The Outdoors Thread

[Adam]

[mrwicked]

Man that's a great movie. No special effects, nothing too over the top, just straight up compelling story that seems plausible. Burt Reynolds was a badass in his day.

[Adam]

1 minute ago, mrwicked said:

Man that's a great movie. No special effects, nothing too over the top, just straight up compelling story that seems plausible. Burt Reynolds was a badass in his day.

Really good flick

[Tank]

burt reynolds made great action movies.

i think the first few minutes of sharkey's machine were pretty darn electrifying.

[gotbeer]

6 hours ago, mrwicked said:

Highly recommend the hike to Sykes Hot Springs along the Pine Ridge trail in Big Sur! It's every bit of 10 mile hike each way, so with gear it takes 5-6 hours. It's best to do it on a Friday/Saturday and camp out there along the river at the natural hot springs, and then hike back on a Sunday. But man, is it f*cking gorgeous. I've done it twice, can't wait to do it again.  Make sure to always end the weekend with a pint or three at the Big Sur River Inn.

Loos like the trail is closed at the moment thanks to a fire, but it'll open back up in a couple of months.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/sykes-hot-springs-via-pine-ridge-trail

 

When you have a 19.5 mile round trip trail rated hard, and it's heavily traveled.  You know there is something special going on there.  That does look amazing.

[gotbeer]

So any advice on black toe?  I got it from my hell hike from up on Heaton Saddle a few weeks back.  It's still just as bruised as after I came back.  Does the nail just fall off, or does it work it's way out?  

And I did a camp out over the weekend.  Very peaceful and quiet.  But on the last day, I got tired, and my buddy was panning for gold in the river.   About ten feet next to him, where I was earlier panning for gold, a big rock went splash from a cliff above.  He thought I threw a rock to scare him, and I assured him I did not.  This went on for a few minutes.  He then got up, and told me I better not fucking with him.  After assuring him I was not, about 5 little rocks came raining down right in front of us.  Needless to say, we evacuated that area.  

And this hike/camp took a lot out of me.  I'm still tired the next day.  I really have to get my pack weight down from the 55-60 it was on this trip.  And before you say that's too heavy, gold gear is probably 20 lbs of that.  

[Lou]

I've never gotten black toe from driving my car 

[gotbeer]

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, did a camp out past the Bridge of Nowhere on the San Gabriel River.   If you are familiar with the area, we camped past the Narrows, and just shy of where Iron Fork meets up with the San Gabriel River.  With our gold gear, it totalled 60-70 lbs in the pack, and was about a 7 mile hike.  I was totally done after we found a spot to post up camp, 5 hours later.  But man was it peaceful out there. 

Saw a total of 6 people.  2 crazies like us that were camping/fishing further up the river (Didn't think there was any more fish in the river after the great flood early in the millenium, and for overnight camping, they sure didn't have much gear at all), and 4 crazies that were trying to do the Vincent Gulch to East Fork Trailhead hike.  This hike is over 11 miles long, and the first 5 is with a minimal trail.  From how they described it, it was full on brush or rock hopping.  They must have started in the morning, and by the time they reached us, it was about 10 minutes to total darkness, they had 3-5 hours left in their hike, and they were approaching the hike along the cliffs that I can't even imagine doing in the dark.  Oh, and how is this for jacked.  The 4 were in a group.  2 thought they were going too slow, so left the woman (think wife to one of them) and must have been one of their fathers behind.  The woman and old guy hit our camp about an hour to hour and a half after them just short of darkness.  So those 2 jackoffs were able to do the cliffs in light. 

And 7 miles back, it sure is peaceful.  No people noise at all.  Fresh air.  Not too much light pollution in the sky.  (relative to Los Angeles that is, I at least saw a few more stars than in LA, but nothing like going to the absolute stix)  Luckily no animal sightings, outside of the bighorn sheep we saw while hiking out.  

