Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Hiking 101: What to Bring

So you want to start hiking? Tyla and I were chatting about this on a recent hike, and I decided to make three posts about it. The first will be tips things you should consider carrying with you, the second is how to pick out a hike, and the third is a selection of good first hikes to get you started..

  • Water. Lots of water. I can pretty easily go through 1.5 liters in 4-5 hours depending on the temperature. I like Camelbaks because you can drink small amounts as you hike, but however you do it, everyone should be carrying water. It’s much better to have too much than not enough.
  • Carry a printout of the trail route with you. I also like to do a little extra studying of some topographical maps. That might be more than you need, but you should at least know the directions to the trailhead and which turns to take along the trail. You should also know how to discover when you’ve missed a turn or gone too far. What other trails or land features are in the area?
  • Know the weather. I usually guess what I’ll need and then take one more layer to stay warm. However you do it, layers are the key. Make sure you have room in your backpack for any layers you aren’t wearing.
  • For your first hikes, you can probably get away without carrying a compass or GPS, but you don’t want to do that for too long. It’s easy to get turned around in the woods.
  • Always carry some kind of food. I like to carry Cliff Bars, and Tyla usually makes some trail mix. For hikes that go over lunch time, we’ll carry sandwiches with us. Even if you don’t plan to eat, you need to bring something. You never know what’s going to happen and having food gives you more options.
  • Hiking early in the day has two benefits: you’ll be finishing up before the heat of the day and you’ll get a better parking spot at the trailhead. This is particularly important for the first hikes you’ll be taking because they are more popular.
  • What else do I carry in my pack? (You definitely don’t need all this stuff when you’re starting out on busy trails.)

You’ll come up with your own system as you do more hiking, and you can greatly reduce the amount of stuff in your pack when hiking with a friend who is also prepared. For example, Tim brings a SAM Splint which is nice to have along. The important thing is that you think about what you might need if your trip doesn’t go as planned. I know I can survive overnight out in the woods if I need to.

I keep all these items in a backpack that I dedicate to hiking so I don’t have to spend time packing and remembering all these items every time I leave on a hike or camping trip.

benmartens July 19, 2010 Outdoors

Snoqualmie Lake

On Saturday, Tim and I set out to do the longest hike yet. It starts with a 12 mile drive down a dirt road and then you hike 7.5 miles into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to Snoqualmie Lake. For those of you playing along at home, it’s hike #18 from Beyond Mt. Si.) It’s a huge lake and there aren’t very many people there. We found out why.

The first 5.8 miles are fairly easy as you only gain about 600 feet and it’s along a very old, narrow road. The trail follows the Taylor River and crosses a couple waterfalls that are destinations in their own right. The trail is decreasingly small as it gets closer to the fork at 5.8 miles. The south fork heads to Nordrum Lake but we headed north to Snoqualmie Lake.

The next 1.7 miles were some of the roughest trail I’ve hiked. The trail was very narrow and crossed a number of large rock slides. It turns out that trails up the mountain also make a great place for water to flow down the mountain. Much of that stretch of the hike was up small creeks and there were a couple places where we crossed fairly large streams on logs that people had placed over the water.

We were getting pretty tired by the time we hit the lake, but wow was it gorgeous. There were three other small groups there that had set up tents and that was definitely the way to do this hike. We only met two other people on the whole hike who were doing it all in one day. After 3.5 hours of hiking, we spent 30 minutes at the lake, had lunch and then headed back.

The hike down to the fork actually took us a bit longer than the hike up did. Trekking poles would have come in very handy. I had some in my hands at REI the day before but made the mistake of not buying them. We were happy once we got back to the fork but the prospect of hiking 5.8 miles wasn’t looking great. By about the 10 mile mark, I was getting tired and by 12-13 my feet were starting to scream at me. By the time we got to the car, I had a new definition for tired and sore.

