One of my most used items recently has been the new KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape. I have used normal KT Tape over the last several years for whatever issue has ailed me from plantar fasciitis through knee pain. For those who haven’t used KT Tape before it is precut strips of stretchy, adhesive tape that are used to offer support for injuries. The company recently released the KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape targeted as a hot spot treatment to prevent blisters.

KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape is meant to be used prior to the formation of a blister to prevent it in the first place. The idea being to reduce friction. When you feel a hot spot forming you cover the spot with the Blister Tape and it prevents the rubbing and therefore the blister. When I hiked the Mayan Temple a few weeks back I placed KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape on the back of both heels about halfway through the hike after feeling the friction.

I have recently taken to using the tape as a complete preventative that I put on the night before a hike or activity. KT Tape says that the Blister Tape will last around 2 days, even with showering, and that seems to be about right. KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape is easy to use as the strips are precut and have a band aide like paper backing. Just pull of the paper backing and slap the tape wherever you are feeling a little heat. Once I throw it on I haven’t had any issues with it moving or rubbing off like I have had with Moleskin.

KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape comes in a package of 30 small strips for $10. It is available in black or beige (skin colorish) and comes in a plastic carrying case. The case is useful if you want to throw it in a gym bag so that the roll of tape doesn’t get all messed up. I can’t recommend KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape enough. It has saved me from blisters on several occasions now, it is super easy to use, and pretty cost effective at 33 cents per strip. I keep a coupe strips in my medical kit and in each of my survival kits just in case.

The link below is to Amazon
KT Performance+ Blister Prevention Tape

On Sunday, 11/03/2019, we set out to hike to the top of Deception Peak. The goal was for this to be our first winter hike as Santa Fe, NM received about 4” of snow in the week before. Being from Arkansas originally we have done absolutely no snow hiking. So we got up around 6am, the extra hour of sleep was awesome, so that we could grab Starbucks and be on the road to Santa Fe by 7am. The drive took about a hour and a half to reach the trailhead in the Santa Fe National Forest and right by Ski Santa Fe. We were only the third car at the trailhead. We got loaded up and started around 8:30am with a temperature of around 30 degrees.

The first mile is a gradual uphill through a pine forest. There was a stream right by the start that was frozen over but you could hear the water running underneath the ice. At the mile-ish mark we hit a fence. At this point we were supposed to make a sharp right hand turn to go up Raven’s Ridge but we missed the turn and continued on until All Trails alerted us that we were off course. We turned around and located our turn on the second try. There seemed to be about 2” of snow still left so we put on some REI low hiking gaiters that we had purchased the week before to keep snow out of our shoes. It was definitely a good call.

We followed the trail down a barb wire fence on a gradual uphill for another mile before making another sharp right hand turn to head up towards Deception Peak. We saw our first few views on this section of the trail including frozen Nambe Lake down below. That might be our hiking objective next week. We hiked upwards for the next mile or so up to about 12,000’. The trail has two slight downhill sections to break up the ascent but we could tell they would be a pain coming back.

Once we broke through the tree line the wind picked up like crazy. To the point that it felt like it would almost blow you over. The snow disappeared at this point and it was just a straight hike up loose rock to the ridge and a short walk down the ridge to the summit of Deception Peak. We took a few pictures from the summit and then I decided to give the ridge scramble across to Lake Peak a try. Supposedly this was a class 3 scramble that depending on who you ask was either rather difficult or easy. Safe to say I found it rather difficult. I managed to snake my way back and forth across the ridge looking for a path to the halfway point. Then I encountered a bit of an obstacle that I tried to down climb around. But I decided it was too sketchy for me and turned back. Somewhere along the scramble back I managed to rip the top of my new gaiters. Hopefully I can repair them with some sort of patch.

After I got back to Deception Peak we again trudged through the crazy winds back to the tree line. We accidentally overshot the trail back down and made it most of the way to the top of the Ski Santa Fe lifts. Rather than backtrack through the wind we just made a diagonal path across and hit the trail around the tree line. Then we slipped and slid most of the way back down to the car.

