Every Bit The Journey

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and this is mine.

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A crazy couple months in 2020

The Apocalypse, Murder Hornets, and Maybe Something Else

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On June 21, 2020

In Life, life events

It’s been a bit more of the crazies these last few months, and I can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store for us.

2020 Calendar Coming Events
2020 Calendar Coming Events

Most of the country is now slowly reemerging from some level of state imposed, pandemic induced, shutdown and quarantine. I hope your area is recovering well and your family is safe. The global release of a new virus and resulting pandemic was caused either by some conspiracy involving world depopulation with a bio-engineered, lab created, smart bug with no known cure. The other possibly is it was just a bad cup of bat-soup.  WHO knows (that’s a punny play by the way, feel free to comment if you get it). Anyway I haven’t had the opportunity to camp, hike, or get lost in the woods since last year. The group I volunteer with had to cancel a long list of events including summer camp and our high adventure back packing trip. Everything was closed, including the wilderness.

My camp at night
My camp at night

As an “essential worker,” my daily work routine really hadn’t changed much through the whole pandemic. I just see fewer people. Overall, this is probably a good thing. It’s strange times when you can’t get a haircut, yet Walmart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot are packed almost 24/7. One of my favorite things to do in recent years was to sit in a local coffee shop, people coming and going, listening to music, just thinking, maybe write some. Yep well, No Can Do in china virus times. While you can still get a cup of coffee, it’s To-Go only. Sitting is banned. Pretty much I just go to work & go to home. I will tell you, the daily commute to and fro was great for the first month or so. It seems essential workers are also very responsible drivers. You could really tell when the non-essential folks hit the roads again. I was just beginning to think, really soon, things should drift back to normal. But then, Murder Hornets. 

Murder Hornets
Murder Hornets Are Real

Such a creature as the Murder Hornet popped up on the radar for a short period, about early May I think. These hornets are around 2-3 inches long. And can kill people. And wipe out honey bees hives. And they have invaded the Americas and are heading to a field near you. Imagine tripping over a hive of them. Yep that’s the thing of which nightmares are made. For a short while, these horrendous creatures were a real concern. But then, the Purge.

John Minchillo/AP

For those who don’t know, The Purge is a movie where society basically allows crime and mayhem for a one single night and all emergency services are suspended. Admittedly I haven’t seen this movie but then sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Not to be constrained by a mere single night of mayhem, we’re now about a month into some nightmare real life version of the movie. Either overwhelmed by the volume of chaos, or stifled by governmental leadership, the police aren’t responding to crime in major cities now, which of course limits emergency medical & fire response services. In multiple cities, whole blocks have been vandalized, looted, and burned to the ground by rioters. Dozens murdered. Hundreds injured. And it’s still continuing. I wish it was a movie, because then I could get up and leave. As time grinds on, it seems like people are just getting crazier. And dumber.

I actually find myself getting fatigued from reading or watching the daily news too long now. There are groups of people who literally want nothing more than to watch the world burn. The idiocy sometimes becomes overwhelming, but then I push away, look out a window, go for a walk, and it feels just a little bit better. I am thankful for the people in my life, my family and friends. Being able to gather with family is refreshing and something I miss. Up until recently this social gathering of good people was banned too. June 20, 2020 happens to officially be the first day of Summer, yet the backyard barbecue parties are still restricted or banned in a lot of areas. Beaches in most states have been closed to the general public for months. Only celebrities, heads of state governments, and other special “VIP” get to go beaching or get haircuts. But then mass protesters made it all okay to get together again, but only to riot, not for happy events like birthday parties or friendly gatherings (see what I mean about dumb?). Crazy times. I can’t wait to see what July brings. 

Be safe. Stay vigilant.

Radar on watch
Radar on watch

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Radar on watch, 1st day of Spring

Spring has Sprung

By

On March 19, 2020

In Life

Just a quick note as this first day of spring begins to fade. The weather today has been truly spring like, although I’ve been stuck inside working my day job for most of it, I’m looking forward to more of nice weather. The winter has been great but I’m ready to move on. Unfortunately the world is now caught in this whole global China flu Coronavirus pandemic thing and everything around me is closing, or winding down, or being socially isolated, or being washed and disinfected.  There is a ton of good info out there on this bug so I’m not going to add to the noise other than to say use some common sense, you don’t need ALL the toilet paper on the shelf, and follow the recommendations of your local health officials. Here in the great state of South Carolina our winter seems to have been pretty mild and the plants are really starting to bud out now with the warmer weather. I’m guessing the Azaleas are probably a week or three from peak bloom, and the Dogwoods are just beginning to flower. I’m so looking forward to getting some trail time this spring, with any luck. We’ll see how the next couple of weeks pan out. Stay safe all.

