Jeepergeo

Try this site for a list of trails: http://www.localhikes.com/SiteMap.asp There is not much listed for Missouri, but I'm sure more could be added (users can add trails). After looking at the list, use the Home link to get to the database query routine. It is sensitive to the city you put in, but seems to work well especially in areas already associated with a number of trails in the database.

Here's a great web site to find hikes: http://www.localhikes.com/search.asp You need to try several cities or counties before hitting on one that has been associated with hikes in the database. At the bottom of the page, click on the link "Site Map Of Available Hikes" and you'll see the hikes listed for Texas. The site lets one filter hikes by several criteria, which helps cut right to what you're most interested in. Regarding your hike: I suggest you have your daughter invite a friend, and then you invite that friends father to come along too. This is especially important on the first hike - the kids will work together and be less likely to get bored. My first few trips with my daughter included a lot of whining on the trail - once we allowed a friend of hers to come along, that all seemed to stop. If you can make it to California, I'd suggest a trip starting in Tuolumne Meadows (upper end of Yosemite National Park), and hiking up Lyle Canyon, camping along the way. Lyle Canyon is beautiful, and relatively flat, so the hiking is a very, very slight uphill grade. At the upper end of Lyle Canyon, you'll find Lyle Glacier...you could stop there or continue on up over Donahue Pass, a relatively tough climb, or just wander back to Tuolumne Meadows. Caution - Permits required and this is bear country. Another cool California trip is out of Tom's Place on Hwy 395. The road into the Sierras ends at Fish Creek. There is a small tent cabin camp there where you could stay, and then do day hikes into the heart of the Sierras, again, the trails are easy since you've driven to pretty high elevations already. Or you could hike in from Fish Creek and camp in the high, remote area of Yosemite National Park. This area is beautiful. Caution - Permits required. Few people enter the Sierras from this location, but the views are stunning. I do NOT recommend Yosemite National Park valley areas - they are too impacted to enjoy these days, unless you go in the winter, and that might not add up to a good first backpacking experience for your daughter. Good luck.

My poles are probably 10 years old and have worked fine for all those years, including many trips in both cold and hot weather. They only average 5 years of use each as I never seemed to get the hang of hiking with 2 poles, preferring to use just one at a time. My poles are the low end LEKI - no shocks or fancy lever locks - just simple twist locks.

I've bought stuff at both places: from REI stores and mail order; and from Cabela's mail order. My experience in each case has been very good, much better than with other retailers. REI has a great guarantee: "If you're ever dissatisfied with an item, you may return or exchange your REI.com purchases at any REI store or through mail order." And they actually honor it! The in-store staff are usually outdoor types, and are usually pretty up to speed on the product line in their department. The product line seems to focus on backpacking, climbing, kayaking/canoing, skiing, outdoor clothing, and urban outdoor fashion (Yuk!). If you were to even mention the word "ammunition" in one of the stores, you'd get a weird look and would probably be directed to the full line of bear repellants and bear proof food canisters. Don't even mention the "H" word in those stores...nothing in the stores is marketed or geared to the needs of a hunter...although a hunter might find some usable stuff in these places. Cabela's guarantee seems generally similar to REI's, but it does not seem to go as far as saying "If you're ever dissatisfied..." which makes me wonder what it would be like returning something after it has been extensively used (not a problem at REI). Cabela's seems to cater far less to the back packing and kayaking crowd and more to the camping and hunting market. While I've never shoped in one of the stores, I'm sure all the staff their know that there are more than four "seasons" in a year. The bargain basement sale prices are amazing (just hit the web site soon because stuff goes fast at 70% off).

Gawd ...why would you want/need to carry anything that meets your definition? I'v hiked/backpacked for years and have never needed anthing of the sort. In the old days, a Buck Folding Hunter worked, but it too was too heavy. Now I just carry a good old Boy Scout pocket knife, and it works just fine.

The jury is still out on the solar chargers...some would take days to recharge a camera battery and most folks don't want to wait around for that to occur. Why not just take a few extra batteries? The proprietary ones are costly, but even taking two or three extra might be less costly than a solar charger with all the plugs, and may even weigh less too. Of course, Honda makes a nice 2000i generator......

