Driving and Camping

[partlyscot]

There will be more information on this thread, but for now, I will be heading off to bed soon.

I have just spent the last 6 days away from home, and other than the majority of Saturday being in bike gear (skirts and long distance fast cycling don't really mix) I was skirted the entire time I was outside.

No comments. None. Almost no reactions at all. A few glances or looks, the only time any numbers of people even appeared to notice was while waiting for a bus, and when I took a seat beside another guy.

Skirts are the most comfortable way to drive long distances, also, they offer many advantages for camping.

More to come, and a photo or 2.

[skirtingtoday]

Sounds like a really enjoyable time - great news on the skirts you wore. Where were you on holiday?

As you know and as many here say, people whilst they may notice, there is almost never any negative reaction.

For skirts and cycling, I have found that a 15-16" cargo skirt is quite comfortable on a bike. Enough space for leg movement and not too short to show tomorrow's laundry!

[partlyscot]

Drove out from Calgary, Alberta, to Vancouver, B.C. About 1,000 km. I had driven about half of that before, but the second half is even more spectacular. I have experimented with several skirts on a bike, and am quite happy around town, but this was a cycling "competition" of a sort. It was over 100 km, in far too hot weather, and up a far too steep slope. Bike shorts were a necessity!

[partlyscot]

I thought it was about time I put up a picture, and I just got done copying some from my GF's camera.

This is typical of how I was dressed almost the entire time, I'm still a bit stunned that I had no, absolutely zero, comments or questions. The only time I got a definite reaction was when waiting for the bus, and a quick glance from my seat mate when I sat down.

snug-cove.jpg

[Caultron]

... I'm still a bit stunned that I had no, absolutely zero, comments or questions...

Yes, appearing in public is a much smaller deal than most new skirt-wearers think. There's truly a lot more fashion freedom than you think.

[skirtyscot]

Maybe the Canadians are like the Scots: reticent. But with that skirt being so unremarkable (in a good way of course, i.e. just like a pair of men's shorts but with conjoined legholes), maybe, just maybe, people think "Why not?" and leave you be.

[dillon]

Well, I just got back from the backpacking trip from hell. We cut it a day short after getting caught in a three-inch deluge which lasted all afternoon yesterday. Everything soaked, even under ponchos.The National Forest trails, already in bad condition, turned into running streams. There wasn't a place dry enough to pitch a tent, and it would have been soaked before we could have even gotten the fly on it. So we hiked back out by dark and got back home this morning. The first night was good, but the best part was three straight days without trousers. I found the Koppen mini I recently bought to be a great hiking skirt, especially when scrambling over rocks and logs, because of the short length and stretch fabric that facilitates movement. We did see a couple of fine waterfalls, though. Its a shame the Federal Govt doesnt create a new CCC to improve these very rough and hazardous trails.

[skirted_in_SF]

Its a shame the Federal Govt doesnt create a new CCC to improve these very rough and hazardous trails.

I think I've seen a posting on a trail report page by the wilderness ranger in the Trinity Alps (CA) that said they were happy to get a couple (or several) CCC type people to do trail maintenance this past summer. I'm guessing there aren't enough young people who want to do that kind of work.

A skirt is a great hiking garment once mosquito season is over. I went for a modest hike in a local reserve at the end of August. It was a warm day and I paused in a wooded area. I ended up with several mosquito bites in the under-skirt area. I wasn't expecting them in an area far from any water.

[dillon]

Repellent is a must in humid NC. It seems to me that with the drawdown of active duty military that a CCC program would be a good transition for military to civilian life.

[Kirbstone]

Camping in Austria with the Missus some years ago we encountered a valley-filling black storm which spurred us on to drive 100m. East through teeming powerboat race-style rain & water to a favourite campsite by the Danube S. of Vienna, where we found the place half inundated and camping was totally out.
We drove into town and spied an 11-storey matchbox on the Opernring called the Intercontinental, had a lackey drive the car into the basement car park, rode the lift to the 11th floor and luxuriated in a suite-with-a-view over that fabled city.

They treated us like Royalty, even though we looked like drowned rats in tatty camping attire. Now that's what I call 'camping'

Tom

[Wesley]

I venture into the woods skirted quite frequently. DEET works well to keep the Mosquitos and black flies away. Tights are very effective at looping ticks from latching on. In fact the last time I got Lyme disease it was only after some non-skirted, tightless hiking, one of the little beasties latched onto my thigh.

