I cannot hand hold at 1/50th in the wind. At least not at 70mm. I should really just stop trying.
Landscapes don’t look good with shallow depth of field. Just use the tripod. Get a lighter one to hike around.
The glossy screen on a Macbook sucks for reviewing pictures. Macbook Pro Matte is much better. 30″ Dell is way way way better.
If I’d break down and buy a split ND filter, I could probably get away with not doing 3-exposure bracketing for later HDR. It’s so hard to get good results out of those anyway.
Hyperfocal distance is a harsh mistress. F16 is your friend. Use that fancy tripod. No really. Consider buying those canon tilt/shift lenses to take advantage of Scheimpflug.
Pre-scouting is really important. It’s nice to drive around aimlessly, but it’s also good to know where the money shots are before you head out. Google earth along with the flickr stream are the way to go.