Backpacking: Waterproofing your Gear!

One of the most useful things I learned while in Torres del Paine was the value of waterproofing my backpack. There are basically two ways to go about waterproofing. One is cheaper and easier in the short term but will add up over time and is just generally a hassle. The other is more expensive in the short term but well worth the investment if you plan to continue backpacking. Pick the one that best suits your situation!

OPTION 1: Trash Bags
Take two heavy duty black trash bags and situation them so they line your backpack. Pack all your lose items, by category, into gallon Ziploc bags and put into your backpack's large main compartment. Take your sleeping bag and line the stuff sack with a trash bag and stuff your sleeping bag into it.

OPTION 2: Dry Sacks
Head to your local outdoor store and buy dry sacks. My favorite brand is Sea to Summit and you can buy a number of their products at REI. I use one sack that goes in my top backpack pouch - this is easily transferable out to my REI flash 18 pack for day hikes. Then I use a several of the Ultra-Sil Dry Sacks to separate the smelly backpacking clothing (socks go into their own plastic bag) from the (less smelly) camp clothing. Lastly my down sleeping bag is kept dry in the eVent compression dry sack.
The third option is to buy a backpack cover and this works just fine if you are confident that your backpacking conditions involve only light rain and mild wind. This was not the case for Patagonia where a backpack cover would have just been a hassle but I'm sure it works perfectly in other conditions.

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February. I was distracted these past few months and am only now getting to post about my experience in South America. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

*images from REI website

Backpacking: Clothing List

I cannot believe that I still have stuff to post from my trip to Chile. I am heading out to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks for a short 2 day backpacking trip for the long 4th of July weekend. Also at the end of the July TEB and I will be hiking the High Sierra Camps trails in Yosemite (with our fathers). A gear list seemed necessary. I use TaskPaper to make lists, if you are looking for a good electronic organization system.

When in Patagonia I used the advice from the owner of Erratic Rock Hostel (publisher of Black Sheep newspaper and blog); pack two sets of clothing. One set for hiking and one set for camp. This worked fantastically while out on the W trail for 8 days. I plan to keep using it and with virtually no adjustment this list works if you are going out for 2 days or up to 8-10 days.

CLOTHING PACKLIST

Undergear:
- gals: 1 pair underwear/2 days out
- guys: 2 pairs underwear
- sock liners (2x)
- hiking socks (2x)

Hiking clothing (set 1):
- hiking pants, preferably ones that zip-off into shorts
- short sleeve shirt
- long sleeve shirt
- bandana

Camp Clothing (set 2):
- fleece pants or shorts depending on weather
- long underwear top + bottoms (for sleeping)
- short sleeve shirt
- lightweight down jacket
- lightweight sandals that you can wear with socks
- hat that you are comfortable sleeping in
- 1 pair socks

Outergear:
- sun hat that has a cinching mechanism to keep on head in windy conditions
- rain jacket
- rain pants
- hiking boots, preferably gortex if you are investing in good boots

Tips:

One of the most important things to keep in mind is the fabric of your backpacking clothing. My mom uses the adage "cotton kills" when referring to her own backpacking list. Cotton does not dry quickly, which is an essential quality when out in the backcountry. A synthetic quick-dry fabric or wool are good options. I am allergic to wool so everything from my underwear to my long-sleeve, half-zip mock shirt is made from synthetic material.

Another key clothing item are your boots. You want these to be waterproof (gortex) and to be well-broken in before embarking on any overnight trips. I suggest buying large, expensive items at REI (become a member, if you are not already) so that you can try breaking in your boots or backpack. If you find them uncomfortable then you can return it for something else or get your money back.

Hike 20+ hours, approximately 3 day hikes, in your boots before taking them on a longer trip. Adjust the thickness of your socks or add superfeet insoles for the perfect fit. If you absolutely cannot dayhike in your boots, wear them around town for 40+ hours before a big trip. It is just asking for disaster if you bring unfamiliar boots out into the backcountry. The last thing you want to do is hike 30 miles with open blisters.

Up next: Other gear and organizing your backpack!

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February. I was distracted these past few months and am only now getting to post about my experience in South America. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

photo credit: Cayenne 02.01.09

Chile: Puerto Natales

We had about 12 hours in the small port town of Puerto Natales before we were to leave for the Torres del Paine National Park. We chose to stay at the Erratic Rock and the place is full of hostels and hospedajes so you should have trouble making reservations, even at the last minute.

Now if you want to stay at Erratic Rock (ER) then I suggest you follow their reservation policy of only taking reservations one week in advance because this place is always full. ER is truly a full-service hostel for those heading to and from Torres del Paine. They can rent you all kinds of camping equipment, lead a tour for you, and arrange for your bus tickets. In fact the daily bus to the park stops at Erratic Rock making the 7 am pick-up just a little bit easier.

