Going out for two days with my son, starting tomorrow.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Hi all,

My son and I are going out for a couple of days of hiking starting tomorrow in the coastal mountains down by Santa Cruz.  We'll be hiking from Ben Lomond up to and through Big Basin Redwoods.  We'll camp in the regular campground at park headquarters tomorrow night, and then hike up to the Sunset Camp and Berry Creek Falls on Wed.  We're staying at Sunset Camp Wed. night, and then hiking down to Waddell Beach on Thurs., where my wife will pick us up.  It'll be about 20 mi. total, and my son's first hike over 10 mi. with a pack.

I'm taking my new BK14 with me, as well as my new Big Agnes air mattress.  I've used the Big Agnes once already, and am pretty pleased with it.  I was considering taking my Golok, but the trails we'll be on are well maintained, and we have no reason (or intent) to bushwhack, so I probably won't take it.  (They also currently have a ban on camp fires in the backwoods camps, so there's no reason to do any wood gathering.) 

I'm also taking my Wenger 179 and my S2, as I feel the pliers and scissors of the S2 should compliment the tools of the 179 very well.  For lighting, I'll have my Spark ST5-190nw headlamp, my neutral Q-mini AA, and my QAA2.

And, if I can get away with it, I'll make a fire bow and do a little practicing... it's been almost a year since I've worked on or used one, so I'd like to get some more practice in if I can.

I can get a few pics, I'll post some for you guys when I get back.

Edit: corrected state park name.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Have a great time mate

[MultiMat]

That sounds like a great trip mate  , hope you both have a cracking time 

[ducttapetech]

sounds like fun. Have a good time.

[Top-Gear-24]

Looking forward to the pics  .

Enjoy your trip  .

[Lynn LeFey]

I'm jealous.

My husband's notion of roughing it involves cable TV.

Have an awesome time, be safe, And come back with great memories!

[AHB]

Stay safe and have fun..

[Gareth]

Sounds excellent.  Don't forget to take some pictures for us.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Thanks guys!     Doing final prep and packing this morning... we're heading out this afternoon.  I'm not much of a photographer anymore, but I'll make it a point to take as many pics as I can, even if I'll be limited to my old iPhone's camera.

Just made a few minor changes to my equipment; I'm adding my 'new' old Explorer to my kit (thanks Lynn!), and leaving out my QAA2.  We're going to be in heavy woods most of the time, so a larger, throwier torch isn't going to be much use. 

I'm also going to leave out my Endura, so it'll give me more reason / need to use my new Eskabar.  Not that I really think I'll "need" it, but I want to practice with it and get used to it.  (I could probably get by fine with just my Ranger 179 and my S2.) 

I'll post pics when I get back!

[Waterlander]

Redwood! Sounds like an awesome hike!

Have fun Heinz


ps. don't forget to bring a backup SAK for your backup SAK  just kidding

[sawman]

Have a great time 

[Sparky415]

That sounds like a great trip mate  , hope you both have a cracking time 

+1 

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Hey guys... got back about an hour ago.  Unloaded our gear, had a bacon cheeseburger (my traditional post hiking trip self-reward), did a few small chores around the house, and here I am!    My son did very well for his first long hike with a loaded pack.    

Scenery was gorgeous, weather was great, hardly any poison oak anywhere on the trails, and only one rascally raccoon to deal with... Had a few minor issues but they were easily overcome...  There was no fresh water available at our second camp, so I ended up boiling up a few extra liters of creek water which got us through to the end of the hike.  There were pit toilets there, but no TP at all...     but despite my wife making fun of me for carting it along on pretty much every hiking/camping trip I do, the 1,000 sheet roll of Scott-tissue saved the day for that one!     (I also tell her it'll make great tinder for emergency fire starting, should the need arise!)

I took some nice pics of one of our camps, along one of the trails we hiked, and a 'mother of invention' use of my S2 at camp this morning!  I'll post them tomorrow some time... I've got a busy day ahead of me tomorrow... washing/cleaning-out my wife's van, reorganizing/cleaning our pantry/storage area, and helping my wife wash and clip her poodle.     (Saturday is the day I've been dreading... cleaning out the garage, as I've been promising I'd do, for over a year now...  )

Anyway, I'll report back with pics tomorrow.  Talk to you guys then!