The lake was beautiful. I’m glad we did the hike so I know that it’s possible, but I’m not itching to do something that big again in the near future.

Pictures from the hike are available in the photo gallery and an HDView photo is available too.

PS. On Sunday morning, Tim and I were talking about how sore we were when ScottF’s wife came up and told us he summitted Rainier on Saturday. In ONE DAY. Nobody does it in one day, but he did. 21 hours of hiking from 6000 feet to 14,000 feet in snow the entire way. All we did was hike 15 miles to a lake and back. I feel like a wimp. Kudos to Scott though! I hope to follow in his footsteps (although probably a lot slower) some day.

benmartens July 14, 2010 Outdoors, Panorama

Thunder Knob

Tyla and I headed up to Concrete, WA to camp with her family for the Fourth of July weekend. Photos from our weekend include shots of a hike to Diablo Lake and Gorge Dam, making fire with flint, mini golf, and blowing my new vuvuzella at the parade.

And since I’m obsessed with these HDView photos, you can see Diablo Lake and Gorge Dam in glorious detail. While the Gorge Dam photo doesn’t have a wide field of view, you can zoom in quite far. The full size image is over 100 megapixels!

benmartens July 13, 2010 Outdoors, Panorama

I Have Made Fire!

A couple years ago, Tim bought a flint and magnesium stick from REI and we tried to make a fire on a camping trip. We never got much more than a spark. Luckily Tim carries a butane torch to coax campfires to life so we weren’t left in the dark.

On this last weekend’s camping trip with the in-laws, I decided to give it another shot. I picked up that same magnesium survival fire starter. We took a hike to the top of Thunder Knob and along the way I found some stuff hanging from the pine trees that I thought would work. I wish I knew what it was called but I remember seeing it on one of those survival shows on Discovery. Anyway, it’s green, hangs from the branches, and it looks like long clumps of string. I collected a handful of it and later that night I decided to humiliate myself in front of the family.

I scraped off some magnesium shavings with a knife into the green stuff that I had collected, lined up the edge of the flint with the shavings and with a single stroke, the whole thing caught fire!

Ok, so making fire without a match isn’t that impressive, but it was the first time I’ve ever done it. Thinking back to our previous attempt, we didn’t have anything good for the magnesium to ignite. I’m going to look around for an outdoor survival class that would teach you these kind of basic skills localized to the environment of the Pacific Northwest.

benmartens July 6, 2010 Outdoors

Compass Declination

I was replaced the battery in my fancy Sunnto Vector watch which meant that I had to recalibrate some of the sensors including the compass. Calibrate a compass? We all learn in grade school that magnetic north isn’t exactly the same as true north, but it’s generally close enough that we don’t think about it. In the midwest it’s pretty close to the same, but out towards the coast the difference is significant. Here in Seattle if you follow a compass and walk north, you’ll be heading almost 17 degrees too far to the east!

Even more interestingly, the declination changes from year to year. In Seattle, it is currently decreasing by about a degree every 6 years. I strongly recommend that you click this Wikipedia link to watch an animation of how the magnetic field has changed over the last 400 years.

You probably don’t need to think about this in your day to day activities, but if you spend time outdoors, it’s good to have in the back of your mind in case you find yourself relying a compass in a survival situation.

benmartens July 5, 2010 Geek, Outdoors

Annette Lake

I’ve really had the itch to get some hiking and exploring done. Last Saturday the weather and our calendar finally aligned and we took advantage of it. I had planned to drive back down that dirt road that Tim and I found, but after chatting with a forest ranger on the phone, I found out that the trailhead was 7 miles beyond the closed gate because the road was washed out. After flipping through Beyond Mt. Si (fantastic hiking book!) we settled on Hike #20: Annette Lake.

It was a moderate hike with about 1900 feet in elevation gain over seven round trip miles. We set a good pace and made it to the top in good shape. Trip reports on WTA.org said that there was some ice around the edges of the lake last weekend but it was clear when we got there. There was some snow along the side of the trail and on the surrounding cliffs, but nothing we had to cross.

