theolesse

The charming Milos

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:35:03 GMT

Some of my friends asked for recs in Greece and I thought I might as well finally compile a blog post. Milos island is one that is the easiest for me to recommend.

I have visited Milos in June 2024 and it’s absolutely charming. It has this magical vibe of small towns with blue white houses, as well as dramatic cliffs and crystal clear waters.

It’s a very small island and I found it cute and cozy. It has the main “touristic” village Plaka which is on a hill and is really picturesque with white & blue little houses and many restaurants. On the top of the hill, it has a couple really beautiful churches with a backdrop of the sea which are very much worth the mini hike. Most of the restaurants are tourist traps though ��‍♀️.

For some reason, Milos is not easy to find on a map, so here's a map:

Then there are a few tiny tiny fisherman villages (prob turned airbnb villages at this point) that are very picturesque. In the order of how much I liked the 3 that we have visited: Mandrakia, Firopotamus, Klima. You can swim there too.

Turns out, I didn't take photos of Klima ��

One of the most amazing experiences we had there was renting a boat and sailing to a place called Kleftiko. It is a bay that only accessible either by water or by a long hike (which might also require some 4x4 vehicle to get to the starting point, not sure…). It is hands down some of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen. The bay is surrounded by cliffs and the water is relatively shallow and crystal clear. It’s like a huge pool. You can swim and snorkel there, and explore some caves too. It’s a very popular spot so you won’t be alone. There are also group tours there if you don’t want to rent a private boat. Btw, you don’t need a license or boating experience to rent a boat either.

By boat we have also visited the Tsigrado beach. It is accessible by land as well, although involves some hiking, I believe. It also has amazingly beautiful water and some caves.

We have also visited couple beaches by car. One of them is the Sarakiniko beach. It is one of the most popular spots on the island, so be prepared in terms of parking and the amount of people. It has cool white rock cliffs with unique wavy forms and that’s the reason for its instagrammability and hence, popularity. It also has some catacombs, surprisingly. Make sure to use a flashlight. Note that the “beach” part of Sarakiniko is actually very small. Most of the space near the water are these rock formations.

The other beach we visited is Plathiena. It is an actual sandy beach, quite picturesque. You can get there by car.

I swear I didn't pay attention to what looks like seaweed concentration in the water , only later when I was editing the photos . It was so beautiful out there despite it.

We have also visited the town of Pollonia, at the north eastern side of the island. It was nice and we saw a beautiful sunset. I liked Plaka better though.

Near Plaka, there’s the town of Trypiti. You can walk from one to the other, although that would be a bit of a longer walk. It is also nice and has a reproduction of the statue of Aphrodite of Milos (which is known as Venus of Milos, but Venus is not Greek mythology…) in the middle of some hillside. Which is weird and iconic at the same time.

There's also an amphitheater.

There’s also the town of Adamantas, which I guess is the largest one, it has a port and is closest to the airport. I didn’t find it particularly exciting for my taste though, but it has stores, bakeries etc.

We have also visited the mine museum there, which was interesting.

There's probably more to explore on the island. Writing this post def makes me want to go back, even to just visit these places that I've already seen. Such a little gem.

Getting around the island

We have rented a car there and I think that’s probably the best way to get around as I didn’t get the impression that public transportation could get you to all these tiny villages or beaches (fact check me though). But be prepared: at times driving there is very sketchy. Some roads are super narrow and 2 cars can barely pass one past the other. So I say get the smallest car possible and be cautious and nice to others. Also, ALWAYS double check Google or Apple maps routes, because they tend to get you into the narrowest paths between buildings where you don’t see much ahead. Stick to the widest roads on the map until you have to turn off to some secondary road to get to your particular destination.

Parking is also challenging, so try to get to the popular places early. In Plaka, there’s a large parking lot (I think it was free when we visited) from which you need to walk a bit. Don’t try to get past it - there’s no parking further into Plaka and you get yourself into a dead end that is hard to get out of.

Getting there

There’s an option to take a ferry from Athens, but it was about 5 hours if I’m not mistaken, so we just took a flight. Milos doesn’t have an international airport, so there’re only domestic flights there.

When to visit

We have visited Milos in June, and living in Vancouver, Canada, I found it a bit too hot for me. I think the temperatures were around 28-30C. May would’ve been better for me personally. But I’m not sure when all the restaurants and such open for the season, so worth checking that. Also, I’ve visited both Zakynthos and Athens during September and found it a bit less hot than June, so I guess this would be good weather for Milos, too. Both June and September were fairly busy with tourists though.

More tips

The tap water is not drinkable on Milos, so stock up on bottled water. Best to buy large 6-packs in some grocery store.

The Fear of the Bears & Blisters aka solo trip to mount Assiniboine

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 03:13:07 GMT

Here’s the tale about my biggest adventure of the summer 2022, full of anxiety and epic views.

You can also see it in my Instagram highlights, Assiniboine I and II .

Trail stats

See map on AllTrails .

Destination : Magog lake camp, Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, BC, Canada
Trailhead : Sunshine Village, Alberta, Canada. I was hiking out and back the same way.
Why I wanted to go there : well, mount Assiniboine area is known for epic views. Also I thought it would be cool to spend a few nights in the backcountry as opposed to just an overnight.
Was it my first time on the trail : yes.
Would I recommend this trail : maybe... If you're very fit and healthy. Majority of the trail is very picturesque. It’s just very looong…
When I went : Sept 1-5, 2022, solo.
Trail length (one way) : 28km, so 56km roundtrip.
Trail elevation gain (to Magog) : ~500m from looking at elevation changes on AllTrails. AllTrails says over 1000m which is not correct. I didn’t track the hike over battery concerns.
Trail elevation gain (to Sunshine) : around 700m, with a continuous uphill of about 500m and the rest are small bumps.
Trail quality : narrow but very well maintained trail along all the 28km. No technical sections, gentle inclines for the most part.
Water sources : surprisingly, very little - lake at Howard Douglas and next one is Og (or Porcupine, but that’s a serious detour), then Magog.
Temperatures I had during the trip (very approximate) : day 1 22°C, day 2 - 0°C - 27°C, day 3 8-29°C, day 4 8-22°C, day 5 8-18°C.
Special permits needed : for sure. Og & Magog campgrounds are bookable via the BC parks system, Howard Douglas (SU8) camp - through Parks Canada. There are more campgrounds in the area though - check out the maps.

My hiking stats for individual days:

Day 1 (Sunshine to Og): 21km, ~400m, 9.5 hours (start 11:42am, end 9:10pm)

Day 2 (Og to Magog): 7km, ~100m, 2.5 hours (start 10:25am, end 1:00pm)

Day 2 (day hike to Nublet): 6.8km, 374m

Day 3 (day hike to Magog shore near Assiniboine lodge): 4km, minimal elevation gain.

Day 3 (day hike to Sunburst lake and back and to Niblet): 7.4km, 282m.

Day 4 (Magog to Howard Douglas SU8): 22km, ~600m, 9:45 hours (start 9am, end 5:45pm)

Day 5 (Howard Douglas to Sunshine): 6km, ~100m, 1:35 (start 9:45am, end 11:20am) ��

Planning

I first got the idea to do the mount Assiniboine trek when I realized I have enough points for a flight Vancouver-Calgary and still didn’t have plans for the Labor Day long weekend. At first, it all seemed a bit crazy and unrealistic, but I couldn’t stop myself from researching ways to get to the trailhead and do the hike in the shortest time possible.

It seems that the recommended way to visit mount Assiniboine core area is to take a heli flight in from Mount Shark and hike back out.

At some point I was even keen to pay the ~$250 for the heli, but the problem was - I had to rent a car to get to mount Shark. Car rental for 5-6 days was about $700 for a car that would be parked 99% of the time seemed ridiculous to me. The only shuttle to this area confirmed they don’t run anymore (I emailed them), and hitchhiking, which I don’t feel comfortable to do in general, appeared to be a bad idea for a solo female traveller.

So I was left with the other option, which I think I discovered by accident when looking for accommodations for our July Rockies trip - is to hike in and out from Sunshine village, which is a ski resort near Banff.

There are shuttles to Banff the village from Calgary airport, and from Banff to Sunshine Village gondola base. Then the gondola takes you to the actual trailhead and you can save some more elevation by taking the Standish lift which turned out to be included in the gondola price (60 bucks at the time of writing).

The distance to hike sounded intimidating but doable (although looking on the AllTrails map that shows the trail to Assiniboine lodge I didn’t notice that there are another 2km to hike from the lodge to the actual campground). I took some screenshots of the map and made a scheme of hiking times. You can observe the stark difference between the estimated and actual hiking times �� It took me 9.5 hours to get from Sunshine to Magog instead of the planned 6 ��

Also, on the below map 1km is missing somewhere, because Sunshine to Lodge fork is 26km... But anyway.

So my plan was as follows:

Day 0 - fly to Calgary evening after work, take a shuttle to Banff and stay there for the night.

Day 1 - get bear spray and camping stove fuel in Banff, take the shuttle to Sunshine Village gondola, ride the gondola up and hike to Og lake if I really feel like it, or to Porcupine camp, as plan B.

Day 2 - hike from Og lake to Magog campground, do the sunset hike to Nublet.

Day 3 - hike to the Wonder pass viewpoint and back.

Day 4 - hike to Porcupine campground, or if I’m really fast - to Howard Douglas (the SU8) camp.

Day 5 - hike out to Sunshine Mountain Lodge and stay there for the night.

In my plan I really wanted to reach the Og campground in the first day since Porcupine looked pretty boring, situated in the forest, while the idea of shooting sunset & sunrise on a lake sounded very appealing.

Porcupine was a plan B I could fall back into if things weren’t to go as planned.

For the way back, I was ready to settle on Porcupine so not to work myself too much. But this was at the time of planning.

The main day hike I really wanted to do was the Nublet which, as per the reviews, was a balance between the Niblet that was too low and Nub peak which was only slightly better than the Nublet. The other day hike I was keen on is the Wonder pass viewpoint which should offer Marvel lake views.

Another planning challenge was - where do I get bear spray and isobutane. To my disappointment, the outdoor stores in Banff were closed before 8am, and the shuttles to Sunshine were at 8am and 9am, which left me a bunch of wasted time, but oh well. Initially I thought about reserving the bear spray rental in advance, but then decided I’ll just pick it up somewhere.

Additional source of worry was the food - I found myself picking up random energy bars and a bunch of mini peps, not really knowing what should I have for snacks.

Another annoying thing - a few weeks before the trip I realized that the hiking boots I got in the beginning of summer cause blisters on the bottom of my feet, seemingly more than my previous boots. I felt like switching to the old boots would be a risk since they weren’t the most comfortable.

This left me with growing anxiety about getting blisters from the long distances and not being able to continue hiking at some point.

So I researched the topic and the strategies I picked up were:

- getting toe sock liners to reduce friction and wear them with regular hiking socks

- bringing a few pairs of socks and change them every couple hours so that the feet would stay drier

- bringing a serious blister kit in addition to the first aid kit I have: moleskin, KT tape, scissors . Tape feet as soon as hot spots appear.

- make frequent breaks while hiking and let my feet and boots dry

- save pics of a few boots lacing techniques to prevent the feet from slipping too much.

About a week before the trip I realized hiking both directions probably wasn’t a great idea and renting a car would only cost a little more than accommodations in Banff… But it was too late.

And for the dessert, couple days before the trip, I opened Facebook (which I never do…) and first thing I saw was a post from somebody who was bluff charged by a bear in the Assiniboine park. Which made me kinda realize it’s a much wilder place than our Garibaldi park.

Prepared for the worst and hoping for the best, I started my journey.

The trip - Day 0

The flight went fine, I was glued to the window the whole time, blown away how it’s possible to cover the distance it usually takes 2 days of driving - in one hour.

From the airport, I took the Banff Airporter shuttle, which I booked in advance (legit company, they have an office in the airport). The timing wasn’t ideal as my flight was landing at 8:30pm and the next shuttle was at 10:30pm. There was another shuttle company with departure at 10:00pm, but while I was lazy to book all the stuff, this time slot has sold out. Oh, Canada.

I checked into a private room in the HI Banff Alpine Hostel, the hostel is very cute and cozy and the room was fine. It was the cheapest I could find in Banff, and it was over $300 with tax anyway ��‍♀️

Day 1

In the morning, I took my time to tape my feet and my right hip flexor with the KT tape. Then, since this hostel is pretty far from the downtown, I had to take a bus. Mistake #1 - I haven’t checked bus times before I set off to the bus stop - and it turned out that the bus only comes about every 30 minutes. Of course, I had to wait for about 20 minutes.

While waiting, I called the Ultimate Sports store to check if they had bear spray and isobutane - but turned out they didn’t have isobutane.

When I arrived at downtown, I started entering every souvenirs store to check for camping fuel, but no one had it. Atmosphere was opening at like 10 and I was very worried. I went to Ultimate Sports, and turned out, I didn’t hear them well and they did have isobutane.

I bought the bear spray since it was cheaper than to rent anyway, got 2 fuel canisters, a bear spray holster to really have that thing easily accessible and went to have breakfast since I had a lot of time till the next shuttle to Sunshine.

Then waited for the shuttle at Ptarmigan Inn, but it didn’t show up. And I had to hike 21k this day…

The shuttle schedule I was looking on I have downloaded from Sunshine’s website a few weeks earlier. So I went to the website to check maybe it’s outdated, and it was �� And so I had to wait about 15 more minutes for the shuttle.

When I finally got to the top of mount Standish and started hiking, it already was 11:40am. I tried not to freak out and made my first sock changing stop near the Rock Isle lake, which is just beneath Standish. It was a warm day and I was sweating starting from the morning, so it was time for socks change really.

Then I hiked through the alpine meadows to Howard Douglas camp where was my second stop. Here I spent some more time, having lunch. While hiking, I met another couple and a solo hiker going the Og direction, which made me think I’m not crazy with my ambition to reach Og in one day.

I continued hiking, and started descending down the Citadel pass. It has a couple steepish sections, not major. What freaked me out a little bit is that this section lies in a forest, which means you have limited visibility, and so do the potential bears that hang out in there. It’s not the first stretch of forest on the trail, but a slightly longer one. I was singing out load and a bit anxious inside.

Also, all the folks that went in the same direction, passed me long ago and I didn’t see any more people for a while. I reached the fork with the trail leading down to Porcupine when it was 5:20pm. Despite my slow pace and the fact Og was 9 km away, I made the decision to continue in Og’s direction.

I met some guys coming from that direction and it lifted my spirits a bit, but a few minutes later I realized I do have hot spots on my feet. And then I freaked out again.

I sat down, took off my shoes, socks and the holding-not-so-well KT tape, let the feet dry a bit. Then started taping it with Moleskin and the toes that had hot spots - with Leucoplast. I think it all took me about half an hour - I had to cut shapes out of the moleskin sheet to prevent sharp corners from peeling off of my skin with constant rubbing.

I hadn’t change my decision and continued to Og.

There were no more people on the trail and many forest sections. At this point I went from singing to just shouting “Hey bear” every few seconds. I felt pretty anxious. The sun was slowly setting, I was clocking kilometers, the hot spots were still there, although didn’t seem to get worse. But anyway, I couldn’t afford to stop anymore.

I continued to hike in the dusk, and in the last 500m or so it got dark to the point I really needed to turn on the headlamp to see the trail. Thankfully, this last section was in open terrain. I spotted the food bag hanger and felt relief.

There was only like 2 vacant camping spots and no wonder - I was the last to arrive. I pitched the tent and rehydrated some curry meal. I had no appetite, but I could not afford for my body not to recover. I couldn’t finish the curry either which got me very upset because that meant I’m going to carry this weight around till the end of the trip now.

As I changed to my camping PJs, the Moleskin bandage fell right off my feet - this thing isn’t sweat resistant at all ��. Leucoplast held up okaish.

Anyhow, I took couple of starry sky shots sitting next to my tent and went to sleep.

Electrolytes

Ok, I wanted to pause for a sec and talk about electrolytes, but this ended up a long ramble on itself as usual �� so one day there will be a blog post. In short, I recommend Salt Stick capsules . They have made a very noticeable difference to how I feel, physically and mentally, while on hiking endeavors.

I kept a small jar full of them in my hip belt pocket so reaching out for electrolytes mid hiking is very easy. If I needed to take off my pack every time, I would end up consuming much less electrolytes for sure. I have also carried a stash of capsules in my food bag.

By the way, additional stuff I carry in my hip belt is sunscreen in another small jar - so no excuses to renew protection! As well as lip balm, body moisturizer, snacks, bug cream and tissues (chronic rhinitis ��).

You might cackle at the body moisturizer part - but my hands do dry out so quickly while out hiking that I have long ago learned to carry it with me while overnighting.

Day 2

I woke up at sunrise and saw frost on my tent and on the surrounding weeds. Not the first time I wake up to frost mid summer in the mountains (well, it was September already), but it did surprise me considering how hot it was the day before.

As usual, I was among the first ones to wake up and among the last ones to leave the camp. I shot some self portraits near the Og lake, had the remaining curry for breakfast and packed.

The 7km hike to Magog campground was fine-ish for the first 4km, then I started having pain in my hips and in my body in general, despite taking electrolytes every half an hour to an hour. I remember passing by the fork to the lodge with 2km left to the camp, feeling absolutely finished. It was morning day 2… While it was hard for me to appreciate at that moment, the trail between Og and Magog camps is really spectacular. Open views, alpine meadows. The yesterday’s stretch between Citadel pass and Og was boring in comparison.

Arriving at the camp, I started to look for a nice spot to settle, but the camp turned out like a labyrinth and it took me much longer than I wanted. Also, I missed the camp map that was right where the camp starts, so ��‍♀️

I did find a nice spot though - relatively open, mountain views. Saw a marmot on my way and a warning about the problematic marmots in the pit toilet nearby ��

Since my plan was to do a sunset hike, I had the whole day ahead of me. After setting up my wet from the night before tent I went to the shelter to have lunch. I was tired, anxious and moody. My feet had hot spots, although I haven’t noticed any blisters luckily.

I was thinking already about how the hell I’m going to make my way back to Sunshine village. My body already wasn’t in a great shape. I was starting to have thoughts to try and book a helicopter flight back and hitchhike to civilization instead of the hike back.

I also started having anxiety about staying at Porcupine on the way back because it’s in the woods. I was afraid I would end up alone there. Yesterday’s hike alone in the dark has really affected me.

People say I’m brave to hike alone. I am, to an extent ��. It’s not my first time hiking in the dark in a bear territory alone. I can take some amount of fear - it’s not like I’m not afraid, but I can bear it for some time. But I also need time to recover after. Today though I wanted to watch sunset from Nublet, which was the main goal of this trip. I didn’t want to give up on that. All of this resulted in pushing myself beyond healthy limits, physically and mentally. I wouldn’t do it again like this ��

Anyhow, with all these grim thoughts I had lunch, hanged out in the shelter for some more time, took my time for organizing stuff in the camp, and preparing for the afternoon hike.