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2019 Palmetto Challenge

We’re Off and Hiking (Part 2 – we’re done)

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On June 7, 2019

In 2019 Palmetto Challenge

We Completed the 2019 Palmetto Challenge and I figured I would give you a quick update on how we did.

Backstory: In March, Radar and I signed up for the 2019 Palmetto Challenge and I was very pleased to learn I could include his mileage with mine for this event. I had set a pretty arbitrary personal goal 200 miles for the seven week challenge.

How we did: We came in third place of the two member teams! We logged just over 298 combined miles together, which is almost a hundred miles more than my original goal. I only counted the miles where both Radar and I actually hiked together.

What we did: Together, Radar and I hiked just over;

  • 7 miles of the Givhans Ferry State Park trails,
  • 6 miles of the Congaree National Park trails,
  • 10 miles of the Palmetto Trail,
  • and 139 miles of other local trails and around our neighborhood.

What I learned: The rules indicated you did not have to hike together, even if you were in a team. You could just gather the individual team members mileage and combine it for a weekly team total. The rules also did not limit you to just the outdoors and trails, you could count steps at work, at home, etc., basically you could count steps from the time you got up in the morning to the time you went to bed.

Next year I’ll get us both FitBits.

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Outdoor Tips – Headlamps

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On April 17, 2019

In Outdoor Tips, Skills

Are you looking for a new or replacement headlamp but not sure what to get? Between styles, cost, weight, lumens, batteries, different settings etc. It can get really confusing. Check out this headlamp guide from REI, it’s a great resource to help sift through some of the jargon. Whatever you settle on, consider a headlamp which uses common (AA or AAA) batteries. My headlamp uses AAA’s and I can a long time between needing to re-battery. A few years ago, while section hiking a part of the Appalachian Trail, I met a fellow hiker in the Nantahala Outdoor Center gear store. He was very frustrated, his “fancy” headlamp used special button batteries and of course the batteries had died several days prior. He had dropped off trail a couple times trying to find new button batteries with No-Joy, he couldn’t find replacement batteries anywhere and finally ended up just buying a new headlamp. Increasing your gear reliability and supportability will help save yourself some miles of future frustrations.

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Hiking South Carolina – Croft State Park

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On January 29, 2019

In Canoe, Hiking & Camping in South Carolina, Life, SC State Parks, Travel, Uncategorized

If you like the outdoors, then Croft State Park has something for you. From horses to bikes to hiking to boating to shooting sports, this park offers a heavy helping of fun for everyone and is another outstanding South Carolina destination to explore.

Located in the rolling, wooded terrain of the upstate, Croft has an amazing amount of trails within the park to explore. All the 50 miles of trails at Croft are open to hikers and include the 12.6 mile Croft Passage of the Palmetto Trail, almost 17 miles of trails for Mountain Bikes, and another 17 miles of horse trails. While my girlfriend rode the horse trails with her friends, Radar and I took a day and hiked just about 13 miles of various trails including 8.5 of the Palmetto Trail section. We barely scratched where we could go.

This park opened in 1949 and with 7054 acres, is the third largest in the South Carolina State Park system. Besides the hiking, biking, and horseback riding, this park is packed with other things to do too. There are about 190 acres between the two lakes which support fishing, boating, and bird watching. There are picnic shelters, a playground, and several geocaches are located on the park. This is also one of the few South Carolina Sate Parks with a shooting range (contact the park for more information).

Favorite Time of year: Anytime for camping.

Things to Know: Please speak to a park ranger before setting a geocache. Swimming is not permitted in the lake, but you may wade in the Fairforest Creek at your own risk of course.

Camping: Camping from RV to primitive is available at Croft. Call 1-866-345-PARK (or go here for reservations).

Pet friendly: Pets allowed in most outdoor areas but must be physical restraint or on a leash not longer than six feet.

Getting There: Croft is in the upstate of South Carolina, just 5 minutes South and East of Spartanburg, between I-26 and US-176. It’s about a 4 hour drive from the Charleston area.

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What to do when the magnetic North Moves on you?