The owner of ER is also the publisher of Black Sheep newspaper and blog. He has a very useful info session on backpacking The W (and the circuit) at 3pm next door to his hostel - anyone can attend. You could do no planning and bring NO equipment, then show up in Puerto Natales at ER for the 3pm info session and be set to leave the next morning for the park with everything you need. If you want to tent your route this system works just fine.

On the other hand, if you want to experience the refugios along the trail then you need to do some planning and request those reservations a few months in advance. We made our reservations about 1.5 months in advance of when we were going to need them. Reservations for Refugio Grey and Paine Grande Lodge can made through Vertice Patagonia and for Albergue Los Cuernos, Refugio Albergue El Chileno, and Refugio Las Torres see the Fantastico Sur website.

If you have questions regarding planning a trip to Patagonia please comment. The next several posts will detail the W route we took and give you a little glimpse of the refugios. You don't need a guide to hike the W and the trip is appropriate for a wide range of age groups. I recommend the book Trekking in the Patagonian Andes, a Lonely Planet publication.

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February. I was distracted these past few months and am only now getting to post about my experience in South America. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

photo credit: Cayenne 02.12.09

Chile: Patagonian Fjords

I have given you a little tour of the Navimag ferry that we lived on for 4 day as we sailed through the Patagonian Fjords. Now here is a little taste of what we saw on our journey and what you can look forward too if you venture this far south. LMD likened the scenery to the fjords of Norway and our new friend EM said the terrain was similar to New Zealand. Just go to Chile people, it is much cheaper!
The majority of the trip it rained. Some of that misty stuff and the straight-up downpour type. We walked the decks anyways to take pictures and breath in the fresh air. Since the weather changes every 10 minutes in southern Chile we were constantly running outdoors to catch the 20 seconds of rainbows (I've never seen so many in a 4 day period) and the beautify cloud patterns. Most lasted just long enough for you to pull out your camera and hurriedly snap a pic before they disappeared.
Near the end of the trip we passed by this serene glacier. The wind blew a bit colder and the water turned a frosty grey as we neared the glacier. We froze standing on the deck in the hopes that some large shard of baby blue ice would calf into the water below. No such luck but I've seen much larger glaciers calf in Alaska so I was not too upset over the seemingly stationary state of this Chilean glacier (no idea what the name was called).

Cayenne (left) and LMD (right) gazing at glacier

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February. I was distracted these past few months and am only now getting to post about my experience in South America. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

photo credit: Cayenne and LMD 02.09.09 - 02.12.09

Chile: Navimag Ferry

We boarded the Evangelista (see Navimag Ferry and our route through the Patagonian Fjords). where we met up with our roommate from Hosteria ¡école! and our roommate from Hospedaje Rocco. Traveling internationally can prove to be a very small world indeed. After a celebratory Austral Negro (really good dark beer made in Punta Arenas, Chile) on the sunny upper deck we headed to check out our bunks (pictured below).
The C berths are definitely worth the ~500$ passage fare to sail from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natalas. In the C berths you will find all the backpackers and pretty much everyone under the age of 40. It took us almost the entire trip to figure out these green signs. We think they meant "gather at the lifeboats" pictured to the right. I spent a lot of time journaling and looking at the beautiful mountains and islas from the large windows of the cafeteria or bar area (occasionally from the deck if it was not raining too hard). The second afternoon and evening was spent trying to gauge when to take the Dramamine because we were entering the golfa de pena. In all I ended up taking 1 kids bonine and 2 real-sleep-inducing Dramamines. Regardless I was up from 2-6am because of the rocking boat. At least I did not feel sick myself and that our bunks were not near the bathrooms where plenty of other people were feeling the affects of the rolling open ocean. I spent the rest of the trip drinking wine, playing bananagrams, and reading my only book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I highly recommend this ferry trip with the following tips:

1. bring tea and hot cocoa - hot water is always available

2. bring your own wine + wine cork + cup (wine/beer are expensive when purchased on the boat)

3. save your money and just buy a C berth (A and B berths are not much better) 4. arrive when they tell you to for checking in - this helps you get a berth that is on the starboard or port sides (not in the back with the noisy generators) and not near the bathrooms.

5. bring plenty of Dramamine!

