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!