Greetings fellow hikers, I'm starting the gear packing for next years hike. I want to have everything by November so I can get out and play around with everything to be familiar with it beforehand. I've got three pieces of gear I've been contemplating, all are lightweight and easily packed. They all have pro's and con's, so I was hoping for a few second opinions. First up, a 2 way pager. Now, I'm taking a SPOT, already bought, just not activated yet. But as for communication on the trail, email, and the such it seems pagers have the best signal coverage compared to cellphones. I'm thinking of like when I get to a town, how to phone up the hostel for a ride, KIT with my family, and general human contact. The motorola T900 has a battery life of 4 weeks on one AA lithium battery. The service is cheap and not an issue. Do you guys think its better to have a prepaid CDMA phone "Verizon" which forces me to take a charger and have to find charging stations, take the pager, or have you ever really seen the need to use a phone to contact hostels.

Second item, a blowgun. I've extremely fluent and accurate with the one that I have now which is a 48". I know for sure thats way too long and I can get an 18" 2 piece breakdown model that weighs 3 ounces including 24 sharp wire darts. I wouldn't mind having it for catching a squirrel, rabbit, or fowl for some delicacy eats. It's legal in all the AT states except Massachusetts, which it would be tied down and out of view. I don't want to take a gun, and a bow and arrow requires permits normally. What do ya'all think, take it or leave it? Any experience?

Third item, camera. Most likely the hardest item to pack for me. I want it digital, lightweight, battery efficient and universal AA compatible, as well as semi resistant to the weather. I've been looking at the Olympus waterproof line forever, but its lack of AA battery compatibility makes it an automatic no go. I've had my Kodak Z885 for almost a year, I love it, but its not efficient in shots per battery. I've been looking at the Canon A590, so far its my best looker. It has a viewfinder, so I can save battery by killing the screen, its AA friendly, its lightweight, and its SDHC compatible so that it will work with a 32GB SD card worthy of 20,000 pics. Any ideas, suggestions, reading points?

Thanks for the input!