A quick search of the ‘Net will bring up great terms such as life-hacking, crowd-sourcing and erg-blogging. These terms evoke activities of the participant in a unique genre of interest. Here are some quick definitions.

• Life hacking: When someone re-purposes existing items or new items to streamline and enhance the time taken to perform specific or many tasks in one’s life.
• Crowd-sourcing: When a website, company or news agency utilizes the information or resources of the general community to create online content or get physical results for a specific task.
• Erg-blogging: Blogging about one’s daily or weekly workouts on a rowing ergometer. Information such as this is great for determining the most effective workouts.

Those are just a few of the popular online buzzwords.

However, there are others that, while still catchy, sort of miss the mark. I came across one the other week—fatpacking.

Fatpacking?

At first, if the “use-ology” works like the previously mentioned buzzwords, where the terms explicitly describe your activity, it sounds like I’d be lugging around knapsacks full of lard and cellulite. Not quite my idea of a good time.

Upon further investigation and reading this article about fatpacking on About.com, I discovered that it’s actually a term used for backpacking trips where people hike and camp in order to lose weight, and more importantly, alter their body composition through physical activity and proper eating habits on the trail. After a person converts fat to muscle from an extended camping trip, it’s relatively easier to maintain a certain level of fitness and keep the fat pounds off.

My apologies to the wilderness outfitters who came up with fatpacking, but I think they fell a little short on this one. Personally, if I were overweight or had a fitness issue, I would rather look for a place that specializes in weight-loss hiking, healthpacking or something like that. In all fairness, I do think the concept of weight loss and fitness on the trail is brilliant. For health, and to expose sedentary people who wouldn’t normally set foot on America’s trails to the wonders of the outdoors.

On a side note, one piece of information that I found extremely useful from this article was that Macaroni and Cheese was healthier than I thought it was. All those years during and after college, I was not eating as poorly as I thought I was. And now I don’t have to worry about feeding my children Mac & Cheese and the possibility of subsequent wrath from Mrs. K for serving junk food.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

Randye and I like to hike quite often, and always seem to have a great time—or she’s a great liar. Yet I was never really conscious of the advice the article provided each time we went out, and it was just understood and followed anyway.

The golden rule of couples hiking: If either of us is not having fun, we stop and make a new plan.

• Each of us has the unilateral right to invoke it.
• Each of us has trust in the other to know that the request will be gracefully honored.
• Nobody is in charge and nobody abdicates responsibility.

Following this rule, we’ve ensured that nobody has a miserable time and by making each experience pleasant, we guarantee that there will be an interest and enthusiasm to go out again.

I suspect this golden rule has its roots from group hiking. As a former registered Maine Trip Leader many years ago, similar advice was followed when I led groups of campers along the Appalachian Trail in Maine or went white water canoeing. If a camper was not up to the activity at hand, an alternative plan was made for that person or the group. This advice was always clearly given by instructors and experienced guides to ensure that everyone had fun and got the most from their outdoor adventure.

Similarly, the group would almost always go as fast as the slowest hiker. When I was a Boy Scout, if there was a group member who had short legs, was not in the same shape as other hikers, or if that person was just sucking wind after some time on the trail for whatever reason, he would take point and lead the group at a pace that was comfortable.

When hiking, backpacking or camping outdoors, it is essential that couples and groups are sensitive to the needs and limitations of their weakest member at any given time, whether it be for injury, weather, equipment failure or even a mental break. You may not succeed in your original mission, but at least everyone will have a good enough experience to want to hit the trails again.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

Starting at the southernmost point of the Fells, we hiked the skyline trail that hugged the eastern end of the western portion of the reservation. The skyline trail has some great views of Boston and Cambridge and is mostly wooded. This is one of the most difficult trails in the reservation with many steep ascents and descents, and we stayed on that until we looped around the north end and came back south on the western side.