The lake is gorgeous. Brush and trees run right up to the edge of the lake in most places so there are only a few spots to access the lake. We found a small one, had some food, and braved the cold water. I made it in up to my knees and found it bearable once my legs were numb.

There’s a beautiful campsite by the lake but it was occupied by some unbeautiful people who were doing their part to destroy the surrounding area. Leave it better than you found it, people. It would be fun to hike up there and stay at that site, but you’d have hikers walking through the middle of your campsite regularly.

This trail isn’t too tough so it’s a bit more crowded than some of the more remote alpine lakes. Still, it’s past the more popular Tiger Mountain, Mt. Si and Rattlesnake Ledge hikes so that thins the crowd. Put this one on your list if you haven’t been there already!

There are a few pictures below and a couple more in the photo gallery, but to really feel what it was like at the lake, you should check out this panorama which lets you pan and zoom. If you don’t want to install Silverlight, you can click on the panorama below to vie the 9MB full sized panorama.



benmartens July 2, 2010 Outdoors, Panorama

Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle

Tyla picked this one out of Taste of Home magazine and made it when her family came over for Father’s Day. It makes a TON. The recipe says 20 servings but it might even be more than that. You can’t eat much at one sitting because it’s so rich, but it is delicious!

Ingredients

  • 1 fudge brownie mix (13×9 pan)
  • 1 pkg (10oz) peanut butter chips
  • 2 pkg (13oz each) mini peanut butter cups
  • 4 cups cold 2% milk
  • 2 pkg (5.1oz each) instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cartons (8oz each) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Prepare brownie batter according to package directions; stir in peanut butter chips. Bake in greased 13×9 baking pan at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out with moist crumbs. Do not overbake. Cool on a wire rack; cut into 3/4 in pieces.

Cut peanut butter cups in half; set aside 1/3 cup for garnish. In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mixes for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Add peanut butter and vanilla; mix well. Fold in 1-1/2 cartons whipped topping.

Place a third of the brownies in a 5-qt glass bowl; top with a third of the remaining peanut butter cups. Spoon a third of the pudding mixture over the top. Repeat layers twice. Cover with remaining whipped topping; garnish with reserved peanut butter cups. Refrigerate until chilled.

benmartens July 1, 2010 Food

Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps

Mom was the first one to make this for Tyla and me, but we’ve added it to our rotation. It’s a great summer time meal and it’s super easy to make. I think the actual recipe from the magazine actually calls for pre-cooked chicken but I prefer to cook my own.

Ingredients

  • 4 cups torn romaine lettuce or crisp leaf lettuce
  • 1 large chicken breast, cooked on the stove or grilled, season to your personal taste
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • ~1 can (11oz) corn
  • ~½ cup Mexican shredded cheese
  • 1/2 avocado
  • Ranch dressing
  • Salsa
  • 8 Tortillas

Toss romaine, chicken breast strips, tomatoes and corn in large bowl. Sprinkle with cheese. Spoon onto tortillas and add ranch dressing and salsa as desired. Makes about 8 wraps.

The photo is obviously pre-wrap, but I thought the bowl of food made a more appetizing photo.

benmartens June 30, 2010 Food

Tater Tot Hot Dish

This recipe comes from Tyla. All I’ll say is that it’s delicious!

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 can of corn
  • 1 can of green beans
  • 1 can of mushrooms
  • 1 cup of mozzarella cheese
  • Frozen tater tots
  • 1 can cheddar cheese soup
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup

Brown the ground beef and drain. Put in a casserole dish and layer on vegetables and soup. Layer top with tater tots and cover with cheese. Bake at 350° for about 45 minutes or until top turns golden brown.

[UPDATE] added the can of mushroom soup. Thanks for the reminder Tyla!

benmartens June 17, 2010 Food