Date: 2007-03-15
To: change gears-gear change
Miles today: 0.0

I should be doing some of the thousand and one things that need doing but I think I will add a journal entry to this journal instead. Today was a day of hard work and a bit of frustration at drippy Washington weather. I am getting worried that I will not get the two garden beds done that I want to do before leaving. Today was supposed to be a sunny day but it was not and the weather forecast is not promising. Oh well. I did get more medication counted out for my food drop boxes, the last of the compost moved to the garden and split and hauled 7 wheelbarrow loads of wood. Hence the tiredness.A couple days ago Kathy and I went up Mt Si again for another training hike and I am sorry to say either that or the constant hauling of wood up the hill to the woodshed left me feeling my muscles. But it all should help me on the trail.So - changing gears - being retired is a change in gears from my working life in some ways. But I have discovered, as have many retired persons, that there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done even though one is supposed to have all this extra time while beiing retired. I still do enough preaching, as well as mentoring a Korean pastor, to feel like I am still employed, although usually only 2-3 days including Sundays are involved with pastor type work. The rest of my days and hours are filled with getting my yard and house ready so I can go on this hike and the trip to see my daughter and the new baby to come. Right now, I am getting rather tired of filling my woodshed and working outside and am looking forward to changing gears by going to AZ where I will get ready to hike the AT by carrying my 18 month old grandson around in his pack. My daughter says he keeps going to the closet and pointing to the pack and she tells him he has to wait until grandma gets there to go for a hike. That will be a joyous change of gears from splitting and hauling the wood that will keep me warm next winter.Now, gear changes - As I read a variety of trail journals of those getting ready to hike or those who are already on the trail, I have reflected on the changes in hiking/backpacking/camping gear I have seen over the years.When I car camped with my family, the tents were heavy canvas that only had to be hauled from the car to the ground a few yards away. Good thing. They were very heavy. The sleeping bags were equally heavy and always lined with flannel. Yet because we camped, we were able to take many trips over the United States. The most memorable trip, I think, was a trip to the East Coast from Colorado. My Dad had a week convention in Atlantic City and a week convention in Philapelphia with a week in between. We camped and were gone for a whole month. I got out of school a month early for this trip - took all my final tests early - in about the 8th grade, I think. We camped in a campground on the Wading River in New Jersy. We camped at Valley Forge in Philadelphia. We even camped in Washington DC a stone's throw from the Jefferson Memorial. Really! A freeway runs now right where we once put up our tents on a little square of grass in a trailer park. But with our heavy canvas tents and sleeping bags we were able to have a marvelous vacation.When I entered Girl Scout camp I think I hiked with a pack that had an external frame make of wood. Some of the counselors even had old Army issue packs with metal "kidney buster" frames. These were NOT made of aluminum and were extremetly heavy and uncomfortable. We got all excited in Colorado when Gerry Packs came out with fiberglass one piece frames. And then I graduated from college and moved out to Washington and was introduced to aluminum external frame packs. I still have about 4 of those in the closet and they do still work. In fact, I used one for my first hike on the AT and PCT. They actually were light in weight even if not as comfortable and close to the body as the newer internal frame packs. Many of today's internal frame packs are pretty heavy. If I had not been able to find a very light internal frame pack I might still be using my old REI external frame. On my first AT trip I was impressed with how light everyone's pack was and did remember that several folks carried the Mountainsmith Ghost, which I now carry. Packs, and all gear has changed very much over the years.Besides the canvas tents our family took car-camping, I remember the heavy tarps we took on a burro trip with the Girl Scouts. They were creatively put up each night strung from trees with binder's twine and held together with Alice's gold bobby pins. Sometimes they collapsed in the middle of the night and heavy rain. Ah, but the burro trip of 10 days was a trip to remember forever and the collapsing tarps just added to the stories told and memories recorded.When I moved to Washington, instead of getting a tent, I got a very large white plastic tarp and some small goldline to tie it up to trees or stretch over large logs. my room-mate and I used the contraption snow camping in the Olympic mountains and on various hikes and climbs from Washington State to Mt Shasta, CA with the Mountaineers. When I got married, I got my first tent - an REI Camper that was sort of like a square Teepee, one pole in the middle and a zip front door - a really nice four person tent that still works although the flooring is not as waterproof as it once was. I think it weighs 12-16 lbs or so, I forget which. Heavy by today's standards but divided by the four who would sleep in it, just 3-4 lbs per person. And you could stand up in the middle to pull on your pants! That tent was used over the years from Arizona to Washington to Wyoming to New York. My daughter and I camped in it when I drove her out to enter college in upstate New York. And we backpacked with it many places in Washington up until 3 years ago or so. I have had a couple of REI tents lately, the REI Half Dome and the Roadster. Lately, and for this trip, I will be using the Roadster. I chuckle to myself as I see long distance hikers going with lightwieght tarps. What goes around comes around. I started with tarps. Now I like the protection of a zippered mosquito net but I am contemplating a lighter tent in the future.Cookware and stoves have also changed over the years. Growing up camping and on trips with the Girl Scouts we would always have campfires. There is something wonderful and charming about sitting around the campfire and telling stories and singing songs about campfires too. Most of the time these days, I rarely have a campfire. Many places don't allow them and I have become used to just traveling with a small camp stove. I will be taking my 3 oz Snow Peak Titanium Stove. Well, yes, the fuel canisters do weigh something but I do appreciate their convenience and speed of operation.In the old Girl Scout days our cook pots were just #10 tin cans with bailing wire handles tied to the outside of the packs. They clanged cheerily behind us as we walked. And we ate out of our cups and we had one spoon. Funny again, that is what is becoming standard for long distance hikers. Eating out of a cup and using a spoon or a spork. Today there is the convenience also of having some pretty good freeze-dried food which allows you to eat out of the packaging after only pouring boiling water in to re-hydrate and cook the food.Raingear for the Girl Scout in those olden days was a rubberized raincoat - pretty heavy. And we just wore cutoffs for shorts and never wore long pants at all. We shivered around the campfire and then jumped into our sleeping bags. I will enjoy my Frog Togs on the AT. They are the lightest raingear I have found so far.And my sleeping bag is a far cry from those old heavy flannel bags with heavy filling. My Marmot Helium is less than 2 lbs and toasty warm. I remember those old bags in which I was always cold and always wanted other people to snuggle up on either side or I would freeze to death.I hike in zip leg pants and, since I hike hot, the pant legs are often stuffed in the pack. Oh, and I will probably shock everyone back east because I usually hike in my sports bra. Hey, they are pretty colors and cover one up more than most bathing suits on the beach - and like I said, I hike hot. When I was in my 20s a thousand years ago or so, people in the northwest often hiked in bikinis. I used to do that too. You got a great tan although the sock line was pretty interesting. And in the ancient days of Girl Scouts older scouts and counselors often hiked in just their bras as sports bras had not been invented yet. One did have to keep one's eyes open to see if other hikers of the opposite sex were coming to pull the shirts back on and look decent. In comparison colored sports bras are much better. They look like clothes - well, sort of.That is quite enough about gear changes and changing gears. While on the trail I will not have such lengthy posts but it was fun to think of all the changes I have seen over the years. I am waiting to see the next advances in gear.