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TrailGroove Blog

A Blog by the TrailGroove Team

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Gear | Trips | Food | Technique | Reading

Entries in this blog

Technique

Backpacking and Hiking Jargon: Terrain Association

Terrain association is a backcountry navigation process by which one can navigate and determine their position using a map, by evaluating terrain features seen on the map, and matching up what you’re seeing in the field to the map. The method when used alone can be described as “approximately precise”. By orienting yourself and the map to a specific direction – north for example – that jagged peak directly to the west, the river in the valley below, combined with the small hill on your right for
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Trips

Oasis in the Desert: Hiking & Exploring Coyote Gulch

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a huge and spectacular park in southern Utah, and while many hikes in the area have become quite popular and are often well documented, this doesn’t mean these hikes don’t come without a set of – sometimes unexpected – challenges. As we drove down the dusty back roads of Utah towards a remote trailhead to begin our backpacking trip of Coyote Gulch in April 2014, I was blissfully unaware that I’d soon find out firsthand some of the challenges tha
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Gear

Backpacking and Hiking Jargon: Fabric Hydrostatic Head

At what point will it leak? In the outdoor industry, hydrostatic head (often abbreviated as HH) is a measure of the waterproofness of a particular fabric, most applicable to the fly of a shelter, canopy, and / or floor materials, as well as rain gear. The measurement reflects how high a column of water a secured piece of fabric could support before leakage occurs. This column of water is measured in millimeters, and the test is performed with a special machine or apparatus that applies water pre
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Trips

Distant Corners: Hiking the Oklahoma & Texas Panhandles

Lines drawn on a map are peculiar. Sometimes they follow terrain features and make complete sense. Oklahoma and Texas, for instance, are divided both politically and geographically by the Red River, a natural enough line of separation although its shifting, serpentine course has made boundary disputes a regular thing. Other lines are more confusing, and seemingly arbitrary. One example is the region containing the “panhandles” of these two states. Oklahoma’s panhandle is a strip of la
Susan Dragoo

Susan Dragoo in Trips

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Gear

Backpacking Jargon: What Are Backpack Load Lifters?

Load lifters are adjustable straps running from the top of each shoulder strap to the top part of the pack body (and ideally to the top of the frame) on many packs designed for overnight carry and beyond. By tightening these straps, the top of the pack is prevented from sagging backwards and a more efficient weight transfer to the hipbelt is achieved by removing weight from the shoulders. An angle of about 45 degrees (running upwards from the shoulder strap to the pack body attachment point) is
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Gear

Backpacking and Hiking Jargon: Shoe Stack Height

With footwear being one (and especially important) component of a successful and enjoyable hike, it can pay to become a bit more familiar with the terminology used to define and classify all the choices that are out there. When it comes to stack height, this is a specific measurement of the distance of the bottom of your foot from the ground and overall height of the shoe underfoot. Generally when comparing footwear in a similar class, most of the differences in stack height will be in the form
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Food

Trail Tip: Backpacking Freeze Dried Meal Fill Lines

Why every freeze dried meal out there doesn’t already have a fill line on the packaging is a bit of mystery, but luckily we can memorize our own. For example, most Mountain House meals call for either 1 ⅓, 1 ½, or 1 ¾ cups of boiling water. Instead of having to precisely (or imprecisely) measure out that exact amount of water to boil, or worse yet attempt the dreaded cups to milliliters conversion without the help of the internet in the backcountry, we can remember and make our own specific fill
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Food

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Trips

Hiking the Hoodoos & Badlands of Northwestern New Mexico

In the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico, there are several incredible badlands and hoodoo areas, such as the Lybrook and Burnham Badlands, the Fossil Forest, and the Bisti/De-Na-Zin, Ojito, and Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah wilderness areas along with several others. I have had the pleasure to visit, hike, and photograph the first four listed above. These badlands, mostly managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), feature many bizarre and wonderful hoodoos and rock formations, from tiny mushroom
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Trips

Backpacking the Henrys Lake Mountains of Idaho & Montana

A few drops of rain and an empty parking lot greeted us at the trailhead where we paused for a few moments of contemplation. I’m not sure if I was more nervous about the responsibility of backpacking with a dog for the first time or if my girlfriend was more nervous about Lolo and I spending the weekend in grizzly country without her there to supervise. Lolo just seemed excited and happy, which were contagious emotions and aside from occasional hunger and tiredness proved to be the definitive fe
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Trips