My first and only GPS is a Garmin 76CSx, a gift. It works great and is pretty easy to understand. It works great with the geocaching.com web site for downloading caches, etc., and you can use the Garmin web site too to mass download geocaches in your area of interest. The map details are pretty good for GPS, but must be downloaded before use. The bigger the memory card the better too so you can down load all the areas of interest, which is especially important if you will be geocaching along a trip and need maps for many miles of area. Of course, you could do without the map details, and the GPS will still point the way. The Garmin 76CSx and the Garmin 60CSx seem to have the same features and go for the same price. Other than shape of the case and the antenna, I'm not sure what the difference is between the two. On some days, I do find that the 76 CSx reports accuracy of something like 90 feet, which is crummy for zeroing in hard to find caches...it seems to be related to the position of the sats it has connected...I'm not sure if other units experience the same thing or not...just something to be aware of. In the same areas on other days or at different times, the accuracy gets down to under 10 feet (again, unit reported figures). In summary, the 76 CSx has some great features and allowed me to jump right in to Geocaching. That said, my niece has a unit she bought for under $100, and it gets her to the same places mine gets me, only she does not get maps in the background, just arrows pointing the direction and digits giving the distance and heading.

It's a "form" or "function" question most of the time. A well picked hiking stick can be really cool, and is great to lean on while on the trail. But, the darn things don't "fold up" when not in use, and some can be a bit heavy. Most people that use a hiking stick just use one at a time. A well chosen hiking stick is often a conversation starter on the trail, a testament to the form or cool factor. Treking poles are functional and light weight. They "fold up" when not in use, are light weight, and often have molded hand grips with wrist bands. They have nice points on the ends which can easily slip into the eye of a tarp, making a nice dining fly upright. It seems about half the users of hiking poles prefer to use just one, and the other half prefer to use two poles at a time. Personally, I have a set of Leki treking poles and a homemade hiking stick. On longer trips, and on trips where the poles will need to be strapped to the pack for travel, I go with the Leki poles, and 90% of the time, I use just one pole at a time. The reason for using just one pole is that it frees up my other hand for taking pictures, checking the GPS or map, and other trail tasks. I used one pole on an 80 mile trek in New Mexico this summer, and it worked great (the Mini Bears did chew on the handle a bit, making it a bit rough). I usually hold the pole in my right hand, but after days of hiking, started to switch it back and forth, with the pole in the downslope hand most of the time - that system seemed to work well for me. A couple of the folks on the hike had two poles, and it seemed that about half of those spent time trying to find someone else to borrow one of their poles. So I'm glad I just brought one pole. I use my hiking stick on day hikes primarily. This stick goes back to my Cubmaster days. We held a hiking stick building contest for all the boys and adults before we went on a hike, and my current stick was my entry. It's fashioned from a hardwood dowel, about 1" in diameter. It was carved with my roto tool, sanded smooth, and then stained blue. Atop the stick sits a 3" diameter wood ball, stained yellow. At the bottom, the stick is tipped with a rubber chair leg socket. The ball at the top is great to lean on, and the rubber boot at the bottom provides pretty good traction. The thing looks like a blue and yellow thermometer, and I do get a lot of people asking about the history of that hiking stick. In summary: for coolness, go with your hiking stick; for function on extended trips, consider a pole or two.

Try the Sierrra Zip battery powered stove. It burns pine cones, twigs, etc., (cow chips too if you are so inclined ) with the kick in heat coming from a small battery powered fan. The heat is amazing - just make sure you have a good pile of fuel before you start, as the fuel will be converted to BTUs in nothing flat. The stove will blacken the bottom of pots, so be prepared for a bit more mess than with a gas or propane stove. I did learn that these things are considered to be "open fires" and are not subject to exclusion from campfire bans like gas and propane stoves. Fortunately, we had our trusty MSR with us too that trip. There is nothing in the stove that is dangerous (except for perhaps a few ragged rivet heads and sharp edges), but you might have some explaining to do when you try to carry the stove on board a plane, especially after it has been used. The sniffers is use today might flag the ash profile for "special attention from TSA." http://www.zzstove.com/sierra.html

I read the FAQ in the Travel Bug section, and only saw a round about reference to this question, so I'm posting the question here in hopes of finding and answer. I found an item today that clearly was in travel mode. It has a laminated card attached with instructions on moving the item around, but there was no Travel Bug Dog Tag or any other sort of serial number. It appears it may have fallen off, or someone may have taken it off. I've sent an email to the Owner in hopes of getting the code so I can log the find. Also, since I was in the field and did not want to hold this thing too long, I dropped off the item already. So, my question is, "What is the procedure to follow when a traveler has lost its Dog Tag?" Does that mean its traveling days are over?

