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TrailGroove Blog

A Blog by the TrailGroove Team

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Contributors to this blog

  • Aaron Zagrodnick 248
  • Mark Wetherington 76
  • PaulMags 27
  • Susan Dragoo 27
  • Steve Ancik 18
  • tmountainnut 12
  • David Cobb 11
  • Eric 10
  • HappyHour 9
  • jansenjournals 8
  • DustyD 7
  • Cinny Green 6
  • HikerBox 6
  • Karen Garmire 6
  • SparbaniePhoto 5
  • George Graybill 5
  • michaelswanbeck 5
  • AndreaL 5
  • Daniel Anderson Jr 5
  • Kevin DeVries 4
  • mgraw 4
  • Wired 4
  • JimG 3
  • Steven Genise 3
  • JimR 3
  • eliburakian 3
  • Jen 3
  • Adrienne Marshall 2
  • sarahtied 2
  • Jessica Smith 2
  • Doug Emory 2
  • seano 2
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  • BSuess 1
  • Curry Caputo 1
  • Tucker Ballister 1
  • Allison Johnson 1
  • SarahLynne 1
  • Peter 1
  • Isak Kvam 1
  • Grace Bowie 1
  • Greg Jansky 1
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Gear | Trips | Food | Technique | Reading

Entries in this blog

Trips

Backpacking to the Summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado

Pikes Peak soared above Colorado Springs as we drove towards the downtown area. As an ultra prominent peak, and one of the easternmost peaks in Colorado, it is easily visible for hundreds of miles on a clear day. The east face of the peak is massive, and the east face route of Pikes Peak, known as the Barr Trail, was our objective this weekend. The weather looked great except for the wind, which fortunately was coming out of the west, meaning the mountain would be our wind-block most of the trip
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Trips

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Food

Backcountry Cuisine: Pumpkin Curry Backpacking Recipe

The pumpkin might be the hardest part about this recipe. Prepare it freshly at home and make this meal your first night out. If you have time beforehand, use a dehydrator to save the most weight. If you really want to go old school, take the canned version and a P-38 can opener. You can try this with butternut squash too...which can be purchased freeze-dried. Serves 2. This pumpkin curry recipe is a great option for when you have a little more time to prepare before a trip and cook on
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

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Trips

Backpacking & Hiking in Wilderness Study Areas

A backcountry traveler often has their own criteria for what may be considered a desired area for backpacking. This criteria often includes scenic beauty, memorable vistas, and a place where a person is immersed in the backcountry. For some backcountry travelers there are some additional criteria sought, however: Remoteness, unknown areas, lightly traveled, and wildness. In many of our designated Wilderness lands the last set of criteria is sometimes hard to find. Well known area
PaulMags

PaulMags in Trips

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Technique

How to Photograph the Slot Canyons of the Southwest

Imagine hiking through a dark and narrow slot canyon. So narrow that you’re moving sideways as your chest and shoulder blades are touching the canyon walls as you go. Just around the corner you can see a glow that looks like molten lava pouring down the wall. That’s what the slot canyons of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona can offer. Slot canyons provide some unique hiking challenges and extraordinary beauty as other worldly landscapes unfold right before your eyes. The wild colors, textures a
DustyD

DustyD in Technique

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Trips

Hiking Gray Wolf Ridge in the Olympics: A Long History

I can claim a history with Gray Wolf Ridge. Twenty years ago, fresh on my moving to the Pacific Northwest, I set the goal of a full Gray Wolf run – three peaks to bag and a double-digit mile loop hike to complete – only to be ignominiously bogged down in thigh-deep June snow and chased off by a blizzard rolling off Mount Olympus. Since that initial attempt, I have taken the ridge in bits and pieces. Last September marked my first time completing the route I had first imagined those lo
Doug Emory

Doug Emory in Trips

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Technique

Snow Water Equivalent (SWE): Hiking & Backpacking Jargon

Snow Water Equivalent is a measurement used to determine the total amount of water mass contained within the snowpack of a specific geographical area, usually expressed in inches of water (if the entire snowpack were to melt, this would in turn = X inches of water). SWE is a particularly useful way to measure potential spring and early summer runoff as well as a good way to predict year to year when trails will start to become free of snow. Since snow and snowpack contains a substanti
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Reading

Wildlike Movie Review from a Backpacking Perspective

In the recent past, many an art-house or independent film would receive only a small release. And where would this movie be released? Perhaps some college towns and major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. And maybe a DVD release marketed to independent rental stores that specialize in more obscure movies. But today the media landscape is much different. Video rental stores are an artifact of earlier technological times in all but a very few and obscure cases
PaulMags

