HikeArizona.COM

Gatorade in glass bottles
Sleeping bags that were as-big-around as a spare tire
Salt tablets instead of Gookinaid/Vitalyte

...When Tucson had fewer than 500,000 residents, real foothills buffering the mountains from 'development,' and a single murder in a year was a big deal...

OMG I'm old... I remember when PHX didn't have ANY freeways and Price Club was five miles north OUT of Scottsdale

joe bartels wrote:OMG I'm old... I remember when PHX didn't have ANY freeways and Price Club was five miles north OUT of Scottsdale

Then you have a bad memory for a youngster. Because I remember when AZ 69 was rerouted and the Black Canyon Highway was built. We lived at 21st Ave & Flower. I-10 was built around the early '60s. The Brenda Cut-off was a good idea.

These little batteries hadn't been invented and flashlights were big and weighed 5 lbs. But they clipped to your belt and they had interchangeable lenses and the lens bent at that cool 90° to the body of the flashlight. Headlamps - those were for miners - and some still burned full. Coleman lanterns and the wick would always burn out. Not sure what we were doing wrong.

And many of the HISTORIC Sites weren't historic yet.

Who remembers George Washington Carver High School? And the debate. And Arizona actually started integrating schools before Brown vs Board. We had common sense politics back then before all these foreigners started coming here from Chicago and Pittsburgh. We should have started checking their pumpkin immigration back then. The Apaches had a tough immigration policy that failed, but now they have Casinos. So maybe things work out.

What was that place on the River Bottom where Waylon played?

Whiskey River?


riding horses from my girlfriends house at 66th St and Corrine in Scottsdale and being out of town in a couple blocks. We rode out past the Princess as it was just being built WAY out in the desert.

driving to my mom's new house in n. Scottsdale and having to remember to turn at the sagebrush just before Pima turned to dirt... and that was ONLY 1981.

as far as hiking; that only meant we broke down or dad was checking out the moisture level in the fields or the heads on the wheat. We would have a canvas bag for our water. It was always wet on the outside but somehow the water was always cold... but that was back in the 60s so my memory may remember it always being cold and tasting pretty good.

I remember when the only way to cross the mighty Salt River was via Hayden's Ferry.

My uncle was stationed(then married) here in the late 1960's when I was a kid. I remember my grandma telling me how hot it was and that she'd never go back(she still tells me that every week when I talk to her she's now 95). My grandfather had a diferent opinion and he loved the Supes. My uncle returned to live here after 30 years. He told me a lot of I remember stories....I just can't remember any of them....I must be getting old. The point was that I remember when most cars didn't have AC

Al_HikesAZ wrote:

joe bartels wrote:OMG I'm old... I remember when PHX didn't have ANY freeways and Price Club was five miles north OUT of Scottsdale

Then you have a bad memory for a youngster. Because I remember when AZ 69 was rerouted and the Black Canyon Highway was built. We lived at 21st Ave & Flower. I-10 was built around the early '60s. The Brenda Cut-off was a good idea.

Perhaps my definition of each is askew... I thought a freeway was only inner-city and a highway went to and through cities/towns
Guess it is called the Black Canyon Freeway...lol

joe bartels wrote:

Al_HikesAZ wrote:

joe bartels wrote:OMG I'm old... I remember when PHX didn't have ANY freeways and Price Club was five miles north OUT of Scottsdale

Then you have a bad memory for a youngster. Because I remember when AZ 69 was rerouted and the Black Canyon Highway was built. We lived at 21st Ave & Flower. I-10 was built around the early '60s. The Brenda Cut-off was a good idea.

Perhaps my definition of each is askew... I thought a freeway was only inner-city and a highway went to and through cities/towns

bueller3.JPG

I think I saw that image on a bulletin at the post office...

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 667&ref=ts

not by any means hiking info, but fun nonetheless

that's awesome

I have a p-38 somewhere in my gear box, but I don't eat out of cans, so it doesn't get used much. My brother brought it home from Vietnam, gave it to me as a souvenir.

Vista guy, your old Nalgene has the really narrow opening, less than 2 inches? And is all whitish plastic, no blue lid, no keeper so you don't lose the lid, etc? I am amazed I never lost the lid. A cactus thorn went thru the bottle one time, but the plastic just sort of morphed around it, and it never leaks...

Al Hikes AZ, there were little flashlights in the late 60's thru the 70's which could be bought at backpacking stores. They were flimsy--I went thru quite a few of them as I recall. Colin Fletcher writes about them in the first edition of The Complete Walker published 1968, pg. 221. It was called the Mallory, was made of plastic and cost $1.98 back then. He mentions first buying one in 1966.

