Trail Ambassador Philip Turner recently created a great video and post about how to layer oneself properly. It is a great post for anyone, as being properly layered is one of the best things you can do for yourself on or off the trail. The video truly is worth watching whether you are an expert or a novice hiker.

Check out the video below and the post HERE. Enjoy!

Prosser was recently emailed about uncertainty in relation to varying opinions on the subject of heavy, water-proof, footwear vs. lighter quick-drying footwear.

Hello Mr. Prosser,

I have no hiking experience, and will appreciate any advice you can give me.

ANSWER:
When I talk or write on this topic of backpacking the single most important items that tends to make you carry more weight is the fears you have and those of your Grandsons. I would say your fears trump your Grandsons since you are sending the email.

All the talk about boots with gortex is to keep you feet “dry”. This is a fallacy since your feet will sweat heavily in a gortex liner that will take a long time to completely dry out. Your socks will get wet from the perspiration. Then add a liner sock to pull the perspiration away from the skin so that your feet do not macerate & then blister. So now you have a heavy boot with two pair of socks then you find out that if the boot actually gets completely wet (Heavy rains, stream crossing) it will take a couple days to dry out in the sun. Additionally note that boots + extra socks are heavy and they restrict your foot placement sufficiently to cause possible problems while almost requiring camp shoes once you get to camp.

Hiking in trail runners in rain you will have wet feet, socks, & shoes in the rain. Now let’s deal with fears about having wet feet.

Maceration is caused by having your feet in water/wet for an extended period of time. Think of when you take a long bath what does your fingers & toes look like. This macerated skin will tend to blister quicker. Trail runners are designed to get moisture away from feet. Thing of a stream crossing knee deep. A boot will pool the water around your feet until you take the boot off. A trail runner will start draining as soon as you are out of the water. Leather boots adsorb the water & take a long time to dry while trail runners will be dry in 60-120 minutes going down the trail at Philmont after the stream crossing.

Now socks: I wear one pair of ankle socks to hike in & take another pair to sleep in. I could change them during the day if not raining to give myself a dry pair to hike in but I rarely find it necessary. If I get to camp & my shoes & socks are wet I loosen the laces of the shoes & just continue around camp or sometimes I’ll take the wet socks off & put my feet in the wet/damp shoes without socks. When I go to bed I put my dry socks on & take my wet socks to bed with me in a pocket or the sleeping bag. The wet/damp shoes & orthotics my tent mate & myself place then toe to heal between ourselves so that our body heat drys them by morning. The socks, orthotics/liners, and trail runners sleeping with us are dry by morning.

Now comes a trick seldom discussed on how to prevent your wet feet from macerating & blistering like crazy. I have learned to use HYDROPEL Oint. http://www.amazon.com/Genesis-C31863-Hydropel-Sports-Ointment/dp/B001FU5CEI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326766995&sr=8-1 I seldom every take full tube but put some in a smaller prescription vial (I’m a pharmacist). Apply to feet when dry, i.e. when get up in AM especially those days when you anticipate a lot of rain or numerous stream crossings. It sort of acts as a water proofing for you feet. Also works with chaffing in the thighs & butt areas which I found out on the Appalachian Trail in George/N. Carolina 90+degree Heat with 90+% humidity. Nothing ever dried there. Yikes.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/reviews/display_reviews.html?forum_thread_id=4587%22%20target=%22_blank

Socks: My favorite socks are Drymax Lite Trail Running socks: http://www.amazon.com/Drymax-Socks-Trail-Running-Black/dp/B003EUCGK0/ref=sr_1_3?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1326767282&sr=1-3

Trail Runner Sizing: Make sure the shoes are at least a full size larger than he would normally get. Prevent toes from banging into ends of shoe on downhills. Also trail runners typically will only last for 300-500 miles before breaking down internally. They look OK from outside but all of a sudden you get pains in knees, hips, ankles. Trash them right then. You want to be comfortable wearing them 14+ hours a day.