PaulMags in Reading

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Gear

Dyneema Composite Fabric / Cuben Fiber and Backpacking

Dyneema Composite Fabric, often shortened to DCF and previously referred to as Cuben Fiber, is a fabric made from Dyneema fibers that are embedded in a polyester film to form a single material or fabric. Due to the high strength to weight ratio of the Dyneema fibers and its low stretch combined with inherent waterproofness, DCF and Cuben Fiber has proven to be a popular option for lightweight and ultralight backpacking gear over the past several years, and usage continues to grow in popularity f
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Trips

Hiking and Photographing the Zion Narrows

Words fail and even photographs fall short of doing justice to the incredible Narrows hike in Zion National Park, especially in the fall. The Southwest US is a treasure trove of world-class locations to hike and photograph, but the Narrows has to be at or near the top of that list. It’s hard to imagine a blue-green river lined with golden cottonwood trees and soaring canyon walls glowing fiery red all around you. Surreal and otherworldly are about the only words that come close to describing the
DustyD

DustyD in Trips

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Trips

Hiking the Grand Canyon: Hermit's Rest to South Kaibab

Winter had been especially harsh, even while living in the mild climate of Colorado’s Front Range. Multiple subzero nights had made me tired of the cold, longing for a warm retreat. As good as a tropical vacation with white sandy beaches sounded, I felt the need to get out and get dirty in the desert. I had backpacked into the Grand Canyon a year before in the spring of 2013, but it was an unplanned trip, and I had been very lucky, grabbing a walk-in permit for Bright Angel Campground.
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Trips

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Technique

Backpacking & Hiking Jargon: Contour Interval (Mapping)

On a topographic map, the contour interval is the physical elevation difference between each contour line, usually expressed in feet or meters. The smaller the contour interval, the more accurately landscape features and any elevation changes will be represented. Understanding contour lines and the interval when performing map and compass navigation are key skills to have, and especially useful for offtrail travel, though be aware that micro features are not always well reflected – a slope that
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Trips

Desert Paradise: Backpacking Capitol Reef National Park

I have never been inspired to do a multi-day trip from an overlook, but that was before Capitol Reef. In May of 2013, I took my dad to southern Utah for a road trip. I was still recovering from surgery, limiting myself to merely driving. On our way home, we drove the Burr Trail, a scenic backway through the heart of Capitol Reef National Park, and on the map I saw a point called Halls Creek Overlook. We decided to drive out of our way to see it, and I was blown away by the scale that could be se
tmountainnut

tmountainnut in Trips

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Technique

Backpacking & Hiking Jargon: Topographic Map Scale

On every decent map, a map scale should be provided near the legend. Map scale can be used to determine the level of detail a map will possess and is expressed as a fraction formula, such as 1:100,000. What this means is that every 1 unit (inch, foot, etc.) is representative of 100,000 of the same unit on the ground. For example, 1 inch in this case is representative of 100,000 inches in real life. Map scale can get a bit confusing. A small scale map will have a larger fraction and a large scale
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Trips

To the Basin: Backpacking the Trinity Alps Wilderness

I sat with my face squished against the passenger-side window, trying to get a better view of the toothy white summits jutting above the western horizon. Driving south on Interstate 5, Mount Shasta hardly seemed worth a glance compared to this jagged range I hadn’t even realized existed. Pulling up Google Maps, it didn’t take long to identify the range. A quick search brought stories of rugged traverses of knife-edge ridges and lakeside campsites ringed by granite cliffs. Looking back at the sno
mgraw

mgraw in Trips

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Trips

Hiking The Subway in Zion: Trip Report & Bottom-Up Guide

Imagine standing in a circular tube of smooth stone around 30 feet high with emerald green pools of water at your feet and golden, glowing light shining through the entrance of this natural wonder. This would be the destination of the Subway hike in Zion National Park. Especially during the fall color season of early November, the Subway hike should be on your short list. You’ll need to be prepared for a rugged, backcountry day hike that requires some route finding but the rewards are quite high
DustyD

DustyD in Trips

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Trips

Hiking the Trails of the Pioneer Mountains: Take Two

When a trip has great scenery, plenty of lakes with nice-sized trout, and hardly any crowds it seems to be worth repeating – even if that means leaving some other destinations on my “places to hike list” for another year. Fall weather had arrived – and with snow already falling in the high country (but fortunately not sticking in most places, at least not yet), I found myself getting rather anxious about which trips to wrap up the backpacking season with. Internal discussions about prioritizing
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Trips

