Heavier than I want - but a lot has to do with heavy food - like a pound of summer sausage - which will go very fast!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tarp Tent Testing Continues
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| Relatively roomy even as weight of ice sags roof... |
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| What the tent looked like after the 5-6" of snow (I did not spend the night this night) |
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| After knocking the snow off the tent... |
So back to the tent...kept it up last night and it adequately suffered through another 5-6" of snow. Pictures below. I am spending a lot of time around the tent because it's single wall and I haven't used one like this before in cold, rainy, snowy weather.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Testing the Tarptent....
So I was hoping to get into some weather the other day when I did my overnight in the Kettle Moraine area. Didn't get the winds or the freezing rain then, but was able to test the tent out in my backyard the last couple of days.
Winds were steady at 20 MPH with gusts up to 45 on Friday so I set my tent up in my backyard. Tent collapsed twice! The more I thought about it I realized that perhaps I need to purchase some stronger stakes. Went to REI and purchased some MSR Groundhog stakes. That seems to do the trick.
Now, we are right in the middle of a very heavy freezing rain/snow that is suppose to last throughout most of the day. Think this should be a very good test. First observation is that the tent holds up (that's a good thing), but droops quite a bit due to the heavy weight of the snow. I figure that I can knock it off from the inside throughout the night when I am stuck in a snowstorm...so it shouldn't be too bad.
Here are a couple of pictures...
Winds were steady at 20 MPH with gusts up to 45 on Friday so I set my tent up in my backyard. Tent collapsed twice! The more I thought about it I realized that perhaps I need to purchase some stronger stakes. Went to REI and purchased some MSR Groundhog stakes. That seems to do the trick.
Now, we are right in the middle of a very heavy freezing rain/snow that is suppose to last throughout most of the day. Think this should be a very good test. First observation is that the tent holds up (that's a good thing), but droops quite a bit due to the heavy weight of the snow. I figure that I can knock it off from the inside throughout the night when I am stuck in a snowstorm...so it shouldn't be too bad.
Here are a couple of pictures...
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Shakedown Through a Winter Backpacking 101 Course
Tried all my equipment for the A/T on a quick overnight in the northern part of Kettle Moraine. I was expecting the weather to be decent but turn into freezing rain - so thought it would be a good test for the Smokies. Didn't get the freezing rain I wanted but that turned out okay because I got off to a late start and ended up at the Parnell Tower Shelter just in time for the sun to set.
So...parked the car at Butler Lake, which is a 4.4 mile trek to the Parnell Tower Shelter. Got there at 3:15 and scrambled to get on the trail hoping that I would have the time I needed to set up camp. I was hoping that the trail would have been packed down after the two feet of snow we have received over the past few weeks.
Unfortunately I found that there have been only a few brave souls deciding to hike/pack pack the trail after the blizzard. The trail still had a base of two feet or more snow which in some cases requiring punching through step by step while in other places I was able to trek on top of the snow pack. As such my pace was relatively slow - about 22 minutes per mile. I felt like I needed to get to the shelter prior to 5 pm to have time to set up the tent, make dinner, etc.
My new pack is great. It weighed in at 36.4, including a week's worth of food and 2 liters of water, so I feel pretty good about my goal to get it down below 36lbs. I hardly felt the weight and it was very comfortable. The only discomfort during the hike was related to plowing through the snow; in fact, one thing I did notice is that I developed a small blister on my heal. This is very unusual for me because in all of my years I have never developed a blister. I hope it is related to the challenge of working through the snow rather than my new boots.
Once at the shelter my first task was to find a flat place to set up my new Squall 2 tent. I was wondering how it was going to go knowing that I would be setting it up on top of 2 feet of snow. I found a spot, kicked off a layer of snow, laid down my tyvek ground cloth, laid down the tent and tried to stake it out. I knew this was going to be a problem given the depth of snow and the frozen ground and I wasn't surprised with the problem. After several false starts (when it began to rain), I poked the stakes into the snow as deep as I could and then piled snow on top of the stake and stamped on it with my boot. The stakes held but any tension caused them to pull out. As a result, the tent was set up with sagging sides. Best I could do given the circumstances - snow, rain coming down and it getting dark. More time would have allowed me to figure it out. Got my pack into the tent, blew up my new NeoAir pad and spread my sleeping bag out.
Time for dinner...got the MSR pocket rocket up and running quickly, used my new GSI Solo to boil some water - took about 5 minutes. Started with some instant chicken noodle soup - was ok - followed by some instant mashed potatoes, combined with a tuna packet. That was very good and hit the spot. Cleaned up as it was getting cold and was in my tent getting everything organized by 6:30 pm.
