I've been to the FSR Safety Info site. I've been to Sites & Trails. I've cross-checked everything against Back Road Status to make sure they're open. I've done so much homework my eyes are swimming.

And I still don't know where to head tomorrow.

I'm coming from New Westminster and a friend will be catching up, so I'm not trying to range too far. I was considering Vedder Mountain, which isn't too far. Or maybe Tamihi Creek. Or perhaps I should go the other direction and check out Florence Lake.

The problem I'm running into is that I can't really seem to find much info on what the areas are actually like, or even the real conditions of the roads leading up to them.

I'm with a dog that loves to hike, so having trail options is key. Also, my friend will be following in a sedan, so I can't pick anywhere too rough of a ride in.

That all in mind, I'd love to hear some thoughts or suggestions on where to go. Thanks!

I'm a visiting sandal hiker whose footwear tends to be minimal on arch support. This is great for wild trails, where I can go an entire day on uneven terrain without stopping, but it's bad for densely packed flat trails. Like at Pacific Spirit, where just three hours was enough to fatigue my feet so much they still ache a day later.

Are there any uneven / rough trails within the city that I can hit up? It doesn't have to be particularly difficult or anything, it just needs to be not-flat.

One of my dog's favorite things in the world is a Vancouver beach during low tide. We'll be visiting again for the first time in a number of years, and I just found out that parking at the beach proper is now $4.25 an hour.

Between gas prices and everything else, this has been a costly road trip at it is, and it'd really help to save money where I can. I don't mind a walk; is there anywhere near(ish) to the beaches with more reasonable parking rates? Doesn't have to be free (though that'd be nice), just ideally cheaper than $13 for a three-hour visit.

There are two Filipino superstitions that I noticed I do not observe in the States.

The first is saying "Tabi po" when passing beneath a large tree (it's our way of asking permission of the tree spirits as we step across their thresholds). Back in the Philippines I'll absolutely do it, especially under large, old mango trees. In the States, I'll walk through old growth forests and never think to do it once. The idea of American trees having spirits just seems so unbelievable to me, whereas I don't question that Philippine trees do.

The other is "making pagpag," which literally means shaking the dirt off your shoes, but in the Philippines it's the practice of going to an intermediate location (like a convenience store or fast-food place) after leaving a cemetery, so that you can "lose" the spirits that followed you. I have no problem going directly home from an American graveyard, but I would never lead the spirits straight to my house if I were back in the Philippines.

What superstitions do you find you uphold (or abandon) when you travel abroad?

I'm meeting up with an old friend I haven't seen in a few years, and we'll be hanging out for a couple days of getting high and playing video games. We're looking for something fun that we'll either be able to finish in those couple of days, or it won't matter if we "finish" it or not.

To that end, something like It Takes Two (and similar narrative co-ops), no matter how great, is off the list. We're picking up Peak from the Steam sale, but I'm wondering what else are good co-op candidates.

We'll only have our Steam Decks with us, so whatever we play will need to run well on them.

It just keeps failing

EDIT: I think it's just RCS that isn't working. I tried sending a message via SMS and it looks like it went through. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Turned RCS back on and now it's stuck on "Status: Connecting"

Once running, it actually sticks to around 350W consistently, but there is a split-second spike to 950W when the compressor switches on, and it's enough to trip my 500W Victron inverter.

There's no room in the current electrical setup to replace the 500W inverter with a 1000W one, and I'm on the road so I don't have the ability to completely reconfigure the entire electrical system to try and fit it. I'm stuck with what I've got.

That in mind, is there anything I can do to be able to use this ac unit or do I have no choice but to return it?

As a test run for potentially longer thru hikes one day, I'm planning on taking my dog on the Tahoe Rim Trail in August (the numerous access points means we can easily bail if he's not feeling it).

Ideally, I'd like to have to resupply only once, which will mean packing out 7 or 8 days of food at a time. I feel like kibble will be too heavy and am instead considering dehydrating his canned food (Taste of the Wild) to be rehydrated at camp.

What do y'all do in similar situations? Is there a better, lighter, more nutrient-dense food I should be considering?

Why do my feet need shoes with arch support? Shouldn't the human body have evolved to not need it, seeing as it hasn't really had it for most of human history?

I just check my Amazon orders and it's exactly two years to the day since I bought my M720. Over those 24 months, I always thought the switch between smooth and clicky wheel scrolling was completely random and an issue with the mouse. It would be one or the other for weeks, then one day seemingly for no reason switch to the other mode.

It was only today that I thought to press the square button (which I had always just assumed was a dpi control toggle) and discovered that it was actually something I can control.

Wow.

Google Search is now constantly crashing whenever I launch it on my phone. This is a brand new development, and persists even after restarts. There was a system update yesterday and I can't help but think the two are connected. The error info is here. Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Every single time that I choose "Get Directions" from a listing, it tries to send me somewhere completely different. It's not even the same place each time, it's just a random trail in the general vicinity (ie within 100 miles) of where yes supposed to be sending me.

It does it every time, no matter how many times I reboot. It's completely arbitrary and always wrong. I've stopped using the app to get driving directions and just manually plug in the trailhead into Google Maps.

Anyone else seeing this behavior?

I was told the reason to pack out dog poop was to prevent wild animals from eating it and having it in their systems. I always thought it was because dog poop would keep them away from the area (which might be part of their normal grazing domain) as well as to keep from contaminating the flora.

Do they actually eat it, too?