About a month ago and a half ago, a fellow member on various forums, including this one, CloaknDagger, and I set off to The Gorge in southern Washington, for a weekend. We were just itching to go hiking along the canyon in the snow.

The day of the hike was just beautiful.

Here's Delicourt Hill before the hike.



Here's Deilcourt Hill when we left for the hike.



On the way we found some tracks that could possibly be mountain lion tracks.





After about 7 hours of hiking along the along canyon we took a break down by the riverside.





All in all, the trek was good. We made it back safe and sound.

Thanks for the pictures, Sharp. That is pretty country. Looks like ya'll had a good hike. I'd have to buy a whole new outdoor outfit to hike up there. I guess you had insulated boots and long johns, too. Stay warm. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Great pics. Its been 2 years since I have hiked in the snow. Thanks for sharing.

Nice pics Sharp!

I probably have enough cold weather gear for you Vic if you ever want to come up here. Right now I have the thick wool liners from my CF mukluks on as slippers.
I even found a really nifty pair of CF sniper mitts. They have 2 layers a wool mitt and then a leather and nylon one that go over them and they have a trigger finger. I was going to use them on the quad this winter but I have been to lazy to get out much. My only friend with a quad moved back to Winnipeg.

Those are great pics but it looks warm. I hope you guys stick around and show us more pics. We have Vic and Pitman but can always use more.

Excellent pics, Sharp! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Looks like a fun, but cold hike. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I envy you Sharp, to be able to hike in such beautiful country. Thanks for the pics.

Great pics Sharp, thanks for sharing them.

That was one heck of hike in some really beautiful country

Thanks for sharing the pics

Dan

Thanks everyone.

The beginning of our hike was not freezing. We were able to hike in our t-shirts after a about 20-30 min of hiking. We checked the thermometer before we left. It was around 32-34.



Later, it did begin to snow and became colder, wearing t-shirts just wouldn't do. I'm not sure if you can see the snow in this pic. I took it the minute the first snow flake dropped.



Here's a another one of the river. If you look closely, you can see the tracks on the bottom of the photo.



Interestingly enough, the tracks continue across the river.



We also went across the river, but this was done further along the canyon. There we found a strange tree. I wonder what happened to it.



And of course knives... mind you these were taken before the hike.





And here is a mind boggling pic of a slanted forest.

wow these pics are even better!
I love the knife one and the slanted forest one.

how do you think the FFBM compares to the rtak?

eatingmuchface,

RTAK, as it was intended to be a machete beats the FBM hands down in clearing. It's much quicker and the thinner profile easily levels down vegetation. It quite a good chopper too.

The FBM, is far better at chopping and splitting. It can cut vegetation, but not as well due to the thickness. In fact, if it does go through small branches and stuff what's gonna stop it? The heft is a little too much for machete work. But as a wood gather of branches 3" to 4" it works extremely well. This is were the heft comes in play. Plus, it's made from INFI.

Honestly, though, the FBM and RTAK are more of general tasks fix blades. They cover a wider variety of camp chores adequately. Unfortunately, they ain't no hatchet or axe. I would rather have decent hatchet for chopping wood than the FBM or RTAK. However, the FBM is fun as hell to use on wood and the RTAK is just a good machete.