Total distance according All Trails was 7.5 miles using my iPhone. My Apple Watch using Strava came out to 8.4 miles. I like to claim the extra distance using Strava with a moving time of 4 hours and 1 minute which makes for an average speed of 2.1 mph, definitely not blazing fast. On the way home we had to stop at a Ikonic Coffee Roasters for some coffee and bagels! It did end up being a much longer day than expected and we didn’t get home until around 2pm

I will say this hike was a bit of a tough sludge up the hill in the snow. And it was rather disappointing to not get to the top of Lake Peak. But the views from Deception Peak were pretty awesome and I would give our first snow outing a big thumbs up. Other than the crazy winds at the top the temperatures were pretty manageable and we never got too cold. We are both in agreement that Santa Fe might be our new location for a little while.
​
Gear used for this trip (Links are to Amazon)
Pack - Osprey Stratos 24L
Poles - Black Diamond Trail Sport 3
Water Bladder - Osprey Hydraulics LT 2.5L
Shoes - Salomon XA Pro 3D GTX
Gloves - Black Diamond Mont Blanc
Gaiters - REI Backpacker Low (Link to comparable product)
GPS - alltrails.com on iPhone
GPS - Strava on Apple Watch

In my Pack (Links are to my site)
Survival Kit
Water Filter - Sawyer Micro Squeeze
Dog Kit
Medical Pouch

Similar to my Survival Kits I have a water filter kit. This is all part of How I Organize my Hiking Gear, which you can read using the link to my older post. But basically I keep all of the gear I commonly use for hiking organized by use and in ready to go Magpul DAKA pouches. This lets me pick a pack based on the hike I’m going to do and then fill it up quickly with the pouches I will need. It makes packing a breeze!

In my water filter pouch I keep everything I need for filtering water while out hiking or camping. The kit is based around the Sawyer Squeeze filter system. I have had a Sawyer Squeeze for years but I recently purchased a Sawyer Micro Squeeze to try. A lot of people have had issues with the flow rate on the Sawyer Squeeze Mini so fingers crossed. I will write a review of the Sawyer Micro Squeeze after I’ve put it through it through some decent testing.

My kit includes these specific items (the links go to Amazon):

• Sawyer Micro Squeeze
• CNOC 2L dirty water bag
• Sawyer Squeeze 1L soft bottle
• Backfilling syringe for the Sawyer Mini
• Sawyer Squeeze thread adapter

For those who haven’t used the Sawyer Squeeze water filter system I would strongly recommend it. If I can manage to work it anyone can. The Sawyer Mini and Micro are available for $20-30 and you can get the original Sawyer Squeeze as a kit with soft bottles and everything you need for around $50.

One must have addition to the Sawyer Squeeze is a better dirty water bag and I can’t recommend the CNOC dirty water bag enough. It has a huge opening on one end that allows you to fill the bottle from any source in seconds. Fold the opening over and close the slider and you can easily carry around 2L. To filter water from it you simply unscrew the other end and screw it directly into the Sawyer Squeeze. Then turn it upside down and you are filtering water. The included Sawyer soft bottles will work but the small opening can make filling them from certain water sources an act in patience.

I use a hydration bladder when I hike so I like to carry a Sawyer soft water bottle and the thread adapter so that you can filter clean water into the soft bottle. Then you can take the soft bottle and pour the water into your hydration bladder. I have found it to just be a mess to try and filter water directly into into a soft water bladder. Because I have heard of the issues with the Sayer Micro Squeeze jamming up I bring the included syringe with. It is used to backflush the filter by pushing water in the opposite direction you filter water. This is to clean the filter out and restore flow rate.