Some people just enjoy finding caches, some people really like to hide caches, and some people like to do both. They key is that finders, hiders, and "both'ers" are having fun and all are contributing to the game. Imagine, placing a cache and having nobody look for it. Imagine, going out caching and having no caches to find. The key here is having fun. If one no longer finds it fun, they should stop. Perhaps the person starting this thread should think about creating some of the best cache hides within something like 25 miles from his base...maybe that would start the renewal process. Or again, if it's not fun, take up something different, like video games (that sure to make one miss the wide opens spaces...) .

While they call it a "trail," it's really an abandoned rail line. As such, it seems like a good place for multiple compatible uses, such as hikers, bikers, and Segwayers. I am generally in favor of just anything that gets people outdoors and into recreation areas, as once they experience these fine recreation areas, they are probably more likely to support them via taxes and fees. That said, I would not likely support the use of Segways on traditional hiking trails...but hey, that's not the question before us.

"Graffiti is similar to litter, yet archaeology is, in part, a study of litter." OK, so no one should flush as doing so would be a senseless and insensitive destruction of data that may be critical to the future understanding of the history of our civilization. "There were a few abandoned cars we wanted to get rid of. The state said no. Why? They were considered an "archaeological site" because they were more than 40 years old." An organization becomes a bureaucracy when the few intelligent people in its employ can no longer understand or effectively carry out the founding principles of the organization.

Alas, the last time I went to Summit Rock (off Hwy 35, SF Bay Area), it was completely covered in graffiti. It takes anywhere from 25 min to 45 min to get there, depending on where you park (there is no easy parking at the shorter route). I don't see it as art or any kind or a potential future historic find. I see it as vandalism and would like it to be treated as such by park authorities. OK, there are some areas in California where the scum have evolved a bit and can walk a short distance (Darwin: What is going on?). But it's really short, and not likely to be much more than than 25 to 45 minutes, especially if it's up hill, or rough, or hot...(thus, another good reason to go for longer walks, over longer periods, over rougher terrain, at places further away...to get us away from these sorts...). And SF? That's a subject big enough for an entirely new topic! Graffiti is not art. It's a sign of urban and social decay. The markings have no potential to become art. The perpetrators of this assualt have no potential.

Don't second guess yourself. Get the unit, read the instructions, and then get out in the outdoors and find a geocache! You'll have a ton of fun! There's almost always a bigger, better, brighter, and more whazoo unit of some sort out there. You'll need to decide if you want to spend your time and money chasing GPS technology or or looking for caches and maybe placing your own cache. Have fun!

I had a Pharos GPS mated to a Dell Pocket PC via Bluetooth. Connectivity was a constant problem, with frequent restarts. The Dell worked fine w/o the Pharos connected, but as soon as the GPS connected, problems started. It got to the point where it was too unreliable, thus became a good excuse to get a dedicated mapping GPS. I've not had any problems with the dedicated GPS.

Based on years of observation of trail heads and backcountry areas in California, I've come to the following conclusion: "Scum Don't Walk Far" Most of the trash/debris/garbage and graffiti are usually around the trail head, places the purveyors of this nonsense can go without much effort. The bad news: It's risky to leave a car at a trailhead. The good news: You only need to walk/hike a short distance to start getting back to nature the way it (nature) was originally made!

The topic, "Physical geocaches prohibited in ABDSP?, Anza Borrego Desert State Park Geocaching Policy" has a lot of interesting discussions that parallel this discussion on backcountry micros.

Good coffee. Good book.

Whoa!!! What happened here? The point was, if ABDSP is off limits, regardless of whether the limits are right or wrong, there are plenty of alternative places where geocaching can take place, whether the caches are physical caches or virtual caches.

