Backpacker - June 2022

116 Pages·2022·90.7 MB·English

Contents
SUMMER 2022
The Features
68 SMALLER CROWDS, BIGGER ADVENTURES
There are 423 national park units in the U.S., and 6,600 state parks. Do the math:
If you’re looking to lose the crowds this summer, start with America’s other best idea.
82 SIERRA TIME
Before Kim Stanley Robinson wrote his Hugo and Nebula Award-winning books
(the Mars trilogy among them), he was a hiker fi rst and foremost. Head into California’s
high country with him, and see it anew.
92 HOW STUFF WORKS
All the intel you need to be a smarter backpacker, including what causes alpenglow,
how DEET confounds mosquitoes, and why that mountain goat is licking urine off of the
plant you just peed on.
102 TO WALK ALONE
Backpacking alone unlocks a powerful wilderness experience. If you’re scared to go solo,
you’re on the right track.
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BACKPACKER.COM 3
Contents
SUMMER 2022
Adventures Hiker’s Handbook Field Test In Every Issue
16 DISPATCH 40 LEVEL UP 56 HEAD TO HEAD 10 TRAILHEAD
Discover a little-known and Dehydrate your own Softshells for hard In defense of America’s Wild
sparsely traveled thru-hike meals, be a backcountry weather. Plus: insider tips and Scenic rivers, and read-
along British Columbia’s mixologist, and more tips for from our fi eld testers ers sound off on fast-packing
Sunshine Coast. getting your camp chef on. vs. comfort camping.
64 THE KIT
22 MIRACLE MILE 44 BOOT CAMP Turn your rugrats into 12 TRAILBLAZER
Summer sun in Florida can Mobile joints make for more packrats with outdoor A fi re ecologist learns to ap-
be a bit overbearing. Why enjoyable hikes. gear for families. preciate charred trails.
not explore the Gulf Islands
National Seashore at night? 46 TRAIL CHEF 66 FIELD NOTES 14 VIEWPOINT
Care for a nice apple crisp O+ members report on Which peaks are more
24 TRAILMIX after that stroganoff? the gear they can’t live—or worth bagging and bragging
From Mt. Rainier to hike—without. about: New Hampshire’s
Mt. Katahdin and everything 48 KNOW NATURE 4,000 footers or Colorado’s
in between, we’ve got the Regarding your foraging 14ers?
routes that will take you skills: There’s ‘shroom for
above and beyond. This improvement.
issue: Sniff a profusion
of wildfl owers, and watch 50 OUT ALIVE
calving glaciers. Lost for nine days in the 56
woods of Washington
28 GALLERY
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Visual adventures with the 52 TRAIL CRAFT UU
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best outdoor photographers Fun—and peril—are S PS P
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written upon the waters. GG
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4 Backpacker | SUMMER 2022
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fjallraven.com
Q: What is your favorite state park?
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Peter Moore
Baxter, ME: Where I fi rst tiptoed along the Knife Edge at 9 years old
Editorial
SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR Adam Roy Waubonsie, IA: An oasis of nature overlooking a hundred miles of fl at farm fi elds
SENIOR GEAR EDITOR Eli Bernstein
SENIOR SKILLS EDITOR Zoe Gates Franconia Notch, NH: The east has grand ridgeline hikes, too.
ASSISTANT DESTINATIONS EDITOR Kristin Smith
ASSISTANT SKILLS EDITOR Emma Veidt Rock Bridge Memorial, MO: Twelve caves to explore and hundreds of deer to hike with
ASSISTANT GEAR EDITOR Benjamin Tepler Cape Lookout, OR: Steep cliffs, secluded beaches, and epic seaside cabins
NORTHWEST FIELD EDITOR Ted Alvarez
ROCKY MOUNTAIN FIELD EDITOR Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan
SOUTHWEST FIELD EDITOR Annette McGivney
CONTRIBUTING EDITORLiz “Snorkel” Thomas
BRAND AMBASSADORSteven Reinhold
Art + Photography
ART DIRECTOR Brian Johnson Itasca, MN: I love getting lost in the idea of what Minnesota was.
PHOTO EDITOR Anna Papuga Humboldt Redwoods, CA: Home to my favorite solo hiking moments among the tallest trees
Field Scouts
Anastasia Allison, Laura Lancaster, Korey Peterson,
Mary Beth Skylis, Ryan Wichelns, Erica Zazo
Production and Circulation
DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION & CUSTOMER SOLUTIONSJohn Albin
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING Barb Van Sickle
PREPRESS MANAGER Joy Kelley
SALESFORCE COORDINATOR Cossette Roberts
CIRCULATION MANAGER Angela Martinez
Sales
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Sales Strategy & Client Success
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SENIOR MANAGER, SALES STRATEGY Leslie Barrett
COORDINATOR, CLIENT SUCCESSKelly Corrigan
MANAGER, CLIENT SUCCESS Erica Givans
EVENTS DIRECTOR + BACKPACKER AMBASSADOR Randy Propster
Public Relations
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Adventure Group