I did want to explore the lakes nearby before heading up to Nublet, so left the camp at about 3pm.

What can I say, the lakes Sunburst and Cerulean along the trail to Nublet are absolutely spectacular! I decided to spend some time at Cerulean. I took a dip, snacked and re-taped my feet. And of course, took a bunch of self portraits.

I started movement towards Nublet at about 5pm. The trail is really beautiful through an alpine forest with gentle incline. If it wasn’t for my bear anxiety I would have more fun ��

After reaching the fork to Niblet the terrain turns rocky on the way to Nublet. I hiked to the Nublet peak - which was kind of a round one, and confirmed I didn’t have the desire to go further to Nub.

It was fairly windy and even a bit cold. I sat down for a snack, changing my socks and letting the feet dry as hot spots were coming back again.

Golden hour has started to kick in and I found a spot for a photoshoot. I was previously worried I’m alone again, but closer to the sunset more people showed up. It wasn’t crowded though.

The sunset itself was very picturesque, but I had to head down, as I promised myself no hiking alone in the dark today. While walking down Nublet I saw a couple taking pictures of each other. I offered to take a photo of them together and the guy named Tomas took a photo of me. We started chatting and agreed to hike down together. So I had another half an hour or so of the most beautiful light.

As much as I enjoy adventuring solo at my pace and being able to take as many photos as I want, sometimes I better off hiking with somebody else. It’s a huge mood uplifting factor when you’re not at your best. And bear fear down 90%.

I went to sleep happy, although the anxiety didn’t completely go away.

Day 3

I woke up for sunrise again and went to Magog lake, which to my surprise was a 1km away as the camp isn’t situated on Magog’s shore.

The sunrise was beautiful but smoky - probably the wind direction has changed and wildfire smoke filled the area. Overall, I liked the lakes on the way to Nublet way better than Magog. Can’t explain the feeling - Sunburst and Cerulean feel much cozier I guess.

Took a bunch of morning pictures. I was alone almost the entire time. Surprises me how little people take advantage of this quiet time.

All this time I had debated with myself whether or not to hike the Wonder pass. I was very curious to see it, but very scared my body would get too tired for tomorrow’s long hike back. Also, I went to check out the lodge and stumbled upon a sign that killed my hope for the heli ride back - it was long weekend and the next flight was Monday while I had booking at Magog till Sunday.

So I decided to accept my fate and just have “a day off” to let my body recover as much as possible. I went back to the camp, had breakfast, washed my hair with the biodegradable soap and tried to nap. I couldn’t fall asleep, but it was nice to chill and do nothing in the tent. Minus the anxiety about hiking back ��

After having lunch I headed to Sunburst lake for an alpine beach day. My plan was to hike up Niblet for sunset again, because this area is just so beautiful and I figured I’ll explore Niblet a bit instead of going to Nublet again.

So I dipped in the lake and hanged out there for probably a couple hours. After 4pm though it has became a bit chilly, so I decided to head back to the camp to change to dry clothes as my sports bra didn’t dry properly.

I did have to talk myself into hiking the 6km roundtrip to Niblet… Again it was kinda empty on trails and I felt anxious. I did end up going and haven’t regretted it. The scenery was amazing. Met a guy who was complaining about the sunset being smoky - it indeed wasn’t as spectacular as the day before. But we are spoiled here in western Canada haha.

The less-spectacular sunset made it easier to leave before the sun has set, although won’t lie, I still wanted to stay longer.

Day 4

Unintentionally woke up for sunrise again. This time no photoshoots, just started packing as I had a very long day ahead of me. My goal was to reach the Howard Douglas camp, 21 km away from the Magog camp. My body was in mediocre shape. Resting instead of intense hikes the day before probably was a good decision.

I started movement at 9am, which is unusually early for me lol.

The hip pain from the heavy pack quickly returned. I tried to tie my fleece jacket around the hips for more cushion and it actually did work. Another issue I had with my backpack is that I got numbness in my hips from the hip belt, at every level of tightness that allows its weight to be shifted from the shoulders to the hips. Not fun. So I had to relax the hip belt every once in a while.

Stopped at the Og lake, 6.5km in. My feet already started feeling on fire. These boots really don’t breath that well ☹️ I wonder if I ever find perfect boots… Well, I had perfect boots, only in wrong size and they don’t sell them anymore sadly ooff..

Re-taped the feet. Tried adding duct tape as I heard advised on youtube ��

The water there was absolutely stunning, calm and clear. I’m obsessed. Soaked my feet in it - I never understood people talking about soaking your feet in freezing water - until my previous backpacking trip. It’s gold!! So refreshing - it really feels like a fresh start for tired feet.

I left Og lake at 12pm and arrived at the first fork to Porcupine (the backup camping option) at 1:17pm. It was a no brainer to continue towards Howard Douglas and I took the Citadel path. At this point I was over half way through for the distance, although not for the elevation.

Took another short break or 2 before reaching the second fork to Porcupine and the beginning of the Citadel pass ascent. It was 3pm and I was pretty confident I’ll reach Howard Douglas camp that day.

I let my feet dry out again and examined the bandages. The ductape has worked! Didn’t feel any discomfort in my heels where I put it. Also the KT tape on the feet cushions and the leucoplast on the fingers held up from the previous day, which was surprising. At some point during the trip I started hiking in just the Injinji liner socks as it was way too hot for the merino wool socks. The annoying part about Injinji is that they do stink like hell �� spoiled by backpacking with merino socks I forgot what it’s like!

I did wash the Injinjis while in the camp the day before, which for a short time made them semi-fresh. But with merino you don’t have to bother. Merino is warmer though, so it's a trade off. Also, I couldn’t find merino toe socks ��‍♀️

Anyhow, I was ready to tackle the elevation. The “grind” of steep-ish 250m up ended before I even noticed. From there the ups were pretty gentle.

I was passing a small lake where I planned to refill water, but figured I still have 1.5 liters of water out of the 2.5 I filled, so I skipped. By the way, water sources aren’t great at all on this trail. This tiny almost dried-out lake was the first one since Og lake. Unless you would do a detour to Porcupine.

I marched further and reached Citadel pass, which is for all I care is just a point in trail. I think it’s also a boundary between Banff national park and Assiniboine provincial park. There was a very flat large rock that looked very comfortable and I stretched out right on it. I had 2.5 km to go still. It immediately started being windy with pretty uncomfortably strong gusts, so I gathered myself from the rock and continued the journey.

Suddenly I started feeling nauseous. This came as a surprise because I wasn’t limiting my water intake and just had a salt stick capsule at the tiny lake. I also ate nothing in the past hour or so. I continued hiking through the suffer but then decided that taking another electrolyte capsule can’t hurt too much, so I did. And like magic, the nausea went away 2 minutes later ��‍♀️ Our bodies is a fucking mystery.

As it often happens, the last km was the worst and felt the longest. At this point my whole body was aching but I didn’t want to stop for a rest because the goal was so close. I hit the camp at 5:45pm which is almost 9 hours hiking minus the breaks.

By the time I got to Howard Douglas I was too tired to even feel happy. I set up tent and ate dinner watching some family washing dishes in the lake ��‍♀️ guys, don’t do it, please. It’s a water source and you should dispose of dirty water away from water sources.

I had a chat with some women that passed by me while I was hiking earlier. Don’t remember what it was about, but it felt so good to talk to people after this crazy day and I gave up on trying to shoot sunset even to continue chatting.

Day 5

I didn’t sleep very well that night - my pad has deflated a bit during the night for some reason. I inflated it and this didn’t happen again, so I probably just didn’t close it well.

Woke up with the only wish to finish this trek.

That’s a pity because the scenery was pretty amazing. A very cute camp, and the trail is beautiful too. The weather though started to spoil and storm clouds rolled in. Then they rolled out ��‍♀️

I hiked the remaining 6 km without any special events. Still no blisters, only hot spots. Not much emotions, just being tired. I was tired from this summer, the endless desire to go out and experience it. The fear of missing out on views, adventures, experiences.

I stepped into the Sunshine Mountain lodge at 11:20am, hoping for an early check in. They didn’t let me ��‍♀️ so I went to treat myself with a burger and a beer and started uploading instagram stories.

After the check-in and the shower, guess what I did? I went to shoot sunset at the Standish platform ��

Conclusion

Stats:

- ~70 km hiked in 5 days

- about 900m elevation total

- 0 bears seen

- about 600 pics shot

- 0 blisters gotten

- 0 sunburns too, despite the very sunny weather

- 2 lakes swam in

- 754367 hours spent being anxious about stuff

- about 10 pepperoni, 7 energy bars and a bag of crackers brought back home ��

So what can I say… Mount Assiniboine area is aah-ma-zing! I need to go back one day.

Hiking in and out from Sunshine village? Was a bad idea for me. Should have rented a car and heli-ed at least one way. I had missed out on Wonder pass and also on plainly enjoying the trip. So much anxiety and pain - that’s not fun and I wouldn’t do this again.

Am I proud of myself - sure. Another crazy project came to life. I proved I can ��‍♀️ But I’m past the point in my life I would do things solely to prove I can. I prefer to enjoy.

Anyway… Hope this non-glamorized story will give you a better idea of what it’s like in the Assiniboine park and help you make better and healthier choices for yourself.

Cheers,

Oless

Chaotic gear reviews

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:21:09 GMT

It’s almost winter and that means - driving conclusions regarding our current gear and planning what improvements we want to make before the next season.

I wanted to publish there reviews for a while, but didn't know how to organize them. So here they just are.

Platypus Big Zip Evo

One of the things I’ve updated a year ago - my Mountain Warehouse water bladder was leaking when full, so I had to replace it. Ended up going for the Platypus Big Zip Evo 2L .

I really like the feature that you can disconnect the tube, this way you don’t need to un-tangle your tube from the backpack strap to fill water. You do need to blow in the mouth piece first to push out the water, so it doesn’t leak from the longer tube part while disconnecting. The shorter tube part that is connected to the reservoir doesn’t leak when disconnected.

I bought the mouthpiece cover and the magnetic attachment thing separately.

It’s better with a cover than without �� as my tube will always somehow get to the ground. I would say it’s a bit too easy to open and sometimes opens by itself, but is fine most of the time.

The magnetic clip is okay - the magnet is strong, but the part you should attach to a backpack strap comes off pretty easily. But again, better to have it than not.

Overall, I’m really happy with my Big Zip Evo. Using it for over a year, it has never leaked and the flow is great. It really didn’t have any plastic taste from the beginning, too.

Stojo collapsible cup

This spring I brought my stove to one of the day hikes, to make some instant coffee and have accidentally put the pot on the stove without removing the plastic pot/bowl that was stacked on it. So the plastic pot has melted at the bottom creating a hole and became unusable ��

I was very sad. I was using it to dehydrate meals that don’t come in a special pouch - like oatmeal or couscous. So I had to find an alternative and ended up buying the Stojo collapsible cup (not sure if it’s 12 or 16 oz).

I don’t like it, except the looks �� it’s pretty heavy, not really compact when collapsed, in terms of ultralight gear. It’s not really airtight, too, although I wasn’t planning on using it this way. It’s not that convenient to use as a bowl - too narrow and high. The silicone retains all the smells somehow ��‍♀️

So - it looks cool, but that’s it. Would not recommend for backpacking.

Socks

During the last winter I have purchased 3 new pairs of socks - all of them made of the merino wool blend.

I used to hike in some random mid weight cotton socks which wasn’t that bad until I started backpacking in colder temperatures. Which ironically happened in August (oh, Canada ��) during my 2020 trip to Wedgemount lake. I have noticed that the socks got damp from sweat or me stepping into a deep creek and my feet were cold.

Cotton retains moisture and takes a long time to dry. You will notice I’m switching a lot of my clothing to synthetics for this reason. Merino, too, wicks moisture faster and retains warmth better even when dump.

Anyway, this year I’ve decided to invest in a few pairs of merino wool socks. So I got:

Darn Tough Hiker Boot Sock Full Cushion Socks - Women's

Smartwool PhD Outdoor Light Crew Socks - Women's

Smartwool Mountaineering Extra Heavy Crew - Unisex

I wanted to have at least 2 pairs of regular hiking socks - these are the Darn Tough that have a good cushion and the Light Crew that also have cushioning but lighter on the top.

I’m happy to report these socks actually don’t stink after you hike in them all day! I did the Berg Lake trail this June - was so so lucky to be there a week before the flood… And I used only these 2 pairs of socks for 4 days. And could continue using them!

The Light Crew is a bit too hot for the hotter summer days, but my boots are too hot, too… So I guess I would be hot in any socks. On the colder days I didn’t have the problem I had with the cotton socks and my feet have stayed pretty warm.

I got a pair of the mountaineering socks to hike during the winter and to sleep in them while backpacking. I love them! They are very cozy and keep my feet warm at night, unlike the random Walmart socks I’ve used before that did literally nothing except making my feet feel trapped in a plastic bag.

I hiked in them on snow once I think, my feet were warmer than in thinner socks, but still a bit cold. But my boots aren’t really meant for real winter hiking, too.

So I do recommend these, too, doesn’t hurt to have a pair for the chilly nights in the alpine.

Mammut hiking boots

A change I have made quite recently is getting new hiking boots.

I was hiking in my Salewa Alpenviolets for 2 years and loved them dearly. They had their flaws like being not 100% waterproof if submerged too deep, but they were so incredibly comfy.

The issue that made me decide to switch was my toenails getting sore, bruised, and the left one even separating from the skin, which sounds more painful and gross than it’s actually is.

But anyway, there’s a risk of losing a toe nail, which is also dear to me ��

I read online and figured I should have sized up for hiking shoes, which I didn’t at the time, buying my usual size.

While hiking downhill the feet end up sliding forward a bit, and if they reach the “wall” of the shoe and bang on it for a few hours, you’ll have toe nails issues ��

That’s why gear research is so damn important guys ��

So I have decided to get a new pair and to switch from Salewa because of the waterproofness issues. I browsed online and the only model I liked visually was the Mammut Ducan High GTX (womens) , so I ordered these.

For the size, I have measured my longer foot and got a size that corresponds to my foot length in cm plus an extra cm - to leave this spare space for the feet to slide down a bit while hiking downhill.

I got them shipped to me and they felt so stiff and unnatural. I went to couple outdoor stores to try on other shoes and realized ALL the new shoes feel similar way - stiff, not taking the shape of your feet and overall very weird. So I decided to keep them, hoping they will break in.

Note though - my old Salewas felt comfortable from the first moment I tried them on. I remember writing it in a review I left on MEC’s website! Bummer.

Another note, I’ve tried on other Salewas (don’t remember the model) in a store and they also were stiff ��

So far, I have hiked 5 times in them, 8-20 km each hike.

I do not like them. After hiking 80k I would expect them to break in, but they still feel meh. And what’s worse - my toenails still get sore!

I tried lacing them more tightly so my feet don’t slip forward, but then it’s painful in the ankle because of their weird one-sided tongue.

I have a pair of other insoles which I forgot about an am going to try on next hikes and see if it makes a difference in keeping my feet in place.

That being said, they are not awful overall. It’s just a huge downgrade from Salewas. They are also pretty reliable in terms of traction on wet surfaces - unless the surface is really smooth, like smooth rock or root.

Looking back, I would have gotten the same Salewas, bigger in size. Their waterproof issues only showed up couple times in 2 years - once while camping at Wedgemount lake - there is a deep stream with no bridge �� So I got my feet a bit wet despite the water only came to my ankle.

And the second time - when I wanted a pic on a rock in Joffre lakes and stepped in the water which was also almost ankle-deep.

Both times I felt the water getting in near the toes, so it’s the Gortex membrane that gave in.

Otherwise, I’ve hiked a ton in rain (Berg lake trail, pouring rain all day, for example), and they were perfectly fine.

But looks like the Alpenviolet model was discontinued anyway (at least I haven’t seen it sold anywhere online).

So that’s my sad boots story.

Buff visor

For a while, I was annoyed I can’t hike with my hair in a bun or ponytail while wearing a hat. So I’ve finally found a nice visor.

Wearing a hat is important to limit the amount of UV radiation that hits your eyes and face skin. UV causes skin aging, and constantly squinting from sun doesn’t help wrinkles, too.

So I really try wearing a hat and sunglasses whenever there’s no shade. (And I always wear sunscreen on my face too, btw).

First I was looking at Arc’teryx, one of my favorite gear companies, but the reviews turned out to be true and their visors have the sizes off �� They aren’t adjustable, so if it doesn’t fit - bummer. And it didn’t fit me.

So I ordered this Buff visor online an I like it a lot!! It’s synthetic, which is a must because we want it to wick sweat. And it’s really lightweight, so ideal for backpacking.

Used it the whole season, no complains!

Osprey Aura 65

Osprey Aura AG 65 is my backpacking pack and I've used it on 12 backpacking trips over the past year and a half and hiked many many miles with it on my back.

I love it! It is very well thought out. There are quite a few pockets which was essential for me to keep all my stuff organized - and it does work! The mesh side pockets with dual access are really handy. Even the hip belt pockets are useful, while in other backpacks I couldn't fit my phone in there. I carry the phone in one of them if wearing leggings with no pockets, and the other one holds my sunscreen, lip balm and hand cream so I can apply moisturizers and sun protection on the go.

Something I was quite surprised by is the water reservoir pocket. One day my water bladder (the one from Mountain Warehouse) has leaked and I knew it when I felt water running down my butt ��

But when I reached out inside the pack to check how wet my other stuff is - I found it all was dry! So turns out the inner water reservoir pocket is waterproof!

As for the suspension system - it's great, too. Last time I weighted my bag it was 23kg �� and Aura makes carrying this weight pretty comfortable.

A downside though - I've read that the stiff hip belt causes hip pain to some users - and unfortunately, it happens to me too sometimes. But it doesn't happen all the time for some reason �� and it is very rare that I experience really bad pain - I don't remember this bothering me too much. So for me this would not be a reason to replace the bag.

I remember I started feeling it quite a bit in the beginning - then I have extended the hip belt to the maximum and it got better.

It doesn't come with a rain cover and for a while I was bringing a McKinley cover from my day pack. Until I really needed it one day and then discovered it's not waterproof one single bit ��‍♀️��‍♀️ So I splurged on Osprey's rain cover, and this one does work. I have a whole blog post about hiking in rain ��. Even two.

So... I love this pack a lot.

When you buy one - make sure you do measure your torso and get a proper size (I know measuring your torso is weird...) - you don't want to waste money if the pack isn't comfortable, after all. For reference, I have a pretty short torso (about 40cm) and got the XS. It fits me well.

So that's that for now... If you’re interested in any other reviews of my gear, check out the What’s in my backpack blog post and let me know what piece you want to know about.

Cheers,

Oless

My sleeping system doesn’t suck anymore

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 21:28:52 GMT

Getting a good night’s sleep is an important part of an enjoyable adventure, especially where physical challenges are involved. My sleeping system was a bit off last year, and after testing my upgrades for 10 nights on different trips this season I’m happy to report it’s much better!