I'm using Garmin TOPO USA 2008. I'll relay my observations with that product and maybe it will help with your purchase decision. The TOPO USA 2008 mapping is drawn from 1:100,000 scale U.S. Geologicial Survey (USGS) topographic maps. At that scale, the maps lack much of the detail typically found on USGS 1:24,000 scale maps (the "Quad" maps commonly used for hiking). The details that I'd like but can't find on the TOPO USA 2008 maps include some forest roads, most trails, and detailed topography (contours on the maps I've used so far have been 100' to 200'). Even though I can zoom in, the detail is simply not there. It seems like the only thing that makes this product "2008" is that Garmin has added points of interest. The CD-ROM covers the entire the entire Unitied States, which is a plus. Garmin lists the US TOPO 24 mapping as being at 1:24,000 scale. The Map Viewer at Garmin.com shows that, at least in my area, the coverage only includes National Parks, National Forests, and some other high use areas. Perhaps only 25% of the area is covered. The details on the mapping are good, and consistent with the Quad maps commonly used for hiking. Trails and forest roads are shown, and the contour intervals are 20' to 40'. The City Navigator NT mapping appears to be limited to primarily paved and well maintained roads. It does not show topography, but it does allow you to find the Starbucks nearest your last cache site. I have not found TOPO USA 2008 sufficient for mapping a track, but I have found it sufficient for getting to and from caches in suburban areas and for some use in forest areas and the deserts. For planning a hike, I found the product unsuitable. To work around this, I used Google Earth to plan the hike, save the Google Earth file, used a converter to convert the Google Earth file to waypoints, and then uploaded the waypoints into MapSource as an overlay to the TOPO USA 2008 base map. That worked for me, but was more complicated than I'd prefer and will not do it very often. I'll probably buy the City Navigator NT product as it includes routing, but will probably not buy US TOPO 24 as the the coverage area is limiting.

If Anza Borrego Desert State Park is off limits, consider caching in the the huge Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area next door. I can't imagine a cache site having any impact to Ocotillo Wells, at least when compared to the impacts of the vehicular recreation that goes on there.

Bindings are critical! Enjoyment of a trip can often be dictated by how much you need to fool around with the bindings to get them on, keep them on, and then get them off. I suggest focusing on the binding system first, and then at other snowshoe details. I have two pairs of snowshoes, both older Bearpaws by Green Mountain. One pair has rawhide lacing, the other has neoprene lacing, other than that, they are the same. I've found absolutely no difference in performance of rawhide Vs neoprene lacing. The rawhide laced snowshoes do look cooler on the wall when not being used. Both pairs of Bearpaws have old-tech cinch-lace bindings. They lace over the boot, with a back strap to hold in the heel. These bindings have definitely detracted from walking in the snow. They are tough to get on, frequently come unlaced when walking, and when the lacing freezes, they are tough to get off. I'd never buy this type of binding again. My son has a pair of aluminum frame, neoprene base snowshoes with a latch type step-in binding with a molded heel instead of a backstrap. These bindings work great! He steps in, the binding is latched, and he's off. The bindings never seem to come undone while walking, and are easy to get out of at the end of the day. The binding has an integrated strip claw, which provides for excellent traction. The label is worn off, but I seem to recall these being made by Atlas. When the rawhide Bearpaws go up on the wall for the last time, I'm defintely going to find a performance binding I like, and then match a snowshoe to it.

One important point. Rectangular bags are OK for car camping and sleepovers, but not really suitable for backpacking. They are heavier than a mummy bag of an equal degree rating and because of the shape there is more area for your body to heat. I disagree with the first part of your point about the suitability of rectangular bags for hiking. My down rectangular sleeping bag has seen its share of car camping, backpacking, biking, and canoing trips, and it has performed just fine. I agree (to a degree) with the latter part of your point regarding the relative efficiency of rectangular bags. For a given temperature rating, a mummy bag will weigh less than a rectangular bag IF both are made from the same types of materials. However, a down rectangular bag is usually lighter for a given temperature rating than a synthetic fill mummy bag of the same temperature rating. Life simply presents a lot of choices. My choice is the down rectangular bag (rated at 30 degrees) to about 20 degrees (F) outside temperature assuming I'll be in a tent, with comfort being the driving force. This is probably good for 95% of the camping days I'm able to capture these days. Below 20 degrees (F) outside, I'd definitely pull out the old down mummy bag. Hmmm...a new thread? Down Vs Synthetic?