ONLINE EDUCATION PRODUCERRyan Dionne
ASSISTANT CONTROLLERKelly Baumgardner
FINANCE MANAGERAlice Morgan
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VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, OUTDOOR GROUP Jon Dorn Carter Caves, KY: Where I learned to spelunk (and nearly died once)
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Trailhead
EDITOR’S NOTE
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or me, the horizon is a to-do list. I look the northern border of Rocky lies 70,000 acres fiction writers,” according to The New Yorker,
west from my home in Colorado’s Front of spectacular scenery with the misleadingly Robinson was dropping LSD and blissing out
Range and tick off the inventory of peaks: bland name of State Forest State Park. But you on Sierra hikes. He no longer eats blotter acid
Done it, done it, need it, need it, done it … oh know what? The name probably helps keep the as trail food, but he continues to climb in the
man, gotta climb that one. And the one next to it. crowds down. State Forest State Park has a California high country. He chronicles all of
Those last two wishlist mountains have quarter of the visitors who throng to RMNP, it in his amazing new book The High Sierra: A
names: Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain, no doubt because most people thought: With Love Story. In our exclusive excerpt, Robinson
rising high above the commotion of the busiest a name like that, how good could it be? The takes you through a perfect day in his favorite
trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s 600 moose that stroll those environs agree mountain range.
the one at Bear Lake, where you’re as likely to with me: It’s freaking awesome. Which brings me back to Hallett and Flattop.
spot an open parking space as a snow leopard. You’ll read all about it on page 68, in “Amer- I just went on Recreation.gov and reserved
I’ve been wanting to climb Hallett and Flattop ica’s Other Best Idea,” by longtime Backpacker a park-entrance time for my hike, after the
ever since I moved to Colorado, because I like contributor John Fahey. That title plays off of snow melts but before schools let out. As
the way they hang above that hallowed land- novelist Wallace Stegner’s assertion that our most experienced hikers know: Once you get
scape, and because that ridgeline divides the national parks were “the best idea we ever a quarter of a mile from the car (even the one
continent. Empty your Nalgene up there and had.” True enough, but if you want to ditch at Bear Lake), you may as well be on Mars
the water would flow straight to the Pacific. the crowds before you pitch your tent, aim for with Robinson. Often, that’s all it takes for
S
So, you might ask: Why not stop blathering one of the nation’s 6,600 state parks. They the crowds to lessen, the quiet to take over, E
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on about that hike, and just go? may be less famous, but that just means fewer and the views to grow long. I hope this issue A
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Because I need a reservation for it, just like people have circled them on their calendars inspires you climb to new heights, as well. I
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the tasting menu at The French Laundry. My this summer. (Before you go, brush up on your T
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neighborhood national park went on a timed- know-how with our feature “How Stuff Works,” G
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entry plan at the start of the pandemic, and on page 92.) E
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so it remains. I either have to arrive at the en- And while you explore the outer reaches of K
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trance gate before 6 a.m., book a rez, or forget the wilderness, why not take a hike with oth- DI

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about it. I feel like I’m trying to climb Space erworldly writer Kim Stanley Robinson? He’s T
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Mountain at Disney World without a FastPass. the Hugo and Nebula award winning scribe

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Good thing there are options that offer of such sci-fi classics as his Mars trilogy, plus B

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comparable hiking, views, and a sense of ac- The Years of Rice and Salt and 2312. But before T
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complishment, also right out my door. Just off he became “one of the greatest living science —Peter Moore, Editorial Director H
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8 Backpacker | SUMMER 2022