Toe update (what a mundane post this is): Toe much better; I do believe hiking shall go on as planned. Will have to bandage it every day and treat for fungal infection, like EVERY day for probably a year, but life is all good.

Daggone it, I went in messed up my toenail. It will probably come off in a few days.
I drug the kitchen door over top of my foot while letting my spaniel out on Friday morning. What a way to start the day. Sure do hurt. I definitely hope this will not mess up the hiking year. I will find a way to get out at any rate: A Kountry girl will survive :)

I have also decided to attempt to make my own yogurt. I really hate the recycle places around these parts will not take the yogurt containers (#5 plastics), so I decided to make my own yogurt.
I will let everyone know how this works out.

SPoT 2 unit

Shoot, I almost forgot that I finally decided to replace my old Spot unit with one of the newer ones.
It is certainly smaller and more compact. In some road use, it seems to work much better than the older one. So far it has a 100% send rate, while the old one was more like 75 to 80%.
The new one actually does let you know how it is working: It has indicator lights to let you know if you actually have a GPS fix or not, whether the messages actually did send or not and you do not have sit and stare at 2 blinking lights for 20 minutes. So far, I like it.

UPDATE POST:
Okay, I have used the SPoT 2 unit on a road trip (March 21, 2011), once again with a 100% send rate. The trip covered lots of mountains, valleys, forest service roads, a rather remote campground and at the top of West Virginia (Spruce Knob). I am definitely liking this SPoT unit much better than the old one. I will continue this discussion later, on another post, after I have had an opportunity to take it on a hike, which I hope will be next weekend (first weekend in April)

Spring fever!

The warm weather has me thinking about Spring hiking. I hope to sneak out in March this year; I have never done a March B-pack trip. I hope to get at least 20 "bag nights" this year (defined as hiking at least 1 mile, setting up camp and exploring).

Today's gear project was to make a spinnaker stuff sack for the Backpackinglight Stealth Tarp. This was a good project to use up some scrap material. The sack weighs 8 grams including drawcord and mini cord lock.

I will be using a Gossamer Gear Gorilla pack for trips this year (size small). I am hoping that I can get all my gear and a 9 pound food bag in it for our annual Section Connection Appalachian Trail hike. I am shooting to keep my total pack weight (gear, food, fuel, water) for that first "stepping on the trail day" at around 20 pounds. If Ole Ma Nature is cooperative, I should be able to do it.

I am hoping to put together a picture or video review for the GG Gorilla pack and a few other gear items this year. Good hiking everyone!

Playing with my base pack weight

I believe I can get my base pack weight down to 8 pounds or less for 2 season (mid-spring to early Autumn in the middle Appalachians) backpacking trips. Check out Z Packs web site!
General gear list with approx weights:
Pack (Zpacks blast 26 with carbon fiber stays, top lid, etc) total weight 11.55 ounces
8x10 Cuben Fiber Tarp with 12 tieouts (z-packs) total weight 6 ounces
cuben fiber pack cover size medium weight 1.1 ounces
cuben fiber ground cloth 3.4 ounces
assorted cuben fiber stuff sacks (includes large food bag, medium + for sleeping bag, 2 medium for misc and clothes and a smaller one) total weight 1.57 ounces
30 degree down bag at a weight of 19 ounces
Neoair short sleeping pad at a weight of 10 ounces
Cook set at 10 ounces
Miscellaneous stuff at 10 ounces
Misc/water stuff/other stuff 10 ounces
Ribz Front pack at 10 ounce
Clothing weight (should cover most any weather) weight 46 ounces
SPoT Unit 6 ounces
Camera 6 ounces (optional)
This comes out to about 9 pounds total base weight, no suffering, no starving.
Add in a quart of water at 2 pounds and a 5 pound food bag and I should be around 17 pounds or so.

Okay, the only problem is cost. Cuben fiber is EXPENSIVE! I expect the cost for the cuben fiber stuff would be around $800 to $1000.
My base weight is between 9 and 14 pounds now, depending on the expected weather and trip length.

Still, if you are trying to reduce your pack weight, be sure and check out Z-packs, Gossamer Gear, Backpacking light, Six Moon Designs and don't forget about home made gear!

Ah winter

I don't really hate winter, I just like it less. The Jeep Patriot is performing well and the gas mileage is not too bad for a 4x4. I have completed a few of my winter gear projects: Made some windscreens, made some cone-shaped windscreen/pot supports for my Heineken pot and Fosters pot, finally made a lid for my MSR Ti cup, made 2 super cat stoves.

Startin my winter projects

I have started my winter gear making projects. I have made two Caldera Clone windscreens; one for my Fosters Can and one for the Heinie pot; they weigh 1 ounce each. I am also gathering materials and tools to make a couple of supercat alcohol stoves. The windscreens turned out pretty well, but the proof is in the using, which I will do as soon as I can fire up the stove outside. Must do the first couple of burns with the new windscreens outside, as the aluminum flashing has a coating on it that will smoke and burn the first few times (I will use a wire brush to brush off the coating after it has softened up).

I will take a few pictures of the windscreens soon and post some test data on the supercat stoves that I make.
I love stove projects! They make winter at least a useful time.