Author Archives: Howie Wolke

OK, you were smart enough to get your rain-gear on before the deluge, but now you’ve reached camp and it’s still coming down. What to do?

Here are a few common sense tips for staying dry while hiking on the trail. First, observe the sky. When out backpacking, be one step ahead of the weather. Stop and put your two-piece breathable waterproof rain-suit on before that big black cloud is overhead, not after the downpour has begun.

To a wilderness backpacking guide, it’s important to understand weather and climate. Not just from the standpoint of scheduling treks at optimal times during the ever-changing seasons, but also because understanding local weather patterns allows us to sometimes adjust the trip plan as the trek unfolds.

As previously discussed, when it comes to climate and other human-induced influences and associated changes in grizzly bear nutrition, the times they are a’changin’. Roots and berries are seasonal delicacies, and it’s likely that berry-producing plants in Yellowstone will decline as the climate becomes warmer and perhaps drier.

As in much of the north temperate zone, springtime in the Rockies is a diverse season, but more so than in other places. It’s usually a moist season, and occasional warm sunny days may be followed by driving wet snowstorms or temperatures falling to extreme lows: I’m talking single digits or even below zero in […]

Yellowstone’s climate is changing. According to National Weather Service data there are fewer annual subfreezing nights, the growing season is lengthening, summers are warming and winter cold spells are becoming less severe and shorter-lived. And, according to near unanimous consensus among climate scientists who don’t work for fossil fuel companies, this climate change episode is […]

In part one, we discussed the extreme unlikelihood of your human biomass being incorporated into the food web by a hungry grizzly, how with a bit of care and common sense, backpacking in Yellowstone is actually quite safe. In fact, grizzlies – and black bears, too – are highly adapted extremely flexible omnivores.

Contrary to the impression occasionally portrayed by Hollywood, human beings constitute an extremely minor part of a grizzly bear’s diet. Without passing judgement as to whether this is a good thing or not, I’ll  just say that when bears incorporate human protoplasm into the food web, it’s an event that’s so rare it’s barely worth […]

This blog should actually be re-named “How to Poop in the Desert or Tundra” because in these environments, your Big Wild guide may provide instructions that differ from the standard cat-hole method described in the previous post. That’s because in arid and cold environments such as desert, alpine tundra (above tree-line in the mountains)  or […]

Pooping in the wilds is a big concern for many first time backpackers. Generally speaking, it’s quite simple! When hiking in Yellowstone (one of our more common backpacking trips) – or in most any wild place for that matter – you begin by finding a well-drained location at least 100 feet from water (preferably further) […]