Introduction

[George W]

I’ve been here a short time and like the crowd, that may not be a compliment.

My background, 66, almost retired, technical sales to the composites industry, aerospace, automotive, marine, etc. North America and international up until covid, now West Coast.

Always lived on the water in Western WA, various locations. For 25 years was the “fishing guide” for our company, arranging trips to OR, WA, Alaska and Canada for up to 16 customers, then making sure they caught fish. I changed the trips after 2008 to family trips in WA and hired guides to camp with us. Shuttle everyone to an island or remote shoreline in boats, then camp and fish. We would supply all the gear and food if needed, just show up with your person(s) of choice at the boat launch. This morphed into helping one particularly good guide expand into multi night trips like the company trips I organized. This meant I was able to fish for salmon and steelhead 3-4 times per week in his boat instead of mine and then do his extended trips helping him.

I backpacked decades ago, then with 3 young kids and a wife we transitioned into doing multi day trips on rivers, it was much easier to get to remote locations and keep everyone comfortable.
I made my own drift boats, then kayaks as my kids got older so they could run the rivers on there own when we camped.

Tought my kids to winter camp on Mt Rainier, snow caves, igloos, tents, etc, made our own snowshoes and other gear too. Plus summers on the wet side of the Cascades.

Had to stop everything in 2015 due to my wife’s sudden health problems and am now just reentering the outdoors again.

Since all of my background was on the West Side of the Cascades I know how to stay warm and dry when it’s 40F and raining while running up river in an open jet boat at 35MPH. Or when camping while doing that everyday for week, plus keeping customers warm and dry at the same time while catching fish for them.

I moved from living on a river in Western WA to a river near Spokane, it went from 55″ of rain per year to 14″. I have a ton of ‘keeps you dry and warm in miserable conditions gear’ that, well, hasn’t been used since 20015. Now I’m gearing up for more longer backpacking trips and basically started from scratch. Will probably do a backpacking adventure of 200 to 500 miles this year, so gearing up for that is my goal.

I live about 5 miles from the closest paved road, with a very large area to hike right outside my door

I’m learning a great deal from everyone here, thank you.

[Bonzo]

Welcome!  Glad to have you along!  Starting from scratch is a great place to begin. 👍

[Matthew / BPL]

Welcome, George! Thanks for posting an introduction!

Where are you thinking about going for your long hike this summer?

[George W]

My daughter lives in Denver, so she can help with logistics and resuppling if I do something like the Colorado trail. The only problem is I’m not sure I’d like it with the number of people that do it each year, might feel crowded. Also I plan to avoid smoke, and I’m not limited to any time frame, so I’ve looked at many options. I’ve got the entire West to choose from, and can make last minute changes easily.

No real desire for one of the popular through hikes just to say
I did it, but sections of them are great.

I drive from Spokane to Southern California every few weeks and alter my route to investigate possible hikes.

I’ve done parts of the CDT, AT, PCT, CT and others just to a get feel for the different experiences.

[Author]

Posts