My 2021 gear

Here’s what my sleeping system looks like these days:

The major change

One of the main problems last year was that I wasn’t comfortable in my field bed. This spring, I’ve tried to lay down on my husband’s sleeping pad at home and it clicked with me. His MEC VectAir (the link is to an upgraded version) was so soft and comfy and felt like a king size bed comparing to my tiny Therm-A-Rest NeoAir Xlite Women’s .

I was thinking of taking his pad to the Berg lake trail , but since it’s pretty bulky and heavy (1.22kg vs 340g of my Xlite) I’ve decided to spend my b-day present �� on a new sleeping pad.

The one I’ve got is Therm-A-Rest XTherm Max . Size large �� Guys, it’s 2 meters long and 64cm wide. It’s a damn king size bed �� For reference, I’m 160 cm tall! Also its R-value is 6.9 which is expedition grade, they say. It weights 640g and its packed dimensions are 28 x 11 cm. It’s much bulkier than my old Xlite, but also much more compact and light than the MEC VectAir.

The sleeping pad change has made a major difference to my experience, and here’s the reason why: I’m a tummy sleeper and literally had my limbs hanging off of the small Xlite. I was cold (at times) and uncomfortable.

Take a look at the difference, photos courtesy of my mom ��:

Before ��

After ��

The new XTherm is long enough to accommodate my arms position above the head and almost wide enough for my bent leg, so it’s much better built for my natural sleeping pose which results in an increased comfort.

More about the pad and things to consider

The specs:

Weight: 640g
Packed dimensions: 28 cm x 11 cm
Inflated dimensions: 64 x 196 cm
R-value: 6.9
It has a pump sack which I can say is so much better than inflating with your mouth and surprisingly fast, too! Saves me getting dizzy and I know I’m not introducing moisture inside the pad.
It has the wing lock thing which is very convenient - it doesn’t let the air out while inflating and deflates a bit faster than my Xlite.

Stuff to notice:

Since it is as long and wide as MEC VectAir , when Stephan is in the tent with me, the mattresses don’t fit side by side in my Dragonfly 2P tent - it’s probably built to fit 2 tapered pads - while ours are rectangular. So they kind of overlap, but it somehow works. It does trigger my OCD �� but not an issue in reality - at least for us.
It is still an inflatable pad and air is all that supports you. I still get back pain if lie on the back and still wake up with my body aching. Yep… But - I do fall asleep faster and sleep better still. I’m fine with the weight-to-comport compromise at this point.
It is noisy - much louder than MEC VectAir - but I don’t care and Stephan doesn’t care, too. So we’re good. Also I wouldn’t say the noise is SO bad.

I’ve spent 11 nights in the tent this summer, 10 of them on the new XTherm and I can tell I sleep much better than the last year. I’m much more comfortable, it feels much more like a real bed �� and overall this was moneyzz well spent for me.

Conclusions regarding the sleeping bag

In the previous sleeping system review I’ve mentioned I’m not sure that the mummy shape of my MEC Delphinus -9C sleeping bag was the right choice for me. After 11 more nights spent sleeping outdoors these are my thoughts:

So I think since I’m a tummy sleeper, not only the shape, but also the size of this bag is a problem. As you can see on the pic of me laying on a sleeping pad, the shape of my sleeping body is longer than my actual height. I got the sleeping bag based on my height - and it is a bit too short for me to comfortably extend my arms and toes. Also yes, it’s a bit narrow for extending my leg to the side the way it would be comfortable for me.

So a conclusion - if you’re a tummy sleeper - take the actual shape you tend to sleep in into account before choosing a sleeping bag.

On the flip side though - unused bag space IS a problem when it’s cold. I’ll be talking about warmth a bit below.

But overall, after switching the sleeping pad I feel the sleeping bag is not that much of an issue, so I’m not sure if I’m going to replace it in the near future. It’s still warm and cozy and I do enjoy mine. But If you’re looking into buying your first one - def take this advice into account.

The pillow

Still using the same down pillow cover - but since I got my Arc’teryx Cerium LT puffy jacket, I tuck it inside for the night if not wearing it and then my pillow feels oh, so luxurious and comfy! This (obvious) life hack has greatly improved my time of falling asleep, since the down pillow really feels like home.

I still need to make a pillow case �� I do find this pillow thing, becomes messy throughout the night and wakes me up.

Fun fact - had a short chat with another couple camping at Elfin lakes on my last trip - and they said with kind of an embarrassment that they bring pillows while backpacking as they love comfort. Well, I don’t think getting a decent sleep while backpacking is a luxury. I think it’s a necessity and nothing to be embarrassed about. Even if it was for luxury… On my last trip I brought a chair and a hat with a pompom instead of a lightweight beanie and my backpack weighted 23kg �� so what?

My sleeping clothes

My field pajamas have changed quite a bit - I have mentioned the Arc’teryx Rho LT leggings in the previous sleeping system blog post, but also added new socks and a new top - Smartwool Mountaineering socks and Arc’teryx Rho AR zip neck . I also sleep in my Arc’teryx Cerium LT down jacket when it’s really cold.

I’m the happiest with the Rho AR long sleeve - its material is sooo cozy and soft! On the outside it’s a bit sleek so doesn’t catch my cats’ hair and it fits so damn well on the body. It’s warm and I love it beyond using as a sleeping base layer - I wear it a lot. So I would say it’s no less warm than my Mountain Warehouse long sleeve, but fits snug and doesn’t move on the body so much - and also, is breathable, so I didn’t really find myself sweating in it despite this summer was warmer than last year.

For the Rho LT leggings - I do love them too, but I find for the most part it still takes quite a bit of time for my butt to get warm. It has happened on nights of about 7°C and below, otherwise I was toasty.

I do love these leggings for hiking on a more chill weather and wish they had pockets (!!!Companies, we need pockets!!!) and the material wouldn’t attract all the cat fur and down feathers along the way. I would be looking into getting warmer tights for sleep though.

The Smartwool Mountaineering socks - they are much better than what I had before - warm and cozy. And although there are still times that it takes some time for my feet to get warm, I feel like it is as warm as it gets when it comes to socks - they are really thick and fluffy and made of 74% Merino wool (not itchy one bit!). They have good breathability, too.

The Arc’teryx Cerium LT down jacket has been great overall, and specifically for sleeping - too. It’s a great addition for the colder nights. I like that its shape is also so nice on the body - it’s snug but at the same time accommodates layers. So it doesn’t move around while you sleep.

I’m pretty happy with my updates to the sleeping base layers, and though there is still room for improvement, they do greatly contribute to my comfort while sleeping in the tent.

Do you need these expensive base layers just for sleeping? Probably, I’d really recommend investing in wool socks anyway because I’m not sure you can find a synthetic alternative. For the other pieces - if it’s just to act as your field PJs, I wouldn’t invest that much. But I do use these pieces besides just sleeping in them and can say they are amazing, so for me it was worth the investment.

Warmth wise

Here’s an overview of how my upgraded sleeping system performed in some higher and lower temps during my nights in the backcountry (and front country).

So for the low temps, my coldest overnights this year were at the Elfin lakes campground. Funny as I have opened and closed the season by camping at the same location. The first one was at the end of May, still 1-2 meters of snow and the temps at night were slightly below freezing - the slushy snow became frozen over night. And the last time according to my Zoleo app weather forecast it was 2°C at night on October 1st.

Both times I have slept with the puffy jacket and a hat on. Last time also with my gloves on. First time I was with my old Xlite, this time - with the XTherm . What can I say, I was a bit cold both times �� the upgraded sleeping pad didn’t help much…

Maybe there was a difference in humidity or honestly I’ve no idea.

Anyway, seems like this sleeping system even with the new expedition grade sleeping pad (R-value 6.9 vs 3.9 of Xlite) is good for up to around 0°C.

The last time at Elfin lakes I couldn’t get warm so I figured maybe cover the sleeping bag with an emergency blanket - the thin plastic ones that are supposed to help you retaining heat in emergency. DON’T do that! �� Idk if it has even helped, but in the morning I realized the inside of the blanket and the sleeping bag beneath it were wet! It turns out moisture is evaporating through the sleeping bag. It’s not my breath as the blanket was somewhere around the chest level. The tent was remarkably dry from the inside though �� so I guess the blanket took on all the condensation. Weird. But I’ve tried so you don’t have to ��

Also, this last time at the Elfin lakes I’ve tried to hold plank for 20 secs in my sleeping bag �� I think it has somewhat worked. But I get hot very quickly while exercising, might not be the same for you.

Another thought I had regarding the low temperatures is that maybe there’s just a limit of how fast my body can produce heat and thus how fast it can get its surroundings warm. And maybe at this point no matter how much insulation I have, if the materials are cold, I’ll need to warm them up with my body. So maybe I have to consider an external heat source like a water bottle filled with hot water. Need to look into this further.

Now, for the higher temperatures.

So the warmest I have camped this season is somewhere around 10°C. Surprising considering how hot the 2021 summer was here in BC, right?!

Anyway. I was a bit hot at times - especially while spending nights in tent with Stephan and even made an attempt to sleep without the base layers �� but what I found is a- my body ended up kinda sticking to the sleeping bag - ew �� and b- I couldn’t really uncover myself cause it was pretty freezing outside the sleeping bag still.

But having my base layers on (including the mountaineering socks haha) during the rest of the nights I was much more comfortable - didn’t feel the sweat and also could move the top of the sleeping bag a bit away and let myself cool down a without freezing myself.

And another thought - I find the warmth does depend on whether you’re sharing a tent with a partner or no. Might seem obvious, but don’t forget to take it into account if you’re used to camping with a partner but preparing to head on a solo adventure.

So in conclusion, this sleeping system works pretty well for me in the range between 12°C (10 degrees minus Stephan ��) and 0°C, needing some external heat source at the lower end for ultimate comfort and running a tad hot at the higher end while sharing the tent with a partner. Suits perfectly for summer mountain backpacking adventures in British Columbia and the Rockies and might be good for shoulder seasons, too.

Again, for reference, I’m a female, 160cm high, weight 61kg, not a cold sleeper, maybe a tiny bit of a hot sleeper.

Digestion stuff

In my last sleeping system overview I have mentioned the digestion related issues with my sleep - my body seeking relief ��. So I’m trying to stick to my own advice and eat supper early. Usually these backpacking meals fill me so well that I’m really not hungry till I go to sleep.

It does work ok, better than it was in the beginning of my backpacking journey, so I’m pretty happy with the situation for now.

The fear

I’m happy to report that the fear of sleeping in a tent and sleeping in a tent alone - which was more of an issue while I just started backpacking, now has gone almost completely.

To date, over 2 seasons, I have spent 17 nights at the backcountry, 9 of them solo and as I do it more, I do feel more and more comfortable.

So to summarize, my backcountry sleep has improved this season and I’m very happy! Let me know any questions you have! I can talk about backpacking for hours ��

And if you’re interested in what other gear I use, make sure to check out the What’s in my backpack blog post.

Cheers,

Oless

A trail from hell and an umbrella - Golden Ears solo overnight trip

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 00:01:11 GMT

So I went to camp on the Golden Ears mountain lately and turns out I wasn’t mentally prepared for what’s going on on this trail. Cloud inversion hunters - read on before you head there!

As per usual - some stats:

Destination: Panorama ridge camp, Golden Ears mountain, Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC, Canada
Elevation of the Panorama ridge camp: ~1370m
Why I wanted to go there: I missed camping on a ridge rather than in a valley/near a lake and also was hoping for a cloud inversion.
Was it my first time on the trail: yes.
Would I recommend this trail: I’m not sure… If you like suffering than maybe. It’s seriously tough, especially with an overnight pack.
When I went: Sept 12-13, 2021, solo.
Trail length (roundtrip): ~20 km (AllTrails) , but Strava thinks it’s more like 32km. I would say it feels like infinity anyway.
Trail elevation gain to the camp: ~1200m (AllTrails), ~1400 (my Strava recording).
Trail quality: the first 7 km are deceiving. First 3 are really well maintained and even, then it’s the regular rocks & roots stuff. But at 7.3 km (on AllTrails) the trail changes drastically and consists of many, many vertical scramble sections that make this trail very tough and exhausting.
My ascent time (with overnight backpack): 7.5 hours minus about 30 mins I tried to attach an umbrella to my backpack �� For reference, the weight of my backpack was 19kg.
My descent time: 7.5 hours minus about 40 mins I spend taking pics on the lower part of the ridge.
Water sources: a few near the Alder flats - you’ll see the dramatic sign “Last drinking water”. Then no water until the camp - so make sure to fill at least 2 liters at Alder flats - you’ll need that liquid.
Temperatures: about 15°C high, about 7°C low.
Special permits needed: yep. A day pass for the West Canyon parking in the Golden ears park - free; a backcountry permit for Golden Ears park - $5.

Why I did this (to myself ��)

So it’s September and I’m struggling with the idea that the summer is over and want to do more backpacking before the season is really over for me. Also I really wanted to take pics of sunset/sunrise during a cloud inversion which is more likely to happen now that the temperatures drop.

Golden Ears was on my list for a while, the view from the ridge looked amazing in the photos. I spent the summer camping near lakes (can’t complain whatsoever though) and wanted to camp on an alpine ridge for a change.

So yeah, decided to go camping at Golden Ears. Little did I know of what’s to expect �� and that sounds dumb because like how you head on a trail without checking what it looks like?!

But no, I checked the trail stats and read the reviews, I just got a wrong impression. I read about the scramble parts and I thought to myself well okay I can manage a couple scrambles. And maybe they’re talking about the summit part which was optional to me (there’s a great view from the camp and the summit is additional 300m elevation so I thought it isn’t mandatory for me). Also I read backpackers get there in 4 hours, which is similar to my time going up Wedgemount lake .

So I concluded it’s probably similar to Wedgemount lake trail and I’ll be fine. But I wasn’t fine �� And it wasn’t anything like Wedgemount lake ! Way, way worse. I mean, I came back in one piece and without injuries (my knees were in pain, but they seem to have recovered now). If I knew what this trail looks like I wouldn’t go.

The trail

I’ll refer to waypoints and distance in the AllTrails map .

First 3km are more or less even and well maintained, gentle ascents/descents.
3-5.5 km (to Alder flats): the trail is rocks & roots style, a bit annoying but nothing major. Near Alder flats is also the last chance to get water. Alder flats campsite is nothing special btw, didn’t notice any views - so idk what all the hype is about and why ppl even bother to hike there to get drunk �� (referring to discussions in various Facebook groups).
5.5-7.3 km (to the lookout marked on the AllTrails map): gets steeper but still ok, most of the way is on a dry creek so lots of big loose rock which is annoying.

7.3-7.7km: this is where things take a turn. It is the steepest and the crappiest section of the trail. At less than 500m long it sucks your soul out. It starts with 5 Stawamus Chief-style stair sections, which is hard, but these are stairs. They are walkable. And then there are like 6-8 scramble sections one after the other. Some of them are basically dirt cliffs, some are solid rock. Most of them are between a meter to 2 in height, but there was one of like 4 meters, don’t remember if in this or the next section. There are some roots to hold on to.

These are very annoying to do with a big heavy backpack, as it greatly affects your balance and puts a lot of strain on leg muscles. At this point I started seriously thinking that I need to do leg workouts �� (cause for now I don’t do any special workouts for hiking). Also while descending these on the way back I had to take my backpack off and drag it down on the dirt, step by step, because I couldn’t climb down safely otherwise.

7.7-8.4km: when looking on the map and seeing more space between the elevation lines I though this section would be better. No �� there are more scrambling sections, equally shitty. They are just spread out a bit more. So say you have one every 50 meters and not every 20 meters ��. Also there’s one with a rope. A thin rope tied to a thin tree… I kinda found it hard to trust.
8.4-8.9km: this looks almost flat on the map. Guess what? More scrambling, even higher walls! Why, on the map it’s flat! The scrambling goes up and down, that’s why! Jeez. It. Was. Hell.

8.9-9.6km: at this point you’re wondering if the scramble is over. No, it’s not. Although it’s a bit less frequent and a bit less sketchy. At some point there’s a vertical ladder and you’ll be like “Now, a ladder?! Where all the other ladders??”. It really feels like they forgot to install the 20 other ladders on the way ��‍♀️. I know, I know, it’s all about the budget. But at least throw in some chains maybe? Like on Chief ��‍♀️

At 9.6km (if you look at the AllTrails map) it’s also the tree line. I saw that one comment on AllTrails “then you get to the tree line and forget all the crap” �� I swear it was my mantra on this hike. But the freaking tree line wasn’t coming. So there it was. After about 10k of hell. I didn’t forget all the crap �� but the alpine is beautiful. Also at this point the fog has kinda clamped up to clouds and I could see some views of the unnamed peak north of the trail, Pitt lake and the Golden Ears peak.

9.6-10km is finally a nice walk in the alpine with the views mentioned above.
10-10.1 km: you kinda can see it coming while enjoying the alpine - another scramble about 50m high in total. It has a couple especially sketchy parts where you’re close to the cliff, so practice caution…
10.1-10.2 km: just a rocky trail and you finally reach the hut! ��

So if you still want to go camping there, at least now you have your expectations for the trail set so low that you’ll go and be like “she’s talking BS, it’s not that bad” ��. Well I hope so. Cause a trail unexpectedly turning crappy when you’re already 7k in is the worst.

The camp

Couple words about the camp - it has like 7 quite small tent platforms. I went Sunday, that night there were just 5 more people camping, and it’s the end of the season. I heard there are bunches of people on weekends.

I wouldn’t say there are good spots to set up a tent otherwise - the ridge is narrow and rocky. But apparently dozens of people camp there in parallel, and I haven’t really explored around so might be more good spots.

I also saw some more campsites marked on the map, if you choose to display “Waypoints” in AllTrails map - well, the problem is, aside of you should be camping in the designated camp only, as per the park rules, there’s no water there. There are some puddles along the way, and you can drink from a puddle . But I don’t think they are permanent.

So either you bring a lot of extra water with you (not recommended ��) or you hike to the stream at the camp (well, if you’re really fit and don’t feel like dying after all the scrambles).

Couple words about the toilet. So there is a toilet in the hut, it’s the bio diversion one where you have to push the paddle 5 times. These tend to be the stinkiest, but apparently the best for nature, as I read at the Joffre lakes toilet �� yes, they have a whole lecture there - when the poop and the pee are separated, they both get processed by the nature pretty efficiently, almost without human intervention. So I’m all into diversion toilets, really. Also, this one didn’t really stink outside of the toilet which is a miracle ��

But anyway, they kinda forgot to put a toilet seat on it �� and I know, it’s not that the toilet seats are clean in these places, but at least if you really need to, you can wipe it and then put some TP on it. Idk about you, but I can’t hover-poop like this, especially not after a hike like this �� my legs are about to give up on me already ��‍♀️

Also, there are no private place in the area. It’s surrounded by cliffs. And you can’t dig a cathole because it’s rocky all around. So if someone poops behind a rock, they will probably leave the toilet paper there as well ��‍♀️ and it’s overall gross. So I suggest at least getting some doggy bags even though you have no dog and pack out all the toilet paper. I always have a few with me in case I have to go in the bush.

