[LittleHikerMom]

Hey guys. I'm goin on a trip to Johnson ridge. I was just over at Ed's surplus and bought a bunch of stuff for the trip. I have a nice little 2 person tent now, and a cooking set. I also got some green trails maps... course my trail was chopped in half... so I had to buy two maps to get the entire trail. I also bought a propane lantern, cus those are pretty bright, and I like them a lot. And I bought an extra tarp... it's supposed to rain... and I wanted protection. Other than that... just misc. stuff for the trip. I have everything else here at home... I think the stove we have is butane. It's only 1 burner... but will do. This won't be a backpacking trip... so I didn't really buy stuff that I could take up a mountain with me... besides the tent. I'll buy that stuff later. The cooking set is the perfect size for me and my friends though. It even included nifty plates and cups! I like that. lol. Very nifty. I plan to buy all my food supplies at work... as I work in a grocery store at a coffee bar... I can get discounts on everything I buy! yay! lol. Hmm... altho I still need to get some sort of case for my lantern... and a new lighter. As the lighter I bought was apparantly out of fuel. Cheap thing. lol. Anyway... I gtg eat dinner. Just wanted to tell ya guys about my trip coming up. We're staying at Beckler river... should be nice.

[Stones]

Ed's Surplus It's not one of them gucci stores, no sir.

[jimmymac]

It doesn't have the Gucci/REI overhead. The only way you can stay in business under high overhead is to dump the slow moving, low mark-up items. Ed's has a lot of stuff that a glitzier place couldn't afford to deal in -- as evidenced by the dust and occasional spider nests.

[Stones]

Well I don't want to sidetrack into a debate about the merits of REI and Ed's Surplus because the topic is really about gg's upcoming trip. I shop at both places but obviously Ed's is the sentimental choice. We've always bought the kid's rubber boots there as they've grown into larger sizes. When I needed an enameled cooking pot for beans for a Y-Adventure Guides campout I went to Ed's. I bought a rugged, warm, scratchy surplus wool sweater there that will probably outlast me. I fear Ed's days are numbered with the nearby GI Joes and the soon-to-open mondo REI at Alderwood.

[LittleHikerMom]

The sadness. Yeah... well I figured out that the lighter I bought is actually supposed to be refillable and that it's shipped empty! What a dork I am... well I'll buy some fluid for it at the store. Altho I do need to go back there for one Item I failed to realize was there... and that's map covers. My mom noticed... and apparantly the guy there was tryin to point them out! but... I failed to notice them untill my mom mentioned them later after I was already over at G.I. Joes picking up some other stuff. Geeze. lol. Well I went on a second trip today to get other items I needed... I went back to G.I. Joes and got hiking sticks (trekking poles) and a spoon and spatula. But I couldn't find any map covers or any sort of a cover for my lantern. So I just came back home without. I did get some other things I needed at freddies tho... like tooth paste... and hand sanitizer... and just a few general things. I bought a mosquito coil. lol. Those things are helpful. I don't like mosquitos... but then... who does? lol. Yeah I also bought some more butane for my stove... well it's my family's stove... but ever since they got their deluxx tent trailer... they haven't used it. So it's pretty much mine now. It's a nifty little thing, since all you have to do is turn the dial to light it... don't even need a lighter, which is nice. I doubt i'll find a cover for my lantern though. It's really small... and well... the box is good enough I guess. It holds it pretty well, and doesn't allow it to move around. So it should be safe in there. My dad suggested just duct taping the box to make it more durable. Which I will do as soon as I find the stupid duct tape! lol. I've got all my camping supplies in a nice pile in my room. I think I'll pick up all the food the day before... since I won't be doing anything that day. The day of the trip i'll grab the ice and such. It's gonna be fun! Especially since I get my braces on tommorow and i'll be in lots of pain! yay! lol. Sheesh... I have to go to work right after the orthodonist... now isn't that cruel? lol. I'll probably be late for work tho... cus I can't drive. I have to rely on dumb busses. I'll get in as soon as I can tho... i'll try not to be super late... but it really all depends on how long the orthodonist takes. And I have no clue how long that will be. They say 40 minutes... but sometimes they take longer to do stuff. I hope they get everything done fast enough... cus I really do want to get to work on time. I just hope I won't kill my customers as soon as I get to work. Cus they all expect you to be lightning fast. lol. We aren't like normal starbucks! We only have 2 people at the most working at one time. Usually it's 1. I just went to a starbucks today and there were 4 people working that shift... I was supprised. I was chatting with them... and checking out what they had... and what we didn't. They have a bigger ice chest. I think they had more fridges too. And they had 2 blenders! We only have one crappy one that breaks down on us constanly and doesn't always blend correctly. It's crazyness! Anyway. Yeah.

[jimmymac]

Johnson Ridge was a destination I had my eyes on back when I was bike touring a lot. I drove up their one Sunday to scope out the road. The top was total snow, but I was curious, so I buttoned up my shirt and started to hoof my way up. Just to take a look around. Well I went about as far as could before it was time to head back to the car for an early dinner date. As I headed back down the hill I noticed that I was getting into a fairly steep, tree-covered slope. And I knew the logging road where my car was parked had no trees. I also knew that I had to be on the right heading to intercept the road, if not the car. Heck, the ridge can only have one west end, right?. I traversed the slope for a while, but couldn't see so much as a bald spot for as far as I could see. Being lost in a dress shirt and my best Sunday jeans wasn't as troubling as the prospect of missing the free meal I had been invited to.* I decided to just retrace my footprints rather than follow my dead reckoning to its natural end. As I worked my way back up the hill, It became obvious that my "take" on what was the axis of ridge had gradually rotated about 80 degrees. I suppose I would have gotten back to the car by eventually backtracking. But cutting my losses early got me home for dinner on time. Every now and then my stubbornness yields to reason at just the right time.

[LittleHikerMom]

hehe, i'll make sure to be careful! It wouldn't do for me to get lost! lol. I'll try to stay on the trail. lol.

[jimmymac]

So are you guys camping at Beckler and then day hiking the Johnson Ridge trail?

[jenjen]

Just use a gallon-size ziplock baggie for a map cover. That's been working for me for years.

[LittleHikerMom]

[LittleHikerMom]

[jenjen]

I use the Green Trails maps alot. I just fold the map so that the area I need is face-up in the baggie. I have a couple of different map covers, none of them actually fits a green trails or USGS map without folding it. For some reason, the map cover almost never comes along on my hikes - I just grab a baggie.

[MCaver]

I bought a clear vinyl map holder for $4 at REI in Seattle when I first moved here several years ago and it's been great. I use it on every trip and has really saved my Green Trails. The nice thing too is you can fold it several times over and it doesn't crease your map.

[Allison]

[LittleHikerMom]

Unless your trail is cut in half by two green trails maps.... like mine is.