Anyone else getting their gear out to stay at home?

Thinking about this a bit.

If someone says to not follow the established advice, social distancing, but to use some folk remedy instead, that is horrible advice.  Unleash the internet hoards on that person.

If someone says to do social distancing, but if you get sick, describes folk remedies that might help – it’s harmless as long as there aren’t side effects.  And as long as they’re acknowledged to be non scientifically verified.

Steve Jobs regretted that when he got cancer, he tried some alternative therapies for a while that didn’t help.  Then he tried the established therapies but his cancer was progressed.  Maybe, if he had done the established therapy immediately, there would have been a different outcome.

Stay 6 feet away from other people

If you touch something that someone else could have touched or sneezed on, don’t touch your face until you’ve washed your hands.

Mark…

We’re all going to get very bored and anxious over the coming days. Let’s not start squabbling (says the squabbler par excellence, me.) I’ll commit to doing my best. We’re all going to want a safe place to tell our stories.

I’m boring but you can simply bypass my posts.

And now, I’ll write a little disquisition on a fascinating part of Aquinas’ “37 theses on the the hylomorphic nature of bread and wine when stored in a cave and forgotten over centuries”…

Panic is definitely happening, people are acting irrationally in so many ways, but yes fortunately no major violence so far. Hope it stays that way. I was thinking about the damage panic does to survival in wilderness situations; what are we doing in panic-mode that is making all of this worse and not better? Just staying home is simple, but getting everyone home is complicated and may cause more disease transmission? Moving every university and college student from wherever they are now, to wherever home is, via airplane. I wonder what that would look like on a migration map, if only we could tag them all like birds and use eBird to track them.

I’m going to be optimistic enough to book travel for October to Grand Canyon! Something to look forward to when this is all blown over. I hope. And I hope I will have use of my backpacking gear (thread title) before then, for something other than self quarantine!

Our county just issues a shelter in place for all residents until April 3rd or until further notice. Starting at midnight.
If I get to stay  home from work and finish my paper that’s fine by me.

BTW, if you live in the Las Vegas valley I have ammo to trade for TP (er, I mean “Buttcoin”).

So a couple weekends ago, I got my gear out to stay at home by loading up my pack and setting off for a day hike through town along a section of the California Coastal Trail. I made camp at noon and ate my lunch. Then I packed up and went home, hiking along a section of the Pacific Coast Trail for the return trip. Took all day. I saw some really weird mushrooms, heard lots of birds, saw lots of flowers.

Last weekend I did a proper over-night backpack trip. I set off not really knowing where I would go. I figured I’d stealth camp on the trail I hiked down. But once I got into it I took some turns onto other trails and just sort of wandered until it was late afternoon. Made a nice stealth camp. Spent some hours just reading. There were some women with a couple goats not too far from me, but certainly not close enough to me to hear them. Spiders marched all over my things in the morning. It was a great trip. I think I’ll do another one.

Yep, got it out, packed up, and put it away again. At least 3 times. Hoping the forests open up here in MN in a few days but I bet the Gov will extend the lockdown again. My trip to the Grayson Highlands and that area has been canceled. Prime camping weather is closing for me so I just might not get out much until this fall. *sigh*

I wish I didn’t mind mosquitos and horse flies. They seem more obnoxious than when I was 16.

Lessee… I’ve got 12 iso-butane cans of various sizes with most full, one quart of white gas, one quart of denatured alcohol and about 50 ESBIT tablets. Then there’s my wood pile and my new Council Tools Wood Craft hand axe for making small sticks for my Trail Designs Sidewinder ti stove W/ Inferno wood burning insert.

Unless zombies steal all my fuels I think my wife and I are fine. But she could burn her bras.  (Jus’ sayin’…)

But seriously, I really, really want to get out and try my new Notch Li tent. That’s happening in one more week as the snow at 8,500 ft. in my Spring Mountains should be mostly gone by then.

The way I’m “getting my gear out to stay at home” is to do repairs and modifications that I’d long planned but always put off.

This is a perfect time to make sure your gear is in top condition and ready to go. And maybe to order some replacement gear, sell unneeded gear and stock up on some more “delicious” freeze-dried food and freezer bag menus.

Stay safe and get ready to backpack.