By

On January 18, 2019

In Hiking & Camping in South Carolina, Life, Outdoor Tips, Skills, Travel

In recent news, the earths magnetic north pole has moved. A lot. What does this mean for the hiker trying to find their way?

If you are planning to navigate with a magnetic compass, the first thing you need to know is the average amount of variation in your area. In parts of the country and world other than South Carolina, the variation may be more or less and can be to the East instead of West. In South Carolina the magnetic declination or variation is normally between 6 and 9 degrees (depending on where you are in the state) to the West. This means when you are holding a compass in your hand, the needle will actually be pointing about 6 to 9 degrees West of the earths true North pole, it’s pointing towards the earths magnetic North pole. To find the true North direction you have to add this westerly variation to your magnetic compass reading. Simple right? Maybe.

Some compasses include an adjustment setting for declination or
variation. This is great if all your navigation is typically in one area and you have a large amount of declination, greater than 10 degrees. you can make the adjustment for your area and the compass will indicate true North. Most maps will have some sort of compass rose which typically will point to true North and may also indicate magnetic North. You should always use the most recent maps available for your area.

While a lot depends on how far you are traveling, most hikers follow established trails. In these cases, the compass is an aid to make sure you are heading in the correct direction on the trail, or to simple help you get back on trail if you step off for a quick bathroom break of to explore a bit (of course you would need to take a bearing when you head off). If you are truly navigating open areas with long distances where a couple of extra degrees of error may matter, I would recommend augmenting the compass with GPS or other aids. With regards to the movement of the earths magnetic North, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, yet.

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Hiking South Carolina – Lee State Park

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On November 7, 2018

In Hiking & Camping in South Carolina, Life, SC State Parks, Travel

Lee State Park is a great place to take a walk and unwind a bit. It’s a good mid-sized state park of 2839 acres along the Lynches River near Bishopville in the eastern midlands of the state. The park has several short (under a mile) easy hiking trails near the camp grounds at the visitor center, including a nice elevated boardwalk through the wetlands. There are also several miles of horse-only trails. The Loop Road trail however is a good five miles and takes you past several of the parks artesian wells as it circles the park. This park is one of South Carolina’s first sixteen State Parks originally created during the 1930’s great depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many of the original buildings remain. During my visit the weather was cool (no bugs!) and the fall foliage was turning which made for a really nice walk with Radar.  We walked the Loop Road and Boardwalk trails. This making his second hiking trail, Radar seems to enjoy hikes and really does a good job staying close even when horses and other dogs show up on the trail. We enjoyed a light trail lunch and drank from the artesian wells as we casually walked the trails and enjoyed the peaceful day. We followed up the hike with a short hammock nap. With no tempting wi-fi, Lee is a great place to disconnect and unwind.

Favorite Time of year: I must go with the fall season. Watch the weather for Lynches River levels.

Things to Know: They keep it pretty simple at Lee, no wi-fi, nice facilities but limited extra resources makes Lee a quite place to relax.

Camping: Site and RV camping is available at Lee, you can use the toll-free for reservations, or information (Reservations Required). Group primitive camping is also available but you will need to call.

Pet friendly: Pets are allowed in most outdoor areas provided they are under physical restraint or kept on a leash not longer than six feet

Getting There: Lee is in the Eastern midlands of South Carolina, West of Florence and East of Camden, just off highway 20. It’s about a 2-3 hour drive from the Charleston area.

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Outdoor Tips – ‘Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.’

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On October 31, 2018

In Hiking & Camping in South Carolina, Outdoor Tips, Skills, Travel

The first really long hike I remember doing was a summer time trek in Florida’s Ocala National Forest. Planning by the group leaders was ongoing for months and had been meticulous. Detailed menus, easy mapped sections each day, we even had designated campsites for each night with potable water sources so we didn’t to carry need heavy water filters to treat water from the wild. It’s amazing how simple things multiply. For whatever reason we started out at the wrong trail head. This added way too many unexpected miles to our first day hiking in the Florida sun, from which we never really recovered. We all ran out of water miles short of the first campsite. One of my most distinct memories of this early backpacking trip was passing the numerous ponds, teaming with wildlife, and no way to treat water to drink.

Today water treatment technology makes it so easy to be prepared and to gather safe drinking water from the field. There is really no reason not to have something for water treatment tucked away in your pack.