This whole system including the small Magpul DAKA pouch (6”x9”) weighs in at 259 grams. For those who are curious the Sawyer Micro Squeeze by itself weighs 66 grams. But the purpose of packing my gear this way is that when I want to have the ability to filter water while hiking I can simply grab my water filter pouch and I know I have everything I will need. One tip though is to keep the CNOC dirty water bag at the top of the pouch. This way you can get it out without having to take everything else out. So if you come across a water source but don’t want to take the time to filter water right then you can quickly fill up the dirty water pouch, throw it into your pack, and then filter your dirty water later when you stop for a break.

This past weekend we hiked Mount Taylor which is an extinct volcano about 50 miles west of Albuquerque on I-40. Mount Taylor tops out at 11,301ft but has a prominence of 4,094ft. I was told to expect some fantastic views and I can say that Mount Taylor did not disappoint. I would actually venture to say this was the best hike to date in New Mexico. It was enough of a challenge but not so difficult that all of the fun was removed. And the views, the views were spectacular. We planned to hike Mount Taylor via the Gooseberry Trail which is the most common route to the summit. All Trails has the route as 6.2 miles round trip with 2,017ft of elevation gain.


Our trip hit a snag called three snoozed alarms at 6am. We both had long weeks so the motivation to get out of a warm bed was not high. Eventually we made it up and on the road with quick stops for gas and coffee. The trip to the trailhead took about 90 minutes. Most of the drive was down I-40 to Grants, NM then onto New Mexico Highway 547 with the last 5 miles down Forest Service Road 193 which was a well maintained dirt road. The trail head was small with only parking for about 5 cars however, we were only the second car there. We got all of our gear on and leashed up our German Shepherd who was coming with for this trip and set off at around 9am with a temperature of around 38 degrees.


The first 1.5 miles of the hike felt relatively flat although it was actually a slight incline. We were in a pine forest that makes for an easy start to the hike. Before we exited the forest we passed through some Aspen groves which I think are the prettiest trees ever. Just look at some of those pictures. Next the hike opened up into a huge field and really started the uphill. It felt weird to be out in a meadow like environment in New Mexico, I mean there was actually grass! At this point our view really started to open up and we get a hint of what this hike will be. The next six tenths of a mile was a solid uphill section that really got the heart rate going but then it eased up for a bit and the the trail wrapped around the mountain. This point had some stunning views of the elevation we still had to gain and of the surrounding hills.


As we continued around we come to see Mount Taylor and across the gully and the couple of switchbacks that lead to the top. I think when you can look across at a mountain and see the trail trace its way up is just one of the coolest sights in hiking. The last 1.2 miles had about 900ft of elevation gain to the summit. The path was a series of three switchbacks that had a bunch of wind exposure. We had to throw our rain jackets back on after warming up earlier. The last switchback provided a bit of a false summit that was a tad demoralizing. However, we only had about three tenths of a mile with not too much incline left to the summit of Mount Taylor.


At the top there is a big summit sign with the mountains elevation. We relaxed for a few minutes to eat snacks and took pictures before starting back downhill to the car. The whole trip took us 3 hours and 13 minutes with 2 hours and 52 of that moving. We covered 7 miles with 2,034ft of elevation gain averaging 2.4mph. We definitely sped way up on the downhill thanks to the German Shepherd tank who wanted to do the return at a solid trot. We stopped at Mount Taylor Coffee Co. in Grants for coffee and a muffin before making the drive back to Albuquerque.


Overall I can’t recommend this trail enough. It had some solid sections of incline but nothing that was just demoralizing or rough on the knees for the descent. Plus who doesn’t love a good series of switchbacks with a wide open view back across the way. The views were fantastic and unlike anything I’ve seen in New Mexico to date. I felt like I was in Colorado. The open fields provided a fantastic view of the Sandia’s and Monzano’s back to the east. Mount Taylor might not be the tallest mountain but its’ prominence completely makes up for it.