What I'm saying, relatively lightweight gear was available in the 60's. But if you wanted to totally outfit yourself in the latest lightweight, hightech gear available in 1965, you probably would have wanted to go to Berkeley or other cities in Calif, or to the East coast. Also REI was founded in 1938, mostly for serious climbers and mountaineers. LL Bean and Eddie Bauer were around in the 60's as well, as was EMS--Eastern Mtn. Sports--where our fellow HAZer, Matt Hoffman, works. Sierra Designs, Kelty and North Face were well-established by '68. Richmoor food was around back then, but DriLite seems to have gone by the wayside.

Colin Fletcher lists a lot of retailers and catalogs, circa 1968. Of interest, Camp Trails was located in Phoenix. Gear brands that were big that you don't hear about much any more, having been bought out, include Gerry and Holubar. Astonishingly, in the 1968 list of retailers, many of them are still around.

I honestly don't think these backpacking basics have changed much in 40 years. There have been a lot of innovations to the basic gear, and it has gotten lighter, less clumsy, and more convenient to use. Better technology with fabrics and tent poles, and much more comfortable footwear, etc. But basically, if you went for a week in the Sierras in 1968 or now, you would be doing much of the same things the same way.

Trenching tents was not recommended by Sierra Club mountaineering school in 1965, while still being recommended by Boy Scouts at that time. Boy Scouts eventually caught up, learned about leave no trace (at least some troops practice this--we have all seen super-slob troops) etc.

At the time Fletcher's book and also Basic Mountaineering by Henry Mandalf, San Diego Sierra Club Chapter, were written, they were still teaching the old cut-and-suck method of snakebite treatment, among many discontinued first aid treatments found in the books.

Te-wa, there is one of those for Tucson, and I got 100% on it and so did my daughter, so we are listed on there as native Tucsonans!

A P-38 is like an old car jack*, you need a degree in physics to figure it out. Whoever invented the pull-tab is my hero

* Was it really safe to jack a car up FOUR feet with a notched stick? Imagine doing that to a Honda Civic plastic bumper. Then again it'd be safer minus the extra few tons of car weight!

azbackpackr wrote:Te-wa, there is one of those for Tucson, and I got 100% on it and so did my daughter, so we are listed on there as native Tucsonans!

Was your daughter born here?

No, she was born in Hawaii, same as my boys were. But the Facebook game lists us as 100% Tucsonans. My daughter doesn't actually remember Hawaii, anyway--she was a year old when we moved to Tucson.

Agave Nectar wrote:http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gi ... 667&ref=ts
not by any means hiking info, but fun nonetheless

Those are great - for you youngsters

106) Remember Dewey Hopper-the weather guy who always wore school t-shirts

- Heck I remember Art Brock the weather guy and his "humididity" reports. I suppose they could start a Facebook group for those that grew up in the '50s in Phoenix - all 100 of us most of whom aren't too good at that socialnetworking stuff.

@Liz - what's the Facebook Game? I loved it when I got an aluminum frame - that old canvas Boy Scout pack chafed everywhere - back in the days before BodyGlide. We got by with the equipment we had and learned the necessary skills. I don't remember brands or names of equpment too well - and I got rid of stuff when I replaced it. Mostly we had military surplus but for me that was a function of being a Navy/Marine/Army Brat. I would love to find a "Whole Earth Catalog" - no relation to the current grocery store - to see what backpacking equipment was like back in the late 60's early 70's. It's interesting to see the clothing and gear Mallory used in his ascent of Everest (Chomolungma)

I think I still have a Whole Earth Catalog. It was falling apart, though, so I may have tossed it. Old newsprint just sort of gets powdery after 40 years!

I didn't remember all the brands, but have worked with the guy writing History of Gear, plus looking in my Colin Fletcher book to jog my memory.

I kept stuff because:
A)it still worked and was comfortable, and
B) I was poor and had 3 kids to teach backpacking skills to, plus the Scouts, and so all that gear came in handy. At the current time I probably own at least 4 external frame packs that I don't use, they are in the shed. I had them for the Scouts and to loan to my kids' friends who wanted to go on our trips. I used to have more of them, but gave several of them away over the years. I bought most of them at yard sales.

Oh, Al, those facebook games are something like "are you a true Tucsonan?" I am not sure how to find them on facebook.

JFK's assassination
gas below 30 cents/gallon
the Beatles on Ed Sullivan

Al_HikesAZ wrote:I would love to find a "Whole Earth Catalog"

http://wholeearth.com/back-issues.php