The smart folks at the Centers for Disease Control and prevention tell us the things in back country water which will hurt us (this means pooping on ourselves, throwing up, and/or the joys of stomach or intestinal cramps) are called pathogens, and they fall in to three primary types: Protozoa (little bugs), Bacteria (littler bugs), and Viruses (littlest bugs). I know technical, right? The bottom line is you can’t see these guys. Despite folklore, you can’t just look at a water source and say “oh this looks good, no need to filter this water!” Any water from a wild source should be suspect. The real question is how much risk am I willing to take, or worded differently, how close am I to the end of the trail where I can get to a bathroom?     

Outdoor Skills – Water Treatment Methods

Why use a water treatment when outdoors? The short answer is there is simply no easy way to tell if a water source contains disease-causing microorganisms. There are people who will claim they have been drinking untreated back country water for years. At best, this can be a high risk practice. When pulling surface water from any lake, stream, or river, anywhere water is exposed, it is susceptible to contamination with microbes and viruses. The best practice is to treat water from any source. Always treat all water.

When heading out for a trip where I know I will be pulling water from a natural source, I always try to have at least two methods of water treatment. A backup method helps you be prepared when your primary method fails for whatever reasons. There is little worse than running out of water and not being able to safely refill your water bottles. We’ll take a look at some of the basic treatment methods and some of pros and cons of each.

The oldest and simplest water treatment method is to boil your water. Fill a container with clear water (strain as needed) and place over a stove or fire to bring the water to a rolling boil. Let cool and you’re done. This is a great backup method when you have a stove with you. Some of the down sides to this method are it takes fuel and time. You may need to carry extra fuel if you are going to plan to boil all the water for your trip. You also need to take time to let the water cool. The boiling or very hot water can deform some plastic water containers and scald skin.

Filtration is a great and very popular primary water treatment method. There are a number of filtration systems including straws, pumps, squeeze, and gravity systems available. Basically filtration removes biological contamination through a physical filter. So the most important thing to know here is how small are the particles the filter will take out. In this case, smaller is better. You want to start with nothing larger than 1 micron to filter out the the little bugs, like Cryptosporidium & Giardia. But you really need to move to a filter of no more than 0.3 or 0.2 microns and go smaller if you can, ideally 0.1 micron, to remove most of the other bad littler & littlest guys like Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli and enterovirus, hepatitis A, norovirus, rotavirus. Gravity bags are great for easy and a high volume of finished water. Pumps are good for smaller groups and shallow water. Squeeze filters are great individual filter systems. The gravity systems are difficult to use with shallow water sources and can be expensive. A lot of pumping can be fatiguing. Squeeze filter are susceptible to damage from freezing due to the micro-tube filter media.

Chemicals are a good alternate plan for water disinfection and can be used with filtration to provide better results as chemical treatments are generally effective against most biological contaminants. Mostly chemical treatments are limited to some form of iodine, chlorine, or chlorine dioxide.  Chemical treatments do require an amount of “soak” time to work effectively, typically at least 20-30 minutes. So you can’t treat and drink right away, you must allow time for the chemical to do it’s job. You must follow the manufactures dosing instructions. Some people may have or develop sensitivities to the chemicals and they can leave an unpleasant aftertaste.

A couple quick tips.

Always try to pull water from the visually cleanest part of the water source. When filtering, use a pre-filter to reduce the crud getting to and clogging the main, finer filter. Keep your clean water containers separate from dirty water containers. Powdered drink mixes with citric acid can help neutralize or mast the aftertaste of chemical water treatments – after the required wait time.   

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Table Rock Revisited

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On October 24, 2018

In Hiking & Camping in South Carolina, Life, SC State Parks, Skills, Travel

Of course, it always starts out easy enough, this hike, with the wooden board walk and paved walk ways, winding around the gentle water falls cascading down the mountain. It’s really not far to the trail junction where all the trails head in different directions. Pick your poison as they say. We turn left, and head west, along the Pinnacle Mountain trail for the start of a two day trek through one of my favorite, but probably one of the most challenging, state parks in South Carolina, Table Rock.

