Date: 2019-02-03
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Friday Feb 1 was my final day at work. Last week was a whirlwind of emotions, surprise parties, events and gifts . I truly appreciate all of the thoughtful kind well wishes from all of my amazing co-workers and clients. Thank you for our friendship!Now I need to finish my final preparations for the trail. I¢m going to try and hike every day before I leave and hopefully get a head start on gaining my trail legs. As you know I start my AT hike Feb 18!Yesterday, I did a 9.3 mile training hike with my ZPacks Arc Haul Zip loaded at 26 lbs. The Florida  Split Oak traiI was flat and sandy. I kept a pretty good pace at 3 miles per hour and did stop once to talk to a Boy Scout troop and discuss hiking information,techniques etc. After my impromptu field presentation I stopped to test a new piece of my cook kit , the Big Sky insulate pouch  www.bigskyproducts.com . I plan to do a lot of freezer bag cooking ,which means I will heat up water in my Toaks titanium 650 ml cook pot and then pour the heated water into either one of my prepackaged freeze dried Mountain House meals or into a freezer bag with ramen noodles, oatmeal etc. I will then place the freezer bag into the insulated Big Sky pouch which will keep the heat from dissipating and aid in speeding up the cook time. This process eliminates having to clean up my pot every time I cook.I also tried out my new Zpacks bear bag, the kit comes with a small rock bag and 50 feet of Z line, a mini carabiner, the total weight is 3.4 ounces. Through out the Appalachian Trail it is required to hang your food and other scented items such as toothpaste away from bears. You should hang your bag 100 yards away from your tent. Another good reason to hang your bag is to prevent mice from chewing through your tent to get to your food. I¢ve hung bear bags before but I will also try and practice using all of my gear everyday before I leave to develop a super comfort level. Yesterday I used the PCT method for hanging the bear bag,which means rather than tying off the loose end of the line to a tree, I tied a stick to the line and it intersected with the carabiner attached to the line to hold it in place. I have added pictures to help explain the process.I want to give Zpacks customer service tremendous accolades. Zpacks is a cottage company that manufactures high quality, super lightweight backpacks,tents,sleeping bags and other hiking/adventure equipment right here in Melbourne Florida. The company was founded in 2005  and is owned and operated by hikers that are constantly improving their gear through their own experiences as well as input from the hiking community. They recently upgraded all of the webbing on my pack and secured all of the loops with their most modern methods. They refused to charge me and insisted on the free upgrade to give me best ultimate experience on the trail. They also prioritize any emergencies for any thru-hiker on the trail. What is really amazing is that they know I bought the pack second hand but still gave me top-shelf service! I have of course bought and will continue to purchase other products from this fine company. Thank you Zpacks!  www.zpacks.com