Gear Review (Ahnu Tilden II) and Good Times

the Ahnu Tilden II's and I near the Puget Sound.

One my favorite feelings in the world is arriving at camp on a long backpacking trip and removing my dirty, stinky, feet from my ankle-protecting, extremely stable and unflexible hiking boots. I love allowing my feet a bit of freedom while setting up the tent, cooking dinner, and organizing things for the next day. 

I bought the Ahnu Tilden II sandals a month or so ago after deciding flip flops weren't cutting it as around-the-camp shoes. They'd slip off, and don't provide any sort of stability. In the Adirondacks and Catskills, we'd cook a few hundred feet from camp to keep the bears out of our campsite, and getting around in flip flops was impossible.

Ahnu Tilden II's to the rescue! I couldn't find a pair of Keen sandals I really liked, despite the countless recommendations I heard. I have narrow feet, but am a size 10, and all the Keen's I've tried made my feet look enormous. I haven't taken the Tilden sandals on backpacking trips yet, but did test them out on lower elevation trails in Mt. Rainier National Park and this weekend in French Creek State Park. 

They're very comfortable, pretty darn cute, and did very well on light hiking trails. I found them to be quite grippy, not like the Vibram soles on my hiking boots, but more than I was expecting from a pair of water sandals. They are extremely breathable and light.

The only problems I've found so far are that they don't dry very quickly, aren't 100% friendly to my high arches, and were a little difficult to get on the first few tries. But in general, they're a great sandal. Priced at $85 on rei.com, they're a great value, and I anticipate they will last a long time. They also contain recycled polyester and bamboo, which makes me feel better about buying them.

Member Jason taking in the view on Mount Tammany.

I had a chance to test them out both light hiking and mountain biking yesterday at TerraMar's Annual Adventurer's BBQ. It's an event we hold for our members around this time every year to eat cookout food, goof around, and to thank them for spending time with our group. We met around noon at French Creek State Park, and split off into various activities. I led a short, flat hike around the park, then went for a quick half-hour mountain bike ride around Hopewell Lake. I definitely need to get the bike on trails more often, I was pretty out of practice. But I came back dirty and sweaty - characteristics of a successful ride, in my opinion. It was a great afternoon with great people.

Saturday was our second Hiking and Pie event, this time up Mt. Tammany in the Delaware Water Gap area of New Jersey. The summit provides some incredible views of the Delaware River, and is part of the Appalachian Trail. The river forms the border between PA and NJ in that area, and between PA and NY further north. The hike, just over three miles round trip with 1250' of elevation gain, was just challenging enough to allow us to work up an appetite for pie from the Village Farmer Bakery, located on the PA side of the Water Gap. One apple, one mixed berry, one pecan, and one pumpkin pie later, we were all full and happy. It was a great weekend in PA.