I am lucky to take another group of new backpackers out in to this wilderness again. Our overnight trek will loop around the outer perimeter of the park in a +-12.5 mile loop. Honestly, the distance is the easy part. We will gain and loose thousands of feet over the next mere twenty four hours. With the weight of my pack, it feels good to be back on the trail again. It’s been a couple years since I was here last (with my son and daughter, it was late fall I think) and the trail is familiar, yet some how different. We slowly climb as the trail winds towards Pinnacle Mountain. Our goal is the campsites just out of the west end of the park on the Foothills Trail. It’s only 5 miles away. The trail generally keeps climbing, but we’re moving slow. We pass under a small water fall. Some of the spur trails are closed and there seems to be a lot more  green underbrush growth than I remember.  We hike on to the the west to Bald Knob Outcrop and take a needed break. The view here is amazing in the late afternoon. Inspirational probably really doesn’t describe it well. I would love to sit there and watch the sky roll slowly from baby blue to a darkening deep purple as the night advances, but it’s getting late, and we have miles to go before we rest. Really, miles still. We reach the Foothills trail spur from the Pinnacle Mountain Trail and begin our 800 foot decent in to the valley where we’ll spend the night. Every step down hill will be a step up hill tomorrow as we come back this way. We reach our camp with just enough light to set up camp, make dinner, and relax a little before the darkening deep purple rolls to the blackness of night. The ground is hard and uneven but we’ve hiked our five miles in just under six hours and I sleep well anyway.

It turns out there was a wildfire a last year which burned over 10,000 acres around Table Rock and Pinnacle Mountain. This explains the charred and burned trees, and the subsequent rebirth of the green undergrowth I’ve seen. Kind of like natures way of re-freshening things. Unfortunately there are also signs of beetle damage killing back some of the trees. And there is plenty of recent storm damage with yet uncleared down trees crossing the trails. There so much unrecognized work in maintaining trails, most people take clear trails for granted.

I’m up early before the sun, I pack and eat while the rest of the crew is starting to stir. Morning camp chores need to be done, water gathered, and sleepy hikers motivated. Finally we are hiking, in a light morning drizzle of course. It wouldn’t be camping if it didn’t rain. We hike back up that 800 feet now to regain our trail and on to the top of Pinnacle Mountain at 3415′. We are painfully slow this morning. The slow grinding up hill takes it’s toll on time. I fuss but it’s really all good, I think. The east bound Ridge Trail is good to travel and regain some time. I love being on the ridges. It’s just getting to them which is the challenge. We’re making good time. We’ve planned to meet our main group of day-hikers on Table Rock for lunch, so we’re hiking under a schedule, which can add a pesky “time” element to things. We make Panther Gap, thank goodness. Here we drop our packs and just take food and drink with us for lunch. Two miles to go. The Table Rock summit is guarded by the approach to Governor’s Rock. You need to climb now to get to Governor’s Rock, then you’re allowed to climb some more to get to the Table Rock summit of 3124′. It’s really kind of amazing when you round one turn in the trail to face a 50′ rock climb, only to crest it, and look up at another. Governor’s Rock is a bald outcropping which offers an amazing view of where we came from. Sitting on the warm rock face, Pinnacle Mountain to the west and the ridge between look so green and pleasant. We finally reached the summit, passing our day hiking group on their way down. The overlook views from atop Table Rock allow you to see virtually the entire South Carolina Piedmont region, almost all the way back to Columbia, on a good day, when the clouds don’t roll in. We had a few moments of great views before the clouds wrapped around us. Alas, lunch is over and we must go, we have a couple miles to go back and pick up our packs, then another couple miles to get down and off trail before dark. we’re descending 2000′ in those sweet short four miles.

While this Table Rock Trail is rated “Very Strenuous” (I may just have a few other special words to describe some of it), I do find it rewarding to take this hike and bring others along to share the joy of these special mountains. Hopefully this will warm the embers of outdoor exploration in some of these these new hikers, the way it has in the past with the young hikers before them. I’ve hiked these mountains many times now, at the end of the day you know you’ve done something, okay maybe not, but even tired, with aching knees and sore feet, there are times I would rather be on the ridge, walking under the shade of the forest canopy, than anywhere else.

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Hiking with Radar

By

On October 16, 2018

In Hiking & Camping in South Carolina, Life, Travel

I just came back from a great weekend camping with Brenda and Radar at #CroftStatePark in the SouthCarolina up-state. Brenda rode with friends and I took Radar on his first ever, real trail hike! We covered about 11 miles in one day with 8.5 of it along the Croft Passage of the Palmetto Trail. While he and I have gone for walks before, this was Radar’s first real hiking on a trail in the woods venture, and he did really really well, he’s such a good boy!

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