Belated Title (Added August 2018)

I wish I could delete comments.  I also wish I could add a post title.  Something is going seriously wrong with this so-called "blogger" platform today.  I have a ton of spam comments that can't be removed, and I can't add a title to this post.   The "Send Feedback" button doesn't work either, so I can't send feedback.

Oh, I can't publish this post either.  That button has broken as well.

Ice Chests

I gave my Coleman Xtreme a little bit of a cleaning.  Despite having been kept indoors and out of the sunlight, the outside is cracking right where a handle attaches.  It's only been used a dozen or so times over maybe ten years at most.  Kind of disappointing.  Maybe I will be picking up a Yeti sooner than later.

Camping!

Going to go camping on Friday at Water Canyon in the San Mateo mountains.  I cobbled together some quick directions:  from Socorro go west on highway 60, then turn left at 13S 0292274 3777050  on 107, then right at 13S 0283810 3753148 on forest road 52, then left at 13S 0279156 3754953 onto 56, then stop at 13S 0276343 3748827.

I currently own at 36 quart Coleman Xtreme cooler, and that I think is a Coleman 52 quart steel belted cooler.  The 36 quart is definitely too small.  The 52 is a good size, but doesn't keep things cold very well.  It seems like I really need a 45 quart Yeti.  But Yeti's are expensive!

But the Yeti is bear proof, should keep ice as ice for maybe as long as a week if I never open it, and it looks quite nice.  The internet is filled with people who love the cooler, and a few who hate it, and the consensus seems to be that those who hate it don't know how to use a cooler.  Just reading about the Yeti has probably improved my cooler-using abilities by a lot.  I'll be pre-cooling my existing cooler for the camping trip.

For my food I'm probably going to take steak for the evening, and bacon and eggs for the morning.  I'm debating if pancakes are a good idea.  Or possibly hash browns.  Probably hash browns.  My hash browns will be tiny cubed pieces that are pan fried.  I'm planning to have my green Coleman camp stove with me, as well as an MSR whisperlight for any boiling.  I think the whisperlight will easily defeat the Coleman when it comes to boiling.

I'll need to pack: steak, eggs, bacon, potatoes, oil, black pepper, a cast iron comal or skillet, tongs, a spatula, a cutting board, a knife, and an onion.  The onion was an afterthought, it goes with the potatoes.  And maybe butter.  Butter is nice with hash browns.

I kind of wonder if popcorn would be good too.  I'd need a pan to cook it in, and popcorn if I do that.

I have six blue cold packs for my cooler.  With my small need for food, I can probably use the 36 quart Xtreme.  I need to freeze some water to pre-chill it Thursday night.  I should be able to pack it Friday morning, and leave it in my car all day at work without it going warm on me.  I'll add a couple of straps to it to seal it shut.

There is no rain forecast, so hammocking should be a breeze.  But I'll have my tarp with me, and set up, just in case.

On Monday I drove out to the campsite after work to make sure I remembered how to get there and that my car would make it.  The road was a little rough, but doable.  Friday should be no trouble.

Pictures at http://schlake.us/daily/2016-05-16.html

REI and others...

I spent a lot of money at REI today, but I stayed on my list, and pruned the list while I was there, so I did good.  They didn't have the TNF jacket I wanted, but I tried on a very similar jacket.  But since I like the Marmot, I probably won't order the TNF.

I now have a metal bowl and a metal plate and some metal utensils.  No more plastic!

I bought some food to try eating.  I plan to go camping for two nights starting May 20, so I can eat it then.

I bought the table I wanted after setting it up in the store and poking it.

I have a bug net for my hammock now.

I have a much wider collection of maps for New Mexico now.

I bought a few other sundry things as well.

And I went to Whole Foods after that and also stayed amazingly on list.  They had the jarred sauce that Supermart stopped carrying, so I bought some of that off my list, and hey had buffalo tenderloin, so I bought that off the list.  I suppose the chocolate covered cake bites were sort off list, since they weren't the desert I traditionally buy, but not much off list.  They were sitting right next to the thing I meant to buy!

At the Salinas Pueblo Missions Visitor Center I  bought a book on scenic drives in NM.  It has a lot of good drives in it.

Rain Jackets

My Goretex jacket still fits.  I'd bought a smaller The North Face jacket though, not Goretex, and it doesn't really fit anymore.  Surprisingly, it was just a size large.  I was worried I was too fat to do the good stuff (high end brands) but TNF makes jackets all the way up to XXL in many cases.  I can still zip up the size large, so an XXL should be plenty.  But before I realized how small my jacket is, I'd noticed an online only sale for a Marmot Precip in XXXXL, and the price was good.  Buying a gigantic jacket would leave me open to get ever fatter and still be waterproof!  Realistically, since I knew I was going to REI tomorrow, I had the option to return it and only be out $10.99 for shipping.  And while it looks gigantic, I kind of like the way it fits, and it has pit zips.  I had been thinking I was going to buy a TNF Venture Tall in XL or XXL.  Now I'm not sure I need it.  The online reviews of the Marmot are often dismal because of how quickly it wears out the waterproof lining, but I live in New Mexico where rain honestly isn't much of an issue.

I also have my silnylon waterproof poncho which I really like because of how small and compact it is.  I carry it with my backpack pretty much all the time every day.

GPS

I just went to get my GPS.  I only found one though, I have two.  The one I found, a Geko 201, I bought on March 7th 2005.  I paid $117.99 for it.  Amazon still has it for sale, with prime.  They want $175.95 for it.  When I bought the GPS it was the green version.  The picture is still the same GPS, in the same color, but now it is yellow.

And it's a terrible GPS.  At least for hiking.  It isn't even that good for bicycling.  It's a very low-accuracy GPS.  I need to find my better GPS.  But there is no telling where I put it or what I did with it.  The last time I remember using it, it was in the back of Mandy's car, and that was years ago.

EDIT: and then you suddenly realize the good on is laying on the shelf in plain sight, and it's been there for a very long time.

It's a Garmin H, which I bought July 13th 2009.  Based on that date, I bought it for this website!  It still works despite not having been used in years.  I paid $81.00 for it, and bought a $10.99 carrying case.  The closest upgrade is the Garmin eTrex 10, which is $85.20, and the suggested carrying case is $10.29, but it's the same case I already have, so I can skip that.

But since it isn't broken, I'm not sure it is worth replacing.

Vigil's Beef Jerky Co: Original

This is part of my plan to rethink my eating habits when in the wilderness.  I'll be trying new products and seeing how I like them.

For yesterday's hike I tried out some "Vigil's Beef Jerky Co" original/salt beef jerky.  One side of the package is labelled original, the other side is labelled salt.  I suspect this is normal, as their other flavors are trendy modern flavors (green chile, teriyaki, etc), and salt is more traditional.

It was less than $9 for 85g of beef jerky.  Ingredients were beef, salt, granulated garlic, and soy lecithin.   This is real beef jerky, made of sliced dried beef, unlike most beef jerky which is some kind of moist beef paste pressed into sticks with lots of weird chemicals added.  The only weird chemical here is soy lecithin, which is a bit mysterious as to why it is added.  Perhaps to encourage the granulated garlic powder to stick to the beef.

Overall, I'm happy with it.  It wasn't too salty, and tasted like beef.