The Backpack Saga draws to a close...

H:
A lot more sewing time was spent on our backpacks than I imagined was going to be needed but the long haul is now over!  Okay, yes, yes, 99% once again because I never really finish anything.  The second backpack, like the first, simply needs to be used a bit and then the sternum strap and shoulder straps can be fixed into place permanently.

Dave's backpack at 99% completion.  

The extension collar in use on Dave's backpack.

The backpacks together at last.  They are the same finished size, the one on the right currently has more stuffing but they are both 3800 (correction, the pack is 2800) cubic inches.  That doesn't really amount to a whole lot, but it will do just fine for backpacking!

This photo shows the color differences between the packs.  One is "green and gray" while the other is "blue and brown".  The website we ordered from allowed a lot of color customization and I hope this helps to keep the packs in the hands of the right hiker while out, because I'm not sharing my GORP with Dave and I don't think my socks will fit his feet!

Snow tires would be nice...

Who knew that in January we would have 50 degrees and no snow, perfect for riding our motorcycles an hour away to put into storage, or even better, moving our RV into storage.  But February keeps bringing us snow and cold weather.

We'd intended to move everything into storage this weekend then bounce around for a month while we wrapped up our last minute details.  Now it seems like we might have to leave the RV where it is for another month while we finish everything up.  Towards the ends of March we'll hope for warmer weather (or at least no snow and ice) so that we can move the RV to storage, then head to the trail head.

That seems to be the plan for now.  Unless for some reason it seems like we can go ahead and move the RV this weekend.  I don't think I've heard of anyone using snow tires on an RV, there might be a reason for that!

Water, water everywhere...

H:
A backpacking friend told Dave that "drinking" water and "cooking" water have their own seperate categories when backpacking.  Hiking the AT is projected to require us to drink at least a gallon of water each, per day.  That doesn't include cooking water.

I have read about the different techniques for processing water to make it potable.  These range from chemical treatment to boiling to ultraviolet lights.  Then I have read of hikers who selectively choose "clean" water without filtering or processing.  Justifications abound for both sides of this debate and to each their own choice as far as I am concerned.

We have selected a small backpacking water filter that will work in conjunction with a gravity feed system.  This is all something we still have to construct,  but the system is simple and lightweight enough to suit our needs.  The filter totes being able to last for 100,000 gallons and with proper care and use can turn just about any water into "clean" water. 

The last few days of sub zero temperatures combined with forgetting to leave our water dripping has led to a freeze up of our water lines.  We have access to a running faucet outside so we do have water it just doesn't do any tricks, i.e. it sits there in the jug.  Tomorrow we are excited to see a high of 38 degrees!  With the aid of a heat gun we should be thawed out.  I keep telling myself that this is good training for the hike.  The one bonus is I haven't had to do dishes for two days.   I also found out I can scramble eggs in the skillet with two toothpicks, a valuable skill for anyone to have!

A little goes a long way...

H:
Even with procrastination that statement is true!  To some degree.

Our research into cookware led us down many paths and I kept thinking about the one that we took on our bicycle trip, but when I checked with my dad he said it was somewhere in Ohio in storage.  That's okay, I'll just get one for us to have.

But the search was tough!  We tried to find the right size pot (about 2 liters) that wasn't insanely heavy (stainless steel) or incredibly expensive (titanium) or just down right not what we wanted (no fitted lid).  I was never able to find one like the one my dad let us borrow.  I really liked that pot.  I really wanted one.  But wants were for naught.  Then in the wee hours of the morning I put the right words into a search engine and found one... ONE pot that fit the criteria.  Yay!  Big enough, light enough, cheap enough, and even with a fitted lid.

Open Country makes a 2-quart (1.89 liters) aluminum pot with bale (wire handle) and even a fitted lid.  Available for about ten bucks on their website (plus shipping) or on other websites for $15 and no shipping if you ordered enough stuff.  Score!  But we didn't order it.  Nah, we'll just wait a little bit and check out some other gear we might need and place one big final order of "stuff".

Yesterday was my dad's birthday.  I told myself three times to call him.  I told someone else that I needed to do it, but I would wait until he got home from work.  Then I forgot.  I only remembered this morning when Dave and I left to go on an errand!  AH!  I should have just called him at work but I procrastinated.