Since you live in Carlsbad & the rainy season is just starting have your Grandson go out with the socks & trail runners + rain gear and walk around town for 4 or 5 hours and see what happens to his feet. This allows both of you to get over those fears I talked about while still at home.

Additionally practice hiking on trails with a pack in the trail runners. Get your feet accustomed to the pounding, trail rocks, pack weight etc. I’m at the point I can walk 10-12hrs/day in the same shoes without problems. When I get to camp I just unlace the shoes & they feel like slippers.

I have not worn a boot in over ten years. BPL has articles on using trail shoes or even water shoes for the snow & it works really good. That is another story though )))

I have no Grandsons yet, just a Granddog!!!!

Email if further questions. I go back to Philmont in 2013. Currently section hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and hope to have first 1,000 miles done by the end of 2012.

Thank You

Doug Prosser

Col. John Potter provides us with some great advice:

Some of my hiking buddies were unhappy with their ability to track water consumption from their single, large hydration bladders. So we investigated the eco-friendlier (reduced plastic) half-liter disposable water bottles as possible alternatives.
The idea is to use four of these instead of one 2L bladder. All four will fit in the side pockets of the Murmur, Kumo and Gorilla. For those of us without (enough) side pockets, two can be carried on the shoulder straps as shown in the photos. The necks of the bottles are held by water bottle clips attached to the strap buckles, and loops of shock cord around the lower straps and bottles keep the bottles in place. I used the rig shown (with plain water in one and electrolytes in the other) for four days in Grand Canyon. The bottles were secure and accessible, and consumption was very easy to keep up with.
The lightest bottles we’ve sampled (small cap, ring removed) weigh around 10g, with the Costco store brand coming in at 9.5g each. So four weigh as little as 1.3 ounces (plus 0.4 ounces for clips and shock cord, if you carry two on your pack straps). This represents a savings of 1-3 ounces over a 2L bladder with drinking tube (the difference being mostly the brand of drinking tube and the hose length).

John

Gossamer Gear recently participated in a clinic to help spread the lightweight  gospel at our local Boy Scout Chapter.  At this clinic, our own illustrious Grant Sible led a pack makeover.  This is part two of a two part video featuring him showing how one can reduce weight by merely leaving unneeded stuff behind.   Watch as Grant does a pack makeover of one of the clinics participants and reduces over 10 pounds!  Stay tuned for Part 2.

Gossamer Gear recently participated in a clinic to help spread the lightweight gospel at our local Boy Scout Chapter.  At this clinic, our own illustrious Grant Sible led a pack makeover.  This is part one of a two part video featuring him showing how one can reduce weight by merely leaving unneeded stuff behind.   Watch as Grant does a pack makeover of one of the clinics participants and reduces over 10 pounds!  Stay tuned for Part 2.

Here is a tip sent in from one of our customers, John Potter.  It is the deluxe version

“Here’s the “Deluxe” ($16) version of Will Rietveld’s Hooded Tyvek Rain Jacket.  I replaced the non-separating coverall zipper with a 30″ separating zipper and storm flap, and added inside pockets for
storing gloves, etc.  The donor Tyvek coveralls came from Lowe’s. 4.0 ounces before seam sealing”

If you want to make your own G4, there is a Yahoo Group specifically designed to help you do that.  You can find them at this link.  Join in on the conversation and go old school on the cheap.  Although we no longer have patterns or instructions available to do this, you can find them at Quest Outfitters at this link.  Good luck with your project!  Of course if you are not a do-it-yourselfer, we still sell the packs and it is our best deal and easiest way to get into backpacking the ultralight way!

By Will Rietveld and Janet Reichl, Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassadors

A common hiking affliction is Plantar fasciitis, heel pain that can be difficult to remedy. For some people, it takes months of therapy to get rid of Plantar fasciitis, and one can miss out on a lot of hiking in the meantime. My wife, who is an Occupational Therapist, recently helped me overcome Plantar fasciitis in my left foot in an amazingly short period of time.

