Thru-Hike Postponed
Well, my Appalachian Trail hike isn’t going to happen this year. Time and money come and go faster than I anticipate sometimes, and this is one of those times. With less than a week until I was planning to leave, I have to call this off for now. Strangely enough though, I am not as bummed out about this setback as I thought I would be. It just is what it is, and I have another year to prepare and further hone my trekking skills. Since I originally posted my plans, quite a bit has changed in my life. I have moved back to my old stomping grounds in the Appalachian mountains, adopted a dog that was near death, hiked some of the Mountain To Sea trail, reconnected with a lot of great folks from my past, and started working on some long-term plans beyond my hiking goals. Hopefully I will be able to post a bit more now and chronicle my year of preparation for a 2011 thru-hike. Stay… Read more
Backpacking Shelter
It’s hard to say what piece of gear is the “most important” when putting together backpacking gear, since most long-distance backpackers are cutting it down to the bare minimum anyway, and every piece of gear is actually essential. That said, the psychological first step in my gearing up quest was to take care of my shelter. Small and light are the watchwords here, and shelter seems to be an area of backpacking gear that tends towards the heavy and overbuilt, almost as much as rain gear. My search for light and fast shelter quickly pushed me out of the standard outdoor store and into the world of cottage gear makers. These folks, when faced with the problems of super-heavy, overbuilt gear, decided to do something about it, and began making their own gear, and then selling the better designs to others that were, like them, annoyed at how heavy most camping gear is. I started compiling a list of my options for shelter, and it basically boiled down to three broad types of… Read more