Gnome^

Greetings all, so far the rain has been intermittant and light, although pretty windy. No Problema! think of our sisters and brethren back east who cache in abominal weather cheers! Team Gnome^

eagletrek hit the nail on the head. Situational awareness is one of the FIRST item of thought for anybody who trecks the (sub) urban jungle. Police and military teach this! Awarness of your surroundings, who's there (who's not there) Etc. People walk into buildings, heedless of the best/closest exits, more often proneto the door they came in if a fire breaks out. Who's sitting in that van over there in the parking lot near your car? Whos in a city park doing playing B-ball or skateboarding or who's obviously looking for something We may be eyeballing our GPSr more so than the group of miscreant morons who watched you pull up and fumble with equipment. The debate of defending oneself with lethal or non-lethal force is moot- have you been trained to use a weapon in a combat situation? Do you understand the laws regarding this issue in your community? Every situation is different, there is no cut and dried solution to what options you have when faced with what happened that started this thread. Being aware of what is going on is the first line of defence.

Hmm maybe I'll pick up a set of good poles. The set I got at Walmart has a 'shock absorbing' type handle but I have yet to give them a good workout. I'm interested in that warranty though! Thanks for the recomendation!

When I got my Magellan 500 the manual was a PDF on the software disks that came with it. Of course the manuals were fairy lame (most of it is stuff you could figure out by pressing buttons about on your new toy) So doing some Google searches on functions on a particular GPSr can scare up some stuff written by individuals who have said unit and may have worked out some of the idiosyncracies that most manuals seem to miss.

wow^ kinda looks like Mars since becoming a responsible working adult I get precious few times I can go out packing overnight on my own. Mostly weekends to go out to Valley of Fire, or Mt. Charleston, or a few odd places out in the Desert to get small hikes in. I recently started using hiking pole (not poles yet) to help take the strain off my cracked knee. So far I got a cheap set of hiking poles from Wallywart® we'll see how they hold up before I go buy a $75 set

When I go overnight backpacking I'll skip the small campfire mostly if I'm packing in a no gathering area. Since I live in a Desert you generaly have to bring your own fuel anyways. I like to have a small fire and just let the embers roil with no open flames to see the starlight

will I get banned for post hooring?

YAY!!!