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Food

Apple Crisp Backpacking Dessert Recipe

Fall is in the air. The nights are getting crisp and the moist leaves on the ground have a pleasant and earthy odor. It is a wonderful time loved by many backpackers. Here’s a quick and simple yet yummy dessert that conjures up visions of autumn. Apples, cranberries, and cinnamon spice….all flavors of the fall. This backcountry apple crisp is a tasty treat for two or a decadent dessert for one. This backpacking dessert is a perfect complement for chilly fall weather. Apple Crisp
PaulMags

PaulMags in Food

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Trips

Towering Beauty: The Wahweap Hoodoos of Southern Utah

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a huge 1.9 million acre park in south central Utah, full of scenic wonders and surprises. One of my favorite subjects to photograph is the scattering of hoodoo formations that are found here and there on cliff edges and slopes. Hoodoos are formed when a harder, more resistant layer of rock protects a softer layer underneath. As erosion from water, freezing, thawing, and wind all work their magic, the rock layers are exposed and form into towers of r
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Technique

Hiking & Backpacking During the Fall Hunting Season

Fall – a time of the year when the crisp air is enjoyed and the greens of summer are replaced with hues of orange and yellow. And, it’s also the time that we as hikers contend with hunting season. Strategies for hiking during this time range from doing nothing different at all to simply staying home, and while hunting season is a worthy pre-hike consideration, by taking a few steps and modifying our gear and routine just a bit, we can continue hiking during hunting season with a few changes to o
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Trips

Backpacking & Hiking into the Richland Creek Wilderness

Arkansas: The Natural State. Nothing is more natural than this remote wilderness deep in the Ozark National Forest in the northern part of the state. This wonderful wild place is known as Richland Creek Wilderness, where waterfalls, not-so-secret caves, thick forests, swimming holes, bluffs, colorful fall foliage, wildflowers, and more are to be found. There are a multitude of boulder-dotted creeks in the Wilderness, the main ones being Big Devils Fork, Long Devils Fork, and Richland Creek. Rich
Steve Ancik

Steve Ancik in Trips

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Technique

Backpacking Jargon: PPPPD Definition & Food Calculation

Pounds per person per day (PPPPD) is an acronym used when determining how much food to pack on multi-day backpacking trips. By utilizing a digital scale and packing calorie-dense foods, after a little practice one can simply multiply their personal PPPPD by the number of days a trip will last, while also of course ensuring that requirements for each meal of the day are met. Usually after assembling food for a trip and weighing the lot, the PPPPD number helps save weight in your pack by making su
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Technique

Backpacking & Hiking Trail Tip: Navigation by Elevation

While wilderness navigation is comprised of many techniques that could range from terrain association to triangulation to utilizing a GPS enabled device, normally navigation will involve multiple techniques that when used together, help us keep track of our current location throughout the day and keep us on track as we move towards our backcountry destination of choice. One technique that can be utilized and that’s especially helpful in mountainous terrain is adding altitude into the equation. B
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Technique

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Gear

Backpacking Jargon: ASTM F3340-18 & Sleeping Pad R-Value

The American Society for Testing and Materials F3340-18 standard is a standardized way in which backpacking sleeping pads are measured for r-value, or their warmth and insulation value. As a standardized test this allows one to compare sleeping pad r-values on a level field. The test utilizes a cold plate underneath the sleeping pad being tested, with a near-body-temperature warm plate placed on top. Inflatable sleeping pads are inflated to the same inflation pressure. The amount of energy it ta
Aaron Zagrodnick

Aaron Zagrodnick in Gear

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Food

Oatmeal Cookie Warmer Backpacking Dessert Recipe

Fall is upon us. The days are sometimes cold and wet. The wind whips over the mountain pass. Your rain gear and thermal layers are a bit wetted out. But you hike on. The snow comes in wet and large flakes. Your shoes and socks are wet. An hour before dusk, you gratefully reach camp. The shelter is erected. Your dry sleeping bag is fluffed up. And the stove is broken out. A filling meal is eaten. A hot drink is gratefully consumed. But the edge of hunger is still there on this chill ni
PaulMags

