countryside.
It's an amazing view and feels so fresh.

Spoiler

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...m/11653816.jpg

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I would go outdoors more if mine looked like that. There isn't anything remotely like this in the entirety of my town and abandoned fields don't count. :f7:

@Malthe
I must contain my jealousy of that biking scenery. D: Looks like it'll be another two weeks before it's remotely warm enough for me to pull my bike out.
Does Denmark have dedicated bike trails/lanes, or do you just road bike?

@Curtiss
From where I'm at now near Detroit, I've gotta go at least 3-4 hours to get to the good stuff up north. That or 45-60 minutes to get to any of the decent state and metroparks ringing the edge of the metropolitan area. But those are all virtually identical. Young forests, lumps that are hard to even call hills, and there's usually a lake in the middle.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madanthony

@Malthe
I must contain my jealousy of that biking scenery. D: Looks like it'll be another two weeks before it's remotely warm enough for me to pull my bike out.
Does Denmark have dedicated bike trails/lanes, or do you just road bike?

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We do, plenty of trails. But i primarily follow the roads, there's almost no cars there anyway (i'll meet maybe 1 or 2 cars in 30 minutes after leaving the town).
Most of the trails go through the forests, which are also incredibly nice because of the warm air and cool shadows from the trees. There are trails out there though, like this:

Spoiler

http://www.seniorcamping.dk/Gangstat.../8-Roesnes.jpg

There are also shelters built randomly out there for public use. Could grab some friends and some gear and just bike out there a summer day and spend the day fishing and then light a campfire and sleep in the shelter:

Spoiler

http://www.heltude.dk/images/Konstrup_shelter.jpg

I really do prefer the summer a lot :( I miss it.
The view during winter isn't bad, the weather just doesn't allow you to enjoy the scenery whilst biking:

Spoiler

http://www.kalundborgnatur.dk/files/...billeder-1.jpg

REI dividends coming out! Gonna get me a bear canister and some peachin' boxer briefs.

Today i left my room to go and buy some food from the shop.
Since moving to the city I haven't had much chance to explore like that which is a shame.. there's a park nearby that I did an archaeology field trip on, but it wasn't very exciting.

I'll be going on an Archaeological dig (or two) in the summer though, I can go pretty much anywhere in England, or I can go to Scotland, or abroad to Cyprus. camping and working outdoors is going to be a lot of fun (and going to the pub every night haha). I'm really looking forward to it. I have to do 2 weeks minimum at an archaeological dig, but can choose to do more If I wish.
I might actually get a tan! shock horror.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madanthony

@Curtiss
From where I'm at now near Detroit, I've gotta go at least 3-4 hours to get to the good stuff up north. That or 45-60 minutes to get to any of the decent state and metroparks ringing the edge of the metropolitan area. But those are all virtually identical. Young forests, lumps that are hard to even call hills, and there's usually a lake in the middle.

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Ah... yes... I'm a metro Detroiter as well. There are really nice parks though around Oakland county (not sure if you're near the area). This past summer I took a trip to the U.P. (went 2 months after major neck surgery, not a good idea!) and had an AMAZING time. So many beautiful spots up there!

Took a hike in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park, all over the U.P and near Mackinac City/Island. Here is a link to my Flickr http://flic.kr/ps/2rfAeQ

I love going to places like Traverse City, the dunes, the east side near the thumb, Port Austin, etc. Also places like Tawas and near by places. Love camping at these spots too!

Unfortunately, I'm unable to do a lot of the things I'd like to do outside. I'm preparing for a serious hip surgery as well as another neck surgery. Who knows... maybe with 1/2 a new body, I'll be back to my old self and able to enjoy the outdoors again!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Katie

Ah... yes... I'm a metro Detroiter as well. There are really nice parks though around Oakland county (not sure if you're near the area). This past summer I took a trip to the U.P. (went 2 months after major neck surgery, not a good idea!) and had an AMAZING time. So many beautiful spots up there!

Took a hike in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park, all over the U.P and near Mackinac City/Island. Here is a link to my Flickr http://flic.kr/ps/2rfAeQ

I love going to places like Traverse City, the dunes, the east side near the thumb, Port Austin, etc. Also places like Tawas and near by places. Love camping at these spots too!

Unfortunately, I'm unable to do a lot of the things I'd like to do outside. I'm preparing for a serious hip surgery as well as another neck surgery. Who knows... maybe with 1/2 a new body, I'll be back to my old self and able to enjoy the outdoors again!

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My family's go-to localish park is Kensington Metropark. Great for biking and July 4th fireworks and picnicking. Bad for hiking D:

That's a great pair of bald eagle pictures. I've never spotted one perched. The eagle's always flying overhead or I'm in my car. When you say the east side near the thumb, are you talking about the Huron Forest and the Tawas/Oscoda area, or is there something worthwhile in the thumb I totally missed while living in Saginaw?

I hope your surgery goes well!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by madanthony

My family's go-to localish park is Kensington Metropark. Great for biking and July 4th fireworks and picnicking. Bad for hiking D:

That's a great pair of bald eagle pictures. I've never spotted one perched. The eagle's always flying overhead or I'm in my car. When you say the east side near the thumb, are you talking about the Huron Forest and the Tawas/Oscoda area, or is there something worthwhile in the thumb I totally missed while living in Saginaw?

I hope your surgery goes well!

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Kensington is nice! I hear ya about the hiking though. As far as hiking, Yes, I'm talking about those areas. But maybe near Port Austin or that way there is something more? What about Metro Beach? I can't remember for the life of me if there are hiking trails there or not though. Also, what about the state parks in the Clarkston area. I can't remember for the life of me remember the names of them.

Yea, we were so lucky to of seen the eagle. We spotted it the morning of our drive home. Slammed on the brakes, but the car in reverse and high tailed it back to check it out. Stayed there for 10-15 min. Long enough to get my tripod out and let me get semi close lol.
Thanks about the surgery ;-)

Spring starting to poke its head out in Michigan. Went for a walk in the Kensington nature area today. Some exceptional bird watching there. Saw a heron flying around, probably a dozen swans, pineappleing geese, tons of chickadees and cardinals. Highlight was a pair of sandhill cranes stalking around 30ish feet in front of me on the trail around some wetlands. I've always been a little curious about birdwatching. It's like real-life Pokemon hunting.

Seven mile hike at Bald Mountain State Rec Area. Highlights included hail and a turtle. Very fun weather.

Is there anyone in the Denver area on SP? Preferably someone who could inform me of what conditions might be like in the 7000-8500 ft elevation range in the middle of May?