Just Roughin' It > Blog

Archive for February, 2009

« Older Entries

Why Hire A Guide? 20 Questions Answered

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

You knew this blog entry was coming since we are a guide service after all. You have probably heard all the reasons before and read articles about the reasons why a guide is a good thing  and I do agree with the points they make. A guide does add value to a hike by shedding light on the history, geology, flora and fauna of an area. Smarter Travel had an informative blog post by Molly Feltner about the subject that gives her first hand accounts of reasons to hire a guide. A good guide knows all of the highlights of a trail or places of interest that are just off trail; the kind of things that you may miss if you were hiking a trail on your own.

In this article, my approach to the question of why hire a guide comes from a practical point of view. I’m going to list the questions that you need to answer for yourself before you go for a day hike. These are all questions that a guide service has already answered for you.

  • What trail should we hike?
  • How do we get to the trail head?
  • How long will it take to get there?
  • What is the best time of day to go?
  • How long will this hike take?
  • Is the trail well marked and is my map or guide book reliable?
  • What snacks will we take?
  • How much food should we bring?
  • What should we bring for lunch?
  • How much water should we bring?
  • Is there water along the trail?
  • What shoes do we need? Do I need hiking boots or will just running shoes do?
  • What clothing should we bring? How heavy a jacket do we need?
  • What are the weather conditions and do they change quickly?
  • What is there to see on the trail?
  • How do I get ready for the hike?  Should I train for this?
  • What happens if someone gets injured?
  • How far is the nearest help?
  • Do we have a ‘Plan B’ in case of an emergency and are we prepared to stay on the trail overnight?
Guests Enjoying a Guided Grand Canyon Day Hike

Guests Enjoying a Guided Grand Canyon Day Hike

You may not have realized all of the questions you actually ask yourself when you go out for a hike, even a day hike. If you are an experienced hiker on a familiar trail,  then you should have the answers to all of these questions. If you are hiking a trail that is new to you, it takes some time, research and planning to come up with the answers and create a back up plan in case your research sources were off. A professional hiking guide will have all of the questions answered and make the day flow smoothly. The guide will make it look easy since that is his or her job and you may even question why are we paying for this service?  Just remember the effort it took for the guide service to make your day enjoyable without hassle. That is the true value of a guide and why we are worth it.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Backpacking & Hiking | No Comments »

Bear Grylls Eats Bear Poop

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

I had a hard time naming this post since I didn’t want to drag this blog entirely into the gutter, or should I say toilet? I was watching The Soup this weekend when low and behold, Man vs Wild makes the Clip of the Week. For those unfamiliar with The Soup, this clip is the most outrageous and stupid clip of anything seen on TV in the last week.

Bear Grylls Not Eating Crap

Bear Grylls Not Eating Crap

Anyway this Clip of the Week shows Bear Grylls poking through some bear poo in Romania looking for something to eat. He just doesn’t look to see what the bear has eaten to see what he may be able to forage for in the surrounding forest, he literally takes a digested bit of apple out of the bear crap, pours water over it to clean it off and then pops it in his mouth.  Don’t believe me, here are a couple of links to videos of this craziness.

Low quality clip from someone’s TV.

Bear Grylls Eats Bear Poop

Current.com had the clip as part of it’s weekly Current TV clip

Maybe it’s me, but if I was able to distinguish pieces of apple in that stuff then I would have found the apple tree it came from. It also looked like a heavily wooded area he was in some there must have been other wild edibles around.

Apparently this isn’t the only time that Bear has found food in the form of digested material. Here are other fun and disgusting clips I found on YouTube. Have fun.

Bear Drinks from Elephant Dung

Bear Drinks Camel Poo Juice

Bear Grylls Drinks His Own Urine

I guess Man vs Wild is trying to capture the audience that was hooked on Fear Factor. By the way, Bear has a wife and three kids. Do they still let him kiss them after all of this?

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Backpacking & Hiking, That's F-d Up | No Comments »

What is an Experienced Hiker?

