The Washington State Hiking Podcast

What we have in our packs for fall and winter hiking

• Jennie Thwing Flaming and Craig Romano • Episode 37

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Jennie Flaming:

Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host. Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co host, Craig Romano, Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely, seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. Well, hi everyone. Craig and I are here to talk a little bit about what we bring in our packs and in our vehicles for late fall and winter hiking, and before we dive into that topic back in June, on June 26 episode 18 was about what we bring for hikes in the summer. And so today we're gonna just talk about what's different. So we won't spend as much time talking about things like how we communicate with other people, that is very important. And also in Episode 32 which was on October 2, where Jay, my husband, who does search and rescue stuff, and I kind of talked about things to do to prepare to make a search and rescue call less likely. So this is intended to kind of build off of those, but we won't be repeating everything that was talked about in those episodes. So just a heads up for that. So Craig, um, here we are talking about what we bring. You know that's different in I'm just gonna say in the winter, and I think I would define that for myself as kind of mid October through probably May, just because may can still have a lot of snow up high in like unpredictable conditions, but especially like November through February, That's or March. This stuff is really important. So what are some of the things that you change for winter? Yeah, basically, it's funny I started thinking about this, and there's very little as far as the

Craig Romano:

components in my pack. It's pretty much the same thing being prepared for you, but it's kind of like my pack on steroids. Now, yes, so about it that way, instead of, you know, the light shell in the summertime, you know, now I've got a shell, probably a rain jacket in there and a down, you know, a puppy down vest, or Jack again, but you really want, even when you're moving in, lots of times, people hike with me. I'm one of those crazies. I'm hiking shorts and 30 week but, but if I stop or get hurt or something, you need to get into some clothing. And things change so fast. And this is the thing you got to think you can get away with a lot this time of year, but if something goes awry, yeah, that's where you're not going to get away with things. And that's what you have to be and that's what you got to be prepared for, especially if you're going alone, even when a group, I mean a group, you should still, you know, make sure you're carrying things. So I'm there's gonna be certain things in that for clothing, absolutely, the adequate clothing that's gonna keep me warm, if it gets down into the teens or 20s, gloves, glove liners, you know, the hats like that. Lighting again, if I'm if intentionally or not, if I'm gonna be hiking out in the dark, I want to make sure that I have good lighting, and it means extra batteries, you know. I don't even know if people carry it, you know, if you don't smoke anymore, but you want those matches. You never know again, you know, if you have to make a fire, you know. And that can be difficult in what conditions and everything, but that's always good to extra food, absolutely, because again, you're gonna need that fuel. And in the winter time, you're shivering more, you're shivering more, you're burning, you're burning calories just by being cold. The other thing we taught, I mean hydration. It's tough to force yourself to drink when it's cold, but everything that's raining, but it's really important when you're breathing out that breath you bring that that's, yes, that's water. You're losing, you're you're getting too hot. Yeah, I can't tell you how many times in the winter time, you know, it's not hiring, then go take the p test, after, after, and you are orange, and you realize you're dehydrated, yeah, so you want to force yourself to drink, um, you know, it's cool too. It depends on how far I'm going, how much I want to carry, you know, throw in that, throw that thermos of, you know, hot soup or hot chocolate, apparently, hot food and hot stream warm that's fun. So you're doing things like that. But again, it is so I think more so than just the obvious of carrying the extra clothing is the preparation. In the winter time you have less room, you know, for mistakes. You've got to really make sure that people know where you're going. You got to make sure you know where you're going. You know, you don't want to get lost on any trail. So it's not the time to, you know, you got an hour a day like, oh, where's this trail go about? Yeah, you can do that kind of stuff in the summertime. So that's the big difference for me. Yeah, on that, I totally agree. You.

Jennie Flaming:

I agree with everything that you said there. You know, I always keep my headlamp in my pack. But, you know, it's extra important. I always make super sure that I have it charged, you know, every hike, instead of every month.