I called him this evening after dinner and wished him a "happy belated birthday".  We talked a minute or two but it seemed like the conversation was just about to end.  So I started to ramble about our trip and how we were about to do this and that and we only had a few things left to buy, such as a cook pot.  "Dad, what was that?  You have one there with you?  Yes Dad, it sounds like the one we had on our bicycle trip.  Yes, I know which one you're talking about.  Okay, send us a picture!"  Just to confirm he sent us the picture below and they are indeed the set that we took with us on our bike trip.

My dad included measurements over the phone but also laid the ruler out for reference.
The one in the back left is the pot that I have been searching for!

Yay!  Another item scratched off the "needed gear list" and we didn't have to buy it!  So, I bought yarn today instead.  It was a fair trade I thought, but I did spend more than $10.  Ah well.

2 skeins of single ply Malabrigo yarn.  Very nice!

This mini little skein is my preliminary testing of fiber that I would like to spin while hiking.  I might not spin while we're hiking but on an afternoon break or in the evening while dinner is cooking I can take out my drop spindle and spin up a few yards.

This is .5 ounces of fiber which when finished gave me 25 yards of yarn.
My next step is to read over a few patterns for headbands to find out how much yardage they require.  

 I have a .9 ounce drop spindle that I tested this with.  I then practiced winding what is known as a "center pull ball" which means you can pull he yarn from the middle of a ball of yarn which keeps the ball from rolling all over the floor.  Next I "plied" the yarn in what is known as the "Navajo Ply" style which takes the 1 piece of yarn, folds it over on itself 3 times and creates a stronger yarn.  Confused?  That's okay.  Here are three videos to watch:
Spinning a single
Making a center pull ball
Navajo Ply (but I will do this on a drop spindle, this video is long so skip to about 5 minutes and watch for a little bit if you only want a general understanding.)

Another option would be to spin 2 times the fiber and ply them together.  More on that later. The aim with this yarn is to spin it while hiking, knit it up while hiking, then pass the finished headband on to the next hiker who wants it.  Who knows... maybe I'll get a story from them in exchange.

Another package arrived for us today.  Therm-A-Rest sleeping pads.

The last time we were at REI I checked out their sleeping pads.  The first Therm-A-Rest pads we bought several years ago were Base Camp models but at 3 feet by about 6 feet mats they're a bit too large to haul around backpacking (though some do!).  Maybe we'd just have to use the $10 closed cell foam mat like on the bike trip.  Small, pretty light weight but not all that comfortable.

Then a few days ago I was browsing online and REI had this model marked down.  Score, again!  Why clearance?  I think they are "last year's" model or style or maybe just color.  Never the less we will have a luxurious 1 inch of airy cushion between us and the ground.  The pad is 8 ounces, rolls up very small and is 36 x 20 inches laid out.  It fits under your torso down to your rear end for upper body padding along pressure points.  Good enough!

Fresh out of the package and still inflating.

They were left outside and at 56 degrees inside the RV at the moment they're not inflating too quickly but no rush, we'll just let them expand. 

The Backpack Saga Part 2

H: 
I have begun making Dave's backpack!  I think I should celebrate with chocolate even though I am only as far as cutting out a few pieces, but so far there are no mistakes!  I think I'm getting better at this whole process.

Aside from that we're snowed in!  Not really.  While the small amount of snow that has accumulated over the last 12 hours has melted from the roads it is leaving the world very pretty looking.

Back to cutting out pieces!

More time than money...

H:
A little fun statistics for you tonight.

We spent an hour this evening inventorying our dehydrated food supply.  This is something that I meant to do all along but never took the time to keep track as we were drying the food.  We would just empty and reload the trays as fast as we could, stash the food in baggies, then get on to something more entertaining.

I put together a spread sheet as we were sorting through the food.  Currently we have about 66 pounds of dry vegetable matter and 17 pounds of dry fruit.

I know that we have a bit of a deficit on dried vegetables, 1/4 of the over 30,000 grams of dry vegetables are actually vegetables.  The rest are legumes.

Frozen vegetables dry pretty fast, about 12 hours for an entire 12 tray dehydrator which holds 4 bags of frozen veg (at 2 pounds each before drying).  The cost to dry 8 pounds of frozen vegetables is about 7.5 cents per pound.