[gotbeer]

So has anyone done the 6 peaks of Southern California before?  You are supposed to do them in one calendar year.  And I'm thinking of trying them this year.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

3 hours ago, gotbeer said:

So has anyone done the 6 peaks of Southern California before?  You are supposed to do them in one calendar year.  And I'm thinking of trying them this year.  

Obviously I've done Mt. Wilson, that was hard enough as it is. I think they get progressively more difficult after that.

[gotbeer]

1 hour ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Obviously I've done Mt. Wilson, that was hard enough as it is. I think they get progressively more difficult after that.

I did Allison Mine this weekend, and it kicked my ass.   Pretty much rock and jungle hopping for about 1 mile.  Followed by a mile of switchbacks on a sketchy trail up the side of a hill.  Then the abandoned mine that had it's share of dangers.  

My buddy who has done most of those peaks said that the only good thing about them is that they are actual trails.  And not like the switchbacks we did that was full of loose rocks and death drops.

[AngelsLakersFan]

2 hours ago, gotbeer said:

I did Allison Mine this weekend, and it kicked my ass.   Pretty much rock and jungle hopping for about 1 mile.  Followed by a mile of switchbacks on a sketchy trail up the side of a hill.  Then the abandoned mine that had it's share of dangers.  

My buddy who has done most of those peaks said that the only good thing about them is that they are actual trails.  And not like the switchbacks we did that was full of loose rocks and death drops.

True, my buddy's wife won't let him do the real fun ones like Allison Mine... I've really wanted to see that one. Did you take any interesting photos?

[gotbeer]

1 hour ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

True, my buddy's wife won't let him do the real fun ones like Allison Mine... I've really wanted to see that one. Did you take any interesting photos?

Not sure if they are interesting.  But here is what I took.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VcOhFLEx6evNQq0F2

There are some impressive stuff left over from the mining days.  

[AngelsLongBall]

1 hour ago, gotbeer said:

Not sure if they are interesting.  But here is what I took.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VcOhFLEx6evNQq0F2

There are some impressive stuff left over from the mining days.  

Awesome pics!

[gotbeer]

Samsung phones will have functioning FM chips from now on

This was kind of curious.  So I downloaded the app, and tried it on my Galaxy S7/Tmobile.  And it worked.   This is going to be pretty big for me when I go camping in the stix.  There is no cell phone reception at all back there.  And really the only comm method are Sat Phones, which I can't really afford.  So instead of hauling yet another piece of gear out there.  I can now use my phone.  Oddly, it requires headphones to use as an antenna so many newer phones may be SOL.  One of the features is emergency alerts which is just what I need.

[mrwicked]

common gotbeer, you gotta step up your comms game.

[well_red]

23 hours ago, gotbeer said:

Samsung phones will have functioning FM chips from now on

This was kind of curious.  So I downloaded the app, and tried it on my Galaxy S7/Tmobile.  And it worked.   This is going to be pretty big for me when I go camping in the stix.  There is no cell phone reception at all back there.  And really the only comm method are Sat Phones, which I can't really afford.  So instead of hauling yet another piece of gear out there.  I can now use my phone.  Oddly, it requires headphones to use as an antenna so many newer phones may be SOL.  One of the features is emergency alerts which is just what I need.

Says you can send and receive emergency alerts over FM, how does that work? One of these days soon I'm getting a personal locator beacon, lots of people have been rescued off of Baldy or in San Gorgonio wilderness with them.  I like to wander off in the rocks in Joshua Tree but easy to get disoriented.  

Found this Youtube channel recently, no idea who he is but lots of nice videos along hikes around San Bernardino, LA, and the Sierras, more informative than guide books etc....  https://www.youtube.com/user/jhuckeba79/videos

[gotbeer]

2 hours ago, well_red said:

Says you can send and receive emergency alerts over FM, how does that work? One of these days soon I'm getting a personal locator beacon, lots of people have been rescued off of Baldy or in San Gorgonio wilderness with them.  I like to wander off in the rocks in Joshua Tree but easy to get disoriented.  