Of course, the toilet and the hut are full of garbage… I thought about taking some back with me, but a - I didn’t have a large garbage bag and b - I couldn’t imagine of carrying one gram more than I have to on this hellish hike back…

By the way - please shut the emergency shelter and the toilet so at least it won’t attract wildlife. The emergency shelter is really tricky to shut though.

Speaking of the emergency shelter - it’s the only place to store food in. You better do - potential bears aside, I saw a mouse coming to check out my food bag after the dark fell and before I stashed it in the hut.

The views were beautiful though. The fog kinda cleared and there was a cloud inversion, I set up a camp, took a bunch of pics, slept fairly well, woke up at 4:30 as per usual cause I had to pee �� was afraid to get out of the tent until like 6 �� always the same mistake. I have to learn.

Took I think my most epic time-lapse video during that sunrise with the clouds below me filled with the pinkish light (see it on my Instagram highlights ). Took more pics. Ate breakfast, chilled for a bit, almost forcing myself cause I had the urge to pick up the camera and go shoot the mountains peaking above the clouds.

So I didn’t go shoot and then 30 mins later the fog has filled the ridge and wouldn’t go away. So after getting sick of waiting I packed and left. In the fog. Which is not ideal, but the visibility was good enough to make the first 50m scramble part.

And down there, on the lower ridge, it wasn’t foggy and the Pitt lake side was almost clear with a really beautiful view of the lake, so I stopped to take another bunch of pics.

And then - the hellish way down. The last 5 km were the longest, oooh I was so ready to get done with this trail ��

Hiking with an umbrella

I have mentioned an umbrella - so yeah, I was hiking with an umbrella on the way up ��☔️

I had this idea for a while now. I saw somebody hiking with an umbrella on Berg lake trail I think, though it wasn’t attached to the backpack.

Anyhow, the problem is that I get hot when hiking, especially up. If I wear a rain shell I sweat and it gets wet from the inside, so what’s the point. If I hike with a t-shirt, I get soaked, not fun - when I stop, I get cold quickly.

So I figured why not try and attach an umbrella to my backpack so it keeps me dry, at least partially. It was a last-last-minute decision, I didn’t have time to try this while at home, but had an umbrella in my car. So when I got to the trail I decided to try attaching it. I think people including the rangers on the parking lot were secretly laughing at me. But anyway, I attached it with a couple carabiners and started hiking. It wouldn’t stay in place, of course, so I had to do another stop and find a third carabiner and it has finally worked.

It wasn’t ideal, as I would like it to be a bit higher and a bit less tilted back, but hey - it gave me the desired protection! It was raining I think until I passed The Most Crappy Section, so was worth it. It even served me exceptionally well when I stopped for a lunch at the Alder flats - I just sat leaning on my backpack and beneath the umbrella! It was raining and I was dry!

Shall we start a new fashion? ��

So a few tips/things to consider for umbrella-hiking:

You now have a higher clearance, be mindful of that when passing under branches.
You also have a wider profile which is inconvenient in narrow places. The umbrella can catch up on things.
For the reasons above, don’t use a big umbrella. I had a small one and had enough protection.
If it’s windy than the umbrella probably won’t help and will break. But if it’s both rainy and windy I would stay home anyway ��
Scramble with an umbrella is a joke. A sad one. I have no idea how I’ve actually made it with the umbrella on past The Most Crappy Section. When you put the hiking poles forward and lean forward onto them to make a big step, the umbrella hits them. It’s very annoying.

Your umbrella is probably going to get destroyed along the way. So don’t bring an expensive one. I have broke one of the carcass poles of mine along the way. While searching the hiking umbrella hashtags I’ve actually came across a company that makes hiking umbrellas, but I would hesitate to invest in one for this exact reason.
Figure out how to attach the umbrella to the backpack while you’re at home, because otherwise you will waste precious time while on the trail, like me, and will get wet while doing it, also like me. Walk and jump with it to see that it stays in place.
I don’t have a recipe for attaching an umbrella to a backpack - I’ve used carabiners, it has worked so-so. You can use any type of ties, ideally ones you can open easily to quickly remove it if needed. Ideally you want to somehow fix it vertically, if it makes sense - for example, mine once had a string loop at the handle, but it has ripped off at some point (before the trail), so I had no easy way to make the handle stay at the same level and the umbrella kept sliding down.
Make sure the umbrella doesn’t create pressure points on your body while attached. Mine was pressing on the collar bone and it was very painful and I had to waste time, again, to readjust it.

For me - hiking with an umbrella is going to be a thing now!

More lessons learned

Will share a couple things I thought would help me next time ��:

Day hike the trail before heading on an overnight trip - at least for the trails outside Garibaldi park �� I’m thinking about camping at mount Unnecessary for a while and now have decided that I’m going to check it out with a light backpack first.
Do leg workouts… I might �� but yeah, I start feeling sometimes, and especially after Golden Ears, that my leg muscles become the bottleneck. Before it was rather the cardio. So I might start weight training.
Bring apple juice and/or research some concentrate options - so I have a general problem that if I don’t eat frequently while hiking, I start being low energy and moody. And anxious �� That has to do with blood sugar dropping below certain level. So I make sure to take breaks for snacks, but this time in addition I brought my old water bladder filled with a liter of apple juice. I swear I think that’s what kept me alive through this hell on the way up!! It’s fast sugar, so it turns to energy real quick and I felt the difference. Do recommend.
Become alert on the slightest mention of scramble in trail reviews �� and then try to research how much of it actually exists on the trail.

Overall… I don’t regret doing this trail. I ticked it off from my list and it does feel good. Was it worth it… mmm tough question. It’s easy to speak sitting at the comfort of my home. But I would think many times before doing it again �� And it’s not a trail I would automatically recommend to someone without knowing their fitness level.

Have you done this one? What you think of it, let me know �� maybe I’m just spoiled.

Safe travels and pleeeease leave no trace!

Cheers,

Oless

A wet overnighter at Joffre lakes

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:39:26 GMT

You don’t give up a booking on Joffre lakes because of rain, do you? �� Here’s some info about the campground, more rain-camping insights and a sketchy 2-or-maybe-3-lakes viewpoint hike story.

Trail info

Location : Joffre lakes trail, Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, BC, Canada
Elevation of the Upper Joffre lake camp : ~1570m
Why I wanted to go there : well, Joffre lakes with their vivid turquoise water are a popular hiking destination for a reason. Camping there was on my bucket list for a long time.
Was it my first time on the trail : no.
Would I recommend this trail : sure worth visiting at least once - the lakes are gorgeous. It’s very crowded though. So camping there provides an opportunity to experience the area during the less crowded hours.
When I went : July 6-7, 2021, with my partner.
Trail length (roundtrip) : ~7.7 km ( AllTrails )
Trail elevation gain : ~500m ( AllTrails ).
Trail quality : pretty well maintained until the upper lake, although not as broad and even as Garibaldi lake trail, for example. The last km between the first upper lake viewpoint and the campground - pretty annoying, especially with an overnight pack - many boulders, rocks & roots.
Cellular coverage: no service at all in the park. Highly recommend having a satellite communication device like Zoleo or similar, in case of emergency or to let your family know you're fine.
My ascent time (with overnight backpack) : my parents came for a day hike with us, so we moved at their pace. I would say 2 hours of net moving time would be a reasonable approximation for averagely fit hiker.
My descent time : 2.3 hours with stops for snack and photos.
Water sources : couple small waterfalls between the first and the second lakes, then plenty afterwards - streams, lake.

The trail

I don’t have much to write about the trail itself - it’s considered moderate, it’s on the easier side comparing to my other backpacking trips, the lakes are amazing. I would recommend it if you’re starting backpacking and want something relatively easy to test your ability to carry an overnight pack uphill.

The campground

To camp there you need to book (and book A LOT in advance, especially if you want to secure a spot on a weekend) via the BC Parks Discover Camping system . They do check day passes/camping permits near the trailhead. The camp spots are first come first serve - you can’t secure a specific spot in advance.

The campground was a bit disappointing relatively to other camps I’ve been in BC ( Wedgemount lake , Garibaldi lake, Elfin lakes, Heather trail). It is less well maintained, overall.

To be clear, I don’t expect the backcountry to be easy to access in general. Just got spoiled by the well maintained parks I have recently visited, haha. But seriously, since Joffre lakes is so popular, I was expecting it to live up to the standard of Garibaldi Provincial Park. Anyhow, it’s not to complain but more to share info that can serve other backpackers.

The trail to the campground is significantly less groomed than the trail until the upper lake. You can’t really move at a fast pace there while carrying the overnight pack. Poles are highly recommended. We laughed at the sign saying campground is 1 km and 0.5 hour away, but it turned out to be pretty accurate.

Then, the tent spots. They are pretty small, although I did see a couple that has accommodated 2 tents side by side. Also ours wasn’t so even - the middle was kinda sagging, so the rain water got under the tent despite my footprint being fully covered by the tent. I didn’t see any wood tent pads there either.

Also note that not all of them have trees around - we did need the trees to hang the tarp.

The toilet is a small hike away from the campground - the path is filled with boulders, and you need to cross a stream - which is quite inconvenient. The toilet itself is filthy - although yeah, the only clean “backcountry” toilets I’ve seen were at lake O’Hara campground and they were cleaned daily. But this one was nearly un-sit-able �� That being said, I did use it and do encourage everyone to do the same instead of going to the bush. There aren’t much bushes there anyway, and most of them are between the tent pads, so will create odor in the campground. Aaand if you do go in some bush, please remember to bring a doggy bag or something to pack out the toilet paper, or bury it thoroughly in the ground, so it doesn’t get washed out with the next rain.

For the amenities - there are both hangers for food bags and a bear locker, so pretty convenient. Plenty of drinking water in the lake. No gray water pit - I think the best is to dispose the gray water from washing the dishes and brushing teeth somewhere in the rocks near the food cache area - away from tent pads and water sources .

There’s no shelter or any picnic tables either, so come prepared if there’s rain in the forecast.

The rain

We knew it’s going to rain, but decided to go anyway, as you can guess how hard it would be to book another date at Joffre lakes �� Also wanted to take my parents there while they’re visiting Canada.

This time I did a better job than on Berg lake in not putting my backpack in a puddle when taking it off, so the stuff inside was dry.

I brought the rain tarp I bought before the trip to the Berg lake trail - the simplest blue poly, 167 x 221 cm in size (I got the 6' x 8' from Home Depot, a link to similar in MEC ), and 4 pieces of 5-meter cord.

My plan was to hang it over the tent so the rain won’t get inside when getting in and out of the tent, but also cover some area near the tent where we can cook.

While setting the camp we quickly realized the tarp was actually too small for all of this, so we moved it a bit forward, and the tent - a bit backwards, leaving the tent exposed to the rain.

It ended up raining on and off all the time we spent there, so the tarp was a really good decision. I’ve yet to learn how to hang it properly - the water was gathering in the middle of the tarp and we had a spilling bucket effect every few minutes. At this point I gave up on readjusting the tarp, as I had planned to do a hike to the glacier viewpoint that day.

My main conclusion is that this tarp size is really small for what I would want it to accomplish. It was barely sufficient to cover me, Stephan and our cooking stuff and the rain was still getting inside from the side. If I was solo it was probably sufficient to use as a cooking shelter.

What I would want is a tarp that will also cover the tent. Now, I need to explain why - the tent should be waterproof and hanging the tarp above it isn’t really necessary to keep you dry inside. While the tent is assembled, and as long as you don’t get in and out too much and bring moisture inside, you’re good.

The problem arises if you want to disassemble the tent and then pitch it again in another camp for the next night. If it’s raining while you need to take it down, it obviously won’t dry. When packing, it’s virtually impossible for the inside to remain dry. At least, for my Nemo Dragonfly - as I cannot fold the inner part without removing the poles. That means that next time I pitch it, there will be moisture inside, which is a big no no with my down sleeping bag ��.

It doesn’t matter much for the overnighters, as I said in my other blog post, Trip to Berg lake - but if I was to head to a longer backpacking trip, and wouldn’t have much room for changing the dates? For example, heading to US once the pandemic is finally over. So that’s why I’m trying to find solutions.

Another thing that happened during that night is - we found the tent floor was damp inside. Provided it’s not moisture we brought with us inside, that means the tent bottom fabric isn’t fully waterproof ��

When I was packing the tent, I noticed the footprint was wet, too, so there's a chance this moisture was indeed propagating from outside.

As I have mentioned, our tent spot was a bit bowl-shaped, and likely rain water was flowing under the tent and accumulating there. So my theory is that the tent floor got eventually soaked and let the water in. Very weird, it’s the first time it happens to me, and I spent about 5 rainy nights in this tent out of total around 15 nights to date.

So, I will be probably looking into getting a larger tarp, which needs to be made of a lighter material - since the blue poly is pretty bulky and heavy, which is fine for the size I have, but bigger poly tarp wouldn’t be suitable for a backpacking trip.

The 2 lakes viewpoint

* 2023 edit: this trail is probably not the safest. Read my warning below.

I must admit I did a bad job preparing for photography on this trip �� I forgot to check sunset and sunrise time and also kinda misjudged the time it will take us to get to the viewpoint from which all the three Joffre lakes are visible.

For quite some time I was under the impression there aren’t any interesting hikes that don’t require mountaineering skills around the upper Joffre lake, without actually checking. Then I saw somebody’s pic showing the upper lake from above, so I concluded you can hike a bit more past the lake to get this view.

Then, when actually fiddling with the AllTrails map of the area I’ve noticed there is someone’s photo of all three lakes visible - so I got excited to visit this viewpoint by myself. The trail is marked on the AllTrails map, but it isn’t a part of any AllTrails “trail”, so to understand the distance and the elevation you need to look at the map and measure yourself. I measured 300m elevation at home, but turned out I was wrong and it is around 500m and 1 km �� Won’t be a big difference for some, but at the point I noticed this it was well into the evening, so we didn’t have that much time until the dark.

We decided to give it a go anyway. The terrain was pretty steep, but doable. Lots of loose rock. With occasional rain and wind gusts it wasn’t a pleasant experience. We ended up gaining about 320m elevation before stopping and deciding it would be smart to turn back - the trail wasn’t getting better, the weather - too, and it started to get darker. We didn’t want to hike this sketchy trail in the dark, despite having a lamp - it was hard enough to find the trail in the daylight and I used AllTrails many times to make sure we’re on track.

Just a note about sticking to the trail - it is really important not only for the fragile alpine vegetation, but for one’s safety (as I heard not once from SAR members commenting in hiking Facebook groups...). Would highly discourage anyone from going off trail, especially in this steep terrain where you can easily get yourself in a sketchy situation with all the cliffs around. Be safe folks.

We have managed to get the view on the 2 lakes instead of 3, which I am happy with, although it really left me craving to reach the 3-lakes viewpoint �� Now I have to come back!

Came here in 2023 to warn you : part of this trail to the 2/3 lakes viewpoint lays under a glacier. I currently can't say exactly which part because it was 2 years ago and I haven't come back to reach this viewpoint again. Parts of glacier regularly crack off and fall down - putting you at risk when you're wandering up there. We heard this happening while visiting there. Keep this in mind and use your best judgement. Also the rumor has it to get to the 3 lakes viewpoint you have to walk on the glacier, which is a big no-no and very dangerous without proper equipment and training. So please - no instagram photo is worth it.

I thought about coming back there in the morning, but the weather was even worse, with fog covering everything, so we ate breakfast and packed.

Couldn't pass by the opportunity to shoot some more pics of the lakes before we leave!

Overall, it was a nice trip despite the rain and much less crowded near the campground.

Thanks for reading and make sure to post any questions below!

Cheers!

Oless

Berg lake trail - lessons learned

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 22:51:11 GMT

Just came back from the Berg lake trail about a week ago and thought I’ll share my experience, some info that is harder to find about the trail and couple lessons learned along the way.

Trail info

Location : Berg lake trail, Mt Robson Provincial Park, BC, Canada
Elevation of the Berg lake camp : ~1660m
Why I wanted to go there: mainly to see the turquoise glacier-fed lakes - Kinney and Berg.
Was it my first time on the trail : yes.
Would I recommend this trail : absolutely, it’s one of the most popular trails in BC for a reason.
When I went: June 16-19, 2021, with a friend.
Trail length (roundtrip): 41.5 km (AllTrails)
Trail elevation gain: ~900m on the way to Berg lake, 254 on the way back (according to my tracker), although AllTrails state it’s 1509m.
Trail quality: incredibly well maintained and even for the most part - until Kinney lake - really broad and even, after - still a great trail, unless it’s raining all day, then it gets extremely muddy. Completely snow free at the time of hiking. The trail itself has many viewpoints along the way, various terrain and relatively little “walk in the forest” sections.
Cellular coverage: no service at all in the park. I've used my Zoleo device to let my partner know I'm fine.
My ascent time (with overnight backpack): I was really sick, you guys (read on). Honestly, not sure how I made it. ~3 hours to Kinney lake camp on day 1, ~9 hours from Kinney lake camp to Berg lake camp on day 2.
My descent time: ~8 hours
Water sources: until Kinney lake - couple occasional access spots to the river. After Kinney lake - Whitehorn camp. Then once you start the main ascent, there’s literally no water sources until the Emperor falls, and even there not sure how possible it is to get water. So I would say - until the Emperor falls camp. And after that, next water source is near the Marmot camp. In short - make sure you fill plenty of water for the ascent between Whitehorn camp and Emperor falls camp because the elevation gain would be about 600-700m in about 5km - this is the most intensive part of the hike.

Preparations and the way to the trail

The adventures started even before we headed to the Mt Robson park - we had to postpone or original booking due to the travel restrictions in place. I was very surprised we managed to find new spots as the trail was already fully booked for the rest of the season. So lesson number one - if you’re checking the DiscoverCamping website couple times a day every day, you’ll eventually get some spots ��

Since the ride to Mt Robson park from Vancouver is about 7 hours, we split it to 2 days and booked a campsite at North Thompson River park to stay for a night. That was a double mistake ��

One - because it’s a bad idea to sleep in a tent before a trek - unless you’re sure you sleep well outdoors. Me, and my friend, too - didn’t sleep that well, so we were tired even before starting the trail.

And two - unless you really like REALLY loud trains - just don’t camp in the North Thompson River park!! Omg ��‍♀️ We chose a campsite by the river, and the rails are literally on the other side of the river. And the trains run - I swear - every damn half an hour AT NIGHT.

But oh, well.

We ate dinner in Clearwater, and there was another mistake from my side - I ate some fat meat - and got an annoying indigestion that night we stayed at North Thompson River. Another lesson - watch what you eat before the trek!

