Like a sailor to a siren, like a moth to a flame, it’s difficult to resist these end of summer and clearance sales by REI. They certainly know how to market gear. In the last week or so, I’ve received emails from REI informing me of no less than four different ways to save money right now on gear. There are sale prices on the already discounted gear in the Outlet. There is the End of Summer clearance sale. There is the upcoming Labor Day sale. And the queen siren of all, a $100 REI credit for applying to their credit card. What makes it worse, several items on my thru-hike prospectus are discounted. The temptation is great. Even if I tell myself, a thru-hike is years away, I am tempted to buy gear that I think would make a good interim solution for section hikes. REI put a storm inside me; I wanna head for a safer harbor. The temptation is so great, I am not even looking at the same lures from West Marine, my favorite for boat gear. A logical head will prevail and I will resist, but only because I know that more sales will eventually come along. If nothing else, this has planted the seed that researching gear and waiting until the right moment - meaning sale - to purchase will be an effective planning strategy. (Credit: "Sailor To A Siren" song by Meat Loaf)
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It’s been almost a week and a half since my son and I completed our short section hike of the AT in West Virginia. It took about two days for my legs to fully recover. The first day after reminded me of the day after a marathon, but we walked 6 miles less over 2.5 days - oh well, not really that bad considering I hadn’t hiked or carried a pack in over 20 years! I also captured several small lessons-learned to guide a future thru-hike. Every short hike hopefully will yield some useful lessons - or at least confirm some ideas. It is no surprise that the biggest lesson - I already knew this, but there is nothing like a practical lesson - getting pack weight down to its lightest possible is the goal. Really, getting base weight under 20 pounds and total skin-out-weight down to under 35 pounds remains my ultimate goal. A lot of experimentation remains with the Big 3 systems; however, I confirmed several small items on my prospectus that if I were going to commit to a thru-hike today would definitely be on the packing list. In addition to lightening the Big 3, food choice and weight needs a little experimentation. We ended up not eating over 3 pounds of the food we each carried - way too much! We never went into calorie deficit during such a short hike; so, thru-hiking might alter the equation, but consumables clearly are a huge variable that needs to be refined. To an experienced hiker, none of these lessons are earth shattering revelations; actually, even for me, they are not a surprise. Nonetheless, lessons are best learned from practical application - nothing like carrying a heavy pack for a couple days to push one to spending a little more cash for a lot less weight. TLDR: click here for specific comments/lessons for each piece of gear I carried during my August 2019 AT Section Hike in West Virginia. In three days, I will start a new phase of this journey – my first section hike of the Appalachian Trail. I had no idea when I started this blog in February, that by the end of the summer, I’d be hiking a section of the trail. There just may be something to the often cited idea that the trail provides. In order to keep this blog at the macro level of planning, I have also started a trail journal – to keep a daily record of hiking – Quiet Man’s 2019 Appalachian Trail Journal. Over the past few months, I’ve been reading dozens of these journals; I have put a few as links under Favorite Trail Journals. The journals are a great source of trail information, inspiration, and entertainment. Many of these journals are worthy of publication in magazines or even as books.
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Quiet Man
I don't have a bucket list. At 61 years old, I have already had the adventures of a lifetime, especially after a 30-year Army career, five years of teaching high school, and a 37 year marriage still going strong. But I still have this deep desire to complete the Appalachian Trial. Archives
February 2022
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