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Technique

Anatomy of a Mountain: Backpacking and Hiking Jargon

Mountains rarely conform to the version a child might draw of a simple inverted cone. Instead, they often sprawl in many directions and are rumpled with lumps and divots, like an unmade bed. The very highest of the lumps is the summit, which may be part of the humped or domed mass of mountain, or it may rest at the tip of a sharp point, in which case it's also a peak. A single mountain may have multiple peaks, but only one summit. From summits to spurs and buttresses, a mountain is ma
AndreaL

AndreaL in Technique

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Technique

Becoming a Trail Naturalist: Hiking & Observing Nature

When I first started hiking, I knew the names of only a few wild denizens of the forest: ponderosa pine, gray jay, Colorado columbine. Over the years, as I learned to identify more trees, birds, and wildflowers, I also began to see more. As I hiked down a trail, greeting familiar plants like old friends, I realized they grew among a leafy ground cover whose name I did not know. I became more attuned to small movements that drew my attention to an insect, bird, or mammal. I noticed the
AndreaL

AndreaL in Technique

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Trips

A Hiking Guide to Historic Fire Lookouts in the Cascades

Washington's Cascades have an unfriendly reputation. Unlike the Rockies and Sierra, whose alpine basins and gentle saddles allow for easy travel, the Cascades are a maze of serrated ridges and deep, heavily-forested valleys containing swift-flowing rivers. While miners built high roads in Colorado in the 1800s that now service trailheads, most Cascades trailheads are in valley bottoms barely above sea level, deep in the dense coastal forest. The crux of a climb is often escaping 4,000 feet of ve
seano

seano in Trips

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Trips

Hiking the Amazing Oregon Coast Trail: A Report & Guide

Years ago, Governor Tom McCall of Oregon had a strange idea: he wanted to make all the beaches of Oregon open to the public, as he felt that the beaches belong to the people of Oregon. Now 382 miles of state trail exists from California to Washington along the beaches of Oregon, over headlands, through state parks and Federal land, and as rights-of-way over private land – some of the most beautiful country the state has to offer. Most of the trail is along the beach or along maintaine
David Cobb

David Cobb in Trips

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Trips

Introduction to Hiking the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness

The Anaconda Pintler Wilderness is an overlooked gem in the state of Montana. It doesn’t have the notoriety of a Glacier National Park, or the iconic awe of “The Bob” (as in the Bob Marshall Wilderness), but it has the solitude and grandeur of some of the best wilderness the west has to offer. Lying in the vicinity of Butte, Montana, but closer to the copper-smelting town of Anaconda, this wilderness is part of the spine of the Rocky Mountains and also encompasses a 45-mile stretch of the Contin
David Cobb

David Cobb in Trips

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Trips

Hiking in Solitude: The Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming

The snow began to fly even before I put on my hiking shoes, but wasn’t this still August? It was, but any mountain range worth its salt was going to have snowfall in August, and this seemed to be the norm for me backpacking in Wyoming. Besides, I’d rather have snow than rain any day, and these colder temps meant only one thing: the death to millions of mosquitoes! Rugged terrain and a scenic waterfall in the Bighorn Mountains. A Backpacking Loop in the Cloud Peak Wilderness
David Cobb

David Cobb in Trips

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Technique

Trail Tip: Hiking in a Wintry Mix / Rain & Snow

The words “wintry mix” are horrible enough to hear if you’re just commuting to your job, but they’re even more terrible if they’re in the forecast for a backpacking trip. When a wintry mix is predicted, it often means that a backpacker will have to deal with multiple forms of precipitation – rain, sleet, snow, and perhaps even freezing rain – as the temperatures fluctuate from night to day or due to elevation during a trip. What might start off as a miserable cold rain can shift to sleet before
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Technique

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Trips

To the Chinese Wall: Bob Marshall Wilderness Backpacking

There’s a geologically interesting Chinese Wall that’s not in China. It is part of the million-plus acre Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana and consists of a 15-mile, 1000-foot cliff of limestone that runs north to south along the Continental Divide. The last time I hiked along the base of the wall was in mid-June during my hike of the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico. That time I post-holed through 4-12 feet of snow, so I wanted to return in nicer climes and for the opportunity of bette
David Cobb

David Cobb in Trips

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Trips

Hiking through Rubies: Backpacking the Ruby Mountains

Recently I set out to explore the Seven Devils Wilderness in Idaho and walk a 27-mile loop through those mountains, but a large fire in Hell’s Canyon diverted that plan at the last minute. The Ruby Mountain Wilderness of Nevada had long been on my “to do” list, and this seemed like a good time to change plans and head south. The Rubies were misnamed in the 1800s during the gold rush, when a group of army explorers thought they’d found a range filled with rubies; instead they discovered only
David Cobb

David Cobb in Trips

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