Once on the west side, we switched to the Reservoir Trail, which is a little less strenuous. This trail is a pleasant hike that meanders its way through gentle elevation changes and shady pine groves. There was also a pleasant breeze that moved through pines.

We took that trail to the southern end of the park, jumped on the Cross Fells Trail for about a half-mile, and then high-tailed it along Middle Road, a dirt road that parallels the main road south of the reservation, back to our starting point.

It was a great day for viewing wildlife as well. We sighted a crane, some red squirrels, gray squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays and an 8-inch eastern garter snake that I chased and caught just off the trail. I was tempted to try and eat it, like Bear Grylls, the host of the survival TV show Man vs. Wild, but the musky scent that the garter snake emits was too much for me and I was quite full from breakfast. It was the snakes lucky day.

Hiking in New England’s local parks and reservations is one of my favorite ways to start a weekend day and highly recommend it to anyone living in or visiting the area.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

The article in Kitsap Sun asks what’s causing the decline. The author, Seabury Blair Jr., writes that the number of backpackers in the last decade has seriously declined, despite the fact that more than 13 million Americans will be having some kind of outdoor overnight experience this summer.

The 2006 Outdoor Industry Association’s participation survey found that the number of backpackers has dropped 22 percent since 1998. The survey also found that the number of backpackers ages 16-24 is declining, while the number of overnight hikers ages 25-44 is increasing.

Blair points out that recent news stories are reporting that the nation’s youngsters are not getting out as much anymore and that video gaming and TV are to blame. Blair also writes that this might have something to do with the fact that the country’s youth just don’t know where to go. Call it a lack of information.

My first thought as a hiker, backpacker and overnight camper (The real kind, not that drive into the campsite and sleep in a bunkhouse garbage.) who falls in the increasing 25-44 age bracket, is that it’s nice to have the trails relatively free of humanity and not have to deal with swarms of noisy youngsters.

But it’s sad that less people are experiencing the outdoors and I worry if that will result in less environmental activism, which is thankfully gaining momentum these days. It’s also a sad testimony to the fact that the older generation may not be sharing an appreciation for the outdoors. We absolutely should.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

The WoodGas Camp Stove is essentially a bionic stainless steel cylinder that, with the use of a fan, burns the fuel in two stages. According to the website, the fan at the bottom of the stove brings air into the burning matter to create smoke, or wood-gas. This is the first stage.

In the second stage, more air is pushed upward, along the sides of the cylinder, to burn the wood-gas from the first stage. This double combustion provides a very efficient product that needs very little wood, produces very little smoke, and cooks food quickly.

Here is a process diagram, courtesy of the product website.

I haven’t tried the stove, and can’t provide any feedback on its effectiveness. The site extolls the stove for being lightweight at two pounds, as well as small enough to be portable and convenient. The pictures on the site show that is pretty small. Small enough, for a backpack. Here’s another shot, courtesy of the website, to provide a sense of perspective.

If this stove, at this size, is as efficient as the site says, and it’s a lightweight stove that can burn most organic debris found around any campsite instead of having to pay for and carry fuel, than I’d have to say that it could be a revolutionary product in the camping industry. I’d love to get my hands on one to try it out.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

Along with Backpacker magazine, it’s Web site Backpacker.com will also be part of the sale.

I’ve been to backpacker.com many times in my search for hiking, camping and backpacking information in the last couple of years and the site is a pretty good resource for gear, destinations, and how-to’s. While it doesn’t contain a massive amount of info in these three areas, it’s a good start. And according to a recent press release, it’s known for being the world’s first GPS-enabled magazine. The two areas that I found to be fairly weak on the Web site were equipment reviews and community.

The site often has editor’s picks when it comes to gear reviews, many of which are pretty brief and don’t offer honest-feeling pro and con assessments. In many cases, they’re more like feature overviews. Also, a link to reader reviews sent me to an Olympus camera web site. If you’re looking for actual reader/user opinions of gear used in the field, I’d recommend going elsewhere. Although, many of the writers and editors who are writing these do use the equipment they are reviewing, according to a recent press release.