Gear Used (Links to Amazon)
​Pack - Osprey Stratos 24L
Poles - Black Diamond Trail Sport 3
Water Bladder - Camelbak Crux 1.5L
Shoes - Saucony Peregrine ISO
GPS - alltrails.com on iPhone
GPS - Strava on Apple Watch

In my Pack (Links to my Posts)
​Survival Kit
Water Filter - Sawyer Micro Squeeze
Dog Kit
Medical Pouch

The Osprey Katari 7L is a hydration backpack designed for quick hikes or mountain biking. Osprey offers a male specific version, the Katari, and a female specific, Kitsuma, and three sizes: 1.5, 3, and 7 liter options. The one I purchased from backcountry.com for $75 is the Katari 7L which includes a 2.5L Osprey Hyrdaulics LT hydration bladder. I purchased the Katari to be a primary daypack for super light hikes or to be the secondary pack for my wife on our more normal outings.

Overview
Size wise the Osprey Katari is solid when you want to go pretty light. It’ll hold our pretty beefy medical kit, one of my Hiking Survival Kits, a balled up light rain jacket, and the 2.5L water bladder. If I am planning to hike more than a couple of hours or in weather conditions that require more clothing options or gear I’m going to reach for something a little bigger. Usually for us it plays the role of a secondary pack where I carry an Osprey Daylite 13L pack and my wife carries the Osprey Katari 7L.

Working from the outside in, the Osprey Katari 7L has two mesh pouches, one on either side (the 1.5 and 3 liter versions don’t have mesh pouches). They will hold water small bottles or Clif bars without issue and haven’t stretched out. There really isn’t anything else on the outside of the pack which makes it a sleek setup but removes some flexibility. It would be really nice to have a lash point for trekking poles. The best option I’ve found is to stick trekking poles down the external water bladder, handles first and careful not to puncture the bladder. But it is really a less than ideal solution as they stick out pretty high overhead. There is a detachable hip belt but as it is just a webbing belt with no pockets we don’t use it. The Katari is pretty small and stable so I don’t ever feel the need for the hip-belt.

The main pouch of the Osprey Katari is accessed with a zipper that runs almost the length of the pack with a Velcro closure at the top. This actually works pretty well because it gives you access to the entire pack without having to remove things to get to the bottom. Which is useful because being a small and thin pack you will end up packing things the length of the Katari. Inside the main compartment are two small mesh pockets and two hook points. This gives you a place to store smaller items but we seldom use them. It isn’t an efficient place to put keys or your wallet because they are smack in the middle of the compartment as opposed to the top.

The water bladder compartment is actually an external one that is between the main storage compartment and the foam backing. It is accessed by two clips at the top of the pack. You then slide you water bladder down and clip it in. There is also a small zippered pocket accessed from the water bladder compartment. This is the place to store your keys, wallet, headlamp, etc. It is very easy to access although it needs a little clip for your keys which is a common feature on a lot of other Osprey packs. The water bladder tube exits right out of the top of the compartment. There are routing options for either shoulder strap and the sternum strap clasp has a magnet attachment point for the the included magnet on the water bladder tube. The magnet system is really nice for keeping the drinking tube of your water bladder in place. My issue is the attachment point on the sternum strap clasp. This is different from how Osprey usually does it where the attachment point is a slider that you can move back and forth across the sternum strap. To me this isn’t flexible and doesn’t work for everyone. It works perfectly for my wife but it makes the bite valve poke me in the side so I just don’t end up using the magnet attachment point.

The mesh backing of the Osprey Katari is solid. It does about the best job of breathing that it can, being a foam backing without any structure to keep it off of your back. I haven’t had any problems with the Katari riding uncomfortably or anything. You will definitely get a sweaty back but that is going to happen with any foam backed pack. The positive side is that without any structure the Osprey Katari can be rolled up decently small if you want to stuff it into a larger pack to use as a day pack on bigger trips.