Now what do I do? After changing into new long underwear and socks, put on my down jacket and got warmed up in my sleeping bag. Felt very good. Pad was comfortable, bag was warm and outside of the sides sagging, felt like the tent would give me lots of room. Organized my pack, pulled out my book and read for a bit. Tried to doze off at about 9 pm but couldn't quite get comfortable (will take a while to get into the groove). Sleep overall was tough even though I was warm and the pad was comfortable.
Got up in the morning...slept in until about 7 am, had hot granola and Starbucks coffee, packed everything up and was off at about 8:00 am. Beautiful and warm morning. I took my time to enjoy the woods and the snow. Saw a ton of fox tracks along the way, but was very quiet overall.
Lessons learned:
- Steripan Journey - battery was dead! Couldn't believe it - complicates my decision on what to do about water;
- Using freezer bags works pretty darn well; but will want to go back to my old system of packing each day in one big bag;
- have to sort out my boots - do I go back to my old pair?
- gloves - pretty sure will need two sets - one for hiking and one for camp
- pants - 8 years old from when I was heavier - should I buy a smaller pair?
- cooking and eating gear works very well - good shape
- should I bring my sleeping bag liner afterall - night was in the late 20s but could feel like by bag would fail if it got much colder
- add 2 extra stakes to tie down the sides of my tent
- should I include a winter cap that covers my head and neck?
- do I have enough trail mix - maybe add one provisional bag
- should I get rid of all the straps on my pack that are too long to reduce weight and simplify?
Think those are some of my lessons. Was hoping to include some pictures but was running behind due to some MSO things and forgot to bring it!
So...parked the car at Butler Lake, which is a 4.4 mile trek to the Parnell Tower Shelter. Got there at 3:15 and scrambled to get on the trail hoping that I would have the time I needed to set up camp. I was hoping that the trail would have been packed down after the two feet of snow we have received over the past few weeks.
Unfortunately I found that there have been only a few brave souls deciding to hike/pack pack the trail after the blizzard. The trail still had a base of two feet or more snow which in some cases requiring punching through step by step while in other places I was able to trek on top of the snow pack. As such my pace was relatively slow - about 22 minutes per mile. I felt like I needed to get to the shelter prior to 5 pm to have time to set up the tent, make dinner, etc.
My new pack is great. It weighed in at 36.4, including a week's worth of food and 2 liters of water, so I feel pretty good about my goal to get it down below 36lbs. I hardly felt the weight and it was very comfortable. The only discomfort during the hike was related to plowing through the snow; in fact, one thing I did notice is that I developed a small blister on my heal. This is very unusual for me because in all of my years I have never developed a blister. I hope it is related to the challenge of working through the snow rather than my new boots.
Once at the shelter my first task was to find a flat place to set up my new Squall 2 tent. I was wondering how it was going to go knowing that I would be setting it up on top of 2 feet of snow. I found a spot, kicked off a layer of snow, laid down my tyvek ground cloth, laid down the tent and tried to stake it out. I knew this was going to be a problem given the depth of snow and the frozen ground and I wasn't surprised with the problem. After several false starts (when it began to rain), I poked the stakes into the snow as deep as I could and then piled snow on top of the stake and stamped on it with my boot. The stakes held but any tension caused them to pull out. As a result, the tent was set up with sagging sides. Best I could do given the circumstances - snow, rain coming down and it getting dark. More time would have allowed me to figure it out. Got my pack into the tent, blew up my new NeoAir pad and spread my sleeping bag out.
Time for dinner...got the MSR pocket rocket up and running quickly, used my new GSI Solo to boil some water - took about 5 minutes. Started with some instant chicken noodle soup - was ok - followed by some instant mashed potatoes, combined with a tuna packet. That was very good and hit the spot. Cleaned up as it was getting cold and was in my tent getting everything organized by 6:30 pm.
Now what do I do? After changing into new long underwear and socks, put on my down jacket and got warmed up in my sleeping bag. Felt very good. Pad was comfortable, bag was warm and outside of the sides sagging, felt like the tent would give me lots of room. Organized my pack, pulled out my book and read for a bit. Tried to doze off at about 9 pm but couldn't quite get comfortable (will take a while to get into the groove). Sleep overall was tough even though I was warm and the pad was comfortable.