Craig Romano:

If you're carrying, right? The thing is, Bring, bring a power pack, yep. So if you're using, I mean, obviously you, you know your phone's gonna be important, your your GPS, especially if you need communication, your your spot, your your personal location device, all things, but, but they're useless if, if there's no charge, yes. And again, you know, we talked about this in the episode in June, I always have a backup battery with me, always with the cables to charge everything I bring with me. We also Jay and I talked about that in that October episode too. I think the one other thing I would mention, and Jay and I talked about this in the October episode also is about snow, and what your decisions are about snow. So for example, are you gonna not hike in snow? And therefore that means, if you're on a trail and you encounter snow, you're gonna turn around at that point. Or are you are you gonna bring micro spikes or snow shoes or poles or something to help navigate snow and ice. And you can go either way with that. You can say, You know what? That's not something I want to do. And then you can avoid it. Or you can say it is, but then you need to be prepared for that. So what you want to not get into is a situation where you're like, Oh, it's a little icy, whatever. And you just go for it, and then it gets dark, and, you know, I don't know, you just have to really make a decision about where you're going, and you're bringing up snow and water. And it's another thing too. I do this in the summertime. I carry extra socks even in the summertime, so things get white change out. But this is really important. You know, most of most of my footwear is really lightweight. I run, so I used to go through creeks and dry out, but that's not going to happen in the wintertime. It's not going to dry out. So that's a time when you're going to you're going to want to make sure you have waterproof liners, things like that. So because, again, what does if your feet get wet and cold, you can be miserable out there in frostbites. It's a real concern. You know, in the wintertime, says gloves are another thing I have. I'll have gloves liners if they get wet. You know, you want to really make sure you know your gear, and you don't want to find out how waterproof it is while you're out there. You want to you, you know, again, if you're new to hiking, well even. But there's no excuse not for good. You know, when I first started doing this, back in the 80s, it was really expensive for quality gear. But now quality gear is the standard, and I can't imagine, you know, I mean, you know, going to Walmart, sorry, you can get, you can get some perfectly good thing for car camping at Walmart, but I'm not going to get, you know, a $30 jacket or something like that. You get what you pay for. But a lot of you can get really decent stuff that's not, you know, top dollar, but you don't want to short yourself there. Yeah, the whole, the whole key to enjoying winter and staying dry and staying warm, yep. So, so that's the thing. And one other thing I would just add on to what you were saying before about clothing. So I get really hot when I hike, and that includes in the winter, even if it's really cold, but I am way more careful about the extra layers I have. I always try to bring one layer more than I think I'm gonna wear. And that might seem excessive, but like in the winter, it's not, you know, because you can be totally hot hiking and then stop. And you know, when I stop, I always put a puffy or fleece jacket on, and that's just really important to maintaining your body temperature. It's all about, all about layering. You don't want to head out. You got a t shirt on, and your other layer is just a big, heavy jacket. There's no in between. The thing with running and hiking, it's about layers, because you're you're adapting as your body. And the same thing I'm gonna say, if I'm running, I'm sweating, I might be just one layer and short, but minute I stop that, that sweats gonna freeze. And you don't want to wait till you get cold. You want to immediately. If my shirt is wet, I'm going to change out and put a dry shirt on, yeah, right there. And then I'm going to put the jacket on, and I'm going to put the long put the long pants on. Way more important in winter, you know, in summer, if you're wearing a wet shirt, big what? But in the winter, that can be a really big deal. So, yeah, if you do sweat a lot when you when you're doing you may want to carry that, that extra thermal shirt in there, and then change it feel right away, yep. So you don't, I mean, you don't want that wicking way temperature of your body, not just uncomfortable, but it's dangerous. All right, dangerous. So let's talk about a little bit about winter driving and vehicles. So first of all, if you don't want to do snow and winter driving, if you live in Washington, especially if you.

Unknown:

Live in western Washington, you can avoid that. So if you want to avoid it, avoid it, right? I'm not here to tell you that you need to do winter driving, driving over the paths or forest service roads in the winter, but it is more important to be and even if I was gonna drive on like a paved freeway over i 90, I would never do that in winter without extra food and water, because that pass does sometimes close. Um,

Jennie Flaming:

so what are other things like if you're gonna venture further away from that? Craig, what are some of the things that you carry with you?