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

The recent death of a Camelback Mountain hiker in Phoenix, AZ has reminded me that I need to blog about this issue.  Every time I see a news report about the death of a hiker or a lost hiker, the media always says they are experienced.  But what exactly does that mean?  In late May of 2008, the Grand Canyon National Park Service dispatched search and rescue to find a couple experienced hikers that were overdue and finally found two days later.  In May of 2007, an experienced female hiker, also in the Grand Canyon, died of dehydration and heat related illnesses.  Google “experienced hiker dies” and you’ll get several pages of relevant articles. 

Merriam-Webster defines experience as ”direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge.”  So based on that, any hiker who has hiked, or been on a trail just once before is experienced.  But does having hiked before mean you are experienced in certain environments, weather conditions, terrains, off-trail or seasons?  Hiking the Grand Canyon in the winter on the Bright Angel trail is completely different than in the summer and having hiked in the winter does not grant anyone the experience necessary to deal with the extreme heat that exists in the summer months - up to 120 degrees F in the sun.

And now for the stats.  Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) released its rescue statistics and analyses for 2008.  According to Friends of YOSAR, 60% of rescue missions involved hikers that were lost or injured on the trail. Additionally, day hiker and backpacker rescues cost $1,375,000 compared to the $456,000 spent on rock climbing rescues.  For a detailed accounting af these findings, check out this post on NowPublic.

The best way to define an experienced hiker is by his or her preparedness and ability to avoid becoming a statistic.  This includes…

  • Knowledge of current weather conditions and trends
  • Packing extra food and water
  • Avoiding hiking solo
  • Prior research on hiking routes, including current conditions.  Trails change with every season, especially in the Spring due to rain and snow.
  • Avoiding areas with loose rocks, poor trail conditions and always assuming the worst can happen.
  • Knowing that you may not be rescued
  • Knowing some wilderness first aid
  • Having proper maps
  • Telling someone where you are going and when you are expected to return
  • And so much more!  Click here for more.

This is a long list so let’s make it simple: Use your common sense and leave your ego at home!

Be safe for yourself and your loved ones.

Happy hiking!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Backpacking & Hiking, Health & Fitness | No Comments »

National Parks Are A Low Cost Alternative To Disney Vacations

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Finances are tight for many of us but we still want to enjoy our vacation time this year without breaking the bank. Try heading to one of the many National Parks as a low cost vacation alternative.  Kurt Repanshek at the National Parks Traveler blog wrote a really useful post about the advantages of a taking a National Park vacation. 

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

Kurt compares the cost of entry into Disney World to the cost of going to a National Park for the day. I didn’t realize how pricey Disney can be but apparently it’s almost $300 for a family of four. By comparison the Grand Canyon is only $25 a car and Yosemite is $20 a car to enter the park and the national park entry is good for several days; not just one.  The blog post goes on to give useful money saving tips, some are park specific while others are pretty much universal such as packing a picnic lunch instead of eating at a restaurant.  You can easily save money on a visit to national park if you spend some time on the National Park Service website for a specific park and plan out your visit. If you go to Disneyland you would plan out your time to make sure you were able to hit all the best rides wouldn’t you?

Granted, you can run up a large bill on a national park visit if you aren’t careful. A motel room at Zion Lodge can be $179 a night for a family of four and a room at the El Tovar Hotel in the Grand Canyon will be well over $200 a night. Food costs can run up before you know it as well.  As a way to lower the cost, try camping instead of lodging. Many parks have campsites within the park as well as camping gear rental. For food, get groceries at either a store outside the park or at the general stores within the park.

I hope I’m not making the national park experience sound too much like a Brady Bunch vacation but if your looking for a low cost way to get out of town this summer, try going to one of mother nature’s amusement parks instead of Disney or a Six Flags.

Via: Best Hike Blog

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Backpacking & Hiking | No Comments »

« Older Entries
  

Send Me
Dirt-e-mail

Keep the adventure going!
Sign up to receive bi-monthly e-mail updates on the latest happenings, newly added tours, outdoors tips and more.
  

Tell Someone to
Go Take a Hike

Good things are meant to be shared!
Tell a friend or family member about the adventures that await you.
  

Photo Gallery

Much better than Aunt Selma and Aunt Patty's vacation slide shows, but not as good as being there. Click here...		  
Bookmark: