Thursday, September 24, 2009

Question of the week: Backpacking with umbrellas (to keep out the sun)

What a weird coincidence. Today, in my Cactuseaters inbox, I saw a message from someone out in Pennsylvania, asking about the wisdom of hiking with an umbrella to block out the sun and avoid "sliming excessive sunscreen all over the body." The person was especially interested in the idea of taking an umbrella on long hikes through hot and arid places.

How strange; I was just thinking about this very issue. Give me a couple of weeks and I'll post some thoughts when I return.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This guy swears by it http://francistapon.com/. He hiked most of the Continental Divide Trail under a shiny silver umbrella.

cactuseaters said...

Wow -- and it looks like the overall pack load was still pretty light (I just looked up the CDT gear list on his site.)