Day 1 on the trail

The indigestion got worse the next day - the day we were supposed to start hiking. We waited for it to go away, and though it didn’t, I insisted that we start hiking anyway.

The way to Kinney lake camp that should have been the easiest part of the trek felt like forever and took us about 3 hours with many stops and at a really slow pace.

By the time we got to the camp though I felt much better.

Couple words about the Kinney lake camp - I chose it for 2 reasons. One is that I’m a fan of vibrant lakes more than of waterfalls or other nature features (in BC, you get to choose ��), so I couldn’t miss the chance to shoot some sunsets and sunrises on such a beautiful lake.

And two - I tried to be strategic about splitting the load of the trip - 5-hour drive to Clearwater on the first day, than 2.5-hour drive to the trailhead and a 7km easy hike - on the second.

Anyway. Kinney lake is awesome.

Couple words about the tent pads. When you book the sites, you are assigned specific tent pad numbers in the reservation and we wondered whether you really need to stick to that specific tent. So it turns out - you don't. The ranger told us this in the orientation - as long as you are in the campground where you have booked the site - you can choose any available tent pad.

For the tent pad size - in my photo it appears bigger than it is due to lens distortion. But I would say, you could squeeze 2 tents like mine (Nemo Dragonfly 2p) in it, if really necessary. Probably won't be able to extend the 2 vestibules thought. I saw quite a few people putting 2 tents on a tent pad, and we were also told by a ranger it's absolutely ok.

Day 2

The next day we started moving towards the Berg lake camp at about 11am and all was good… Until we stopped for a snack at Whitehorn and then the sickness hit me again.

So guys, the section between Whitehorn camp and Berg lake was the most awful hike of my life. Although it really really shouldn’t have been.

At some point in the beginning I felt I just can’t keep going. So I just sat on the ground for half an hour until I felt like I can go again. Then we needed to make few more stops. Our pace was crazy slow and I was really embarrassed.

We made it to the Berg lake camp at around 7pm and I couldn’t even get myself to go take photos of the sunset, although the weather was amazing.

But my sickness aside, what you can expect from the trail : in general, the trail is very well groomed along all the 21km. It reminded me of Elfin lakes trail or Garibaldi lake trail both in quality and in incline - there are a couple steeper sections, but for the most part, the elevation gain is really gradual and the trail is pretty even. It’s just long. On the contrary, for example, the Wedgemount lake trail is much nastier �� - it’s steeper and is the rocks & roots style all the way.

That being said, be aware that if it was raining the day before, or it is raining on the day of your hike - it is going to be crazy muddy after you reach Kinney lake.

So I wouldn’t say the trail itself is really hard - it is just very long. But wouldn’t advise doing the 21k in one day unless you’re really fit.

Day 3

I woke up before the sunrise on the day 3 - feeling the sickness was gone. So I got out of the tent and oh, man! I have witnessed one of the most epic sunrise views in my life!

Will be definitely posting more photos from this sunrise on my instagram !

Then I went back to sleep, and later in the day we went to check out the Hargreaves lake. Ummm well.

So the plan was not to do the whole Toboggan-Hargreaves loop, but just to go up from the Hargreaves side and then down the same way - since we heard that side is less steep and wanted to save our breath and do the Snowbird pass after that.

The trail to the Hargreaves lake is fine until it turns right to the Toboggan falls direction, but then we had to search for the trail to the Hargreaves lake itself and it was not obvious at all. I think the real trail might have been covered by the huge snow patch that was in the area. Anyway, we found some kind of trail that went up on a really steep slope of partly loose rock and for me - it wasn’t at all a fun experience… Especially the way down later on. So beware ��‍♀️

The weather was overcast on that day, but we managed to catch a couple glimpses of sun while on the ridge.

When we came back to the camp I realized I feel too weak to go on another hike. So my friend went to check out the (open section of) Snowbird pass by himself and I stayed at the camp for hot lunch and a nap ��

The sky cleared up a bit towards the night and we had witnessed an amazing sunset.

View-wise, I am very happy with the choice to stay in the Berg lake camp over Marmot - it is really close to the lake like Marmot, but I personally think it has the best angle that showcases the enormous Berg glacier, which eliminates the need to hike in the dark for sunrise or sunset shots.

Also, we chose our camping spots on the farther side of the stream, so it was less crowded than in the main camp.

Day 4

The next day it was raining from the early morning and at this point I was really happy that I brought along a tarp. I completely forgot to take pictures of it - but it’s a simple blue poly tarp, the kind you buy for $12 at Home Depot, or even cheaper, at MEC .

I was hesitant about whether to buy one at all, this one is a bit bulky and lighter options are significantly more expensive, but ended up buying this basic blue tarp. I would say it is a bit small and was just enough to cover our sitting area between the tent pads, but it did the job well. We could stay dry and cozy during breakfast while it was raining non-stop.

It was our time to head back to the Kinney lake camp where we booked the last night, we packed and started hiking. The way back was relatively without adventures, except of the really really muddy trail. We stopped at Whitehorn shelter for a snack, and had a hard time finding a place to sit - the shelter was full of people.

After arriving at Kinney lake shelter that wasn’t that crowded, first thing we did was to change to dry clothes - my top was soaked from sweat beneath the rain shell and I was starting getting cold. There I noticed that my clothes weren’t completely dry - despite the Osprey’s brand backpack rain cover and the water resistant sack they were in.

We were on a fence about staying the night at Kinney or hiking out the additional 7k to the trailhead. I was very tired and didn’t really want to hike further. But after resting for about an hour in the shelter and eating a meal I felt like I can make the additional 7k on a pretty even trail. At the same time I got more anxious about staying in the wet weather with possibly wet gear. So we ended up heading to the trailhead. Had to hop over an unruly stream that wasn’t there on day 1.

The rain - lessons learned

So there are a few lessons I have learned from that one rainy day I think are really important to share.

Don’t underestimate rain on a multi day hike. Weather might change unexpectedly while you’re deep into the trek and you can’t always just hike out. Wet gear can compromise your ability to stay warm and lead to hypothermia.
Bring a tarp on a multi day hike. For the reason above, I would ideally have a tarp to put above my tent, so the tent doesn’t get wet while assembled and disassembled. I got some water into my tent while taking it down at the Berg lake camp, which could potentially get my down sleeping bag wet - which would result in a massive heat loss since damp down loses its insulating properties.
Your gear can get wet from hiking in the rain - it has some chance to dry if hanged under the tarp.
Also having a tarp above the place you cook meals is really nice - if there’s no shelter in the camp, or the shelter is too crowded.
Have to be careful even with rain cover on the backpack - need to pay attention that water doesn’t get into the unprotected areas when taking the pack off. I have bought a pretty expensive Osprey rain cover for my backpack for this trip, after discovering that my McKinley rain cover isn’t waterproof one bit. It looks really solid and marked to be suitable for backpacks up to 70 liter - and fits just right on my fully loaded Osprey Aura 65 backpack . It even covers well the overhead compartment and the bottom of the pack.
The problem is that I was taking the backpack off quite a few times during the hike back to Kinney lake - to take out my camera for photos, and most of these times I would just drop the pack wherever I stopped, not caring about its position. It may be that during these stops (mainly very short, but still), the rain would fall onto the back of the pack that wasn’t protected by the rain cover and its back wall probably got soaked this way - especially the bottom part, where the sleeping bag and the sack with dry clothes were.

The clothes sack and some clothes inside were dump when I took them out at the Kinney shelter.
For the compression sack that had my pillow and sleeping bag - I have only opened it a day later at home. My pillow, that was close to the orange breathing panel of the compression sack, was dump, too. The sleeping bag appeared to be dry though. That’s a disappointment considering this Sea-To-Summit compression sack is marketed as waterproof. I might need to test it at home separately to drive conclusions though.

UPDATE: I've tested the sack in shower by putting a dry towel inside and pouring water on the sack for a few minutes. The towel came was dry inside... So it seems to work.

Anyhow, that trip definitely was much more of a challenge than I have expected due to my sickness, but Berg lake trail is incredibly amazing and I’m so grateful I could manage it despite feeling unwell.

I hope you will find my story useful and learn something so you have more enjoyable, safer trips in the future!

Let me know what you think and any questions in the comments below!

Cheers,

Oless

My backpacking sleeping system (sucks)

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 20:51:31 GMT

What gear I use in my sleep system during my backpacking trips, my (not ideal) experience spending nights in the backcountry and thoughts on how to improve it.

Hey gals and guys!

Today I want to talk about sleeping in the backcountry. Spoiler: I’m currently not exactly enjoying it. I mean, I enjoy the backcountry very much, but my sleep is far from ideal.

Similarly to my Tent review post , instead of plain review of the gear I use, which I think you can find anywhere, I want to talk more in depth about my experience with it as a system, about my sleep issues in the backcountry that some of you might relate to, and my thoughts about how it can be improved.

For reference, I normally don’t have sleep issues in regular life.

Overview of my backcountry sleep issues - will be expanding on each one a bit later.

Temperature - sometimes I’m cold while trying to fall asleep and hot during the night
Comfort - I’m usually not comfortable in my field bed
Digestion - many times my digestive system is still working while I'm going to sleep
Fear - sometimes it’s scary to sleep outdoors alone - as I do many solo trips

Overview of my sleep system

In my opinion, sleep system is not only the sleeping bag and sleeping pad, but also the base layers you sleep in, as they affect your comfort as well.

I’ll say a few words about each item and why I chose it, and will expand about the performance further below.

Sleeping bag

The one I went with is MEC Delphinus -9C Down women’s sleeping bag ( link to the new version ). While I started preparing for backpacking and researched my gear , this was an optimal combination of weight, warmth and price. It’s warm and cozy, by I’m starting to suspect that the mummy shape isn’t ideal for me.

Sleeping pad

As far as my research went in the late 2019, NeoAir XLite Women's Sleeping Pad was the best rated, warm, compact and lightweight sleeping pad out there. It indeed packs ridiculously small and is very lightweight. I’m second-guessing its tapered shape though and still haven’t got used to the feeling of inflatable mattress.

Pillow

At first, I went on trips without a pillow, which proved extremely uncomfortable. I tried to use my fleece and other stuff under my head, and it was a nightmare. Pun not intended ��

Then I tried to research pillows and was confused. Many of the recommended pillows were looking quite high, but I know for a fact that I can’t handle high pillows.

So turns out that the height of the pillow depends on how you sleep. Apparently, tummy sleepers (which I mostly am) usually need the flattest pillows, side sleepers need the highest pillows, and back sleepers are somewhere in between.

Long story short, I wasn’t sure any inflatable pillow would suit me, and they are pricey as well.

What I ended up doing is using the down cover of my regular pillow. At home we have the weird type of pillows that have memory foam pieces inside, and have an outer cover filled with down. It is very flat, but when folded, can work as a small down pillow. Being down it also compresses pretty well.

It’s not ideal, but for now, it works.

E-Vent compression sack

Though I don’t use it for the actual sleep, I still think it's worth mentioning my Sea to Summit eVent Compression Dry Sack (Medium) as it keeps my sleeping bag, pillow and sleep clothes dry. And that’s instrumental to not only comfort, but safety in the backcountry, as dump down sleeping bag would lose its insulation properties.

It’s an amazing piece, I have already wrote about it in the 5 items that made a difference to my outdoor experience blog post.

Base layer top

Now, to the clothes. The top I slept in during my 2020 trips is Mountain Warehouse Snowdon Melange Womens Fleece . It was just a random long sleeve top I picked up at Mountain Warehouse without researching ��, as it was very cheap, like $20, and I didn’t really know what I want.

It is actually very warm - when I put it on and crawl into my sleeping bag, I feel like it’s actively warming me up ��

The problem is - it haz ZERO breathability. So don’t even think hiking in it as I did during the sunrise “mission” on my Wedgemount lake trip ��. I was sweating at night/morning while sleeping in it couple times, which was a bit annoying. Otherwise, it isn’t bad.

I would say, if you’re a cold sleeper and on a tight budget, you would benefit from this piece. Just mind that it doesn’t pack super duper small.

Base layer bottom

Initially I was using some cheap leggings I had for years that have some fleece inside. On most of my trips I would be cold in my butt and thighs while wearing them at night, so was on a hunt for alternative.

I have eventually switched them to Arc'teryx Rho LT Bottoms , which I used while sleeping only once, it was a pretty mild weather and I was almost fine. So hard to say yet if they are enough.

Also they collect my cats’ hair like crazy ☹️

But I hiked in them once in snow, in about 3-5 degrees C I think, and I was surprisingly not cold. We’ll see.

Socks

For sleep, I usually wear a clean pair of hiking socks, and sometimes a pair of thicker socks on top.

My hiking socks are some random medium thickness cotton socks, I don’t remember where I got them (I know, I know, cotton kills. Seriously. I’m on my way to try some Merino wool socks).

In terms of sleep, as long as it’s not too cold, they’re ok. But once the temperatures drop to about 8°C, I would say, they're not enough.

So for the colder nights I would put the warmer socks on, which are some thick socks from Walmart. Well… I really regret buying 4 pairs of them because they add maybe just a tiny bit of warmth, but apparently don’t breath, as my feet start sweating a bit in them and end up being cold anyway. So they are just useless bulk.

Have recently ordered 2 pairs of Merino wool socks, we'll see how it goes.

Ok. Now, to the issues, how the pieces of gear play together and my advice.

Temperature

Although it’s not the biggest issue for me and not what ruins my sleep in the backcountry, I want to address it first. If you’re looking to start assembling a sleeping system, or to replace some parts of it, warmth is probably the first thing you’re wondering about.

So I want to try and help you to have sense of the “warmth value” of my system:

I am not a cold sleeper, neither I see myself as a hot sleeper.

My sleeping pad R-value is 3.9.

There was 1 time I felt overall cold in my sleep, and it wasn’t all night, but maybe for couple hours. It was in the Buckhorn camp in the Manning Park, BC, which is located at 1800m elevation, and the temperature that night must have been dropped a bit below 0°C, because in the morning there was frost on the grass and on my tent.

That means, this combination of sleeping bag, sleeping pad and clothes were almost keeping me at the comfort temperature in 0°C, while I’m 61-kg female, not hot or cold sleeper.

Also note that my MEC sleeping bag is rated as -9C (not clear whether as comfort or survival rating), while for sure with my current sleeping system I would be freezing at -9C.

Next time while planning to camp at near 0 degrees I will probably bring along a sleeping bag fleece liner. Not sure to what temperature my sleeping system will be good then, need to test it somehow. If you have any experience with sleeping bag liners - pls let me know in the comments!!

So that’s for general “warmth value” of my system. Of course, that’s going to be individual to each person.

As I said I have a couple of issues with warmth of my system, above the 0 degrees.

The minor one is that sometimes I get too hot in my fleece top during the night, which wakes me up. To try and solve this, I have ordered the Arc’teryx Rho AR top , but as of writing this it haven’t arrived yet. Actually, I wouldn’t spend this much money on a sleeping top alone, but the main reason to buy it was actually solving problems with sweating while hiking in cold temperatures, which I’ll write about one day maybe �� Anyway, that one should be both warm and breathable and we’ll see how it goes.

The more annoying issue that I have, is, as I said, I’m often cold in my butt, thighs and feet while trying to fall asleep. I’m usually getting warm during the night, but it makes it harder to fall asleep initially. The solution there is pretty simple - I need to get a decent base layer bottom, in case my Rho LT bottom will prove insufficient, and a really warm pair of socks - which is in progress.

Ok. Done with temperature.

Comfort

This one is a major issue. It’s not only that “it’s not fun” for me to sleep in the backcountry, but I can’t fall asleep for hours and my whole body hurts in the morning.

I sound dramatic here, but I’m not looking for pity or anything. I’m just being honest and want people to know how it really is for some other people so that they can make a more informed decision about what gear to get to themselves.

That said, it’s still worth it for me, to suffer some discomfort for being able to visit places I otherwise wouldn’t able to, witness sunsets and sunrises etc.

And that said, I’m still looking for ways to improve it ��

Now, for the issues.

As I said somewhere above, I’m a tummy sleeper (although I’m trying to get myself used to sleep on the back, it doesn’t really work), and the most comfortable position for me is with one leg bent with a knee up, like a number 4. Hope this makes sense.

The problem is that a) it’s something that is hard to do in a mummy bag, and b) it’s something that my tapered pad doesn’t allow either, without my bent leg sliding from it.

And in general, I’m constantly feeling like I’m about to slide off the pad because I’m not lying in a straight line.

If I’m lying on my back, I get a lower back pain, because, it seems that there’s no enough support for the back and it arches. I tried putting my backpack underneath my legs, but it’s horrible �� and also makes it impossible to turn to my tummy.

Another issue is the pillow. As I said, I figured I DID need a pillow in the backcountry. Which idk, kinda not surprising that you won’t be comfortable without a pillow in the normal life, but will be - in the field? Anyway, I’m using this down-filled pillow cover and I feel like this is as close to an ideal field pillow as it gets, because no way I’ll be comfortable on inflatable pillows that get too high, I don’t like memory foam and it’s bulky, and down pillows - well, I have one, almost. I might get a mini pillow case to prevent it from unfolding during the night though.

Regarding the comfort problems, my advice to you is - if you are sleeping similarly to me, in weird poses, maybe consider going for another bag shape and for wider pad. For example, Nemo spoon-shaped sleeping bags are wider in the legs. Haven’t tried them, but I eventually might. And if you have - let me know!

For me, at the very moment of writing this, I’m not yet going to replace my sleeping bag and sleeping pad. I have some hope that as I do more backpacking, I will get more used to the feeling of the inflatable pad and will be able to fall asleep faster as I also solve issues in other aspects.

I do intend to ask about other backpackers’ experience and learn from them. And if all of that fails and I’m still miserable, I’ll try to replace the gear.

So again - make sure to share your experience in the comments below!

Digestion

One of the other major issues that prevents me from falling asleep fast initially and also if I wake up at night is that my digestive system hasn't had the chance to... get relief �� I'm kinda problematic in this sense while not home. Also, many times I’m nervous about setting the camp in time before dark, getting all the pics I want done etc, and this doesn't help the issue.

My current solution that kinda works is to eat dinner as early as possible - around 5pm, let's say, so my body has time to process the food before night time. Comment if you have any other advice ��

Fear

The last issue I have with sleeping in the backcountry is fear. For me, it usually isn’t a major problem, and I see it declining ever since I started backpacking.

I’m calmer while my partner is in the tent with me, but I’m also pretty much ok alone.

I won’t lie and say I’m not scared. I am. Not a whole lot, but I am. Though I feel like it’s not the main reason that is keeping me from sleeping well as the comfort and digestion matters do. I sleep with the bear spray next to me ��

The one time I was much more scared than usual was during my Saint Marks trip , and that was because I was actually alone on that mountain. But as long as I’m on a campground with more people in the radius of a hundred meters or so, I kinda feel not alone? You know what I mean…

Ok. Kudos to those who read it all. I didn’t know I had that much to say on my simple sleeping system, to be honest.