Got up in the morning...slept in until about 7 am, had hot granola and Starbucks coffee, packed everything up and was off at about 8:00 am. Beautiful and warm morning. I took my time to enjoy the woods and the snow. Saw a ton of fox tracks along the way, but was very quiet overall.
Lessons learned:
- Steripan Journey - battery was dead! Couldn't believe it - complicates my decision on what to do about water;
- Using freezer bags works pretty darn well; but will want to go back to my old system of packing each day in one big bag;
- have to sort out my boots - do I go back to my old pair?
- gloves - pretty sure will need two sets - one for hiking and one for camp
- pants - 8 years old from when I was heavier - should I buy a smaller pair?
- cooking and eating gear works very well - good shape
- should I bring my sleeping bag liner afterall - night was in the late 20s but could feel like by bag would fail if it got much colder
- add 2 extra stakes to tie down the sides of my tent
- should I include a winter cap that covers my head and neck?
- do I have enough trail mix - maybe add one provisional bag
- should I get rid of all the straps on my pack that are too long to reduce weight and simplify?
Think those are some of my lessons. Was hoping to include some pictures but was running behind due to some MSO things and forgot to bring it!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Got My New Backpack in the Mail Yesterday!
Came home from running some errands to find two big boxes at my back door...one was my old pack - a Palisade that was eaten by a porcupine that Gregory wanted to charge me $275.00 to repair - and the other box was the new Baltoro 75 they sold me for wholesale. A good compromise - I get a smaller and lighter bag out of it. Not as small and light as Ben's Osprey, but I feel like having more support in the shoulder straps and hip belt will serve me well. For the AT, it's a heavy pack at 5 lbs 14oz - by about 2-1/2 lbs - so I will have to make up for it elsewhere.
Anyway, I really like the pack and I can now put everything together to see how it feels and weighs. Was going to do an overnight in Kettle Morraine but its 3 degrees right now - way too cold for me!
Anyway, I really like the pack and I can now put everything together to see how it feels and weighs. Was going to do an overnight in Kettle Morraine but its 3 degrees right now - way too cold for me!
Monday, February 7, 2011
AT Planning Activities
On the gear front, set up my new Tarptent Squall 2 on my porch to seal the seams. Setup was harder than I thought but I think I will get the swing of it. It's a great design and I believe it will work great but am surprised as to how large it is. I think this will be okay because it will be nice to have my pack inside the tent. Have a feeling though that I will quickly give in to staying in the shelters.
Bought some instance oatmeal, granola, instant mashed potatoes, pop tarts, etc. to try out. Need to get my food figured out this week for sure.
Washed my REI Helo down bag...took forever to dry, but seems to have helped if fluff up - should be warmer.
Received my Thermarest NeoAir pad - 14oz - seems like it will be a great pad if it lasts. Also, went to REI again to pick up some YakTraks (do I really need them) and a few other items.
Purchased my one way ticket to Atlanta for $114.00 scheduled for March 10th - so there is no going back! Finalized my reservation at the Hiker Hostel. So will be hitting the trail on March 11th. My goal is to get at least 600 miles in before I bailout to go watch Ben's track conference meet on May 14th.
All for now....
Bought some instance oatmeal, granola, instant mashed potatoes, pop tarts, etc. to try out. Need to get my food figured out this week for sure.
Washed my REI Helo down bag...took forever to dry, but seems to have helped if fluff up - should be warmer.
Received my Thermarest NeoAir pad - 14oz - seems like it will be a great pad if it lasts. Also, went to REI again to pick up some YakTraks (do I really need them) and a few other items.
Purchased my one way ticket to Atlanta for $114.00 scheduled for March 10th - so there is no going back! Finalized my reservation at the Hiker Hostel. So will be hitting the trail on March 11th. My goal is to get at least 600 miles in before I bailout to go watch Ben's track conference meet on May 14th.
All for now....
Back from the Beach - Final Planning for the AT
Carolyn and I had a great time in Turks & Caicos as we ended up getting stranded on the cay for an extra three days due to the "blizzard of the century" back in Milwaukee. Gave Carolyn extra beach time and afforded me the opportunity to partake in four more dives. The trip was outstanding - beach was beautiful, condo right on the beach, food was great and I came to enjoy the diving (even though it was large group diving).
Got Carolyn off yesterday to visit her mom for a few days and watched the Packers win the Super Bowl. Focus now: get everything squared away for the trip.
Got Carolyn off yesterday to visit her mom for a few days and watched the Packers win the Super Bowl. Focus now: get everything squared away for the trip.
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