Wow... It's been ages...

I'm not a very good blogger. I know my limits.

It is what it is.

Anywho.... The boys and I watched a NatGeo program about the AT, and it's got me all excited about going. Now that it's warm again... Let me back up a second. It never got cold here over the winter. I've just been incredibly depressed and lazy.

But it is warmer now, and we have been hiking. The kids want to go on our first real training hike tomorrow. We're going to head out to Legend Park with River (awesome hiking dog) with mostly empty packs and see how far we get. The kids aren't usually up for more than three miles at a time, and that's fine. I feel pretty good about myself knowing that three miles isn't that much for me. Legend Park is a pretty intense trail, and we have been taking the most difficult of the trails out there. Granted, we have been going out with bare minimum gear. I only carry three liters of water (one each) a small first aid kit, and a few other little things in my bum bag.

I learned pretty early on that with those boys, a first aid kit is a must. It's pretty much just band-aids, Purell, and some Neosporin. The first time the little one took a nose dive down a hill, I learned to keep a kit with me.

So, if we hike tomorrow (weather and my health permitting), Patrick and I will be carrying our packs with our own water, and Jack will get the bum bag.

I'm glad to be getting in the woods again.

Sweaty and dirty.... it's a good thing.

It's been a long time

Doesn't look like I'll be doing the App hike with my dad this summer. Life has kind of gotten in the way for both of us, so we weren't able to work it out with our schedules. I still want to do the hike, and I am still training for it. Really, I just have started my serious training (see other blog: Fat Gym Rat). I have to get in better shape before I try to tackle The Trail. I can barely make it up stairs right now, so I am working hard to change that.

Also, found a Keltie external frame pack that looks like new at a thrift store for $20. And found one of those collapsible dog bowls at the dollar store. My dog isn't going on The Trail with me, but I can take her on training hikes. She's a good hiker.

The weather here lately has been brutal, so I am mostly sticking to the gym. I know it's not hiking, but I'm building my endurance, and trying to shed the extra weight so I don't have to lug that across The Trail with me. I have about 50 pounds to lose.

I did get a food dehydrator. I don't know if I mentioned that before- I haven't really tried to dry anything with it, so it's just taking up a great deal of space. I still plan to use it, and I have been experimenting with recipes a little. I really want to get a new mess kit. I have the standard boy scout one I got at Goodwill for $1.78. They were so cheap, I got all three of the ones they had- but I really want to get one of the ones where the lid to the pot is also a cup. It seems very efficient to me.

Maybe now that I am getting back into shape, and anticipating fall, I will get better about keeping up with this blog.

New stuff

Not sure if I have posted about this yet, but I won some sweet Merrell hiking boots on ebay. They normally go for $90, I got them for just over $30 with the cost of shipping. Not only that, but I scored 10 yards of silnylon fabric in the $1 per yard bin at Wal-Mart. Silnylon is the fabric that I will be using to make my hammock and some stuff sacks for my gear. I got some netting too, which should work for a mosquito net. The hammock should be pretty easy to bang out. I just have to hem all four sides of a rectangle. I am a little perplexed about how I am going to do the "mosi" net. I don't know if I want to do a pod style that fits over the whole hammock, which would make it kind of a tube, or if I want to make it drape over the hammock with small weights in the corners. I think the tube would be a little easier to sew, but we'll just have to see. I have to get some paracord to work with. I have some nylon rope, but it isn't strong enough to hold my fat self in a hammock. Not really sure what the weight limit is on it, but I would rather not test it. Anyway, I am really excited about getting to work on making some gear.

Camp stove

I made a new stove last night. Actually, I made two, but the first one had a pretty big hole in the side and I didn't think I would be able to salvage it. The second one worked! I made what is known in backpacking jargon as a penny stove. It's made from two aluminum drink cans. I followed the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj7PIhjPLxA&feature=related. This is only part one of a two-part piece. There are TONS of ways to make these little portable stoves, this is just the one that seemed easiest for me to do with the materials that I had on hand. I got a good clean burn yesterday, and this morning I decided to take it to the next level and try to heat some water on it. Success! I didn't get a boil, but I also had to physically hold the pot above the flames, and my arm kept getting tired, so I had to put it down a few times. I think it would have come to a boil if I'd had a pot stand. Not wanting to waste a pot of steaming hot water, I made myself some hot chocolate :) I am going to have to make a few modifications. I need a pot stand, as I said, and I need a priming pan. A priming pan is a small bit of metal that sits under the stove onto which you pour a little fuel to help get the stove started. The video I watched seems to suggest a soup can to function as a windscreen/pot stand, but it seems a little too tall. I'm going to try and use a tuna can because I feel like it would serve both as a pot stand and a priming pan. It is shallow enough to keep the pan close to the flame without putting it out, and wide enough to accommodate all the parts of my mess kit without them tipping over.

