Your Favorite Trip Report of all Time?

[Nick Gatel]

I’m so tired of gear discussions. Backpacking should be about the trips we take.

My favorite of all time is this one:

Doug Ide provided a teaser in this thread —

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/89168/

I’ve done several trips with Doug, and he makes trips special with his personality and demeanor.

 

The actual trip report was penned by Ike Jutkowitz. I’ve never met Ike. His writing and camera skills are top notch.

https://backpackinglight.com/onto-the-shelf-jutkowitz/

[jscott]

I’m so glad that people other than me do this sort of thing! I can’t quite get to the actual trip report however.

the few times that I inadvertently found myself on snowed over lake, pond or stream ice, it was a bad idea. But it always happened in early early spring. Always made it off safe tho!

[ed hyatt]

Totally agree.

Using the gear is more fun.

Hopefully the initiative to make posting trip reports easier will go somewhere, I resist as I have found the process laborious in the past.

I always really enjoyed reading Tom Kirchner’s stuff; led me to the Sierra.

[Luke Schmidt]

Trip reports seem to have slowed down but they were my favorite part of BPL for a while.

We might be a victim of own success. I remember lots of excited hikers posting “I went UL and I didn’t die!” Just making the newfangled gear work was an adventure. Seems like there is less of that now that the community has pretty much found the limits and there isn’t that same sense of discovery.

[Paul Wagner]

We post reports on four to five trips a year, at a minimum.  Those reports get very few comments, but we’ll keep doing it.

Meanwhile, a thread about the lightest stove will get fifty comments, and spawn another thread on heat exchangers.

If you want more trip reports, keep them alive by commenting on them, and encouraging others to post as well.

Meanwhile, we couldn’t possibly choose one trip as the best.  We’ve loved them all…

[Kevin Babione]

@balzaccom – PLEASE keep posting your adventures and trips.  I’ll be more proactive about commenting on them, but I read everyone and enjoy all of your photos.  I feel that I’d know “Le Vin Blanc” if I ever came across it at a trailhead (pretty unlikely here in the East).

I read pretty much every trip report – it gives me a completely different view of backpacking than what I see here in PA.  I’ll try to do a better job of posting reports from my trips here to give those of you in the west a view that you might not normally have.

[HkNewman]

Too many to choose from but ”drongobirds” various trips backpacking around the Bay Area ignited the imagination as did Ike’s icy trips in upper Michigan.

Really enjoyed some BPL’ers tackling the TRT (Tahoe Rim) too, though a car break-in marred the end of that trip.

[William Chilton]

Enabling BBCode for photos might help. I post trip reports on another forum but to post them here as well would entail a lot of extra work to insert the photos etc. No wonder that many TR here are basically links to a report posted elsewhere.

 

[Kattt]

I am being lazy here..but I sure miss Eugene Smith’s  (?) reports. The photography was off the charts and the narrative was superb.

[Kattt]

This one, for example

https://backpackinglight.com/mistaken_for_strangers/

[Nick Gatel]

Yes, Eugene was a favorite of mine too.

[AK Granola]

“Favorite…of all time” is a high bar. Would be hard to choose. I think my fav is the one I’m about to do, at any given time!

I loved the Chilkoot Trail. Not wilderness or solitude, plenty of people. But great fun hiking, enough challenge but not a killer, varied scenery, plenty of birds, and loads of history.

[AK Granola]

Oh sorry, you asked for fav trip report, not fav trip! I haven’t read many of them at BPL. I like Manfreds’, and the guy (name Philip?) who reports in from Kodiak. Can’t link to any of them though.

[Matthew / BPL]

I agree the trip reports are great. I particularly enjoy trip reports from Adam W, Cameron M, and Tom K.

[Philip Tschersich]

This one is my favorite. Great pics. Descriptive, laconic prose. And an excellent video.

Real effort. Real adversity. Real adventure.

Things to Luc at- The Logan Traverse

The video is on Luc’s site and on Vimeo here.

Thanks for the shout out, Karen. All my trip vids are here.

[Matthew / BPL]

Oh and Philip’s TR videos!

[Tom K]

No serious discussion of TRs would be complete without mention of Craig Wisner’s meditative gems, IMO.

[Ryan Jordan]

The new site we are launching in May will give those posting TR’s much more visibility. We are pulling the main trip reports out of the forums (but still having forum threads tied to them, similar to what we currently do for articles), offering a much better reading experience, and more visibility to our members and visitors.

In addition, trip reports can be filtered/searched by country, state/province, the month of the year the trip was taken (to give a feel for seasonality of the report). Videos and online maps (or routes/tracks) can be embedded as well, at the option of the author.

[Ben C]

Ike’s report is sublime. I also love his photos. It’s otherworldly. I’ve never really been anywhere like that. That may be my favorite too.

Eugene’s is fantastic too. Great photos in a different style. His report inspired me to go to New Mexico a couple of years ago.

I think I somehow missed that Logan Traverse report. Also outstanding.

I need to do a better job next time I do a trip report.

[Nick Gatel]

Ike’s report is sublime. I also love his photos. It’s otherworldly. I’ve never really been anywhere like that. That may be my favorite too.

He has some other great ones, but this one was the icing on the the cake on so many levels.

[Nick Gatel]

No serious discussion of TRs would be complete without mention of Craig Wisner’s meditative gems, IMO.

And, as you know, he’s a great hiking partner too.

[Tom K]

“We are pulling the main trip reports out of the forums”

Will they still be accessible?  I have stored links to many of them, some my own and some to others’ TRs.  Will I still be able to get to the originals?

[Tom K]

“And, as you know, he’s a great hiking partner too.”

Indeed.  One of my 2 “go to” partners.

While I’m here, I don’t know why I didn’t mention Andy Duncan earlier.  He is one of the most creative route designers on BPL, IMO, and one whose TRs I almost always end up reading at least twice.

 

[Ryan Jordan]

Tom – yes, they will remain accessible.

[David Thomas]

Manfred’s family trips.

Philip’s videos of Kodiak Island adventures.

Seeing Craig’s pottery get used outdoors.

The couple who document their international treks with tons of details – essentially a how-to guide.

[Author]

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