Craig Romano:

And then, yeah, add on to that. So here's the thing again, the summertime, there's a lot more people out on the road. They're being maintained in the winter time. I mean, you might be the only one driving up that road for a while, so you have no idea what the conditions are going back and they could change. So in my in my truck, when I'm going on, I have a saw, I have ropes, extra food, extra water, blankets, extra blankets. So if I'm stuck out there, you know, you can run your engine for so long if you run out of gas. So these are all thing, first aid kit that's standard in the truck that stays in there. Hopefully this is also important, you know, you're venturing you're alone. One story that comes to mind, I remember with my wife. This is a while ago. We were on some awful Forest Service road. It was late, late October, and I remember house like, oh, I can't wait to get out. We're gonna go to this little inn in hot soup. And we're getting there, and it's getting dark, and I'm coming down this dirt road, and all sudden, bam, and I hear, what the hell was that? Next thing I know, I'm on a rim. My whole tire shattered. I hit a piece of metal that was going in. And we got, we had to drive on the steep incline on the rim. Got to a flat. It's getting dark. Now it's snowing. I got to change a tire. You better know how to do that. And we were able to do it pretty, pretty fast, because you need so again, have the lighting. You're out there, it's dark. You're working on your on your car, changing it. You need someone shining a light in there. You need to have so don't if you're you know, again, you've been getting away with things in the summer. You can get in the winter, you can't call triple A there's no cell service, and they're not going to come out there. If they're right. You need to know how to do this stuff. You know, chains are obviously important too. And just in just knowing how to drive on this stuff and also knowing ice, I don't care what you're driving and who you are, you're not going anywhere on ice. You're driving up an area in counter ice. It's best. I've done this many, many times. I'll park there, and then, you know, I'm gonna walk, you know, to the trailhead. It's a lot easier for me to hike on ice and the drive on ice. So you really need to, you know, make sure this sounds obvious, but again, full tank. Don't head up on a quarter of a tank in these areas. Again, you're gonna burn up more fuel when you're driving slow if you're so, you know, make sure everything in your vehicle is up the proper, you know, air to any tires, your fluids, all that you want to check that before you start going and again. If all this stuff freaks you out, and it should, because, you know, you can, I tell you lots of stories of people dying in the Washington back country in their vehicles, you know, getting out to places not getting getting out. Stay on a nice paved road, and on these paved highways, there just lots of trails you can do and skip the forest service roads. Totally agree about that. I would say, though, that even if you're sticking with paved roads, the extra food, water and blankets are still important, because those roads do sometimes close, not forever, but like they do. Yeah, storms have you could be out there, weather changes. Next thing is a snow storm coming in, and you're stuck. You're stuck there. So you're gonna, you know, it could be really comforting in your truck with extra blankets and water and food and everything, then having nothing. Yes, yeah. And, um, we do have our winter hiking guide coming soon, in a episode not too far away, just a few weeks. Um, so, yes. So now we are ready with what to pack. Anything else we need to talk about. Well, you know, I've talked about how important the lighting, and I've mentioned it before, and I'm not, I'm not paid to endorse this product or anything, but I tell you, the waste light is amazing, yep. What's cool about hiking with a little bit of snow on the ground, when you have a full moon and everything, it's actually not as dark as you think. It's going to be out there too, and that light's going to illuminate everything. So lighting so important. Again, I can't, can't over emphasize that. You do not want it. You don't want to be stuck using your cell phone coming out as a light, because that's going to burn out awfully fast. Yeah, definitely. All right, so before we go, I just want to make sure everybody knows, because Craig reminded me I need to talk about this more that I have a monthly free newsletter that has hikes and kind of getaways in Washington. The link to sign up is in the show notes and.

Unknown:

If you want to get weekly every week hiking ideas for like the current conditions, current weather, I have that, and that is $5 a month, so it's pretty affordable. So if that is of interest to you, go ahead and sign up. You can do that in the show notes. And thank you. We'll see you next time you.

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

Host
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Craig Romano

Co-host