According to Janet, the trigger points for Plantar fasciitis can be in your foot or your calf (she learned the latter from a triathlete friend). I found the latter hard to understand since it’s away from my foot, but that turned out to be exactly the case for me. I searched for a “knot” (sore spot), in my calf, and lo and behold I had a good one in both calves which I didn’t know I had.

Use a rolling muscle massager, like the Tiger Tail shown, on trigger points in the foot or calf to relieve Plantar fasciitis.

Use a rolling muscle massager, like the Tiger Tail shown, on trigger points in the foot or calf to relieve Plantar fasciitis.

The therapy is to roll the spot every day with any type of roller – a foot roller, a muscle massager as shown above, or a rolling pin. Yes it hurts, but the goal is to roll the spot to work the knot out. Let the pain be your guide to how hard to roll it; you want to be at the threshold of too much pain. For me, the knot (and the Plantar fasciitis) disappeared in only a week. Massaging out the “knot” relieved the pain.

This treatment may not work for everyone, but it worked for me, and there’s no harm in trying it.

To COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, click on the title and add your wisdom at the bottom of the article.

By Will Rietveld, Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador

A high-end air permeable Gore-Tex or eVent waterproof-breathable jacket costs $350 or more; it’s not ultralight, and it requires maintenance.  The lightest one is the Montane Spektr at 8 ounces. A polyurethane laminate rain jacket costs $150-$200 and is lightweight (down to about 6 ounces), and its durable, but not very breathable. Propore jackets are cheap but not very durable. In this article I will describe how to make a hooded Tyvek jacket plus chaps for under ten dollars, in a few minutes using a pair of scissors.

The finished Tyvek hooded rain jacket is extra long and weighs just 5.25 ounces. The chaps weigh 2.6 ounces. You may get some comments about the white color (like “where did you park your space ship?”), but it is actually quite functional because it stays cooler compared to a dark color.

Tyvek is a spunbonded  nonwoven olefin fabric that is made up of millions of polyethylene fibers. “Disposable” Tyvek clothing”, made of type 1443R soft Tyvek is cheap, highly water-resistant, somewhat breathable, lightweight, and very durable so its highly resistant to tears and punctures. The fabric weight is about the same as silnylon (1.3 ounces per square yard).

You can use an available Tyvek lab coat as a rain jacket or windshirt, but it has snaps on the front closure and no hood, which make it less than ideal. So, the only way to get a hooded jacket with a front zipper is to purchase Tyvek coveralls and cut them off below the zipper.

The ideal Tyvek coveralls are DuPont “white disposable coveralls with hood”, style number TY127SWH. These are made of soft 1443R Tyvek without extra coatings, so it’s lighter weight and more breathable. Disposable ProShield Tyvek (and similar Tyvek from other companies) coveralls have a smooth coating on the outside, which makes it look like DriDucks fabric, and it weighs a little more. The challenge is purchasing a single coverall or two; most cleaning supply stores sell them by the case of 25. The easiest way to purchase a single coverall is from Home Depot, but they are the slightly heavier ones with a smooth outside coating.

Sizing is important; to get a jacket and chaps with long enough sleeves and legs, and enough room to layer over other clothing, you need to use coveralls that are two sizes larger than your normal size. I normally wear a size Large, so I get a 2XL Tyvek coverall. The larger size also provides extra length so the jacket and chaps overlap. If you only want to make a jacket you can go with your normal size or one size larger; note that the sleeves run a little short for a taller person.

The tailoring is so simple that anyone (including me!) can do it. Here’s the stepwise process:

1. Lay the coveralls out flat on a table, front side up.
2. Make a mark about 2 inches below the bottom of the zipper.
3. Use a pin or other sharp object to puncture the coveralls all the way through to the backside.
4. Carefully turn the coverall over and mark the exit point on the backside seam.
5. Put the coveralls on and make a mark on one side about 4-5 inches below your waist.
6. Take the coveralls off, fold them over, and mark the other side so the two sides are even.
7. Draw a smooth concave curve from the center point to side marks on both sides of the coveralls (see photo below, four places total). This will give you a dropped front and tail for the jacket, and raised sides for the chaps.
8. Use a sharp scissors to cut on the line all the way around. No hemming is needed since Tyvek does not unravel.
9. To make the chaps, cut two pieces of lightweight flat braided cord 30 inches long, then sew the middle of each cord under the folded top edge of each leg of the chaps.

