u/BoredomFestival

Thunderstorms most of the hike up, so had to pitch the tent quickly during a lull in the rain. Happy with the pitch.

A couple of years ago, did a short backpack in the Mineral King area of SEKI, where the marmots are notorious for attacking salty things. I was using my XMid non-Pro, and the handles of my poles were salty from sweat, so the marmots crawled under my vestibule, grabbed the poles and dragged them out (along with my sweaty hat) and proceeded to chow down. (Fortunately a friend was nearby and prevented them from dragging the poles to somewhere I couldn't find them!)

I'm going back in August and don't relish a repeat experience. Any suggestions for deterring them? Maybe:

- Wrap the handles in plastic bags?

- Apply some unpleasant smelling/tasting stuff to the handles (that won't be a problem for me the next day without scrubbing the handles somehow)?

- Something else?

(BTW, Komperdell fixed the handles at no charge! The hat was a total loss, sadly)

EDIT: I see there was a previous post on this: TL;DR: wash handles before trip, wear fingerless hiking gloves, then try to rinse the handles late in the day to minimize salt. Some people suggest using the poles handles-up in this situation (which the non-Pro isn't designed for) so you'd have to be in a non-windy area (which, sadly, this is not).

EDIT 2: TarpTent sells adapters to make handle-up pole usage more robust for tents that are designed for handle-down. They're cheap, so I'll give them a try too.

EDIT 3: bring alternate poles to use in this location and hide the trekking poles.

I bought it because it just looks cool. The original owner bought it at an antique shop. The bottle is sealed shut and that’s all the info I have. When I transported it home it was lying horizontally, and there were substantially more bubbles than you see now. Any hypotheses would be great. Thanks

My dog dug this up in my yard, in Eastern Pennsylvania, USA, close to the surface. I suppose it could be part of a decorative bottle or vase, but the edges are not sharp and the pattern doesn’t seem uniform enough to be man made. It looks like a fossilized fungus, but that’s not a thing.

On the last days of school, I saw this box of blue peaches, the rest were yellow. Someone at the lunch table tried them and said it tasted really bad. What would have turned the peaches blue?