Updated that gear yall!
http://www.rei.com/product/747894
Mountain Hardware Ultralamina 15 degree synthetic bag. HUGE upgrade from my first bag, which I traded in for store credit. Not only is it a full 5 degrees warmer than the first bag, it's several ounces lighter, much more compact, has tons of cool zippers and foldy pockets, but it's prettier. Hopefully this new bag combined with some extra sleep layers will keep me a tiny bit warmer at night.
http://www.rei.com/product/763953?preferredSku=7639530018&cm_mmc=cse_froogle-_-datafeed-_-product-_-7639530018&mr:trackingCode=1E827AF1-E390-DE11-B4D4-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA
Big Agnes air core sleeping pad, tons more comfortable and way warmer than the thermarest. The only lame thing about it is it takes a few minutes to blow up. I don't have much of a problem with that though.
http://www.rei.com/product/718308
In black, a nice new precip jacket. :) with plenty of room for an insulation layer. No sense in getting soaked.
All of this stuff being heavily on sale, PLUS my 10% thruhiker discount (so legit!!!) came out to be a pretty reasonably-priced shopping spree.
I really can't wait to get out and test it.
Monday, November 29, 2010
97 Days
I've changed the background of the blog so an image that's a little less warm to reflect my feelings about what happened last night, when I got all of my gear together to do my first outdoor sleeping gear test. I know a lot of other potential hikers would balk at the idea of 3 months to go and only just now testing the winter sleeping gear, but I've been so busy lately with crew and school I really haven't had the time. So in the next three months I plan on getting a lot of preparation done, which includes testing and updating all of my gear, doing some shakedown hikes, and continuing to save up a boatload of money.
Anyway, it's safe to say I didn't freeze to death last night, but I was mostly uncomfortable and I didn't really get a lot of sleep. My light and thermal polyester and wool clothing layers worked wonderfully. My tent (MSR Hubba) sets up fast and it kept the frost off of me. The sleeping bag (Northface Alutien women's 20 degree mummy bag), while keeping me mostly thawed, just didn't meet my expectations.. I guess I got what I payed for. It was only an 80 dollar bag. I'm sure it would be fine for spring camping, but it's only going to be colder in the mountains in March. The ground pad (Thermarest trail) kept me off of the cold ground which is good, but it deflated during the night and wasn't very comfortable for me because I'm mostly a side sleeper.
So today after I get my paycheck and pay my rent, I'm going to the outdoor outfitter and hopefully returning the bag (I still have the tags but no reciept) and purchasing a zero degree down bag, then I want to get a Zlite thermarest, mostly because it'll be firmer for my side sleeping and it's significantly lighter than my current ground pad, although it isn't as compact. I'll just have to strap it to the bottom of my pack. Maybe there will be room within the pack for it if I upgrade to a more compressed sleeping bag.
Butters is romping around in my gear, which is warming up in a pile on the floor. He wants to go camping so bad. Hopefully after my upgrades today I'll go out tonight and camp out in a shelter, then head up to McAffee's knob for sunrise oatmeal breakfast! Ugh. Just kidding. I checked the weather and it's supposed to start raining tonight/tomorrow morning, and I'm not really ready to be testing out those kinds of extremes at this point. I'll have to settle for baby steps.
Today starts my conditioning regime as well. I'd like to get into better physical condition and drop most of my college weight before I go (about 30 lbs) so I'm starting to eat healthy and move around more. I'm at a cool 180 right now, I'd like to get back into the 150s by the time I leave.
Anyway, it's safe to say I didn't freeze to death last night, but I was mostly uncomfortable and I didn't really get a lot of sleep. My light and thermal polyester and wool clothing layers worked wonderfully. My tent (MSR Hubba) sets up fast and it kept the frost off of me. The sleeping bag (Northface Alutien women's 20 degree mummy bag), while keeping me mostly thawed, just didn't meet my expectations.. I guess I got what I payed for. It was only an 80 dollar bag. I'm sure it would be fine for spring camping, but it's only going to be colder in the mountains in March. The ground pad (Thermarest trail) kept me off of the cold ground which is good, but it deflated during the night and wasn't very comfortable for me because I'm mostly a side sleeper.
So today after I get my paycheck and pay my rent, I'm going to the outdoor outfitter and hopefully returning the bag (I still have the tags but no reciept) and purchasing a zero degree down bag, then I want to get a Zlite thermarest, mostly because it'll be firmer for my side sleeping and it's significantly lighter than my current ground pad, although it isn't as compact. I'll just have to strap it to the bottom of my pack. Maybe there will be room within the pack for it if I upgrade to a more compressed sleeping bag.
Butters is romping around in my gear, which is warming up in a pile on the floor. He wants to go camping so bad. Hopefully after my upgrades today I'll go out tonight and camp out in a shelter, then head up to McAffee's knob for sunrise oatmeal breakfast! Ugh. Just kidding. I checked the weather and it's supposed to start raining tonight/tomorrow morning, and I'm not really ready to be testing out those kinds of extremes at this point. I'll have to settle for baby steps.
Today starts my conditioning regime as well. I'd like to get into better physical condition and drop most of my college weight before I go (about 30 lbs) so I'm starting to eat healthy and move around more. I'm at a cool 180 right now, I'd like to get back into the 150s by the time I leave.
Monday, November 22, 2010
COUNTDOWN!
MARCH 7TH, 2011
Is the day that I will start my 2200 mile journey. I figure this is late enough in the year for me to save a little money, and also early enough that I'll finish the trail in the desired time frame.
105 DAYS. Ugh... it sounds way too far away. I may just get frustrated and leave earlier.
I haven't decided how I'm going to get there yet. I looked into just taking the Amtrak into atlanta and getting a shuttle from there to Amicola, but the train ticket alone is going to cost me around a hundred bucks, AND it would take 10 hours to get there. Riding in a car would be around 6 and a half hours, and gas would only run me 60-70 dollars, but I would have to find someone willing to bus me around for a day. Hopefully I may be able to hitchhike with some southbound hikers and save a little gas money. We'll see.
So I've recently gone shopping for gear, and I think I'm just about done with all of my major purchases.. All I really have left to get is good footwear and then I want to get like a silk bagliner to help me keep warm in the winter.
Christmas List:
Trail runners, size 11
silk bag liner
waterproof pack cover
gaiters
spork
lightweight trowel
rain pants
SPOT gps (maybe.)
Is the day that I will start my 2200 mile journey. I figure this is late enough in the year for me to save a little money, and also early enough that I'll finish the trail in the desired time frame.
105 DAYS. Ugh... it sounds way too far away. I may just get frustrated and leave earlier.
I haven't decided how I'm going to get there yet. I looked into just taking the Amtrak into atlanta and getting a shuttle from there to Amicola, but the train ticket alone is going to cost me around a hundred bucks, AND it would take 10 hours to get there. Riding in a car would be around 6 and a half hours, and gas would only run me 60-70 dollars, but I would have to find someone willing to bus me around for a day. Hopefully I may be able to hitchhike with some southbound hikers and save a little gas money. We'll see.
So I've recently gone shopping for gear, and I think I'm just about done with all of my major purchases.. All I really have left to get is good footwear and then I want to get like a silk bagliner to help me keep warm in the winter.
Christmas List:
Trail runners, size 11
silk bag liner
waterproof pack cover
gaiters
spork
lightweight trowel
rain pants
SPOT gps (maybe.)
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