Osprey Hyrdraulics LT 2.5L
The included water bladder is the Osprey Hydraulics LT 2.5L bladder. The smaller Katari packs get a 1.5L. I like the Osprey Hydraulics but a lot of it will come down to personal preference. I also have Camelbaks and to me each has positives and negatives. The Osprey Hydraulics has a huge top opening that utilizes a slider closure similar to a CNOC bag which is awesome but for some reason it isn’t as wide as the top of the bag. They actually narrow the bag just a bit before the slider. So you can fit your hand in it for cleaning but it’s tight. Also Osprey put two stabilizing attachments that connect the inside of the bag to the sides which means you can’t fit your hand down to the bottom to dry the bladder out. The bladder hose can be set up to route over your right or left shoulder. But I really wish the hose had a quick release from the bladder similar to my Camelbak. A quick detach is super useful for cleaning and drying. The bite valve comparison is a wash to me and both the Osprey and Camelbak have a solid one with the ability to lock it out. Bite valve is pretty much all personal preference.

Summary
Overall I would recommend the Osprey Katari 7L Pack and the size is solid for I wanted it for. But the overall design seems to be more geared at mountain biking than hiking. Feature wise the slick exterior and internal mesh pockets on are great for not snagging the pouch on trees or organizing your bike tools but the lack of trekking pole attachments is annoying. Size wise 7L doesn’t sound like a lot of room and it isn’t but it will do the job for shorter hikes. It does a great job if it is the second pack in a two person group which is how we commonly use it on day hikes. We only start to reach for other packs when you have to carry extra clothes or foresee taking off jackets and needing a place for them. It still performs great by itself if the hike is under four hours or so and on trail.

The build quality is solid and in general I am a big fan of Osprey packs and have like four of them. $75 is pretty reasonable in my book considering it includes the water bladder which usually runs for around $35 by itself.

The Osprey Katari 7L weighed in at 338g on my little kitchen scale and the Osprey Hydraulics LT 2.5L weighed in at 164g.

Review Background
Just so that there is no confusion this was not in anyway shape or form a paid review and we don’t do paid reviews. I purchased this particular item with my own money for my own use.

Support Us
Below is a link to the Osprey Katari 7L on Amazon. If you end up purchasing the Katari from Amazon we get a small percentage back at absolutely no cost to you. Thanks for reading!

Osprey Katari 7L on Amazon

Our very first hike after moving to New Mexico was a trip to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument commonly just referred to as Tent Rocks. The park is managed by BLM and is about 50 miles north of Albuquerque. I would recommend this as the one place to take a visitor to New Mexico if can only do one hike.


We left at around 7am so that we made it to the park not long after it opened at 8am. I would recommend getting to Tent Rocks on the early side. New Mexico is notorious for nice mornings that quickly give way to hot afternoons but Tent Rocks also gets very crowded very quickly. There are actually signs along the route in that tell you from that point approximately how long your wait is to enter the park. The signs went out to well over an hour. However, it only took us a few minutes. There is a fee station as you enter the park where you pay your $5 entry fee and get a map and directions to the parking areas. Once we finished the short drive to the trailhead it was time to hike.


There are really only two trails in Tent Rocks and they are meant to be hiked together. The first is called Cave Loop Trail and is a 1.2 miles long loop. The second is the Slot Canyon Trail which is a point to point hike that begins about half a mile down the Cave Loop Trail. The Slot Canyon Trail is 1 mile each way so that doing both of the comes out to roughly 3.2 miles with 839 feet of elevation gain according to alltrails.com. (My favorite site for hiking routes)


The Cave Loop Trail is more or less a gravel path so it starts off pretty easy. However, once you start the Slot Canyon Trial you are in for some climbing over rocks and navigating down the narrow canyons. I wouldn’t call it an an exertion but I would definitely bring some water and appropriate clothing for a hike. The Slot Canyon Trail takes you through the canyon and past numerous lava rock formations that are the namesake of the park. They are definitely impressive to look at and very hard to capture in words or pictures.


All of the elevation gain on the hike is in a mile section that ascends to the top of the park. It definitely gets the heart rate up and makes you aware that 6,000ft above sea level is an adjustment. But the view down onto the tent rock formations is amazing. We enjoyed the view for a little bit and then began the descent back down and through the canyon. We stopped along the way for several “gram” worthy photos.