[barefoot_kevin]

Well, I just got back from the backpacking trip from hell. We cut it a day short after getting caught in a three-inch deluge which lasted all afternoon yesterday. Everything soaked, even under ponchos.The National Forest trails, already in bad condition, turned into running streams. There wasn't a place dry enough to pitch a tent, and it would have been soaked before we could have even gotten the fly on it. So we hiked back out by dark and got back home this morning. The first night was good, but the best part was three straight days without trousers. I found the Koppen mini I recently bought to be a great hiking skirt, especially when scrambling over rocks and logs, because of the short length and stretch fabric that facilitates movement. We did see a couple of fine waterfalls, though. Its a shame the Federal Govt doesnt create a new CCC to improve these very rough and hazardous trails.

I have been an Eagle Scout for almost 45 years and a volunteer Appalachian Trail guardian here in Virginia for the last five years.

Since I have agreed to take care of a portion of the trail, I tend to spend a lot of time on it. Rainstorms can quickly turn even a well kept trail into a mess. Nothing short of paving it will stop the erosion, and none of us want that. A government program will do nothing to improve trails. The only thing it will do is give the government another excuse to spend money.

As far as finding a dry spot for a tent, why not try hammock camping? You don't need a dry spot or even level ground, just a couple of trees, and hammocks are lighter, take up less space, and set up quicker than a tent. They are more comfortable too.

[partlyscot]

I am keeping a look out for a camping hammock, one of the Hennesy models. I tried one of the base hammocks, which proved the point, but being over 6 foot, I need one of the larger models to avoid claustrophobia. I hadn't considered the advantage they offer over soaked ground. On this trip, as you can see from the picture we had near perfect weather, best camping trip I've ever had, but had to return home to an early snowstorm. Various excuses were considered to be able to stay for another week, but in the end, we are both a bit to conscientious.

[dillon]

Well, I just got back from the backpacking trip from hell. We cut it a day short after getting caught in a three-inch deluge which lasted all afternoon yesterday. Everything soaked, even under ponchos.The National Forest trails, already in bad condition, turned into running streams. There wasn't a place dry enough to pitch a tent, and it would have been soaked before we could have even gotten the fly on it. So we hiked back out by dark and got back home this morning. The first night was good, but the best part was three straight days without trousers. I found the Koppen mini I recently bought to be a great hiking skirt, especially when scrambling over rocks and logs, because of the short length and stretch fabric that facilitates movement. We did see a couple of fine waterfalls, though. Its a shame the Federal Govt doesnt create a new CCC to improve these very rough and hazardous trails.

I have been an Eagle Scout for almost 45 years and a volunteer Appalachian Trail guardian here in Virginia for the last five years.

Since I have agreed to take care of a portion of the trail, I tend to spend a lot of time on it. Rainstorms can quickly turn even a well kept trail into a mess. Nothing short of paving it will stop the erosion, and none of us want that. A government program will do nothing to improve trails. The only thing it will do is give the government another excuse to spend money.

As far as finding a dry spot for a tent, why not try hammock camping? You don't need a dry spot or even level ground, just a couple of trees, and hammocks are lighter, take up less space, and set up quicker than a tent. They are more comfortable too.

I have looked at hammocks and decided that I probably couldnt get comfortable in a device where turning and stretching are restricted. I have rotator cuff issues and degenerative disks in my lower spine and need to be flat and mobile when I sleep.

As for the CCC, I must disagree with you. There is a lot that can be done to conserve trails, especially water turnouts and log/rock retaining walls where erosion has taken out the whole trail. I learned much of this maintaining farm roads growing up, as well as in soil conservation and ag engineering courses in college. When trails go unrepaired, unmaintained, the problem spots get worse and worse as hikers scramble around them damaging an even larger area. These are basic commonsense things we learned to fix and prevent a century ago. We owe the fact that we still have farming in the South to the basic science employed by the USDA Soil Conservation Service, now called the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the incentives that came fron a government program.

And I would rather see a benevolent government program to do what needs to be done than to see our taxes given away in corporate welfare to wealthy interests claiming to be tax fairness crusaders. Not to get on my political bandwagon, but conservatives in this country are not actually opposed to big government, especially when they are getting big tax breaks. They are only opposed to paying the bills for it. Meanwhile the little guys who just want decent schools and a clean environment are left sucking hind teat.

[dillon]

Also, in some of the National Monuments, they are using a wood-chip polymer product that is durable, long-lasting, and not very expensive to cover especially at-risk portions of trail. The National Forests should be just as focused on conservation as National Parks. The difference in trail quality between the two is astounding. It seems past administrations had Natl Forests just focused on timber sales.