My veggies run about $1 a pound.

We cook with propane and I blanch the vegetables before I put them in the dehydrator so I will need to find a way to figure out about how much fuel is being consumed, for the moment we'll go with 1.5 cents a pound because I have no real idea but it sounds good to me and makes math easy.  This brings the grand total of drying a pound of veggies to $1.19.

Corn dehydrates to about 1/4 the starting weight, i.e. 2 pounds ends up being about 8 ounces when finished.

I was looking into backpacking meal recipes and found a recommendation for Just Tomatoes Etc.  This company sells an 8 ounce bag of dry corn for $8.50 (before shipping).

My 8 ounces of dry corn costs me $2.38 to make.

"But wait," you cry, "what about the time spent driving to the store, blanching, washing trays, bagging food, washing pots, etc, etc."  I go to the grocery store anyway.  After a few attempts the process of filling the dehydrators has become very streamlined and takes little real time that can't be split between two jobs (such as blanching vegetables and knitting a few rounds on a sock).  If I wasn't spending my time washing pots and trays I'd probably be knitting more which would cause me to buy more yarn and then I would have to spend more money on yarn, you can see a pattern developing.

I could spend my time right now making money to buy food, or I can spend my time right now working to make food.  In the end who really knows if I'm any more ahead than if I'd gone the other way.  I just know that at one o'clock this morning my calculator says I saved $6.12 on half a pound of dried corn and my brain says go to bed!

The wind down process begins...

H:
and so begins the wind up for the launch!

We are slowly tying down all loose ends in our life.  On an hour car ride yesterday we took notes for "things to do" today and Monday.  We seem to come up with so many "oh yeah" moments that we're driving ourselves crazy.  It's quite amazing to me how we are taking so very little to live with for our hike but how much is involved in wrapping up our life so that we can be "free."  Our list ranged buying powdered coconut milk to updating our wills!

We have about 6 weeks remaining before we start but we have only about 2 weeks before we plan to move our RV into storage.  After that we will spend about a month living with whatever fits in our car.  Finally it will be cut down to what fits in our packs.

My biggest hurdle at the moment is finding a pot for our cooking adventures.  We borrowed one from my dad for our bicycle trip and it worked amazing but I can't find anything close online.  All the local stores have heavier stainless steel versions or non-stick ones, but not a basic, good ol' aluminum pot.  I've been eyeing a titanium version that would do wonders, but it starts at $60.

"Why am you not borrowing the pot from you dad?" I hear you ask.  At the moment it is somewhere in a storage unit in Ohio and my parents are somewhere in an apartment in Virginia.  I keep thinking it might just be easiest to have Amazon drop one off at my door!

For the love of heat!

H:

Hot water, that all critical ingredient needed for your gourmet trail cooking of pasta, instant rice, instant potatoes, instant hot chocolate, instant coffee, instant oatmeal, or instant soup (which in itself is a category with inexhaustible avenues.  Imagine the simple fact that depending on how much water you put in you can get soup, stew or chowder all from the same basic ingredients, amazing!).

How do you get boiling water on the trail?  As there's no hot water tap that I've ever seen when hiking you end up needing to take along a stove of some kind.  Some folks will burn stick fire on a rock which can work just fine or better and the bonus is that you carry even less gear.  This is illegal in some areas (sure you only get in trouble if you get caught but it's still "illegal").  I won't say that it is more dangerous than an alcohol stove because I've watched some crazy videos on Youtube of people using stoves and making me wonder if they should even be allowed near a toaster (click HERE to go to a video.  Skip to 4 minutes and just wait for it, it will be worth it).  End result, if you're going to stay legal and eat hot food in those particular areas or the trail where there are restrictions then you'll need to carry some sort of stove.

Lightweight backpacking stoves range from the insanely expensive to unbelievably cheap, (down to being free).  They also range from amazing complex to incredibly basic.  A note here is that complexity and price do not always go hand in hand.

The most basic/cheap/tiniest stove you'll find is made from the minuscule Fancy Feast cat food can.  Slightly larger but just as basic & cheap is the humble Bumblebee Tuna can (even cheaper if you buy store brand tuna).  After this you'll find many variations on this style of stove that combine two or more cans of varying sizes to create your heat source and each design comes with differing levels of complexity.