The community area is also pretty sparse. There is an expert advice section, links to find hiking partners and clubs, a drop-down list of trail clubs and a forum, which is hosted on your basic community forum platform and looks to be fairly active. It looks like the site has also added a My Backpacker area in the past year or so, where you can log trail miles, add gear reviews, make a wish list, add trail reviews and add to a life list. However, none of the links for that seemed to be working when I visited the site the other day. If you’re looking for a quality backpacking and hiking community online, the best I’ve found to date is Trailjournals.com. The highlight of this site is that thru-hikers (Those who are hiking the entire length of the Appalachian Trail) often keep great journals of their entire trek. The community forums there are extremely active.

Backpacker.com also has videos, podcasts and blogs. I was able to find a working RSS feed for them, but they are not updated too frequently, maybe a couple times per month at most. There’s also a great database of thousands of hikes and trails that is editorial and community generated.

I believe that Backpacker.com has a lot of Internet potential and I’m excited to see where Active Interest Media takes it. In fact, there is much room for growth by all of the sites that focus on backpacking. In my humble opinion, a knockout site with a full selection of editorial, community provided, and technically up-to-date information has yet to emerge from the pack.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

The skies were sunny, with small wisps of clouds here and there, and the temperature hovered in the mid 70s. To top it off, there were pleasant breezes in the lower altitudes and a light, warm wind near the summit—just enough to keep you cool after the trek and to dry off one’s shirt.

We took the Pumpelly trail, from the north, which started at Dublin Lake. It is approximately 4.4 miles to the summit, and at one point, has a steep, quarter to half-mile ascent that required using all fours (hands and feet) on a section of exposed rock, tree roots and some soil. At approximately 55 to 65 degrees, it is not for the faint of heart. (And coming down, it was killer on the knees.)

Mt. Monadnock has an altitude of 3,165 feet along with some spectacular views of the surrounding New Hampshire countryside. The visibility was so great, we were able to see the snow covered peak of Mt. Washington far off in an east-northeast direction. It is also said that on a good day, you can see all six new England states.

I figure that we hiked about 9 miles for the day, which includes a short walk to and from the trail head and exploring the rocky summit. I’d highly recommend this mountain as a training site for longer, higher and tougher mountains.

Interesting Mt. Monadnock facts:

• It is the second-most frequently climbed mountain, behind Mt. Fuji in Japan.
• There are 40 miles of maintained foot trails.
• Mt. Monadnock was designated a national national landmark site in 1987.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.

Going up will the easy part; that’s just conditioning. It’s coming down that hurts, and that’s where I need to find the best pace and stride that works to minimize the pain in my knees. Unfortunately, the contours of of mountains don’t always cooperate. Having never been to Monadnock, the best thing I can do is get myself ready for four miles up to the approximately 1,200 foot peak, and four miles down.

A glance at a topographical map is pretty helpful. We’ll be taking the Pumpelly Trail, which comes up the mountain from the north. It follows a long ridge line to the summit, but there’s one steep and gnarly looking spot that gets you from the lowland to the ridge itself, roughly 1/2 a mile long, that has to be respected on the way up and especially coming down.

In Amesbury, we’ve got a great training spot for hikers called Pow Wow Hill. Formerly an old Native American meeting place, it’s about 300 feet and has steep streets going up to the top. Just four trips up will get me to the desired height, but it’s certainly not eight miles. Hiking around Amesbury’s exercise trails, public golf courses and neighborhoods with my rucksack on should do the trick.

I just hope that Amesbury residents can get used to a guy hiking around town with a massive internal-frame pack on. This past Saturday I was out and some poor lady was so intrigued by what I was doing that she almost got into a car accident.

©2012 Blog de Puree. All Rights Reserved.