One word of warning with Tent Rocks is the crowds. Safe to say this is not a hike to enjoy a remote section of nature. Due to the proximity to Albuquerque and the sheer uniqueness of the Tent Rock formations large crowds of people come to the park. It is wonderful that so many people are taking time to experience the outdoors but many come unprepared. Probably because of the short overall distance many people neglect to bring water or wear proper clothing for a hike. Not to mention the hike does have almost 1k feet of elevation gain and tops out north of 6,000ft above sea level. So many people can be more than a tad bit rude while hiking about yielding the way or allowing faster hikers to pass. Several sections of the trail only allow for one person at a time through the canyon and require a little coordination as the trail has hikers going both directions. Either way it is a small price to pay to enjoy one of the most unique trails in New Mexico. But I would strongly recommend coming prepared for a hike even though the trail appears to be quit “easy”. It will make for a much better experience.


My GPS listed our hike as 2.9 miles but it had a BUNCH of issues maintaining a solid path through the slot canyons. Not to mention it just completely turned off for a section of the Cave Loop Trail. It showed 817ft in elevation gain in one hour and fifteen minutes of moving time. I don’t know that I would call this my favorite hike in New Mexico so far, I preferred La Luz, but from a sheer accessibility and uniqueness standpoint it is pretty unparalleled.

Let us know what you thought of Tent Rocks and follow us on instagram at day_hiker_chronicles for pictures of Tent Rocks or on All Trails: Jarred G to see our hikes.

So I mentioned previously on my post about how I organize my gear that I keep everything I need for a certain task in labeled Magpul Daka pouches (read about my setup here). For example I have one for water filtering, survival, dog stuff, medical, etc. Basically this setup allows me to just grab the pouches necessary for a particular hike that I’m going on, throw them in my pack, and I’m ready to go. It is super efficient especially when hiking can’t take up your entire weekend because the house needs vacuuming and the yard needs mowing.


Today I’m going to cover what I keep in my survival pouches. I actually have two of these made up as my wife and I commonly hike together. Usually we only take one but if we expect a bit of a rougher hike or are planning to go off trail we will both take one.


There are commonly referred to as the 10 essentials of camping: Navigation, Light Source, Sun Protection, First Aid, Knife, Fire, Shelter, Food, Water, and Clothing. So my kits address most of these items and some extra stuff that I like to have.


My kit includes these specific items (the links go to Amazon and we get a small percentage at no cost to you):

• Brunton Classic Compass
• Black Diamond Spot Headlamp w/spare batteries
• Gerber Pocket Knife
• Bic Lighter in Exotac waterproof case
• Flint w/Striker
• Mini Inferno fire starter
• Potable Aqua Water purification tablets
• Space Brand Emergency Blanket
• Coleman Hand Warmers
• Emergency Whistle
• Paracord or 550 cord
• KT Blister Tape
• Thread and metal wire

Get a compass meant for use with a topographical map. I would also get one with built in declination adjustment and just set it for the area in which you commonly hike. Also, some idea of how to use it.


With headlamps it is important to get one like the Black Diamond Spot that has a button lockout or to remove the batteries when not using it. Otherwise the button could accidentally get pressed in your pack or in your gear room so that when you reach for your headlamp because your hike has gone late you don’t find a dead headlamp. I also carry a spare set of batteries for my headlamp.


For a knife I would just recommend whatever small folding pocketknife you have. Don’t carry a Rambo knife no matter how cool it looks!


For fire starting I like to have several options. My attitude is if I’m going for my fire starting materials something has gone really wrong. Cold, wet, or tired is not the time to test your fire starting abilities. So I always carry two methods of producing a flame/spark and some sort of fire assist. There are all sorts of them on the market. The Mini Inferno are small discs of cloth soaked in petroleum and hardened. They are easy to get going and give you time to start building up the fire.