After making marks on the coverall for the bottom and sides as described above, draw a smooth line and cut on the line with scissors. This yields a tall jacket and a pair of chaps. My wife added tie cords at the top of the chaps to tie them to belt loops, and a couple of pleats on the backside to make them fit better.

Note that since the front zipper does not separate at the bottom, the rain jacket needs to be put on as a pullover. To make the garments completely waterproof, coat the seams with Roo Glue or diluted silicone. If you wish, you can add a storm flap over the front zipper.

My Tyvek rain jacket made from the Home Depot Tyvek coveralls weighs 4.25 ounces, and the chaps weigh 2.6 ounces. A rain jacket made from the lightest soft Tyvek (style number TY127SWH) in size XL weighs 3.15 ounces. Although you get a pair of chaps from this project, my personal preference is to purchase a pair of Tyvek pants, which I will discuss in a future blog article. You can also wear very lightweight nylon rain pants, like the new Montbell Versalite Pant which weighs only 4 ounces.

You are probably wondering how waterproof and how breathable a Tyvek rainsuit is. I wore the jacket in the shower at home with 30 pounds of water pressure and it only leaked a little through the front zipper. However, a hiking companion (non other than Gossamer Gear founder Glen Van Peski) wore his Tyvek rain jacket in a prolonged rain and it soaked through. So a Tyvek rain jacket should be considered showerproof but not waterproof. Perhaps a DWR treatment, such as Nikwax TX Direct would make it more waterproof in a prolonged rain.

As far as breathability, check out the following graph; I just happen to have that data from a previous project on waterproof-breathable jackets.

Comparative jacket breathability in terms of accumulated humidity inside the jacket during a sustained 2.25 mile steady uphill hike and reverse downhill hike. Jackets were completely zipped up throughout the hike. Note that the Tyvek jacket and DriDucks jacket perform about the same; they both reach 100% humidity inside after about 35 minutes and stay steamed up. The lightweight Marmot Essence Jacket (polyurethane laminate) performed slightly better, about the same as a traditional Gore-Tex jacket (Montbell Thunderhead Jacket). The more breathable eVent Montane Spektr Smock (lowest curve) was clearly more breathable than all of the other jackets.

Overall, a Tyvek rain jacket is very easy to make, very inexpensive, and very durable. Its breathability is about the same as DriDucks, and not that different from Gore-Tex, which is actually not very breathable. Its very water-repellent and will withstand a brief shower, but its not waterproof to keep you dry in prolonged rain. The white color actually makes a lot of sense since it will be cooler to wear in the summertime. Happy hiking!

To COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, click on the title and add your wisdom at the bottom of the article.

Since I prefer to eat vegan and hike hard, I’ve been looking for a way to get a little extra protein into my dinners, to help muscle recovery.  What better way than to have a protein bar for dessert?  So I bought a bunch of protein bars from a variety of sources, and tasted them over the last few months.  The main parameters I was interested in were:

1. Caloric Efficiency – since I don’t want to carry any more food weight than necessary.
2. Protein Density – since the goal is to get some extra protein, what percentage of the bar weight is protein?
3. Taste – at the end of a hard day, it has to taste good.

This was a completely unscientific test, and reflects my personal taste, but you are welcome to check out the spreadsheet. A couple of observations:

• The bars I found tastier tended to have a lower % protein
• The bars that were generally more ‘wholesome’ tended to have a lower % protein
• Eating peanuts (or almonds) does a pretty good job in terms of extra protein

Those of you that eat protein bars, do you have a favorite I’ve missed?  Any other supplemental protein strategies not involving animal products?