Next up the chain are aluminum soda can stoves or even the extruded aluminum beverage can stoves (like Bud Light and Monster Energy Drink cans).  Actually, a can of soda is often cheaper than a can of tuna but these can get amazingly complex to build!  Wow, the videos I've seen of people making these little rocket fast cook stoves!  Don't have all those tools and the time to make yourself one?  That's okay, you can get one on eBay for $20.

I've watched a few dozen videos reviewing commercially available stoves that you can buy for let's say... oh... $140.  Just as tiny as the aluminum can stove but made out of brass and include lids and pot stands all engineered in Sweden to last a lifetime of hiking.

Let me tell you, I spent much of my day on this lovely Friday writing the last blog post while down a rabbit hole of never ending, auto playing videos on Youtube.  Many of these have compared the commercially available stove to "homemade" versions and there have been burn tests, fuel tests, boil tests, and on and on.

For contrast in making a homemade stove I present to you these two videos.  I don't say that you have to watch both of them in their entirety.  You can skip along or watch them at 1.25 speed like I did.  But they serve as both ends of the spectrum for what I have watched today.

Click HERE for the "simple" video and HERE for the "complex".  Enjoy!

Toasty and warm

H:

Yay!  The quilt is done... okay this one is 99.9999999% finished.  The only reason why I can't chock this up as a finished object is due to the fact that as I was unzipping the bag at home I found part of the seam had pulled away from the zipper!  About five inches will need to be reattached but that will wait until I can one again borrow the sewing machine from my cousin.  The material was very slippery and some of the fabric shifted underneath without me noticing (probably while I was pinning).  Ended up for those five inches I only caught the edge of the fabric.  Just enough to hold it for a few uses and then it pulled away.  I tugged on the rest of the seam and happily only found this one point of error. 

The last phase of the quilt's construction was tying all the layers together with yarn.  I've used this method on traditional quilts so I knew what I was doing.  This was going to be easy!

All set to start the quilting process.

Tools needed: scissors, yarn, a large eyed needle and a spacer block.  The block is used to create a knot that rides on top of the quilt and prevents the "ties" from compressing the batting so that maximum loft is maintained and thus maximum warmth.

I used a Sharpie to mark the placement of the ties.

Next I used the needle to run the thread from top to bottom, over a 1/4 inch, back to the top, over to then over to the next stitch point.  

I would cut off about a yard of yarn at a time which would give me a row or so of running stitches.  Once I my yard of yarn was used up I'd cut between the stitch points and tie them off.

The spacer block was pressed down against the fabric, temporarily crushing the insulation.  The yarn was pulled up above the block and I used a square knot to tie the yarn in place.  Finally I removed the spacer block leaving a gap between the knot and the quilt layers.

I trimmed the yarn a little closer to the knot then fluffed the quilt so the knots sat lightly on top.

The finished quilt!  (Almost finished, I didn't find the gap in the seam until I got home so at this point I was pretty excited).  The right side of this photo shoes the pointed toe end where I folded up the base and sewed two edges together to form a pocket for the feet.  The drafter stopper that caused me so much grief before can clearly be seen around the edge.

And how ingenious... the quilt unzips horizontally to form halves that each hiker can carry for weight distribution and extra warmth if you get stopped somewhere and need to wrap up.  I ran around for a bit with the pocket on my head like a hood and might just be doing that on the trail, it was nicely warm.  Someone asked me why it didn't zip vertically (from top to bottom).  The reason is that the zipper would be about twice the length (and thus twice the weight) of the one that separates the quilt horizontally, and also twice as much potential for failure.

After the pinning fiasco I decided to read the rest of the instructions, thoroughly imprinting them into my memory for life.  Which worked out great because when we reached my cousin's I found that the instructions were over an hour's dive away, neatly stacked up on my desk at home.  No problem, all I have left to do is tie the quilt together, I'd read his instructions, I've done it oodles of times before on traditional quilts.  I'm good.

I laid out my marks on the across the whole quilt, I even used a ruler to keep them evenly spaced.  Then I started stitching away.  If you look back to the pictures where I was showing off my amazing running stitches you'll say to yourself: "those look nice and even and tidy."  While I was stitching those I kept saying: "there's no way they included enough yarn in this kit for all these ties!"