I really really hope you found some useful bit of info in this post that will help you making your backcountry night’s sleep better!

Comment below your thoughts, as you can see, I’m yet to find all of my answers.

And if you’re interested in what other gear I use - check out the What’s in my backpack blog post for all of my backpacking gear with pics and links.

Cheers!

Oless

October 2021 update: I have upgraded parts of my sleeping gear and this season my experience is much better! Read the My sleeping system doesn't suck anymore blog post to learn about my solutions.

Nemo Dragonfly 2P review or How I broke it twice

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 22:15:44 GMT

In today's post I talk about my experience with Nemo Dragonfly 2P tent , what I like and don’t like about it, how I broke it twice in the backcountry ��‍♀️ and my advice as for how to avoid it.

I’m not going to go deep into every technical spec of this tent, as this is something you can easily find online, but more so to different aspects of me using the tent and caring for it. You can probably find this post useful even if you already have a tent you’re happy with - as my advice would apply to most backpacking tents.

Some technical specs anyway

Weight: 1.41kg
Packed dimensions: 12x50cm, but I actually take the poles out of the main sack and pack them separately from the tent - it makes the tent fit horizontally in my backpack and conveniently sit at the bottom until I arrive in the camp.
Waterproofness - it’s waterproof, as long as the water isn't splashing beneath the rainfly, which is hard to imagine anyway. It was raining on a few of my trips and I was completely dry inside. And yes, its bottom is waterproof.
Size: 2 people. You can fit 2 sleeping pads pretty tightly inside.
Footprint: not included. I made one, not from Tyvek - read on.
I suspect it was discontinued by Nemo cause it's out of stock everywhere for a while :(

Overall experience

Overall, I really like this tent. It’s been my cozy little home away from home on 9 camping trips as of the time of writing this post and did its job well.

It has a plenty of space for a solo hiker and is pretty tight for 2. When buying it I was intending on traveling alone most of the time, but wanted to have an option to host my husband when he decides to join me �� so 2P was an easy decision.

I really like there’s 2 doors and 2 vestibules - I can put all of my gear in the vestibules so that it’s away from rain and strangers’ eyes, but don’t have to put all the dirty stuff inside the tent.

Another cool feature is wall pockets - SO useful for putting small stuff in, and a roof pocket where I usually throw my headlamp. There are also 2 roof pockets that are meant specifically for lamps and have light diffusers, but I prefer using the one that is meant for stuff, since it’s located in the center of the roof.

What I don’t like about Dragonfly 2P

That it broke twice while I was setting my camp, but let me get to it ��

One thing is that it seems to me that the fabric is too tight when secured to the top ridge pole - I always was afraid it will break, and it eventually did. But! It’s potentially my fault and I’ll explain a tad later.

Another thing - I haven’t succeed in managing the condensation that builds up on the walls’ inner side during the night. Dragonfly has 2 vents, one on each door in the rainfly, but the didn’t seem to work even when I slept with both of them open. I don’t know if it’s a design flaw or I’m doing something wrong. Anyway, it’s not that big of an issue. If I can, I leave the tent pitched for a few hours after I wake up and it dries. If it’s not possible, I ALWAYS hang it to dry at home after the trip so it won’t get mildew.

The footprint

I kinda wanted to talk about it separately and give some advice to owners of similar UL tents.

So, like many other tents in the ultralight category, Nemo Dragonfly comes without footprint, but it can be purchased separately.

I didn’t really want to invest the $55 in their footprint, but didn’t want to go without, either. My fear was that the thin floor material will get poked by some sharp stick or stone and the water protection will be compromised. And no, you don’t need the footprint to help with the waterproofness! The floor won’t let the water in anyway, as long as it has no holes.

So I was looking to DIY a footprint from some more rugged material, but I didn’t care whether this material would be waterproof by itself.

I read online that people are using Tyvek, but - I don’t have friends that work in construction and I also failed to find a piece of Tyvek for an affordable price online - considering that the original footprint would cost about $55, for me it didn’t make sense to buy anything for more than $20 and then have to deal with cutting it etc.

So I ended up buying a piece of cheap tarp from Home Depot. It cost only about $12, fairly lightweight and fairly durable as well for my purpose. It also is actually waterproof (at least to some point), despite this specific model wasn’t labeled as waterproof.

I cut it to size to be a bit narrower than the tent floor - make sure to have your footprint be just a tad smaller than your tent. Otherwise the rain water may accumulate on the outstanding pieces and then flow under your tent. And you’ll have a puddle beneath you. And even though the water shouldn’t get inside the tent, it probably won’t be fun.

The latest addition to the footprint were grommets I put in the footprint corners to allow securing it to the tent pegs because otherwise it does tend to move when windy. I haven’t actually used them yet. Need to buy some more cord to tie to the grommets and make some longer guy lines, as these coming with the tent proved to be too short.

Overall it did a pretty good job at reducing the abrasion of my tent floor, so if you don’t have access to Tyvek, from my experience this tarp is decent.

So how I broke the tent

I tend to believe now that both times were my fault, even though at the very moment I wanted to blame Nemo ��

The first time happened on my trip to Coquihalla where I went to camp near the Flatiron. When I arrived at the camp, it was very windy with really strong gusts. It didn’t bother me much, I wanted a spot with a lake view and figured I will guy the tent out properly and will be fine.

I started to assemble the tent which was challenging in the wind considering I was alone, but I was slowly managing. I put the rainfly on and started to secure it when another strong gust bent the Dragonfly longer ridge line to the ground. I realized that it has broke one of the tent pole segments when trying to unbend it.

Will leave the details about my emotions at that moment to a post about that particular trip, but I wasn’t pleased, to say the least. Furthermore, I didn’t have any duct tape with me, as some was wrapped around my hiking pole that has broke recently and I obviously have left it at home. Well…

Lesson number one - opt for a sheltered spot rather than a spot with a view in case of strong winds. Ultralight equipment often comes with some compromise on durability. You can probably break these poles with your hands. It’s the trade off of weight and how much material there is to withstand the different forces. I was disappointed, but it is the way it is. Maybe there are more durable ultralight tents? Let me know ��

Lesson number two - don’t forget your repair kit and don’t assume it won’t happen to you. From then on I started carrying a few plastic ties and a mini roll of duct tape in my emergency kit.

I figured I’ll try to fix the tent with a tent peg I accidentally found in the bushes. I believe I could use an original peg as well. Lacking the duct tape I had to use the guy lines that came with the tent. The fix worked, the tent stood the night, I slept like crap, but was proud of myself for not panicking too much and not giving up.

When I got home after that trip, as it was in the middle of the season and I didn’t want to send my tent to Nemo just yet, I tried to fix the pole by attaching a bunch of hex keys (that come with every damn piece of furniture you buy for some reason) to the pole using plastic ties. I used I think like 10 hex keys and you can imagine how much weight it added to the ultralight tent. I can’t find any pics of this fix as I was probably too embarrassed to take photos of it even.

The second breakage

The second time my tent broke - in another spot - was during my Wedgemount lake trip . What happened was - I was pitching my tent and figured I’ll peg out the tent first, and then will attach the poles, as opposed to the assembly instructions that told to peg out after attaching the poles. I thought this way the tent will be pulled out properly and won’t move with every bit of wind. Mistake ��

The big pole went ok, but while I was attaching the top ridge pole, the tent fabric was already too tense and a middle pole segment broke while me trying to attach its second side to the tent.

Lesson number three - do as written in the assembly instructions.

Also, lesson number four - in general, again, because these ultralight tents can be more gentle, it’s important to make sure the tension is even across the rainfly once the tent is set, to avoid too much force concentrating in one place.

This time I wasn’t panicking, just disappointed. But the fix was easy. There was this weird tube that came on the top ridge, which I wasn’t sure what it was for, wasn’t mentioned in the assembly instructions or anywhere else. But it was the right size to be pulled on the breakage spot and held the overall pole shape really well.

As I discovered later, while searching for videos on how to repair a tent pole, it is a pole repair sleeve and it is meant for these situations exactly - to put on a breakage point. I could use it when my pole broke the first time, if I was aware of its purpose and knew how to disassemble the pole segments. ��‍♀️

The second breakage of the first spot

The fix of the main ridge - the spot where my tent broke first - with the hex keys has worked semi-well, the shape wasn’t ideal, but it held for a few other trips, until it came apart during my trip to Saint Marks .

I fixed it with some more plastic ties, I now carried with me, in the field, and then tried to fix it by putting a narrow PVC pipe on the pole - later at home. The pipe broke right when I test-pitched my poor Dragonfly at home after the fix.

Lesson number five - test your fix at home, haha.

The trip to Saint Marks was the last bit both for me and the Dragonfly. I said screw it and wrote to Nemo. At this point I gave up on the idea it will be somehow covered by the warranty and just requested replacement parts. I also asked if I could purchase a spare repair sleeve, so I can put it on the main pole just in case.

For about $25 including shipping I got the 2 replacement parts and an extra repair sleeve. For me it was an amazing deal as I realized I don’t need to actually send them my tent and deal with shipping from Canada to US and back. Still need to actually do the replacement though, and looking forward to have a like-new tent for the next season.

Overall, I was, of course, disappointed to see my $500 tent breaking on the fourth use and it makes me wonder about the quality of the materials. But on the other hand, I don’t know how other similar tents would behave in such conditions. I have learned my lessons and hopefully this won’t happen again. We’ll see.

In conclusion, I do recommend this tent as I saw no evidence that pole breakages are a common problem in this model, and besides that, it’s incredibly lightweight and a pretty solid piece of gear.

Also hoping my experience will give you some ideas on how to avoid unpleasant situations in the field and better care for your own tent.

Update: Sept 1, 2021

So I thought I'll follow up after I fix the tent and test it this season. I have replaced the 2 broken pole segments - took a good 40 mins I think as disassembling the poles is a bit cumbersome. Nothing dramatic, but I wouldn't attempt it in the field - it's time consuming and can lose some small parts.

While fixing it I put one of the now 2 repair sleeves on the center pole - you can't do it unless you disassemble the poles, so I figured as if it happens again I don't want to spend an hour dealing with removing the pole string and detaching the center pole etc, so I'll come prepared with the repair sleeve already on ��

9 nights in the tent so far this season - held up like a champ! No issues so far.

Except that I lost my second repair sleeve near Berg lake in a very stupid way �� It was on my ridge pole, and while attaching the ridge pole to the tent it kinda sprang out of my hand and the sleeve flew away. I spent like an hour searching for it, no success �� So if you find it on the Berg lake campground north-east of the creek near the trail, consider yourself blessed. When the trail reopens again ��

Anyway, I decided to get another one from MEC - MSR Tent Pole Repair Splint 13mm . I knew it won't fit as well as the native Nemo one and it's indeed a bit too wide, but in the occasion of pole breakage it will do better than any field fix, for sure. Oh, I feel so dumb I didn't know about these sleeves before ��‍♀️

While we're at it... The condensation issue still persists from time to time. This summer I've spent the majority of the nights in the tent with my partner - so 2 breathing inside = more condensation. Bummer, though still not a huge deal.

Speaking of actually using it for 2 ppl - I've upgraded my sleeping pad to king size �� - Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Xtherm Max WV Sleeping Pad - so my sleeping system doesn't suck anymore (I took the size large, guys)! And if you were wondering - no, 2 pads of 2m x 60cm do not fit side by side in this tent, in the leg area. So they end up kinda overlapped which is not super convenient , but I still sleep better on this one.

Another update is regarding the waterproofness that I was swearing by - I got a weird leak in the tent floor while camping at Joffre lakes - read more in the blog post . Since I have spent quite a few rainy nights in this tent and it's the first time this is happening, I'm not sure we can drive conclusions here... Maybe there's a tiny hole in the bottom. My main conclusion is - nothing is 100% waterproof. Especially when you need to get inside the tent wearing the wet rain jacket ��‍♀️

So these are updates for 2021 so far. Love this tent. Cozy AF ��

Share your gear breakages stories in the comments below. Hopefully I’m not the only one ��

Cheers guys,

Oless

Saint Marks Summit - solo backpacking trip. Best view, worst camping spot.

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 23:56:46 GMT

It was my last backpacking trip of 2020 before I gave up DIY-fixing my tent and basically felt I had enough of backpacking this season.

TL;DR

Location : Saint Marks Summit, Cypress Provincial park, BC, Canada
Elevation : 1350m
Why I wanted to go there : Saint Marks Summit offers amazing views of the ocean and the islands and I was hoping to have a campsite with a view and take photos of the sunset.
Was it my first time on the trail : yes, been to Bowen lookout before, but not to Saint Marks.
Would I recommend this trail: not for backpacking, if you want a view from your tent; there’s really little space for camping with a view and no privacy since the spots are insanely popular.
When I went: Sep 29-30, 2020, solo.
Trail length (roundtrip): 10.5 km ( AllTrails )
Trail elevation gain: 587m ( AllTrails )
Trail quality : the first half is pretty well maintained. The second is quite annoying - roots & rocks & mud. The trail is in the woods all the time.
My ascent time (with overnight backpack): ~2.5 hours
My descent time: ~1.5 hours
Water sources: some minor streams about half-way through the trail; a big puddle of yellow water near the top ��

The trail

I didn’t feel well that day and was tired physically and emotionally, for some reason. So I remember this trail being very long and annoying to me, especially the last ascent where I suddenly felt really low energy.

But if thinking subjectively, it’s not that bad of a trail. Certainly no worse than Wedgemount lake trail that is almost the same length but twice as much in elevation.

The trail to Saint Marks is a part of the Howe Sound Crest trail, and it splits right from the start, to unite somewhere after Bowen lookout. I haven’t been to the east side of this loop, but according to some folks I met hiking from there, it’s more rocky than the west side.

I chose the west side because I’ve been to Bowen lookout before and knew that at least this part is really well maintained, broad and even. I made a quick detour to eat lunch at the Bowen lookout (why not - lunch with a view) and continued on the trail.

The trail after Bowen lookout is also ok, pretty even, though not that broad. Until you hit the sign “Trail in poor condition. Improved trail ends” and a muddy puddle right next to it �� From that point the trail is pretty nasty - lots of roots, rocks and mud. But I would say it’s only about 1/3 of the trail.

There were a couple of small streams along the way, but I wouldn’t count on them for sure.

The camp and the struggle

There is no official camp on Saint Marks (though camping is permitted in this area) - I was aware of it. Also, btw, you don’t have to pay for camping in Cypress Provincial park. What I didn’t know is how Saint Marks summit looks in real life.

I have imagined something like Seymour peaks - with a lot of open space. But it turned out that the summit is covered with woods and there are just a couple bluffs with views and each of them can accommodate exactly one tent. This is to my knowledge, and to be honest, I was too tired to explore further around. Maybe there are more bluffs, I don’t know.

I went on a weekday and saw just one backpacker that said he’s continuing to the mount Unnecessary (love this name haha and really want to visit it one day). I decided to stay on Saint Marks. After scouting the near surroundings I have settled on the second bluff, the lower one. To get to it, from the first bluff, which you will see upon reaching the summit area, keep taking the trail that is closer to the edge each time. There’s a net of small trails.

Anyway, I took my backpack to the second bluff, boiled some water and cooked couscous and had a pretty nice time with a view and different people asking me if I’m going to stay here for the night. The spot Is very popular and was crowded with hikers even on a weekday, but I was hoping that by the sunset I’ll have the place to myself. And then 2 guys arrived and announced that they were to stay there to see the sunset.

My plan was to take a bunch of photos of myself with my tent and other gear and this didn’t involve people sitting in the middle of the frame. Now, I totally acknowledge the fact it’s a public place and everyone can sit wherever they want and enjoy the view. And at that point I realized staying there was a mistake. So I packed my things and took the trail to mt. Unnecessary. Then I thought that at my slow pace it would take me an hour to get there, but it was already past 5pm, while the sunset was at 7pm, So I would be really rushing to find a place to camp and set up camp and also take pics before it’s dark. So I turned back to the bluff.

The guys were still there. Few other people joined for the sunset and I couldn’t even pitch my tent without interfering with people walking around - so small this place is. Finally I decided to do it and realized one of my tent poles is broken. That’s a separate story , but in short - I got it broken from the wind on another trip, fixed it with attaching some hex keys around, which held up another couple of trips, and now this fix came apart.

I knew I can fix it, but the sun was starting to set and I also wanted to take some photos with a tripod. To tell the least - I wasn’t enjoying the experience. My tent wasn’t even close to ready and the sun was already setting. There was kind of a line up to take pictures with sunset backdrop - there were another 6 people on the bluff and little photo-worthy spots. I managed to take some photos (not bad photos actually), but wasn’t really enjoying myself.

The sun has set and I was finally left alone on the bluff. I fixed the tent with some plastic ties and it was fine for that night (although came apart later at home, but now I got some replacement parts so going to fix it for real before next season). I prepared my bed, brushed my teeth, hung my bear bag on some branch a bit away from the camp and watched the sky getting darker and lights starting to lit up on the surrounding islands. It is an amazing place, BC.

This night was my worst night in the backcountry. I was frightened by the thought that I’m actually here alone. Until now I only went camping in popular places and there always were more tents around me. This time it was me and this guy on the Unnecessary mountain. I doubt there were more people in the area, since I would probably see them watching the sunset. I tossed and turned and it took me a few hours to fall asleep. BTW, if you want to know more about my sleep issues in the field and how I deal with them, head to My backpacking sleeping system (sucks) post .

I woke up before the sunset to realize the sun is rising behind the mountain and since I’m not on the actual top of that mountain, there won’t be an epic sunrise. Which was fine with me.

My bear bag was untouched and no animals came visit me during the night. I changed to my hiking clothes and began my day. Which mainly consisted of preparing the breakfast and take enormous amounts of pictures of the process. To my delight, the first people I saw arriving to the high bluff were there at about 10:30am, and the first visitors to my lower bluff camp were around 11am. So I had plenty of time to take many many pics ��

No more special adventures were on this trip. Only that I was exhausted and the way back felt like forever despite lasting only 1.5 hours.

The water

As I mentioned in the TL;DR section, the only water source near the summit is a big yellow puddle. I was really nervous to drink this water that remained a bit yellowish even after filtering with my Sawyer squeeze (and yes, I filter even water that looks clean ��). So I decided to drink half a small cup first and see how I feel ��. I was fine and after half an hour I drank more. And I still was fine. I guess this filter actually works!

In conclusion

If you want to camp in the woods near the summit, I would say go for it. But if you’re looking for a spot with a view to camp on - I wouldn’t recommend Saint Marks. I’m keen to try and see what’s the scenery like on the Unnecessary mountain, hopefully it’s more similar to Seymour. But on Saint Marks it’s too little space and too little privacy.

That’s it for today. It’s nice to recall of this summer’s adventures… Even if they don’t always go as planned.

If you’re thinking about starting backpacking and not sure how - check out this post with tips how to do exactly that and slowly build your confidence.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions! I really want to make this blog a place for folks to get knowledge and inspiration and would love to know what you think.