[Gareth]

Good to have you back mate and very glad to hear you had a good time.   Sounds like you've got a busy few days ahead of you so I'll hold off on the picture for a little while.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Thanks Gareth! 

Okay, late night for me, but I want to get this done... I'm still riding the high and want to take care of this while I'm up for it.  (Haven't had a chance to resize the pics; if they're too big and take up too much bandwidth, please let me know, and I'll size them down, or replace the hot links with regular URL's.)

A quick shot of our first camp.  Nothing special, just a flat spot with a bear box and a table.  Here, we're at the Jay Camp in Big Basin Redwoods of the California State Parks system.


A quick pic of a bit of my gear.


My son and myself at our second night's camp, yesterday afternoon, after hiking up from Jay Camp and Park Headquarters.  About a 7 mi. hike, and approximately 1,000 ft. of elevation gain.



At our first camp, the previous tenant had left a couple of boxes of mosquito coils.  I use bug spray when necessary, but I hate using it.  I'm not a big fan of the coils either, as they don't seem to work all that well, but they were there, the skeeters were very light, so we opted for the coils.  We took a box of them with us to our second camp, but I foolishly forgot to bring one of those cheap little aluminum stands that come with them.  My S2 to the rescue!!!  I opened the blade and the medium size flathead driver, and made an impromptu stand for the skeeter coils.  I'm really kinda proud of myself for thinking of this one!   


A few pics of the trail and Berry Creek Falls, on the creek that flows down from the coastal mountains out to the Pacific ocean. 




We had a couple of minor misadventures, that were fairly easily solved.  Our second night was at a trail camp called Sunset Camp, up on the ridgeline in the center of the park.  My wife had camped there before, and told me there was water available there... well, no more.     We had 6 liters with us when we left Park HQ, and since I thought we'd be able to get more, I wasn't conservative with what we had...  At Sunset Camp, we had just under 2 liters left.  Trusting my wife's word, I hadn't brought my MicroPur tabs, or our filter, and had to hike back down the trail about half a mile to a creek that had clear running water to get water.  I brought back about 3 1/2 liters and boiled it all (1/2 a liter at a time) in our JetBoil to use for drinking and cooking.  It seemed to work okay, but I'll just have to wait and see if I boiled it long enough... there IS Giardia in the water there, and I'm just hoping I boiled it long enough...   

Also, there were pit toilets at Sunset Camp, but California has been in a long and serious budget crisis, and the stat park system has really taken a major hit in funding because of it.  In other words, not only was there no water tap, but the pit toilets looked like they hadn't been serviced in a while, and had no TP in them.  Now, my wife always makes fun of me for doing this, but I religiously carry a roll of the 1,000 sheet Scott Tissue with me when I go out on any kind of overnight or longer trip.  Not only does do it's intended job, but it's a great source of tinder if needed for emergency fire making. 

So all in all, a good time for both of us; we got some good dad-son bonding time, and enjoyed the trip as well. 

[Gareth]

Looks great mate.  I don't know why anyone wouldn't carry some bog-roll (TP) on a overnight hike.   As long as you brought the water to a rolling boil for a while you should be fine.

[Waterlander]

Hey thanks for sharing! 

The smoke from those coils is bad for you and your boy. Better not use mate.

[Mr. Whippy]

Hey guys... got back about an hour ago.  Unloaded our gear, had a bacon cheeseburger

Nice!  I like that tradition. 

  There were pit toilets there, but no TP at all...     but despite my wife making fun of me for carting it along on pretty much every hiking/camping trip I do, the 1,000 sheet roll of Scott-tissue saved the day for that one!     (I also tell her it'll make great tinder for emergency fire starting, should the need arise!)

Good as a tamponade in serious first aid settings too.  TP is a seriously good bit of kit.

[82brutus]

Great pictures, it looks like you guys had an awesome time and a great adventure!  Really, it isn't a big deal to take the TP with you, it doesn't take much room and like you said, multiple uses. 

We usually store a little roll in the hollow handle of a plastic shovel. 

[Sparky415]

 
Looks like you had a good time and thanks for the pictures   

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Thanks guys... it was fun.  And, as before, I'll keep carrying a roll of TP with me.  Hadn't thought about using for blotting/compression for injuries... great idea!