Of course my cousin had a ton of black acrylic yarn sitting around in her yarn stash (she really did), so there was no question of actually running out, I'd get the quilt finished with what I had on hand.  But why was there not enough yarn in the kit?

Apparently I didn't imprint the instructions like I'd thought.  After four rows or so I decided to look up images of the quilt on the website I bought the kit from.  Hm... those ties on their quilts don't appear to be 4 inches apart, more like 8 or 12 inches even.  Ah... that's the problem.  Well, the quilt was suddenly going to get done a whole lot quicker.

All my years of making traditional quilts caused an overwhelming urge to make sure the stitching was a maximum of 4 inches apart which overrode whatever directions came with this camping quilt.  When making a traditional quilt and using sewing thread the stitching needs more support than these ties and as a result you need them to be closer together.  Not for this project!

I quickly finished off tying the quilt and it was time for testing!

Here we are testing out the finished quilt, (yeah, yeah, almost finished, but remember at this point we were blissfully unaware of the seam that would soon pull apart).

I was still moving my feet into place when my cousin took this shot so my feet are off the floor but the quilt will lay flat on the ground when we're using it.

The draft stopper is resting around our necks.  On very cold nights we will be able to pull this over our heads and position ourselves so that our noses are just peeping out of the bag which will trap in as much heat as possible while letting us breathe.  

One more element of our hike is done... okay, okay, almost done!  Time for the next... another backpack, this one should go really fast and be super easy, I probably don't even need to read the directions, I just finished one, I know what I'm doing.  I'm good.  Then again...

Gear Testing...

H:

With a newly minted backpack needing a trail test you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  Today's high was somewhere around 50 degrees with lots of sun and a bit of a breeze.  How do you test a backpack, well, you pack it full of stuff and see what happens.  I grabbed half of our sleeping bag and stuffed it into the bottom of the pack.  On top of that I put in a spare pair of shoes, just for weight, and then a vest just in case I wanted extra warmth while we were hiking.  Next we loaded in snacks, extra water, and just for good measure we tossed in a 5 pound dumbbell.  With all that inside the total weight was close to 15 pounds.  The backpack was ready for a base weight test.  Our goal for gear is this 15 pound range (and we’re talking +/- a pound kind of range).

Next we decided to test out some clothing.  We already own various “workout” clothes and are going for synthetic lightweight clothes for our trip.  This kind of gear can be insanely expensive so using what we already have is one goal.  Especially because most of what we own I buy off out of season clearance racks.

While digging through the clothing we already own I found a pair "Layer 8" brand spandex/polyester pants that Dave wore when we were on our bicycling trip.  They were a loose fitting straight leg cut when we bought them but I took up the side seams from the knee down to keep them out of the bicycling gears and chain.  Under those Dave donned a pair of “Wickers” brand under shorts.  We use these under our motorcycling gear.  They are true to their name and wick away moisture very nicely.  They cost us about $16 a pair and are polyester with a bit of spandex.  The nice thing about the Wickers is that they have a cotton feel without the cotton.

For my lower limbs I pulled out a pair of "Spyder" brand polyester pants I bought a half dozen years ago on clearance at Dick’s sporting goods.  I think I paid about $9, and they retail for around $70.  These were my spare pair of pants on our bike trip.  They’re quite chewed up with several snags and I will need to take up the waist band if I keep wearing them because they do like to sag a bit.

My shirt was another clearance find, an "XTEK" wicking shirt I bought at Menards last spring.  The package showed several people skiing and I imagined that the long sleeve shirt would offer a little warmth with the wicking action.  I quickly found out that is not the case.  I put them on and actually get a bit of an instant chill which means they wick awesome!  However, as soon as I put on a windbreaker or rain jacket I grow very warm.  Wicking layer, check.

Dave’s shirt today was a short sleeve "Cougar" brand 100% polyester shirt I bought at Meijer a few years back for a couple dollars, again a clearance deal.

I wore a hat that I made for Dave.  It’s also from my own handspun yarn.  I’m not sure the breed of the sheep but by using a technique called “long draw” you’re able to make a fluffy yarn that provides added warmth.  This hat is nicely warm but unfortunately just a bit too scratchy for Dave’s head.  It’s a little too big on me so I will need to reknit the hat to fit my head.

Close up of Dave's hat.