I usually carry an actual water filter when I hike but no matter what I always have water purification tablets in my survival pack. They are there as a last resort.


I don’t really feel the need to carry a full on emergency bivy on most of my hikes. Maybe in the winter I would do differently. I do carry a small emergency blanket that can be used as some form of shelter in a worst case situation. I also throw a couple hand warmers in my pouch just to keep the mind happy with the ability to warm up extremities.


On top of the recommended items I keep an emergency whistle in my pouches. The noise can travel much further than a human voice in the event you take a fall or get lost off trail. I also have 550 or paracord which is just a thin diameter static cord. I have 30ft or so that is useful if you need to fix a pack strap or lash things together. I also have some string and metal wire just because they are small and easy to carry.


I didn’t address medical supplies because I always carry a dedicated medical kit when I hike. Really the only time I don’t have medical supplies is on a short trail run. But I did throw a few strips of KT Blister Tape strips in my emergency pouches because it works great when you start feeling a hot spot on your feet.


Some of the top 10 hiking necessities can’t be addressed in an emergency kit. Food is separate item but I will commonly throw a dehydrated meal in pack that I can always cold soak and eat if I get stuck out overnight. My medical kit has sun screen in it but I always put it on before I even start my hike. It is super easy to burn at 6k plus feet above sea level. Obviously you need to dress appropriately for the conditions and carry a rain jacket. In a dry climate like New Mexico carry more water than you think you will need.


So that is the contents of my survival kit. At least one of these pouches goes on every single hike that I do. My survival kit including the pouch weighs in at 665 grams. So at over a pound this is not really a “light” way to do things. I could definitely trim a few things or go with more expensive versions to save weight. But this is a simple and efficient setup. When I go to pack for a hike I don’t have to remember all of the individual items above but instead I can just grab the whole pouch, throw it in my pack and I’m good to go. The efficiency makes up for the weight in my book.

This last weekend we set out to do an off trail hike to Peak 8304 or Peak 8300 or Mayan Temple depending on who you ask. We wanted to try an off trail route a to a nice point of prominence a try. I noticed Peak 8304 while hiking La Luz a couple weeks ago and thought sitting on the top would be pretty cool. There is already a route to the peak in alltrails.com which is titled “Peak 8304 via Pedra Lisa Trail.” So we figured we would give that route a try.


We got up around 7am on Sunday and made it to the Pedra Lisa Trailhead around 8am. On the drive it was pretty cool to see all of the hot air balloons that were up for the last day of the Balloon Fiesta. The weather was pretty solid with a temperature around 44 degrees when we started and around 68 degrees when we finished. The route follows the Pedra Lisa Trail for right around two miles. And boy were they a couple of steep miles. We gained 1,000ft of elevation is those two miles. Which doesn’t sound like whole bunch but it was the unrelenting straight up nature unlike the switchbacks of La Luz.


At mile 2 we were set to go off trail to reach Peak 8304 but it turned out that there was a rough, unnamed trail that we were able to follow. It was pretty hard to keep in some places and we got off trail at least once but it was definitely easier than a full on bushwhack. There are several cairns along the route to help but mostly we followed washouts. It is right around 0.8 miles of off trail section to reach the bottom of Peak 8304 and then another 0.2 miles to the top.


Peak 8304 has around 290ft of prominence so you are covering that elevation in that 0.2 miles and boy is it steep. Most of the climb is that awkward incline where you don’t want to use trekking poles but it isn’t a full on scramble where you can use your hands to help climb. The dirt was also surprisingly wet and a little muddy which made for slow going. The last 100ft or so is a full on scramble to the summit. There is not much exposure for the scrambling and ropes aren’t necessary. The views from the top are phenomenal and the pictures really don’t do it justice. The drop off to either side of the peak is pretty significant so you feel like you are completely out in the open with an unobstructed view. We took a break on the top to eat some snacks and just enjoy the view.