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February. I was distracted these past few months and am only now getting to post about my experience in South America. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

photo credit: Cayenne and LMD 02.10.09

Chile: Puerto Montt

After 4 days in Pucon and our amazing adventure up Volcan Villarica we jumped on a bus heading further south to the port town of Puerto Montt. We had a restful night of sleep at Hospedaje Rocco just a few blocks from the Navimag Ferry terminal. We had check in at the ferry terimal for our ferry that was going to take us south through the Patagonian Fjords for the next 4 days.
After we checked in at the ferry and dropped our bags and 3+ bottles of wine and snacks for the trip, we took a stroll through the fish market. Wool yarn was everywhere. I still don't know what is hanging in that top picture - maybe seaweed or dried fish.
Later in the afternoon we boarded the Navimag ferry. Fortunately, we were on the boat in the back, not the foreground. :-)

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February. I was distracted these past few months and am only now getting to post about my experience in South America. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

photo credit: Cayenne 02.09.09

Patagonia: Spring Pick-me-up

Looking for a little change for your wardrobe? I'm thinking about this versatile kamala skirt/dress from Patagonia. Sometimes you feel like a skirt and sometimes a dress. This seems like a good travel item too. Now, what color?

photo credit: top dress from the patagonia company website and bottom skirt from altrec

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Happy St. Patty's Day! The weather in the Patagonian region of Chile was terribly fickle. It changes every 10 minutes and is normally some combination of rain, wind, or snow. On a bad day you have 2 of the 3 going on at the same time. The bright side is that we got to see a ton of rainbows. I took this photo aboard the Navimag Ferry traveling south through the Patagonia Channels.

{recap: I traveled to Chile during the month of February and will be posting about my experiences there throughout March. Click here to see all my posts about this fantastic Ph.D. Trip}

photo credit: Cayenne 02.12.09

Chile: The Route

On February 1st, I embarked on a 3-week trip to Chile, followed by a week stop in Panama City, Panama. I had been hoping to blog as we went along but the internet in most hostels was terribly slow and we just did not have the time to spend longer stretches of time in internet cafes. So I am going to share my experiences in Chile with you this month. I suspect that the recipe/food posting, unless it relates to Chile, will be minimal.

The Route:

Week 1: Pucon, Chile - Central Chile in the Lakes District
Week 2: Navimag Ferry - started from Puerto Montt in central Chile and traveled through the Patagonian Fjords to southern Chile
Week 3: Torres del Paine Park - Hiked the "W", traveled into the Tierra del Fuego region to the town of Punta Arenas to see penguins!
Week 4: Panama City, Panama - seafood, carnival, the canal, the rainforest, reading, and relaxing.

photo credit: map of chile (click to enlarge) from ChileDiscover

Weekend: Practice Packing + Hike

I don't even know where to start on this crazy inaugural weekend. First, I did not even realize it was a three-day weekend, not that it matters much in the work that I do. Tomorrow I am heading out on a practice hike (Mt. Cowles at Mission Trails) to test out my fully loaded pack for the patagonia trek. I have a lot of packing to do before we set out tomorrow morning. It is now 14 days till we depart.

Have a good weekend!

photo credit: Universal Camping by Fort Photo

Patagonia: February 2009

I have had several inquiries about whether I am in Patagonia now - I am not. I apologize for being unclear. The trip is planned for February, the entire month actually. We are just in the second stage of planning: looking for hostels in the small towns where there is only one place to stay; going through the gear lists and making sure all the equipment works; and trying to finish our work goals because we both have big projects that we want to be done before heading out of the country for a month.

photo credit: PUERTO MONTT by FOTO_RAC/ROBERTO

Ph.D. Trip: PATAGONIA!

I just cannot keep the Ph.D. trip quiet any longer (read about the foiled NZ trip here and the short list here).

LMD and I are going to PATAGONIA!! The trip has been planned for months (plane there and back anyhow) and now we are close enough to actually plan the trip a bit more.

We fly into Santiago, Chile for a few days before jumping on a bus down to Puerto Montt. From Puerto Montt we are taking a ferry through the fijords to Puerto Natales. P. Natales is the starting point for those individuals hiking the W circuit. We are going to hike half the circuit (the easier half) going from hut to hut. The actual hiking should take about a week and then we fly back to Santiago and onto Panama City, Panama. It just so happens that we arrive in Panama for the start of Carnival! 5 days in Panama City before flying back to the States.

We will be gone the entire month of February, all in the name of earning the Ph.D. :-)

photo credit: Torres del Paine by Madra Rau

Ph.D. Trip: The Short List

After my last Ph.D. trip post suggestions came rolling in. Friends had wonderful suggestions and we came up with a short list.

1. Patagonia (The W Circuit), Chile - The NY Times had a great article last year on Patagonia and ever since then it has been on my dream trip list. Read Patagonia in a New Light here.

2. Belize - Belize is one of those rare places where you can go to the beach or sea kayaking one day and the next be in the jungle.

3. Sea of Cortez, Mexico - Start from La Paz and sea kayak around the islands in the Sea of Cortez.

4. Machu Picchu, Peru - This is the classic four day trek from Cuzco, Peru to the Machu Picchu ruins. Stay tuned for our final decision and an exciting detailed itinerary.

photo credit: machu picchu by Fran-cis-ca