Remember to leave no trace (imagine every visitor of Saint Marks leaving behind just one banana peel ��)

Cheers,

Oless

Wedgemount lake - solo backpacking trip

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:36:18 GMT

My trail experience, camp info and best photo spots - read below.

That’s the hardest trail I went on backpacking in 2020. I was somewhat hesitant of doing it with my level of fitness, but turned out I was just fine. Determination and lots of food is the key ��

TL;DR

Location: Wedgemount lake, Garibaldi Provincial park, BC, Canada. About 2.5 hour drive from Vancouver.
Elevation: 1900m
Why I wanted to go there: I’m a big fan of glacial lakes and Wedgemount lake has an amazing pale teal color; Wedgemount glacier is spectacular, and so are the surroundings - rugged mountains with almost no greenery.
Would I recommend this trail: hell, yeah. Can’t beat the view from the tent.
When I went: Aug 22-23, 2020, solo.
Trail length (roundtrip): 12.6 km ( AllTrails ) or ~16 km (my recording in Strava) ��‍♀️
Trail elevation gain: 1362 m ( AllTrails ) which is kinda similar to my recording in Strava - 1174m on the way up + 164m on the way back
Trail quality: rocks & roots & dirt, not pleasant but bearable most of time, I’ve seen worse. In the woods 99% of the time.
My ascent time (with overnight backpack ): ~4 hours
My descent time: ~3 hours
For reference - my fitness level at the time of trip: probably at peak hiking fitness of 2020 comparing to myself. But I’m pretty slow. Not a trail runner by any means.
Water sources: a stream half-way through the trail, lake and streams at the top.

The trail

As I said, I was really afraid of this trip. The reviews were talking about a hard steep trail, and I was recalling the Evans peak trail I went on to train hiking with my overnight backpack for the first time and haven’t finished it cause it was so hard for me to balance. I was expecting Wedgemount lake ascent would take me about 5 hours and was mentally ready for an infinite climb.

This is the worst - when you’re starting the ascent and all kinds of scary thoughts are running through your mind - what if I can’t finish it? What if my muscles will be too tired? What if it’s too steep? But as I started the ascent, I was thinking to myself: well, Evans peak was worse… I was expecting the trail to become worse, but it didn’t, until the last maybe 200m of elevation, where it gets really steep. But at this point I felt like a bulldozer - I just kept slowly moving forward no matter the terrain.

So overall the trip up was much better than I expected, but once I got to the camping spot I felt exhausted. I think I was so determined and ready for the long climb that I didn’t pay much attention to how hard it was. And once it was over, all the tiredness fell on me at once.

Also, I might needed to eat more during the acsent. I ate an egg sandwich about 15 min into the trail, and then about 2 hours in, a bit before the boulder field. And these were the only 2 stops I made on the way. Probably should have eaten before the final scramble as well to avoid the mood dip.

Interesting fact I have noticed about myself - when I start being moody and anxious during a hike - that means it’s time for a meal �� this comes along with my energy starting to get a bit lower as well. It’s sometimes hard to get myself to stop and eat, but with time I learned how important it is. No need to suffer on a hike ��

It took me about 4 hours to get to the lake. Then I got a bit confused with the camping spots - it wasn’t clear to me whether all the campground is located near the hut. So - no. There are a few camping spots on the hill near the hut, but if you continue following the path towards the glacier for about 600m, you’ll find many more campsites, most of them directly on the lake. And I must tell ya - that’s absolutely epic.

The camp amenities

The amenities near the farther camp (you don’t need to hike the 600m back to the hut) include bear cache where you can hang you food bag and a pit toilet. The toilet is a bit weird though - instead of wooden walls it has fabric, the door is also a fabric curtain with zippers, and one of the zippers wasn’t working ��‍♀️ so you basically have a 15cm gap between the door and the wall unless you hold the door closed. Also note that there’s no bushes at all in the farther camp area, so no other private nooks to go - and even if there were, probably burying the waste would be problematic in the rocky ground.

Anyway, another thing that was really annoying is that to get to the bear cache and the toilet you need to cross a stream which is about 3 meters wide and pretty deep, so most of the big rocks that were there to provide some crossing were under water. So water kept getting into my shoes every time I had to crossed it. There are 2 crossings of this stream and it happened on both.

Other than that, the campsites have spectacular views of the lake and the glacier and are covered with small rocks, which made staking the tent pretty easy. I was afraid of strong winds, so I enforced the stakes with rocks and guy lines, anyway.

Couple words about the cellular reception - it disappeared shortly after I started the ascent to the lake and I think there were some rare spots I had it like on the sunset hill - which I write about below.

Surroundings and photo spots

After setting my tent and eating dinner I went on a stroll back to the hut. By the way, it was my first time trying to hike with the MEC travel light daypack 16 (which is one of my favorite pieces of gear 2020 ) instead of leaving all the essential stuff in the tent or taking the huge overnight pack with me. I really loved it! I could take some more warm clothes, water and a few more essentials with me on this short trip, which came in really handy cause I ended up wandering for more than an hour.

There is an even higher hill to the right of the hut, if you are standing on the trail facing the hut and the lake, which was looking interesting to me in terms of a view from it. And then I saw a few people going that way, so I followed them �� Turned out there is a trail up that hill. And there I saw and photographed one of the most epic sunsets in my life!

Finally, the weather was right and I got to witness a sunset in the mountains - that’s the main reason I wanted to start backpacking in the first place. The folks I followed went to the west side of the hill, but I went more south and discovered there is an absolutely stunning view of the west end of the lake in the rays of the setting sun. And the sunset was visible from there, as well. Highly recommended.

The following morning I got up before the sunrise which also was beautiful, but shortly after the sun showed up, a big cloud covered the east side and the light wasn’t that spectacular. Still got some beautiful shots. Also went up the hill again to have croissants with epic view ��

When I got back from my sunset mission at about 9am, to my surprise, I saw very few tents left and people packing their stuff already. I ate my (2nd) breakfast, and headed to the glacier.

On my way I saw another hill with people on top taking pictures, which probably also has pretty amazing view of the lake. It will be on your right-hand side when heading to the glacier. But I was too tired to go up, so just keep following the (sometimes unclear) trail towards the glacier. I think it took me about 25 minutes to get to the glacier from the campsite.

The glacier itself is huge and impressive, though I’m more passionate about glacial lakes haha. There is at least one ice cave you can crawl into and I saw a few people taking pictures in. So I also went inside and saw the cave actually continues upwards and has a big hole in the “roof”. I snapped a few pics of the ice and went outside. Then I heard a noise and saw a small rock falling exactly where I was standing just a minute ago. Folks - be careful! .

Afterwards I went back to my campsite and began packing. I had a weird feeling this morning that I want to go home. I was probably nervous about the long unpleasant way back to the parking lot. I don’t know. It’s weird how anxiety suddenly appears.

Anyway, the way back felt much longer than the way up. Also was pretty hard on my knees. And the first part of the scrambling was much more annoying on the way down, as well. Other than that, nothing special was about the way down. Took me about 3 hours.

By the way, the drive from the highway to the trailhead and back - wasn’t pleasant in my small car - very uneven, dirt and holes. Doable, though.

In conclusion, highly recommend to go there for a backpacking trip or a day hike, though idk how people survive both the up and the down in one day �� But the place is incredible. The hike is very challenging and the trail is worse than average.

“Short blog post this time” - I thought to myself before writing this ��

Let me know in the comments if there are any details you’re interested in and I forgot to mention.

If you're looking to start backpacking - this blog post is a great starting point!

Happy hikes and remember to leave no trace!

Cheers, Oless

5 items that made a difference to my outdoor experience

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 02:47:48 GMT

I love most of my outdoor gear (you can tell ��) but there are a few items that made an even bigger difference to my outdoor experience!

Hey guys!

In today’s post I’d like to share with you 5 of these items I feel really worth having.

1. The Therm-A-Rest Z Seat

Last winter I went hiking with a friend, and when we finally reached the view, we couldn’t sit there for too long, as it was pretty cold to sit on snow �� We thought how cool it can be to have something like a picnic blanket, but just a single seat.

Then while searching for some kind of seat, I came across this little thing - and eventually bought it. It is literally such a butt saver!!!

First of all, since it is a piece of foam, it provides insulation between your body and the ground, so you’re not cold. This is useful while enjoying the view on the day hikes, but oh-sooo-useful when you backpack! Staying nice and warm while cooking the food and eating can really improve the experience!

Secondly, this foam protects you from the not-so-even surface you’re sitting in. So no more sharp stones distracting you from relaxing! I also use it in my tent when preparing the sleep system and arranging things - kneeling on Z-Seat is much more pleasant than on the tent floor that is so thin that you can feel every little stick underneath it.

And this thing packs super small and weights next to nothing, really, so you can take it anywhere without sacrificing on being lightweight.

2. Watkins Great Outdoors Mosquito Repellent Lotion

Once the temperature rises above like 15 degrees Celsius, the bugs are out. And there are so many of them on the trails!

I was previously using some other bug spray that didn’t help at all and kinda lost hope. I found this Watkins lotion on MEC’s website and it had reviews saying that it’s the only thing that helps.

And I can tell you - it does work! I would come back home from a backpacking trip with just 2-3 mosquito bites - which is amazing, since mosquitos would accompany me the whole trip ��

And as I was hiking alone, I knew that it’s not because they have found another more tastier victim near me, but because this lotion actually does repel them!

There is a caveat though - you need to put this lotion similarly to sunscreen - every spot you missed would be prone to bites. So it’s a bit annoying to apply, but once you do, it works really well. I also put just a bit on my leggings (rub it in my palms and than briefly rub the leggings), and on my hair. Sounds a bit gross haha, but I prefer to stink of bug lotion rather than be itchy because of dozens of bug bites!

3. MEC Travel Light Daypack 16

My first solo backpacking trip was to Heather trail in Manning park. The destination I wanted to visit was the First Brother Mountain, and the camp was about half way to the destination.

So I arrived at a camp, pitched my tent, unloaded all the stuff I wouldn’t need for the hike to First Brother and proceeded with my half-empty backpacking pack on my back.

It was kinda ok, but I kept thinking that there should be better solution for day hikes on a backpacking trip. My Osprey Aura 65 backpacking pack weights about 2kg and is quite bulky. I couldn’t obviously take my real day pack since it would take a lot of space and is a bit heavy as well. So I recalled I saw different types of packable backpacks in stores.

I was hesitant to buy on of these, to be honest, as I thought they won’t be comfortable because lack of padding - what made them very packable and light. I ended up buying the MEC one because it was on a good sale at the time, so I figured I can try it - and also MEC has the rock-solid guarantee that allows you to return even an item you used couple times. It was a bit heavier than the more expensive alternatives, but also had some minimal padding.

And I was surprised how convenient that thing is!!

I took it with me for the first time to Wedgemount lake trip , and even though I haven’t planned any day hikes there, I found it so handy to take my water, gloves and few other essentials while strolling around and exploring the area around the lake. I was even happier when I discovered there’s a hill I could climb to watch the sunset, and I had all the essential stuff including flashlight already with me.

The next adventure I took my Travel Light Daypack on was to Garibaldi lake. There we went on an actual serious (for me it’s serious, guys ��) day hike - Black Tusk. It took us, I believe, a 5 hours round trip, and I carried the MEC light pack all that time. Surprisingly, it was really convenient! The minimalistic padding was sufficient, and the size was exactly what I needed to take water, snacks, warm clothes and some more small items with me.

4. Sea to Summit eVent Compression Dry Sack

While researching stuff about backpacking, not once that I heard through hikers recommend lining the backpacking backpack with a trash compactor bag to keep everything dry. Also I knew that since I had a down sleeping bag, it’s really crucial for it to stay dry at all times.

I had just regular trash bags, so I used one of them on my first backpacking trip. But as I quickly figured out - it wasn’t durable enough and started having holes after one use.

Though it could still provide some water protection, I didn’t want to use a new garbage bag every time, as I try to be environmentally conscious. I googled these compactor bags, but wasn’t sure that it was it, and also they were pretty pricey.

At the same time I have noticed that my sleeping bag stuff sack doesn’t really compress my sleeping bag well enough, and I could save some space if I had a compression sack that fits it.

So after some googling again I came across these eVent Compression Dry Sacks. I was hesitant since the size medium costs about $50. But since it had both features I was looking for - compressing and waterproof, I decided to give it a go. And I’m so happy I did.

Its main difference from other compression sacks is that it has the special eVent fabric on the other side of the sack. It lets the air out, but not into the sack. This way, while compressing stuff in it, you don’t need to worry about leaving a small hole for the air to escape. I wasn’t too impressed with this feature while shopping for the compression sacks, but decided to buy it anyway.

But when I started backpacking, I realized how amazing this capability is. As a comparison, I have my food bag, which is also air tight, but doesn’t have this feature, and no matter how hard I try to squeeze all the air out before closing the seal, I still end up with an air bubble every time. But with eVent I don’t need to worry about air at all.

Also, I realized that in addition to my sleeping bag I can fit into this dry sack my pillow, sleeping clothes and clean hiking clothes. It will probably able to contain more stuff, but then it won’t fit my backpack sleeping bag compartment ��

So - ✅ environment friendly, ✅ waterproof, ✅ compressing, ✅ very durable - I’m really happy I put my hands of this one!

5. Zoleo Satellite Communicator

I would say it’s the thing that made my solo adventures even possible. I have a partner who loves me and cares for me and is not excited about me roaming alone in the wilderness ��

What’s worse - there’s no cellular service on almost every trail I wanted to go, so I couldn’t even let him know I’m fine.

I researched satellite communicators and it turned out that the best rated option out there is also the cheapest among others - about $270 CAD. Which is not cheap anyway.

But when I got an amazon gift card from my previous job (thanks Duda ��♥️), I knew what I’m going to use it for.

I got the Zoleo communicator and so glad I did. It kind of lifted weight off of my shoulders. Now I know I can stay connected with my partner while in the backcountry and keep him from worrying about me. Also I will be able to call for help if something bad happens - using the SOS feature - so I feel really self sufficient in my trips now.

While certainly not the cheapest addition to your gear, I would say, if you travel a lot, this one would be a wise investment.

So here are my 5 gear items that have really made a difference for me.

In case you're curious about my other gear - make sure to check the What's in my backpack post

Let me know what you think in the comments and be sure to share your gems!

Cheers,

Oless

How to research gear

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 00:30:02 GMT

Hey guys!

Being the productivity nerd I am, in this blog post I’ll be sharing my tips about how to make the research of backpacking gear as simple and efficient as possible and help you to save time and money.

These tips can be applicable to researching anything - I use the same technique while researching photography gear, for example.

I’m a solo backpacker, and it means I can only rely on myself and my own gear in my trips. It took me quite some time to get proper gear - and I’ll be sharing my process with you.

To start off:

1. Get a gear list

First things first - you need a list of all the gear necessary for backpacking.

You’re most welcome to use my packing checklist as a base - it has absolutely all the items I take with me while backpacking.

Make a list of items you need to buy - that’s what you want to research.

2. Sort the list by priority - what you want to research first

As I said in my previous blog post, 7 Tips How To Start Backpacking , you might want to start with items that tend to cost more - these would be a tent, a backpack, sleeping bag and sleeping pad.

Now, for each item from the gear list, here’s how I research:

Step 1 - Find out what the market has to offer

First, to be able to make the best choice, it’s important to understand what are the possible features and drawbacks that a particular piece of gear may have.

For this, it’s convenient to use websites that aggregate gear reviews and comparisons. I usually go to outdoorgearlab.com . They have lots of reviews of any possible gear related to outdoors, and they also compile lists of best gear in every category, like Best Tents of 2020.

Yes, usually the gear they review is the highest end and most expensive pieces, but we’re here just to find out what are the important features this gear may have, so we can later decide what are the features that are important for us.

Also, OutdoorGearLab reviews will point out some common trade-offs of a gear piece. For example, it made me discover that usually the more breathable the rain jacket is, the less waterproof it is. And that the really lightweight tents might be non-freestanding, something for me to pay attention to.

And in addition to that, you can easily get a feeling what is the price range of high end products is, and also what is their weight range.

Step 2 - Create a table for each gear category

Create a google doc or similar. The columns would be name, price, weight, notes, link to product page and other various features of an item, and the rows - items to compare.

You can skip the features you don’t care about. For example, at some point I understood that a pillow pocket for a sleeping bag is not something I really care about, so I stopped checking for it in every sleeping bag I research.

Step 3 - add a couple high end products to your table

I usually add a couple of products from the “best gear blah blah” list, and I do this even when I know they are beyond my budget. The reason is that I want to have some kind of reference point of what performance should I get for that high price.

And if I come across a product that is priced just 30% less, but its performance seems to be about 50% lower, then I’ll know it’s probably not the best value for my money.

In general, I really recommend to save even the products that drew your attention, but you know you don’t want to buy. You can mark them as “rejected” if you want. Why? Because at some point you might come across this product again on some website, and chances are you won’t remember why you decided that it’s a sure no-go. So having this product already in your table will save you the time of processing it again.

Step 4 - Understand what features are the most important to you

As you will probably notice, the most high end products that have great performance and many bells and whistles, tend to be pretty expensive. So to save some money, we would want to make an educated decision - what features we absolutely need and which ones are nice to have.

For example, I was looking to replace my trekking poles since one of them broke. After researching the market, I realized that I can give up on the models that are folded into a z-shape - the folded length wasn’t a big deal for me as I would carry them strapped to the outside of my backpack, anyway. Telescopic poles are generally cheaper than the z-shape, so I could save some money on an unneeded feature.

Step 5 - Start shopping for options

Now you can start browsing online for the actual products. It can be outdoor gear stores websites, different brands’ websites, amazon, or whenever you can find such gear.

Each time you come across a product that you might consider as an option, follow these steps:

Step 1 - fill the item specs in your table

As I said before, I would strongly recommend that even if you quickly realize that you’re not going to buy this item, you still do fill it in the table

Step 2 - read reviews on this item

This one is very important. Pay special attention to the negative reviews - what problems does this product tend to have? Does it happen to many people?

Step 3 - write down the reviews summary in your table

So that you remember what people are saying about this product.

Step 6 - Choose the best options

Now that you have a table full of various options, choose one or a few that you think will fit you best and will be the best value for your buck. Mark them, and if you have time to spare - wait for these items to go on sale!

Hopefully this process will help you to have all the information in one place and you will be able to make the most educated decision and buy the gear that will highly improve your backcountry experience.

In case you're curious what gear I personally use, I have listed all of it with pictures, models and links in this blog post !

As always, you’re welcome to let me know what you think and ask any questions in the comment section below!

Cheers,

Oless

7 tips to start backpacking

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:00:02 GMT

Are you dreaming of waking up in your tent to an amazing sunrise in the mountains?

Ever wanted to go on a backpacking trip but have no idea where to even start?

Y'all!

In this post I will be sharing my 7 tips on how to start backpacking if you have never done it before!