I am going to try to bang out another stove today, but this time I am going to use this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec_12nWU4XU&feature=related. The advantages of this model: not pot stand or priming pan required. Disadvantages: according to the creator, once the pot is on the stove, the flames direct up the sides and are less efficient for heating. I'm going to try both and see what I get.

Also, I have been using HEET, which is methyl alcohol. You can find it in the automotive section of stores. The only reason I am using HEET is because, for some reason, we had three bottles of it in the laundry room. It's only methyl alcohol, and many hikers use it. I'm not sure how the cost compares to denatured alcohol, which is the other common alcohol fuel. I'm just using it because it's here.

Some helpful links

Looking for recipes for hiking/camping/backpacking?

http://www.trailcooking.com/ has some awesome tips and recipes for cooking on the trail. Because it is geared towards backpackers, most of these recipes have dehydrated ingredients that need to be reconstituted. In order to keep weight down, dry goods are usually recommended. I really worried about what I was going to eat on the trail ( I LOVE FOOD), and the thought of buying a whole bunch of pre-made dehydrated meals seemed expensive and limiting. I love cooking an coming up with new recipes. Not only does this site give some great ideas that are much less expensive than freeze dried, pre-made meals. Portioning meals into individual servings means that each person can pick what they want to eat, what they want to bring, and can be responsible for their own food on the trail.

http://hikinghq.net/ is a great website with tons of information from a seasoned thru-hiker. He makes a lot of gear, camps in a hammock, and does thorough tests of gear he takes on the trail. He has hiked with his family, his friends, and solo. He has hiked all seasons. Sgt. Rock (his awesome trail name) knows what he is talking about. I love to read his tips and blogs, and his instructions helped me build my first camp stove. Very cool site.

http://www.dressedindirt.com/ is another backpacking blog. This one is by Adelaide, trail name D.I.D. or Dressed in Dirt. Adelaide writes on being a female thru-hiker on the Appalachian trail (and others). She suggests hiking in a skirt, wearing dirty clothes, and taking "days off" on the trail. She has lots of helpful how-to's, great photos from her trips, and hilarious anecdotes about her trips on the trail.

Those are my favorite links (so far). I find myself going back to them over and over again, and learning something new each time!

Mess Kits

Something told me to go to Goodwill today. I'm so glad I did! I got three Coleman mess kits for $1.78 each! The lady at the counter said she wasn't even sure what they were, and she had certainly never seen them at the store before. I really lucked out. I went ahead and got all three because I figured I can give each of the kids one and hey, you just can't beat that price! I had dad over for a little while this afternoon and showed him some of the links I found for making a stove from V8 cans. I also showed him pictures of the beta test one I made. He was pretty impressed, despite his initial misgivings. He seems to like the direction I am going with my pack as well. I don;t think he has totally bought the idea of hammock camping. Honestly, I don't know how sure I am about it right now either. I don't want to buy a hammock, and it just so happens I have a bulk supply of Ripstop Nylon and pretty decent sewing skills. I am going to try and make one and see how that goes. I'll post more on it as it happens; right now I am just in planning stages .

The whole idea of backpacking in the wilderness is so exciting! I am really eager to pick up or make the supplies I need and set out on my first weekend trip. I need to slow down and just get some stuff made, see if it works... then get out there. Still very excited!

My Pack

So, I have been cruising the interwebs, looking for a pack to bring with me. I wasn't totally surprised by the cost, but I was a little disheartened. Then I went to http://hikinghq.net/ and read some of Sgt. Rock's tips for getting started. He suggested rummaging through the closet and seeing what there might be in the way of an old backpack. Turns out I have one of those old rolling backpacks from my college days that I wasn't doing anything with!

It's a pretty good size and all nylon, but it needs a little work. First of all, The extending handle that you pull it around with... I don't need that, and it's just extra weight, so out it goes!

Well, now I have this empty space, where I think I am going to put a water bladder. If I can carry 3L in my pack, I can eliminate some of the steel water

bottles I had planned to bring. As a side note, I am going to try to boil water directly in

the steel bottle before I go, just to see if I can do it without damaging the bottle. Maybe I can forgo a cooking pot if I just boil water in the container and pour that into my freezer bag meals. More on that later. For now, let's get back to the pack.

This is where the water bladder will go.

I plan to make a cover to go over most of that gaping hole, but it does give me a place to run the hose out, and there is a nylon wall between where the bladder will be and the rest of my supplies. The pack is pretty roomy and has a few dividers, which means I can separate my gear if I need to. I tried to take the wheels off, but I stripped the screws. Those wheels are coming off, I just haven't figured out HOW yet. The other modification I made was adding a waist strap. There wasn't anything to it, really, but I felt like a genius anyway. All I did was clip on a long strap from another bag to the same place where the shoulder straps clip on. That's all I've done to the pack so far, but I am pretty excited about it. As I make new things and figure stuff out, I will keep posting!