This is a quick hike I did in the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve. I entered the preserve from the south side at the Camino Ruiz Trail-head at the Camino Ruiz Park. There was ample parking and appeared to be no fee. The trail was easy and made for a nice end of day retreat. The waterfall is about 2.5 miles from the trail-head parking. I only explored a small portion of this preserve and was impressed with what it had to offer.
More information on the park can be found here: https://www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/parks/osp/lospenasquitos https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/park-and-recreation/pdf/penasquitoscanyon.pdf https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/dec/04/roam-los-penasquitos-canyon/
This is one of the better hikes along the Appalachian Trail I've had in
Shenandoah National Park (at least everywhere North of here). Starting at the
Doyles River Trail parking lot at Skyline Drive mile post 81.1, I followed the
Doyles River Falls Trail south past the upper and lower Doyles Falls and via
the Jones Run Trail to see the falls on that leg. It is 6 miles to the Jones
Run trail parking at mile post 84.1 from the Doyles River parking if you follow
this route. The trail also descends 1400 feet and ascends 1200 feet along the
way. The return to Doyles parking via the Appalachian Trail is another 3.7
miles and relatively flat, only changing 150' or so along the way. The total
loop distance is 9.7 miles. What I ended up doing is hiking 2.1 miles further
south from the Jones Run Parking on the Appalachian Trail over Blackrock summit
and staying overnight at Blackrock Hut and then returning via the AT the next
morning. The hike over Blackrock is just amazing! Blackrock hut is nondescript
and has an unreliable water source. Oh, and I lost my selfie stick somewhere on
the blue blaze down to the hut… Distance hiked this weekend was 14.2 miles.
This is one of the better hikes along the Appalachian Trail I've had in Shenandoah National Park (at least everywhere North of here). Starting at the Doyles River Trail parking lot at Skyline Drive mile post 81.1, I followed the Doyles River Falls Trail south past the upper and lower Doyles Falls and via the Jones Run Trail to see the falls on that leg. It is 6 miles to the Jones Run trail parking at mile post 84.1 from the Doyles River parking if you follow this route. The trail also descends 1400 feet and ascends 1200 feet along the way. The return to Doyles parking via the Appalachian Trail is another 3.7 miles and relatively flat, only changing 150' or so along the way. The total loop distance is 9.7 miles. What I ended up doing is hiking 2.1 miles further south from the Jones Run Parking on the Appalachian Trail over Blackrock summit and staying overnight at Blackrock hut and then returning via the AT the next morning. I'll post the Blackrock Summit and Hut as a separate video. Distance hiked this weekend was 14.2 miles.
A map of the area can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/upload/2017_LoftMountain_RoadTrail-508.pdf
We did this hike back in October 2015, but never posted the video of the Mount Rogers summit, the spring behind the Thomas Knob Shelter, and the ever popular Fat Man’s Squeeze. We’ve come so far since then. It’s interesting to watch our older videos and see how we’ve improved. This is an awesome area to hike! We need to go back when the Rhododendrons are in bloom.
I posted a video a while back on an ultralight cook kit that Zelph at
Zelph’s Stoveworks put together based around a specially modified Toaks 550
titanium cup. I liked it a lot and have continued to tweak it to what I think
is my final configuration. This is my ‘go to’ cook set for quick weekends and
provides enough capacity and fuel for me to boil enough water for a couple cups
coffee, oatmeal, tea, and rehydrating a meal or two. Want to go longer, just
add more fuel. In a pinch this can also be used with Esbit to drop a few more
grams off the weight or with a small twig fire in an emergency. I have a bunch
of other stoves and kits and really don’t use them much anymore. The one
exception is winter hiking and I’m still tweaking my winter setup. Expect a
video on that some time in the future as well as a “What’s in AlphaGal’s Pack” video.
My current setup comes in at 185 grams – this includes enough fuel for
a weekend. I do not have any other pot and just use this Toaks 550 cup for
everything. Not included in the weight is 3g for a cheezy Wendy’s long plastic
spoon. I’ve been using the same one for over a year now and it serves me just
fine.😊
Cook kit total weight - 185 grams (6.5 oz)
The basis of the
kit is the modified Toaks 550 with handles (54g) and Trail Designs Titanium
Sidewinder Cone (18g).I’ve ditched the
heavy stuff sack and went with a small Zpacks Cuben Fiber stuff sack (5g). I also
replaced the lid with a lightweight carbon fiber lid from Ruta Locura (9g). I
find the modified Starlyte burner (15g) works very well in this application but
can be replaced with a BGET Esbit burner to save a few grams. I use the foil lid from a can of nuts (1g) as
a ground reflector for the burner and it fits perfectly inside the pot without
bending. In there I also have a tiny ShamWow and scrubbie as well as Snow Peak
Hotlips, neither of which is necessary and I’ve not used (the cup rim does not
get too hot to drink from with this setup)…so you can save 6 more grams if you
want. The fuel squeeze bottle (66g) fits inside the rolled cone for storage.
The whole thing packs nicely into the pot and there is plenty of room in the
stuff sack for another ‘travel size’ bottle of fuel if you want.
I originally saw this being discussed over at https://backpackinglight.com forums.
Zelph has produced a clever mod to the Toaks titanium pots that allows them to
cleanly mate with a Trail Designs titanium Sidewinder Caldera Cone. It’s a
pretty nifty setup.The titanium pot is
machined to put a bead around the perimeter to hold the pot on the cone at the
correct height to work with the Starlyte burner. The cone rolls up and fits
sideways in the pot, along with room for the modified Starlyte burner and a
fuel bottle inside the cone.The Starlyte
burner has been modified with a smaller aperture so it works well in an
enclosed space like under a Caldera Cone.
I did a performance test outdoors in 55F breezy weather and 2 cups of
water comes to a full boil with 16g of fuel in about 16 minutes. The burner
burns about a gram a minute.
