@AZClaimjumper I’m definitely a very average swimmer. Part of that is just because I don’t have much interest in swimming. Oddly enough, I taught both my kids to swim, and they’re pretty good swimmers. Luckily, I am pretty good at putting one foot in front of the other up and down most any trail. T...

@AZClaimjumper Lol, yes, showers are fine, I wash my hair everyday. Current house doesn’t have a water softener or RO, one will be installed probably in January, meanwhile my shower head has an inline filter to get a lot of the gunk out of the water. I just don’t like pool water—chlorine or salt po...

@Mountain_Rat And a raft! I never ever let my hair touch the water.

From a purely personal perspective, if I can walk or swim across a body of water (both length & width) without drowning, it’s probably a pond. I’m a very mediocre swimmer.

I bought mine off Amazon in one of my daily boredom shopping purchases, but I suppose they are available from a variety of other retailers.

@losdosslofolks Lol! I gave one to my neighbor who has little kids, put one in my hiking pack, and one for at home.

I recently bought a 3 pack of “Bug Bite Thing”, and after myself and the kids getting attacked by mosquitoes around the pool and fire pit last night, we can all attest that this thing works magic at removing the itch from bug bites. Obviously not as good as preventing bites in the first place, but g...

Don’t feed it to your dog, but Xylitol is actually really good for your teeth.

@garyc57 The true Corona de Loma is a maintained trail, Old Man (Corona East) is not. Both are similar steepness (Old Man might be slightly steeper), but Corona has a slightly better trail surface—less loose rock for the most part. Either one is comparable to ascend, but Corona is a little easier t...

I just used my last decal recently. It was one I’ve had for at least a few years. The last ‘A’ in Arizona did try to peel up incorrectly, but I was able to get it fixed without ruining the decal. Not sure if that was from age, or if I accidentally changed the angle of the peel since I was at the end...

I’m pretty sure I can tell the difference between a sincere comment and a joke. These hikers were quite sincere; I actually chatted with two of them for a few minutes. One referred to it as canicross (sp?), which I’d never heard of, but then again, activities with dogs aren’t really my thing. I’m no...

@ALMAL I agree with you—on all your points. My initial reaction was that it strikes me as laziness, or only partially accomplishing a difficult task. And personally, I’m not a fan of the practice. But, at the same time, I feel that as long as someone isn’t negatively affecting anyone else’s hike, t...

Effective Oct 15th, the Pointe South Mountain HOA is restricting parking along 48th St north and east of the trailhead entrance. Only HOA residents with a sticker will be allowed to park along the east side of the road, and no parking at all will be permitted along the west side of the road. It woul...

@The_Eagle No, but most were panting heavier than the dogs were.

While I was hiking in Colorado over the weekend, I noticed four separate women using their dogs to pull them uphill. Each woman had a nylon harness around her waist with the leash clipped into it. Each one commented how great it was to have a dog pull them through the steepest sections. I don’t thin...

@Jim_H I know it’s still a week out, but the rain in the forecast for next Mon/Tues has me really hoping my new roof is done by Sunday! But I want it to rain, so I hope it actually happens.

I had a Sawyer and a Sawyer mini, and never really cared for either one. I know I’m in the minority on that opinion. I ended up buying a Platypus GravityWorks filter, and I like it a whole lot more. Not lightweight or cheap, the complete kit, plus additional carbon filter weighs 11.2 oz, and cost ar...

The only way to properly honor Columbus’ special day is to go boating, not backpacking. I know I’ll be floating on some water, with a Pinta rum in my hand.

@DixieFlyer Not a chance! 4Runner is as small as I’ll go. I’m thinking I’ll likely trade in the current 4Runner in for a new one right around 90,000 miles. That’ll be next year sometime.

@DixieFlyer You’ll never know when it’s dirty! I love that color.

If you had to come up with a list of your five favorite Valley of the Sun hikes, what would they be? Limiting the geographic range to the mountain ranges immediately surrounding the Valley (which everyone will interpret slightly differently) I'm curious to see how many hikes repeatedly make it into ...