Received my new Zpack Arc Haul and Montell sleeping bag. Put the bag, sleeping pad, and tent in the pack and realized over 3 lbs of weight savings over what I used last year for a NOBO section hike from Springer, which covered a quarter of the AT.
I loved my Osprey Atmos 65 and Big Agnes sleep system last year, but they were just too heavy. I'm going to load the rest of my gear this weekend and go to a state park trail to test them out.
I pushed through three foot deep rotten snow to climb Mt. Greylock and then got pinned down by mid-February thunder-snow at the summit. Pretty sure I watched the monument get struck.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
76 HawkMtn w/Rangers
14 LHHT
15 Girard/Quebec/LostTurkey/Saylor/Tuscarora/BlackForest
16 Kennerdell/Cranberry-Otter/DollyS/WRim-NCT
17 BearR
18-19,22 AT NOBO 1562.2
22 Hadrian's Wall
23 Cotswold Way
I'm still trying to decide if the gear I got now with a few 1,000 miles on it still have life in it, or if I should spend a bunch of money on new stuff.
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I ran 3 times and did the stair stepper twice. It is strange, but I find the stair stepper to be the thing that takes the most out of me. When I run, I only sweat in certain areas; however, on the stair stepper, I sweat EVERYWHERE - even my wrists and ankles!
@ Odd Man Out: Yeah, Rick's is the major tourist destination, that and the Hassan II, one of the biggest mosques in the world, set impressively at the edge of the Atlantic. Otherwise, Casablanca (for all the romance of the name) is a pretty industrial city. The more historical and beautiful cities are inland (Marrakesh, Fez) or up north near the Mediterranean coast (Tangier, Tetuan). Not much ancient civilization here in Casa, but it's a cool place to live nonetheless. The major drawback is the distance from good hiking! At home I'm just south of Pearisburg, VA, so here I've been experiencing major AT withdrawal.
@ RangerZ: Another person warned me against moving here as a young woman, relating a personal anecdote that women are expected to walk a few steps behind men and be generally submissive. As it happened, that person had visited Morocco in the late 1950's. I pointed out that at that time, African Americans couldn't drink from white water fountains, so we weren't exactly an oasis of human rights then either. xD
I recommend visiting now and judging for yourself! The Atlas Mountains are worth it...
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reserved my flights to Maine, reserved my campsite in Baxter state park, packed, unpacked, repacked backpack, set up tent, practiced with alcohol stove, worried, fretted, 2nd guessed myself, worried again and walked a lot. (SoBo)
humor is the gadfly on the corpse of tragedy
Got in 2 new pair of Exoffico underwear in and went on a long run/walk. Figured out I don't think I need the extra length on the legs.
Since I am a barefoot hiker, I regularly soak my feet in a bucket of ice water. I don't recommend doing this as the first time you do it it is pretty painful. I've also been walking on everything that I can get my feet on. I am not really a fan of stepping in mud for some reason. Puddles are fine but cold. That is my main issue is having to deal with extremely cold feet as the ground is cold most of the time. Heat doesn't bother me as far as walking on hot surfaces. I can easily stick my feet in really hot water with no issues. My hands on the other hand are literally the same way and I think I will be soaking them in ice as well since I will not have any gloves with me so I need to get them used to being cold.
By the way, I am going stoveless so I am testing out dry foods and I have to say that eating dry ramen sucks! I am gonna try out the dry soak method where you soak the ramen in an empty peanut butter jar. Hopefully that will taste better. I think they said soak it for about 30 minutes. Should I add half the seasoning packet into the water? I assume so since I don't want to just eat the powder raw. Any tips of getting used to dry foods that you are used to cooking would be great.
Leaving tomorrow for Georgia, we (wife and I) did a stupid thing and climbed a big-vertical peak (Rosalie peak, 13,550', 4400' climb) yesterday, totally wasted my legs (my wife is fine....) in snowshoes and big buffeting winds most of the way, not sure what we were thinking, way over-trained, should have kept to a pure taper this week, oh well! Off for a last upper body workout for many weeks....
Got my new sleeping pad at REI. Gear is all set.
Set up my pack to carry 30 lbs plus on my last long test hike before the real on starting next Sunday.
Got the food ready to pack - well other than my lunches.
Sunday put weighted pack on.
Hiked 9 miles in 3 hours - no stops.
Got all food together and equipment.
Everything packed but lunch bag.
Not to discredit the validity of the stair stepper, b/c it is a challenge, but breeze and evaporation may explain why you sweat less when running, and even less when cycling. Now if you're inside on a treadmill...!
packaged up 30 meals for the trail today. Already had 24 done. Tomorrow I will likely assemble my breakfasts as all the components are pretty much done. I guess all won't get jalapenos after all. Maybe I'll bring a separate little package of jalapenos to add to my breakfasts along the way. I'm going for 30 days, close to 37 with travel to and from. I freeze dry all my own meals. The link to the thread I started on my freeze drying adventures is in my signature.
https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults
A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White