In summer 2019, I have noticed that day hikes don’t give me enough time to enjoy the amazing scenery of the places I have visited. I was fairly jealous of backpackers I saw trekking up a mountain to see the sunset, every time I was on my way down to the parking lot.

Then I decided that I’m going to do backpacking, too. It took me a good few months to get prepared, and in summer of 2020 I made my dream come true and went on a total 7 short backpacking trips that year, 4 of them solo.

I want to share with you some things that I did implement while preparing and think that they have contributed a lot to my success. Let’s go!

1. Do day hikes

The more - the better!

You probably already hiking (and if not - it’s time!), but now it becomes even more important. You are going to carry a much heavier backpack than the one you’re used to, so obviously the more fit you are, the less you’re going to suffer during the hike, and the more enjoyable your trip is going to be.

If you’re fit, good for you! If you’re not, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you cannot do it! Just so you know - I have always hated running and any sort of cardio. When I first started hiking with my friends here in Vancouver, I was always stuck behind the group. And even now, when I’m a bit more in shape, I’m really slow.

But you don’t need to be super fast, just patient. So don’t worry, if I can do it, you can do it! And the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

2. Take time to research the gear

Don’t just go to a store and buy the first thing you see. I made this mistake so many times before when buying hiking gear, then wondered why my trekking poles break and my rain jacket is actually not waterproof at all! And my backpack is the wrong size… �� So that’s how I learned I need to research prior to buying anything.

You are going to rely on this gear in the backcountry, where the conditions can be harsh - to keep you warm, dry and safe. You need to ensure every piece of gear you buy is both high quality AND suits your unique needs, so I really encourage you to take a serious approach and do your research.

I share my way going about researching (any kind of) gear in my How to research gear blog post - check it out for some tips on how to make research less overwhelming!

Now, what gear do you actually need in the backcountry? You’re welcome to check out my Backpacking packing list blog post where I’m sharing my own packing list, with all the smallest details, in a copy-friendly format. This is THE list I rely on while packing and you can use it as a some sort of base for your own packing list.

Now, be patient. It took me about 7 months to get all the gear in place. It takes time, but when you have the best gear, it makes your backcountry experience much more enjoyable.

Now, research can be overwhelming. There are many items that you will need to buy, and so many options out there to choose from. If you want some advice on how to make gear research more organized and simple, I’m planning on writing a whole blog post on this topic - so stay tuned!

If you’re curious about what gear I use - check out the What's in my backpack blog post with pictures and models of everything inside my backpack!

3. Start with the most expensive gear

Research the most expensive gear first. These probably would be a tent, a sleeping bag, sleeping pad and a backpack.

It can sound like a natural thing to do anyway, but there is also a reason I specifically think it’s better done that way: the earlier you start researching a certain gear category, the earlier you figure out what exactly you want to buy - the more time you’ll have for this item to go on sale. And the higher the chance it actually goes on sale before the season starts.

3.5. Go for ultralight gear if…

If you’re a photographer or videographer and you want to carry your heavy gear to the mountain with you - this means that you’re already starting with a heavy pack, even before adding the actual camping gear.

Or if you are a female… and you are planning to go on solo trips.

Then you’re the one to carry all of your gear, and it can get very heavy.

In my case, I am a solo female photographer, so I need to carry a camera, lenses, a tripod, the whole tent and kitchen and all the rest, by myself. Last time I checked, my backpack’s weight was at 15kg, and it could be even more if I weren’t opting for light gear from the start. So see if weight is an important factor to you.

Ultralight items tend to be more expensive, so in case weight is an issue, but your budget is tight, what I recommend to do is - start researching the most heavy and the most expensive categories first - tent, backpack, sleeping bag, sleeping pad. Then, once you choose a few candidates in each category, you can try and see which combination of them gives you the lightest weight for the best price. And this way, if you research ahead, you have a chance to save money without sacrificing too much on the weight.

4. Hunt for sales

Ok, you already got this ��

Start early on, well before the season, so that you have plenty of time to research and wait for the item of your choice to go on sale.

I got almost all of my major equipment on sale. I started preparing for backpacking in the late fall, bought my sleeping bag and sleeping pad during the Black Friday sales and had plenty of time to wait for other stuff to go on sale before the summer.

5 - Do car camping

I really recommend that you do car camping before going on an actual backcountry trip.

Once you finally got all of your gear, big and small, it’s time to test it! But backcountry is not the place you want to test your gear for the first time… The last thing you want is to hike ten kilometers and then discover that a critical piece of your gear doesn’t work.

It goes without saying that you need to check your gear when you buy it, assemble the tent at home, test your water bladder for leakages etc. But testing at home alone won’t give you the feeling of how the gear performs in real conditions. Does the tent stand the rain? Is the sleeping bag warm enough?

Being next to your car gives you the option to go back home more easily if something goes wrong, while you still are outside, quite close to the real conditions you’re going to use your gear in. Then, when you go on an actual backcountry trip, you’ll be confident your gear is solid.

For me, as a bonus, this was also the first time to camp alone, so it has kinda prepared me for the solo trips I went on later that summer.

By the way, I still have issues sleeping well in the backcountry - check out My sleeping system (sucks) blog post for the problems and solutions I came across.

5.5 - Hike with your full overnight pack

Bonus tip - while you’re car camping, take a hike with your full overnight pack. That’s for the same reason - you better test and adjust your backpack before the actual trip.

Also, the first time hiking with a really heavy backpack can be stressful.

I was like omg I need to carry all of this up a mountain �� But as you hike for a bit, you understand that it is doable, and next time you will feel much less nervous.

For me, I knew I have to do car camping first, because I planned going solo and I knew I could only rely on myself. I also went on a couple of hikes, and I think it has really helped me on my first backpacking trip because I already was familiar with my gear and I felt like I know what I’m doing.

And still I have managed to break my tent on one of the first trips �� read the Nemo Dragonfly 2P review or How I broke it twice for the full story and how to prevent it.

6 - Don’t start with your most desired trip

Don’t start with the top of your bucket list. I mean, you might! You’ve been waiting for so long to get there! But I would still suggest to start off with something else. Why?

Because, again. First time can be more stressful. It can take more time to set the camp and figure out things, and as a result, you may have less time to stroll around and enjoy the place itself. On your second trip, you’re much more likely to be more relaxed and ready to soak in the atmosphere.

One of the places on top of my list was Garibaldi lake. It was closed most of summer because of covid, so I ended up starting with other trips. But when I finally got there - I was SO relaxed. I already wasn’t concerned about anything - not about the hike, not about night’s sleep, I knew I’ll be ok in 0 degrees at night… So I could really focus on this fantastic experience and have so much fun.

7 - Backpack as much as you can

Last but not least - do it as much as you can!

At first, fitting everything into your backpack will be a struggle. Hiking with a heavy load will be hard. Sleeping in the backcountry will be awkward and scary . Backpacking meals would be gross… But the more you do it, the easier and more fun it becomes!

So start your research, get your gear and get outside!

And remember to leave no trace ��♻️

I hope these tips will get you on track from dreaming to doing and that your backpacking experience will be great from the start.

Read on about my experience backpacking the Wedgemount lake and Saint Marks Summit .

Let me know in the comments below if you have found these tips useful and whether you have any questions!

Cheers,

Oless

What's in my backpack

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 23:01:57 GMT

In case you are curious what is the gear I use for my backcountry overnight trips, here are the contents of my backpacking bag

I thought it could be useful to have all of my gear in one place - with pictures and models of everything. I'm also planning on writing about my experience with different items and will be adding links to review posts on this page!

If you're looking for a backpacking checklist of what to pack in a more copy-friendly format - check out this blog post and feel free to copy and modify it to your needs.

I divided the items to categories, similarly in how they appear in my packing list , so it's easier to navigate.

⛺️ Shelter

Since I've made some updates to my sleeping system in 2021, I'm happy to report it works much better than in 2020! Read My backpacking sleeping system (sucks) blog post to learn about the problems I had last year and the newer My sleeping system doesn't suck anymore - to see how the updates have affected the quality of my sleep in the backcountry.

Also, I have a separate post about my tent and my experience with it - Nemo Dragonfly 2P review or How I broke it twice . As you might see, not everything goes smooth in the backcountry �� but the better you are prepared, the more you will enjoy it regardless!

�� Bags

�� Kitchen

�� Safety

�� Clothing

�� Photography

�� Miscellaneous

�� Personal

I have also decided to include here the items I ha ve replaced and no longer use, so you have some ideas for cheaper/simpler alternatives and what the compromises are.

All of these pics make me wonder how I manage to fit everything into my backpack and carry it anywhere ��

Read about 5 items that made a difference to my outdoor experience to find out which pieces of gear I especially love.

Let me know if you would like to get more info about a particular item!

Cheers,

Oless

Packing List app review

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 23:42:19 GMT

After testing a few packing checklist apps, this one is my absolute favorite and go-to.

Here's a link to Apple app store (not sponsored ��‍♀️): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/packing-list-checklist/id1235121075

(Pls note that Packing List is available only on iOS ��)

If you ever travel, you might want to use a packing checklist to make sure nothing important is left behind.

If you do backpacking, you absolutely should be using a packing checklist (you're welcome to check out mine ). Imagine yourself discovering you forgot a water filter, a few kilometers into the trail...

Anyway, since I'm an organizing geek �� I was looking for something to help me track my packing list long before I started backpacking.

I tried various apps and even Trello Kanban board �� but nothing seemed to be having all the features I need combined with ease of use.

Then I came across this app with a not-so-original name - Packing List, and after testing it for a bit, I fell in love. Okay, it's just a packing checklist, you will say. But I had struggled a lot before finding something that really works for me.

And honestly, now I don't understand why other apps don't work this way. So simple.

So why I loved it so much - let's dive into it.

Just a small disclaimer - some of these features require the premium version, which costs a ridiculous $2.99 USD. I don't exactly remember what features are premium and what not cause I use it over a year, sorry about that.

1 - Limitless lists and the ability to clone them

That allowed me, for example, to create a list that has all possible items for a vacation, and then I could clone it and remove the irrelevant stuff.

2 - Uncheck all items

Makes it so easy to use the list again. I have used my backpacking checklist many times now. No need to uncheck items one by one or create 39847 lists of the same.

3 - Fully customizable categories

Packing List has some predefined categories, like other apps, but somehow I always end up needing my own ��

And here - you can create countless categories, add an emoji for each one, just for fun, and fully customize the items inside each category.

I even have a special category called "last minute" and it contains the items I can't pack until the last minute, like my phone and birth control pills. This way it's easier to see what else is left, as the categories that are fully checked off appear as "all packed". Efficiency!!! ��

4 - can add, remove and edit items

This sounds like an obvious one, but in Packing List, it's really easy to rename, sort, move between categories, add and delete items.

5 - There is a built in to-do list

There is a to-do list attached to every packing checklist, which makes it easy to organize all the trip-related todos in one place. For example, in my backpacking list, I have "to check for bear cache" and "check for water sources" - this makes sure I'm extra prepared.

So this might seem like pretty basic functionality, and it is! But for some reason, many apps I tried lack it, so super happy to have this one to fully rely on to get myself ready for backcountry or a beach vacay trip!

Again, here's a link to Apple app store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/packing-list-checklist/id1235121075

And big kudos to Mariano Rezk that made this amazing little piece of software - support him by going Premium!

(again, not sponsored by anyone)

Cheers,

Oless

My backpacking packing list

abourgart@gmail.com (Olessia Bourgart) — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 22:50:24 GMT

What's worse than forgetting extra socks/prescription pills/ repair kit and discovering it long miles away from home (and from car)?!

Y'all!

If you still don't use a checklist while packing your backpack for an overnight mission - you definitely should start using one!

Below you can find the packing list I have compiled for my backpacking trips and that I rely on not to forget anything while headed to backcountry. It is in a simple text format and is easy to copy from. In case you're interested in models of specific gear I use, check out the What's In My Backpack blog post.

I suggest you don't treat it as an ultimate packing list, as it is very specific to my needs and the trails I usually head to. But I thought it could be useful for others to see an example of a real packing list with a bunch of real small but important items.

Besides that you can copy and modify it for your needs, it can give your brain food for thought and chances are you'll come up with your own small, yet important items you don't want to leave home without.

I exported the list from Packing List - the app I use for packing checklist, hence the format ��

I really love Packing List and use its packing lists for any kind of trips - you can see my review of this awesome little app in this blog post .

So here we go:

To Pack List:

⛺️ Camp

[ ] 1. Tent

[ ] 2. Tent footprint

[ ] 3. Sleeping bag

[ ] 4. Sleeping pad

[ ] 5. Pillow

[ ] 6. Backpack

[ ] 7. Raincover for backpack

[ ] 8. Sleeping bag compression sack

�� Kitchen

[ ] 1. Fuel canister

[ ] 2. Stove

[ ] 3. Pots

[ ] 4. Cup

[ ] 5. Ignitor

[ ] 6. Spork

[ ] 7. Supper

[ ] 8. Lunch

[ ] 9. Breakfast

[ ] 10. Snacks

[ ] 11. Water

[ ] 12. Water treatment tablets

[ ] 13. Biodegradable soap

[ ] 14. Garbage bag

[ ] 15. Tea

[ ] 16. Instant coffee

[ ] 17. Mini dish sponge

[ ] 18. Water filter

[ ] 19. Water filter syringe

[ ] 20. Water pouches

[ ] 21. Empty water bottle

[ ] 22. Food bag

�� Safety

[ ] 1. Bear spray

[ ] 2. First aid kit

[ ] 3. Emergency blanket

[ ] 4. Whistle

[ ] 5. Knife

[ ] 6. Offline maps

[ ] 7. Ductape

[ ] 8. Headlamp

[ ] 9. Batteries for headlamp

[ ] 10. Compass

[ ] 11. Cord for hanging food

[ ] 12. Plastic ties

[ ] 13. Knee stabilisator

�� Clothes

[ ] 1. Panties

[ ] 2. Sport bra

[ ] 3. Hiking socks

[ ] 4. Warm socks for sleep

[ ] 5. Warm top to sleep in

[ ] 6. Warm leggings to sleep

[ ] 7. Tshirt

[ ] 8. Hiking boots

[ ] 9. Fleece

[ ] 10. Rain jacket

[ ] 11. Rain pants

[ ] 12. Balaclava

[ ] 13. Ear warmers

[ ] 14. Cap

[ ] 15. Gaiters

[ ] 16. Gloves

[ ] 17. Swimsuit

�� Photography

[ ] 1. Tripod

[ ] 2. Camera

[ ] 3. Wide lens

[ ] 4. Zoom lens

[ ] 5. Camera pouch + strap

[ ] 6. Tripod for phone

⚒ Misc

[ ] 1. Hiking poles

[ ] 2. Bug spray

[ ] 3. Cash

[ ] 4. Credit card

[ ] 5. Drivers license

[ ] 6. Butt pad

[ ] 7. Water bottle to leave in car

[ ] 8. Camp reservation tag + ziplock bag

[ ] 9. Ultralight day backpack

�� Electronics

[ ] 1. Power bank

[ ] 2. Phone cable

[ ] 3. Sattelite communicator

�� Personal

[ ] 1. Mini towel

[ ] 2. Big towel

[ ] 3. Toothbrush

[ ] 4. Toothpaste

[ ] 5. Alcogel

[ ] 6. Toilet paper

[ ] 7. Trowel

[ ] 8. Sunscreen

[ ] 9. Day face cream

[ ] 10. Night face cream

[ ] 11. Tissue

[ ] 12. Tampons

[ ] 13. Vaseline jelly

⏱ Last minute

[ ] 1. Shoes to change

[ ] 2. Sunglasses

[ ] 3. Phone

[ ] 4. Birth control

[ ] 5. Hair band

To Do List:

⛺️ Check before going

[ ] 1. Read the “know before you go” section of park website

[ ] 2. Download offline google maps

[ ] 3. Download trail map

[ ] 4. Check weather forecast

[ ] 5. Check for water sources

[ ] 6. Check for bear stash on campsites

Obviously, depending on trip and weather, I may leave some stuff behind (and regret it later ��). This list contains EVERYTHING I might ever need while backpacking, so I can decide for each particular item whether to pack it. Then, if I decide I don't need it, I just check it off.

That's it!

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Cheers,

Oless

theolesse

The charming Milos

Getting around the island

Getting there

When to visit

More tips

The Fear of the Bears & Blisters aka solo trip to mount Assiniboine

Here’s the tale about my biggest adventure of the summer 2022, full of anxiety and epic views.

﻿

Trail stats

My hiking stats for individual days:

Planning

The trip - Day 0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Conclusion

Chaotic gear reviews

It’s almost winter and that means - driving conclusions regarding our current gear and planning what improvements we want to make before the next season.

I wanted to publish there reviews for a while, but didn't know how to organize them. So here they just are.

Platypus Big Zip Evo

Stojo collapsible cup

Socks

Mammut hiking boots

Buff visor

Osprey Aura 65

My sleeping system doesn’t suck anymore

Getting a good night’s sleep is an important part of an enjoyable adventure, especially where physical challenges are involved. My sleeping system was a bit off last year, and after testing my upgrades for 10 nights on different trips this season I’m happy to report it’s much better!

My 2021 gear

The major change

Before ��

After ��

More about the pad and things to consider

Conclusions regarding the sleeping bag

The pillow

My sleeping clothes

Warmth wise

Digestion stuff

The fear

A trail from hell and an umbrella - Golden Ears solo overnight trip

So I went to camp on the Golden Ears mountain lately and turns out I wasn’t mentally prepared for what’s going on on this trail. Cloud inversion hunters - read on before you head there!

As per usual - some stats:

Why I did this (to myself ��)

The trail

The camp

Hiking with an umbrella

More lessons learned

A wet overnighter at Joffre lakes

You don’t give up a booking on Joffre lakes because of rain, do you? �� Here’s some info about the campground, more rain-camping insights and a sketchy 2-or-maybe-3-lakes viewpoint hike story.

Trail info

The trail

The campground

The rain

The 2 lakes viewpoint

Berg lake trail - lessons learned

Just came back from the Berg lake trail about a week ago and thought I’ll share my experience, some info that is harder to find about the trail and couple lessons learned along the way.

Trail info

Preparations and the way to the trail

Day 1 on the trail

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

The rain - lessons learned

My backpacking sleeping system (sucks)

What gear I use in my sleep system during my backpacking trips, my (not ideal) experience spending nights in the backcountry and thoughts on how to improve it.

Overview of my backcountry sleep issues - will be expanding on each one a bit later.

Overview of my sleep system

Sleeping bag

Sleeping pad

Pillow

E-Vent compression sack

Base layer top

Base layer bottom

Socks

Temperature

Comfort

Digestion

Fear

In today's post I talk about my experience with Nemo Dragonfly 2P tent , what I like and don’t like about it, how I broke it twice in the backcountry ��‍♀️ and my advice as for how to avoid it.

1. Get a gear list

2. Sort the list by priority - what you want to research first