Date: 2006-01-16
To: Practice Makes Perfect -- or at least Better!
Miles today: 0.0

This weekend I did some practice simulations of activities I'll be doing on my hike.Saturday, I took a trip to the grocery to do a simulated town re-supply for 6 days. True to predictions my foodbag weighs in at 14 lbs--a little over 2 lbs/day. I got lipton's, foiled tuna/chicken/salmon, bagels, peanut butter and strawberry jam in plastic, 8 oz bottle of olive oil---need to get a 1/2 liter plastic container for it; 1/2 lb butter and a suitable container, oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit, powerbars, etc, etc. That gave me a realistic out-of-town food bag to see if my pack would really hold an into-the-Smokies load. The Z-Pack barely held it all---and I guess that's good because I won't be tempted to overbuy or take things I really don't need. As it is, with 6 days of food, my Marmot EOS-1 tent will be strapped outside the pack. Actually that's probably where it belongs as there will be days I put it up wet and I don't want it inside with clothes, food and sleep gear. The pack cover barely stretched over it all, but it made it, and I think I could have packed a bit better.Sunday was crisp and clear here with a predicted low of about 18-20 degrees--perfect for simulating arrival at a campsite on a cold day in the early part of the trip. So, about 5 p.m., I donned my hiking gear, boots, etc. put on the loaded up pack from Saturday and hiked a hundred yards or so down to a corner of our 2 acres to simulate setting up camp. I pretended it was raining so I left my pack on the ground, rain cover up after pulling the tent out of the outside pocket. I pulled out the rainfly first and set it on my selected site, then the groundsheet and tent went under it and the tent and groundsheet got staked out together as they're designed to be. Finally, I slipped the pole assembly under the rain fly, clipped the tent to it, staked out the vestibule, and guyed the fly. Then I quickly stowed the pack in the vesibule as I sat down inside the tent with imaginary drips shedding from my Precip jacket and wet hiking shorts. Whoops, probably should have shed those as I was passing thru the vestibule. My first job in unpacking was to pretend to wipe up the rain that got inside the tent floor with the mini pack towel I carry---have to pack that in a more conveniet place---as it seems to me now matter how hard one tries, some rain will get in. The moral of this story is while I plan to tent most of the time, I hope that if it's raining cats and dogs there will be room in a shelter or at the least I can set up the free-standing tent in the shelter and then tote it set up to an appropriate tentsite. The rest of the simulation went well. The bag seemed to perform as rated, provided I wore my midweight keep-dry-at-all-costs Smartwool top and bottoms. The only hitch was the MP-3 player alarm doesn't work if the ear phones come unplugged while you toss and turn---The alarm went off but I didn't hear it. Fortunately, I thought to look at my watch during one of the tosses, so I made my connection for a day trip to Seven Springs PA for skiing. Skiing was great though we did return early as the snow was getting very sticky in spots as the temp warmed up to 40. Upon return, I simulated cooking one of the Lipton's noodle dishes using my penny alcohol stove and pot cozy for the "continue cooking under low heat for 12 minutes" phase, while I simulated packing up, pretending that the noodles I was cooking were breakfast oatmeal. All went well with the packing and the noodles "simmered" well in the cozy and stayed good and hot for the 20-30 minutes it took me to pack up and hike to the next shelter (our house). Ate the noodles (3 cheese flavor) as part of dinner.Learned a couple lessons: 1) I need to figure a way to measure alcohol and learn how much is enough--I had about twice as much as I needed; 2) I need to learn how to light my stove better at 30 deg. (a little extra primer in the groove around the outside seems to do the trick); 3) while the "simmer ring" reduced the flame, it did not simmer; and 4) I needed to adjust the snug pot cozy to let me insert a hot pot using the pot gripper (did that by cutting two parallel vertical slits in the side where the pot gripper attaches and folding the foam down. After inserting the pot I'll bend the flap of foam back and hold it in place with a length of velcro. I figure the first two items are a matter of getting a little more experience and I just have to accept that "simmer" is a relative condition with alcohol stoves.All in all a good weekend.