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The Old Geezers Hiking Club – Follow the Gnome and Pasayten on their high country adventures in the Methow Valley…
On these pages you will find accounts of the adventures of Pasayten, Gnome and friends as they backpack into some beautiful backcountry locations. Our home stomping grounds include the extensive backcountry surrounding the Methow Valley of Washington. Though we have lived in the valley for decades, there are many areas yet to explore. We also love to re-visit many favorite spots in the Sawtooths, the Pasayten Wilderness, North Cascades National Park, and the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
The Old Geezers (male or female) Hiking Club was set up so we can share our adventures, and just for the fun of it. The founding members love to hike and camp, and explore, and fish, and play cribbage in the warm sunshine along with a napping now and then. Because we are mature individuals, at least age-wise, and because we do like to enjoy our trips, we do our best to carry as little weight as possible. So, although we love to try out new ultra-lightweight backpacking equipment, both of us have accumulated more gear than any one hiker would ever need. Certain tried-and-proven items have survived not being replaced just because say, a titanium spoon is half the weight of that Spork or Foon. However making room, both volume and weight-wise, for new items we want to have with us challenges us to not ignore lighter-weight essential.
While no one likes to carry more weight – maybe any weight at all certain times – we have set a small ballpark bracket of how much we each should carry. The desired pack weight for 3-4 day trips is set at 30 pounds. Setting this weight limit challenges each of us to pack enough, and to pack what is needed – with a bit extra of certain items for emergencies, while not overtaxing our old bods. After all, these trips are supposed to be fun.
Just as we hope these pages will be fun, we will be sharing some tips and techniques, and information on gear we like. Along with being informative and amusing, we also hope to challenge those of our peers who perhaps have been claiming that they are too old to head out into the wilderness. It’s the journey now that concerns us though we do have destinations get to, and goals to achieve. At one-mile-per-hour average, it’s good that we have the time to make these trips. Join us at least here, if not out on the trail, as we have fun posting tales, truths and some fish stories along with pictures of our various adventures, epics, and explorations. We hope you will enjoy our sharing these with you.