Date: 2004-01-04
To: The fundamental constraint
Miles today: 0.0

Weight is the battle I have been brawling against all week. It¢s a war that is impossible to win, as that would mean hiking without any gear. However just because something can¢t be defeated doesn¢t mean it can¢t be controlled, I would like to think so at least.Andy and I were blessed with the opportunity to spend December 30th with Dave Rinker, aka ¢Nuge¢. Rinker thru-hiked last summer. He did so in a little under 90 days, NOBO. Rinker carried a little over 14 pounds for the major stretch of his run up the AT. He made it from Springer to Damascus in 16 days. After Damascus he found a group to hike with and he slowed his 30 plus mile a day pace. Also his feet were in shambles so he really had no other option but to slow down. So anyway Rinker was just a wealth of information. We picked his brain for almost 5 hours. He went through our gear and told us what he took and what he would liked to have done different. I never really took my pack weight to be a serious issue, but since our conversation, I have re-evaluated my gear list.To start I packed up all my gear, everything I even considered taking along and brought it to the Police station where I work and weighed it on our digital narcotic scale. I weighed everything in grams and later transcribe my notes into an Excel document and converted grams to ounces. My winter gear list to start out was almost 29 lbs., without food, fuel, or water. It should be noted that that did include my all clothes that I planned on taking. My true pack weight will be less as I will be wearing most of those clothes. As it looks now, 27.7 pounds. Add food and water, I am looking at mid 40¢s easy. Here are my problem areas:Clothing:                         8.9 pounds(Including everything, raincoat, pants, fleece, socks, gloves, etc¢¦)Big 3:                                9.92 poundsPack=4.87 lbs, bag=3.5lbs, bivy=1.5 lbsStove         (whisperlight)                1.47 pounds(Plus the weight of fuel)The clothing really can¢t be much improved upon, as I plan to hike through the winter. I also feel I am not taking exorbitant amount of apparel. In my opinion it is not safe to go into the teeth of winter in the mountains without supplementary dry gear. My pack, Aether 75 weighs in at 4.87 lbs (2211 grams or 78 ounces) and takes about 4800 cubic inches. This will get swapped out once that weather turns, but for the time being I need the extra room for my winter wardrobe and extravagant menu. My bag, Mountain Hardwear Conduit SL 0 degree, is truly awesome. The main weight issue with this bag is the bulletproof shell and the extra expander baffle that allows extra room in the bag, useful on warm nights or days when I am snowbound in a shelter. My Bibler bivy is way too cool to leave home and makes a great shelter.My stove and set up is I think my only hope for cutting an easy 1.5 pounds. With a couple Pepsi can stoves and a small windscreen I am looking at a cook set at about 2 ounces. The problem is that I have not had enough experience cooking with an alcohol stove in the winter. This is an issue I hope to resolve in the next 3 weeks. So that¢s where my pre-hike status is now. Working to get weight down. I still need to get breakfast and lunches lined up. Good new in the dinner department, I found ground hamburger in a pouch, similar to that of chicken and tuna. This means I get to go over my dinners again and re-evaluate how I want to work my menu. I plan on using 10 food drops. I have them listed under my mail drops, please look at them and let me know what you think.   All for tonight. Its snowing hardcore here now. We have about an inch on the ground and are supposed to get 12-15 inches overnight. I do think I will go hiking in the morning. Should be a good time. 28 days¢¦