Found this Youtube channel recently, no idea who he is but lots of nice videos along hikes around San Bernardino, LA, and the Sierras, more informative than guide books etc....  https://www.youtube.com/user/jhuckeba79/videos

Yeah, not sure how to send alerts over FM either.  I don't see that option.  Only to receive.  

But yeah, a personal locator beacon or sat phone would be ideal.  I hear Joshua Tree is especially dangerous off trail.

[Sully151]

3 hours ago, well_red said:

Says you can send and receive emergency alerts over FM, how does that work? One of these days soon I'm getting a personal locator beacon, lots of people have been rescued off of Baldy or in San Gorgonio wilderness with them.  I like to wander off in the rocks in Joshua Tree but easy to get disoriented.  

Found this Youtube channel recently, no idea who he is but lots of nice videos along hikes around San Bernardino, LA, and the Sierras, more informative than guide books etc....  https://www.youtube.com/user/jhuckeba79/videos

Wandering off in the rocks in J-Tree is one of my favorite things to do... unless you count climbing those rocks.

[gotbeer]

Doing an easy hike this weekend to San Gabriel Peak.  My buddy says that the view is pretty good from up there.  I bought a knockoff Go Pro, and am going to try and record the entire hike.  Hopefully it'll come out well.  But we'll see, it's going to be my motivating factor to film these hikes now.  

Also, I did something to my knee on my last hike.  About 3.5 miles with 30 lbs, and get this.   I did it not while hiking, not while prospecting, but trying to lie down on a blanket.  /sigh.  Anyways, not bad enough to prevent me from hiking.  But I'm going to do two easy weekends of hiking, one to San Gabriel Peak and next week to Bridge of Nowhere, and a detour on the way back to Devil Gulch falls and, we heard there is a mine in the area, so may try to find that.  If any of you fools are interested, pm me.  

Oh, and I got a real boost to my ego the other day.  One of the avid hikers/explorers on this facebook group I belong to tried to get to Allison Mine.  And he couldn't find it.  Being a total amateur that shouldn't be on expert trails, I really got a kick out of doing something that others couldn't.  

[Homebrewer]

@gotbeer Used to hike the Upper Bear Creek trail from 39 over Smith Saddle into Bear Creek. Used to be able to access a lot of real wilderness out that way...I imagine you still can. Probably more trails now then there was back then?

[gotbeer]

31 minutes ago, Homebrewer said:

@gotbeer Used to hike the Upper Bear Creek trail from 39 over Smith Saddle into Bear Creek. Used to be able to access a lot of real wilderness out that way...I imagine you still can. Probably more trails now then there was back then?

Looking at Alltrails.  That one looks interesting.  Almost worth it to park a car in the exit of bear creek, since it looks like there is a truck trail there.  Oddly no reviews, so it might not be traveled much.  Smith saddle/peak looks interesting.  What are the views from there?

[Homebrewer]

9 minutes ago, gotbeer said:

Looking at Alltrails.  That one looks interesting.  Almost worth it to park a car in the exit of bear creek, since it looks like there is a truck trail there.  Oddly no reviews, so it might not be traveled much.  Smith saddle/peak looks interesting.  What are the views from there?

I've done that...took 2 cars, parked a car below at the river and done it as a loop...camping a night or 2 (or 3 or 4) at upper Bear. That route is an overnighter at least. Good views from the summit but there is sometimes snow up there making the going tough..not sure about doing it in winter.

[Homebrewer]

There were seldom any other people on the Smith trail. The climb up and over Smith is pretty steep, so doing it as a loop makes it quite a bit easier, all down hill from the summit. Unless the trails are better now, going down Bear Creek involved quite a bit of rock hopping and creek crossing in the higher portions. Worth it though...really nice for So Cal.. 

[gotbeer]

1 minute ago, calscuf said:

I'm not going to lie, I seriously get worried about Gotbeer hiking.

Look on the bright side.  At least I'm not driving.