We found a mason jar with an informal summit log of sorts jammed into the rocks so we added our names. There were also some stickers and cards for a cool little blog: A Couple of Drifters. I would recommend giving their site a look if you like travel blogs. After our break we scrambled and stumbled our way down Peak 8304 without injury. A short hike got us back onto the Pedra Lisa Trail and down to our car.


For those wanting to get off the beaten path it was a solid hike. The views along the way were nice but the constant upwards gradient didn’t really make for an enjoyable hike. Even coming down the grade made solid foot placement important and I lost my footing and slid a couple of times. It really ended up being one of those hikes that was all for the payoff of the summit. And the summit views did not disappoint.


Our total distance ended up being 6.5 miles with 1,864ft of elevation gain. Our total hike time was 3 hours and 42 minutes with about 21 minutes of that being breaks along the way. So definitely some slow going but a successful summit attempt no matter what you call the peak.

I actually organize most of my gear very differently than your typical hiker. The reason I do this is to make getting ready for a trip and cleaning up afterwards easier. I remember the days of when I would take a hour plus to get all of my stuff packed up the night before, spend a couple hours hiking, and then spend over another hour cleaning up and putting away the gear I took. It made it really easy to feel like it was more work prepping/cleaning then time I spent enjoying the outdoors. Which meant it really cut down on my desire to go hiking or camping.

Most organized hikers will have a gear room/closet where they will have some method of placing various like items of gear together. A lot of times you will see shelving with big plastic totes and if the person is super organized the plastic totes will be labeled with whatever kind of gear they contain. That is a solid way to do things especially if you have a bunch of different varieties of one piece of gear. However, I organize my gear so that I can most efficiently gather it together for a trip and put it back when I’m done.

I organized my commonly used gear for hiking by its function and put all of the items necessary to serve that function together. Then I placed all of the items for a particular function into Magpul Daka Pouches. The Daka Pouches are just an easy means of holding all of the items I would need for a singular task. I have one for my water filter, one for the dogs, two survival pouches, and a medical kit that all sits together. I plan to do some more detailed posts about what all I keep in each pouch but take my water filter pouch for example. Inside the pouch I have my Sawyer Mini water filter, CNOC dirty water bag, a clean water bag, and the syringe for back flushing the Sawyer Mini. That is realistically everything I would need to use my water filter and it is all in one place. The other pouches are set up similarly for their purpose. This setup means that if I have my water filtration Daka Pouch I have everything I need to filter water.

In my gear closet I actually use a shower curtain rode to hang up all of my various packs ranging from backpacking packs on the big end all the way down to my hydration pack on the small end. I then got some buckets and placed all of my food in one and all of my Daka Pouches in the other. This setup means that the night before I go hiking I can decide which pack would work best for the distance I’m going, then I decide which Daka Pouches I need, and how much food I want to take.

Example: La Luz Trail just outside of Albuquerque, NM. We were planning to hike up then traverse across to a cable tramway, eat lunch, and then ride the tramway down. Total distance was roughly 8 miles with 3,700ft of elevation gain. I grabbed my Osprey Daylite pack which is a 13L daypack. I then grabbed a Daka Pouch for survival essentials, water filter, and my medical kit. I grabbed a thing of freeze dried food and several Clif Bars. Threw all of that and a 1.5L Camelbak into my pack and I was done packing in literally 10 minutes.

The Daka Pouches are definitely not the lightest, I’m not really a gram counter, but the system is set up around efficiency and in that way it excels. I know when I grab one of the pouches it contains everything that I would need and I can grab various pouches based on the demands of my hike or trail run.

Below are links to Amazon for some of the products I mentioned above (if you click through the links we get a small percentage back on purchases at no cost to you)

​Magpul DAKA Pouch
​Osprey Packs Daylite Daypack 13L
​Sawyer Water Filtration System
​Cnoc Vecto 3L Water Container
CamelBak Crux 2L Water Reservoir

Which ones are your favorites? I am a big fan of the Smokey the bear. My Wife liked the yellow lab one.