The Ek’s Files

Hello, my name is Dave, and I’m a mapaholic.

Being an occasional backpacker, I use topographic maps both for planning hikes and camping trips, and for navigating on the trail. My map of choice, just like practically everyone else, is the 7.5-minute USGS quad. I obtained my first one of these back in the late 80’s, before the internet, and before it was feasible to store much map data electronically (can you say “40 MB hard drive”?). I think I ended up ordering it from someplace, and it came in the mail rolled up in a cardboard tube. I think I just about wet my pants when I first unrolled it. It was soooo cool! The level of detail on that map (1 inch = 2000 ft) was more than I’d ever experienced, and I could determine the latitude and longitude of anything on the map. It wasn’t long before I could smugly recite the coordinates of my house down to the arc second or so.

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It’s makin’ me wait…

Sorry–couldn’t resist.

I’m anticipating a lot of things right now. Mostly, I’m longing for warmer temperatures and longer days. For a lot of reasons. Many things are on the workbench, waiting for meteorological conditions to be more favorable.

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For quite a while I’ve been keeping my eye out for some kind of case for my Garmin eTrex GPS. Most of the cases I’d seen thus far would attach to your belt just fine, but I wanted one that I could hook onto my backpack so that it would be exposed to the sky while I hiked (so it could make a track of my hiking route). I finally found this one, made by Gilsson Technologies. It’s a black neoprene zip-up case with clear plastic windows for the display and the buttons on either side. In addition, it has a loop for slipping it onto your belt, but it also has a plastic clip for fastening it to just about anything on your pack. I actually bought one on Ebay from FIS4HER COM GPS Gear (their price and shipping time were fantastic), and mine has a metal ring an a carabiner instead of the plastic clip. This case looks like a great little case that’ll work perfectly for backpacking, and the price is right.

My wife, Dot, had been nudging me for a couple of years–heck, ever since we started dating–to go skiing with her. Now, let me start by saying that this was not a Bad Thing; I’ve lived in Colorado now for nearly twenty years, but I had never gone skiing. I was one of those people, the guy who receives stares of incredulity whenever it became known that he had never skied. I admit that I was a little bit ashamed of my status.

So, when Dot suggested that we go skiing, I thought to myself, “What the heck? Let’s go! It’s about time, don’t you think?” And we scheduled a trip to Monarch ski resort. Read the rest of this entry »

Gang,

Well, QRP Afield 2007 has come and gone. As is customary, our merry little band assembled on Friday afternoon to begin the journey to our campsite for this year’s event. Dave NK0E, John N0HJ, and Steve N0MHQ made up our group this year. Steve N0TU, a regular for these events, was enjoying retired life by hitting the trail for a five-day venture with his goats and his brother-in-law and couldn’t join us this year. Our destination was once again along the Ute Creek Trail in the Lost Creek Wilderness west of Colorado Springs. This area is absolutely perfect for such adventures. It’s easily accessible, not far from water, but yet secluded and sparsely traveled. We can reach the trailhead in an hour and a half from Colorado Springs, the roads to the trailhead are good, and we can reach our campsite in less than an hour’s hike from the trailhead. Yet, we have *never* seen another hiker near our campsite (and I’ve camped in this area at least eight times over the years).

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