Packed?

My pack weighs 8.8 kg. I'm using a 35 liter Gregory pack, and it seems quite empty. It has no water in it yet.

The pack I used to use for this was near 150 liters, and it weighed about 4kg when it was empty. When full, I often carried about 27kg of stuff.

Packing

Packing for tomorrow's departure.

I bought food, somewhat along my traditional diet, and somewhat along my updated diet.

• 450.8 grams of almond M&Ms, 2420 kcal
  
• 544.3 grams of dark chocoalte M&Ms, 2730 kcal
  
• 85 grams of smoked salmon, 120 kcal
  
• 296 grams of pink salmon, 280 kcal
  
• 283 grams of 100% whole grain Wheat Thins, 1260 kcal
  
• 326 grams of turkish apricots, 720 kcal
  
• 340 grams of unsalted roasted peanuts, 2040 kcal
  
• 425 grams of golden raisins, 1430 kcal
  

In addition, I have some almonds and some Tasty-Bite lentils I was planning to take in addition to what I just bought. On the other hand, I see that I just bought exactly 11000 kcal of food. I need to eat Friday night (probably at a restaurant), Saturday, and about half of Sunday. Now, I do know that I used to eat 5000 kcal per day, but I don't think I do anymore. So I should probably cut back on what food I have here. It adds up to 2750.1 grams plus the packaging. I can probably cut back quite a bit on what I bought to take with me.

Yoga: hard

I realized today that despite what Brian said, I think my yoga is supposed to hurt me. It's what I asked for. I'm not going in to relax, or to meditate. We do that, but I'm going in with specific goals, and those goals involve pushing myself.

Today for instance we continue pushing against my hips and hamstrings. We also wore out my abdomen. We did a bridge variant that trapped me upwards and left me physically unable to lower myself to the ground to get out of it. Kind of bizarre really.

I think my feet will be ready to hike 8km on Saturday morning.

Yesterday's Walk

Yesterday I headed out to hike around North Baldy. According to my GPS I made it 154 meters into my hike before I turned back. It was warm and sunny where I parked my car. I went up the grassy hill, and down into shaded woods on the other size. And snow, I should mention the snow. And I learned just how poorly Vibram Five Fingers do in the snow. If it had been perfectly flat I could have hiked, but I was on the side of a hill, and all I could do was slide off. I turned back pretty quickly.

I went over to the Timber Peak trail which I've never hiked. I have mountain biked it, but that is a little different. My hike there was short too, only about 800 meters before I turned back. But it was enough to give me a good feel for trail hiking in the Five Fingers. So far I'd only walked on roads and a track and around buildings. My goal is to be up to doing 8km on Saturday. It should be quite doable.

Sleeping Bags and Turkey Creek

My first good sleeping bag was a The North Face Cat's Meow that I purchased to ride across country with. The best testimonial for it was when I woke up in late November in Ilinois feeling a little damp. Looking around, I saw that baseball park I was in had flooded, and the raised platform I was sleeping on was underwater about two inches. I moved my sleeping bag out of the water and spent the rest of the night drying it out while sleeping in it on a picnic tale under an awning. That sleeping bag served me very well for many years.

Next I bought a Wiggy's. It's an absolutely bulletproof bag and it was well suited to Search and Rescue work. When I took back up outdooring last year I decided to buy a new Wiggy's. Not because anything was wrong with my original, but because I wanted a lighter weight bag that wasn't quite as warm. They had a good sale on their double bags though, so I ended up with two Wiggy's that are 0F and 40F and which mate into a -40C bag. But in the long run, I'm still mostly in the SAR mentality with them. I decided over the past week that I was going to give down a try again. My experiences with down were all from Search and Rescue in the years before I bought my own sleeping bag. The team had many military issue down bags which were warm, but heavy, leaky, and susceptible to water. I shopped around on the internet on Thursday, but I didn't quite feel comfortable buying anything. I shopped around at REI on Friday, but I wasn't happy with what I saw. But having looked at some bags in person I went back to shopping around on the internet today, and I settled on a very popular Marmot 40F bag. Campmor (http://www.campmor.com) had a good price, and only $20 for next day air, so I expect to have it on Wednesday. I am going to Turkey Creek on Friday, and it would be nice to have a tiny little down bag that weighs nearly nothing.

My Turkey Creek plan involves leaving town on Friday afternoon after work and driving to the end of the road in the Gila. I'll camp the night, then hike in to the Turkey Creek in the morning. I'm going to try and pack light. Lighter than I did back in August when I last did this. My Vibram Five Fingers will play a big part in this. I will have no need to take boots, and no need to take sandals. That cuts a lot of weight out right from the start. A lightweight down sleeping bag will save me a couple of pounds. I'm debating skipping the water filter and just using the chemical tablets. I probably won't take a change of clothes so that will save weight. Although I don't need socks, they are nice to wear in the sleeping bag. But I doubt it will be cold enough so I should skip the socks too. Food will be ready to eat so I won't need a stove. I should be able to pack lightly.

The Gila Ranger District has a warning in red letters that the river is very high, cold, and swift. I'd already guessed that a couple of weeks ago without checking their website. I've done it before, I can do it again. According to the Gila's online water tracking website, the gauge height is over five feet right now. Not as high as it was several days ago, but still quite high.

It should be fun.

No walking

Today was graduation. I spent my morning standing up and walking around. I spent my afternoon walking around, sitting down, and eating. It is difficult to say if it was a productive day or not, but I tried. Tomorrow I need to walk for sure.

Vibram Five Fingers and Yoga

Today I walked around a bit at REI. I've definitely decided that the left shoe has a defect, but REI didn't have a replacement for it in stock. I'm also strongly suspecting that I'm wearing a size too large. REI didn't have a size smaller to try on, so it's still just a suspicion. I discovered the Vibram offers $10 2nd day air and sells them for the same price as REI, so I ordered a slightly smaller pair just to see. It's cheaper than driving to REI to try them on, though I'm sure REI has a much more generous return policy.

I don't hurt from yesterdays yoga at all. I'm quite shocked.