On the way to the trail head I wove in the ends of a brand new hat for Dave.  It’s a wool/silk/alpaca blend luxury yarn that is very soft and warm.  Dave’s bald head needs a nice warm hat and this will be what he uses on the Trail.  Part way through today’s hike the hat came off so I know that it is warm enough.

We both wore our Keen sneaker/boots.  Dave wore a pair of cotton socks because that’s all he has at the moment.  I wore a pair of my own hand knit socks.

For our outer layer we wore very beat up rain jackets we bought around 8 years ago.  Again, this is something that was used on our bike trip, but they’re going to need replaced for the hike.  They’re somewhat heavy and all the water proofing tape has peeled off the seams.  A lot of the plastic pulls have dry rotted from sun exposure and they smell funky.

With loaded pack we drove to a nearby trail that is used for mountain biking and horses as well as hiking.  Loading up my backpack I noticed a group leaving the trail.  They were wearing street clothes and navigating a remote controlled car alongside them.  They were dressed in street clothes and were muddy from the mid-shin down.  One guy looked at us and said: “You going hiking in there?”  I refrained from the “here’s your sign” line that jumped into my head because Dave beat me to it with a simple “yes”.  The stranger assured us that it was quite muddy and we might want to reconsider.  Dave’s response was “We’re going to have to get used to it because we’re hiking the Appalachian Trail this year.”  At that the stranger directed us to the far side of the park where a waist high mud puddle was to be found.

We started walking along a mud and gravel running path that was quite saturated with snow melt and ground thaw.  After about half a mile we crossed into the woods and found the trails were from squishy to boggy.  We slogged through for about a half hour before we reconnected to the running path and took a snack break.

We took turn wearing the pack while we were out today and while we have been conditioning our hearts and legs at the Y… the shoulders sighed in relief when I took the pack off and it only had 15 pounds in it!  Our max weight limit goal including consumables is 25 pounds.  Dave told me I’d get used to it.

All in all the gear tests worked great today.  The pack did awesome and I have the final placement for the sternum strap.  Another test will be needed before I finalize the shoulder straps.  Our shoes kept our feet dry despite the puddle stomping we did.

Our plan is to not renew at the Y when our membership expires this month and just start walking outside as much as possible.  I’m sure going to miss the whirlpool after workouts but it had to come sooner or later.

99.9% Done...

H:
...but on purpose!

It's done, it's done, it's done... okay, it's almost done!

I finished my pack, almost.  With sewing machine reassembled and proper tension I was able to plow through today and wrap up the last of the sewing.  All that remains are a few final touches that will be done when all other gear is figured out.  The shoulder strap take up webbing needs trimmed but I can't do that until I have a properly loaded pack and can adjust the straps to the correct tightness.  Likewise, when I have all my clothing gear figured out I can determine the permanent attachment point for the sternum strap that runs across the upper chest.  And lastly, the permanent securing of the shoulder strap casing onto the foam.  That will need to be done with a little hand sewing and I'm putting that of until later.

Ta-dah! My almost done pack:

The next four photos show the pack at max capacity with the extension collar in full use.

Left Side (as worn)

Back

Right Side (as worn)

Front

 This is a close up of the mesh side pocket and one of the utility straps (the dark band running horizontally).  On each side there is a mesh pocket and two utility straps.

The next series of photos are of the pack without the extension collar in use.  This collar is useful when arriving at a resupply point when you will need to haul a max load of food.  Slowly space needed in the pack will become less and less as food is consumed and the extension collar can be rolled down or tucked inside the pack to keep everything neat and tidy.

Front of pack, this side also has an exterior mesh pocket.

Left Side (as worn)

Back

Right Side (as worn)

Aerial view with extension collar not in use.

As I didn't have finished gear to pile in the pack for photos I used what was readily at hand, a new acquisition... over 30 ounces of roving!  For the uninitiated, roving is a stage in fiber processing (in this case wool) that can be spun into yarn.  It's good to know how much I can put into the bag because following the hike I can completely see me using this pack to go shopping at fiber festivals (again, for the uninitiated, I'm talking about animal fibers not the fiber you find in bran flakes, and yes there are entire festivals dedicated to the fiberarts, you should find a local one and see what it's all about).

Three bags full of roving next to an unhelpful cat.  These are what filled out the pack.

Someone wants attention.