PaulMags in Food

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Trips

Hiking Goshen Prong in the Great Smoky Mountains

In this article, I’ll describe a beautiful hike that traverses both natural diversity and historical significance. This is a great candidate for a shuttle hike for a somewhat leisurely decent into a beautiful creek-side trek. The perfect day for me would be to camp with your hiking buddy at the Elkmont Campground. Get your coffee brewing good and early, leave one vehicle at the Little River Trailhead about a mile from your campsite, then head up 441 to catch the sunrise from Clingmans Dome. At 6
SparbaniePhoto

SparbaniePhoto in Trips

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Trips

Hiking Wolverine Canyon in the Grand Staircase-Escalante

As I approach a place as remote as Grand Staircase-Escalante in the middle of a hot summer I know I'm not going to find something tangible that I require to continue existing. I will, however, encounter some things that I want. Beauty, solitude, adventure. Maybe I'll find inspiration. Challenge. Do I need any of those things? Perhaps not, but what a dull existence it would be without all of them. My use of the word remote is not an exaggeration. This is a remote place, in a remote section of a s
SparbaniePhoto

SparbaniePhoto in Trips

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Trips

Backpacking the Grandview Loop in the Grand Canyon

With age comes wisdom, or so goes the old adage. But, as any observer of the world can plainly see, that’s not always true. With age certainly comes knowledge, but whether that knowledge is converted to the making of wise decisions is, so to speak, a crap shoot. Hiking in the Grand Canyon offers an excellent example. First of all, it’s challenging business. For us to successfully descend to the bottom and return to the rim in good health, we would have to gain adequate knowledge but we'd al
Susan Dragoo

Susan Dragoo in Trips

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Trips

Wild and Alone: Backpacking the Ventana Wilderness

The Ventana is a designated wilderness just inland from the resort area of Big Sur on the central coast of California. The Ventana Wilderness covers a total area of 375 square miles. For comparison, it is about the size of New York City or one of the smaller Hawaiian Islands. The wild, rugged terrain is in stark contrast with the surroundings, which include nearby major highways and several medium sized cities. And the Ventana becomes wilder every year. I’m sure the Native Americans w
George Graybill

George Graybill in Trips

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Trips

Hiking Marble Canyon in Death Valley National Park

I once saw a postcard in an Eastern California gas station showcasing a photo of an impressive blue slot canyon. The earth in the photo looked barren, bleak, and chalky. The rock looked smooth as if carved by water long ago. Clearly no water remained in this place so dry and desolate, and the landscape looked distinctly like it belonged to the unique ranges within Death Valley National Park. The mysterious blue rock was known as Marble Canyon, and I decided the weekend after I had bought a new c
michaelswanbeck

michaelswanbeck in Trips

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Trips

Backpacking & Hiking Grand Canyon's East Tonto Trail

A cheerful pumpkin sun peeks over the Coconino Plateau at dawn. It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and the air is frosty as dad and I join a gaggle of backpackers, clad in billowy down jackets evincing a cornucopia of startling colors, lining up outside Grand Canyon Village’s backcountry information center. It turns out the park’s Phantom Ranch and Indian Garden campgrounds are as jam-packed as pilgrims on the Mayflower which renders my hoped-for rim to rim route unfeasible. A bearded ranger suggests we
Daniel Anderson Jr

Daniel Anderson Jr in Trips

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Gear

Sea to Summit eVent Evac Compression Dry Bag Review

Tents, sleeping bags, and backpacks are the primary pieces of gear that tend to preoccupy backpackers. This focus is certainly appropriate, as these pieces of equipment can certainly make or break a trip if they don’t perform as needed or fit properly. I spent an inordinate amount of time researching these items when I first got into backpacking and thought of many of the “accessories”, such as stuff sacks, were simply gimmicky add-ons that I could postpone purchasing or forego altogether. This
Mark Wetherington

Mark Wetherington in Gear

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Trips

Backpacking the Noble Canyon Trail, Southern California

Distance mode. Proximity mode. Red light night vision mode. At 90 lumens, my new Black Diamond Spot headlamp is the newest addition to my backpacking kit in ages. For the second or third time on today’s maiden voyage hike, I unsheathe the Spot from my Gregory Z65’s brain pouch, cradle it in my fingers, and imagine how its endless wonderful qualities will make every trip better. The blood red bezel’s sharp lines attach to a diagonally-shaded retro headband conjuring the aura of Optimus Prime.
Daniel Anderson Jr

Daniel Anderson Jr in Trips

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