Last trip (2009) I was shocked at the variety and quality of hiking / climbing gear available to buy or rent in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Mostly knock offs — “North Farce” — but you can get real gear, as well. Full price.
Manaslu Mountain Trail:
There is a minor manufacturing industry here now for outdoor equipment. Much is copied, using quality materials from China or Korea. Several companies make their own items for export. Famously Sherpa Adventure Gear is made in Kathmandu, so fine quality items are made here, if expensive.
On the cheaper side of this, a friend Uday has a small factory nearby and produces a range of equipment that certainly does the job at low cost. Is the quality as high as you can buy at home? Probably not, but it is not bad either …
If you can’t, no worry. You can buy enough gear for a trek and later donate it to the local people. Or buy whatever you need and bring it home with you.
Things have certainly changed since my first visit to Kathmandu in the 1990s. At that time there was only one bank that would accept foreign credit cards. 🙂
Virgin Narrows, Utah is one of the best hikes in the world.
• canyon walk in knee-deep water
• real risk of flash floods
• 1 or 2 days
• 10-12hrs of walking
• 16mi (25.8km)
Tim Miner, Trail Sherpa:
The Essentials
Regardless of your preferences for weight, style, or functionality you will need the following essential gear to tackle the Narrows in Zion:
Backpack
Shelter
Dry Bags
Water Shoes
Neoprene socks or Seal Skinz
Dry Pants (early or late seasons)
Walking Stick
Clothing
Headlamp
Camera and extra battery
Hydration System – bladder, bottles, and filtration system
If I went again, I’d wear 5-10 CANYONEERS again. With neoprene socks, again. They were perfect for my Narrows trip, perhaps 40% of the time walking in the water.
How often have you, or someone you know, eschewed a bicycle helmet to look cool at the expense of safety?
Well, gamble with a traumatic brain injury no more. Two Swedish inventors created an invisible helmet called Hövding …
The helmet is actually a thick collar — like one you might see on a heavy winter jacket — with an airbag hood underneath that deploys should you get in an accident. …
Mornings are often foggy on this coast. It burns off after a couple of hours on a sunny day.
Here’s a fog bank, for comparison, dissipating later in the day at Nel’s Bight.
Departing Nissen, you find that your North Coast Trail is now also the older (1973) Cape Scott Trail. In much better condition.
Very cool. Unique, so far as I’ve seen, is this broken up wooden ship hulk, sunk as a breakwater, slowly being overgrown by vegetation.
The Earth reclaiming. 🙂
From 1897 until 1910, Danish settlers tried to establish a fishing community near San Josef Bay. Due to the harsh climate and lack of governmental support, the community failed …
… another attempt was made at Hansen Lagoon, similarly failing by 1917. Alfred Spencer, the last resident, left in 1956.
Some artifacts can still be seen in the park, including a three-metre-tall granite tombstone, several corduroy roads, many ruins (that look like anonymous mossy mounds), and rusty farming implements. …
Of those relics, the most impressive to me is this crude tractor abandoned jammed between trees near Hansen Lagoon.
Nel’s Bight is gorgeous. My favourite stop. The most popular beach in the Park is reasonably easy to access from the parking lot. No need to hike the NCT to get here.
I set up my tent early in the day, for the first time. And walked the 2km long beach barefoot in bright sunshine.
I’d pushed to get here early to have time to side trip to the Cape Scott lighthouse. (minimum 13.6km)
It’s a pretty, varied and well maintained trail. I love log bridges made of materials available on site, this style in particular.
Some find the manned light house a bit of a let down. It’s immaculate, however.
The weather was marvelous. With views over to the island north of the north tip of Vancouver Island.
The letdown is the location of the light station, far from shore atop a hill. Somehow it’s not as exciting as those on the West Coast Trail.
Locals love grass fringed Guise Bay en route.
And unique Dune Neck to Experiment Bight.
Natives formerly dragged their boats across this sandy stretch rather than risk the circumnavigation of Cape Scott in dangerous seas.
FEAR the WOLVES
By the time I got back to the tent, it was late. I was tired.
My food, as always, was carefully locked away in the campsite cache.
🙂 Fortunately, I’d found stove fuel left behind by departing hikers.
😦 Unfortunately …, there was a pack of wolves close to the water source at Nel’s beach.
Why?
They were feasting dawn and dusk on a sea lion carcass dead directly in front of the Ranger’s cabin. Here a photo I took the next day.
The water — however — was close to the Ranger’s cabin, as well.
So wolves, be damned. I marched directly to get water. The beasts dissolved into the trees.
…
It was quite dark by the time I finished dinner. Instead of cleaning the pot, I used an old trick — filling it with sand and sea water. That prevents critters from coming to visit during the night.
But the tide was low. I had a long walk barefoot to reach the surf.
When I turned around, there was the alpha wolf, about 25ft away. They’d trapped me!
I SHOUTED. I raved. I waved (my pot).
I grabbed KELP and snapped it like a WHIP.
The wolf mother finally realized I was some madman. And finally trotted off with her brood. … At least my THEORY is that this is a mother with young ones. Some speculated the leader is the Alpha Male with 3 or 4 followers.
Here’s a wolf, perhaps the same wolf, on the same beach Aug 10th, 2012, a month before I was there.
It was much, much later before I realized she was only coming out to see where I dumped leftovers in the sea.
Wolves almost NEVER attack humans. The are among the least threatening beasts anywhere for their size and strength.
The Vancouver Island Wolf is a subspecies of grey. They will attack dogs and, indeed, there were at least two dog encounters this season in the Park. Don’t bring your dog here.
Their main prey on this Island are Columbian black-tailed deer and Roosevelt elk. While I was on the Trail, one hiker captured video of a wolf chasing a deer through the surf.
Kolby, the Hike Guy, is prepping for a June 1st start on a major trek in California:
… my plan is to hike a good portion of the Sierra, from Walker Pass to Twin Lakes, covering more than 400 miles by both trail and unmarked route. I’m estimating that the trek will take me more than 60 days to complete. Speed is not my desire. I hope to take my time to enjoy trees, flowers, and mountains. To “make its acquaintance,” as John Muir put it.
As I’m out there, you are welcome to follow along online. I hope to post updates here as well on Twitter. (@TheHikeGuy).
Gear I’ve noticed that the more time I have for planning a long-distance hike, the more I think about upgrading my gear. …
besthike.com 