Date: 2018-02-14
From: Hogpen Gap

To: Low Gap Shelter
Miles today: 4.6
Weather: overcast clouds

I spent the afternoon yesterday reconfiguring the way I pack up. Pretzel gave me a ride from Mountain Crossings to Blood Mountain Cabins because most of my gear was spread all over his back seat. When we got there he told me that, ¢he could tell that I¢m that guy who has a bag within a bag within a bag.¢ I¢ve been using sea-to-summit dry bags to group like things within my pack. I¢ve suspected that I have extra room I wasn¢t utilizing because of air left in the bags. Not wanting to be that guy I went on a mission to empty as many bags as possible. I ended up splitting my clothes into two bags, leaving the bags open so I could compress more air out of them. I¢m keeping them in bags for the moisture barrier because I know when I get down to wearing just a shirt when it¢s warm (which may be tomorrow) I will sweat through my backpack and soak my clothes if the bags aren¢t there. I¢ve been putting my inflatable sleeping pad, inflatable pillow, and silk sleeping bag liner in a dry bag and carrying them in an external pouch. Only the liner needs to be kept dry, so I put it with my clothes. The external pouch now has room for my stove, cook pot, and gas all of which are no longer in a bag inside my pack. Next I looked at my food bag and decided that there was nothing in it that I couldn¢t submerge, so I put all the individually packaged food on top of, and around my clothes bags where there were voids of space. When I get to camp, I remove the food and put it in a bag so it¢s ready for overnight critter proof storage. My spikes, AWOL guide and empty bags went in next. That left plenty of room for my tent, which I had been carrying on the outside of my pack in a compression dry bag. Now the only thing left hanging loose on the outside is my water filtration equipment, which is lightweight and I want back there for easy access. Huge improvement! The pack carries much better now. I still have a pack cover to at least offer token resistance against rain. Its kept everything dry the last two days through dripping trees and light rain. I¢m not expecting everything to be bone dry when I eventually hit a serious downpour. I¢m settling in now at Low Gap Shelter. I¢m currently the only one here, but I¢m expecting other hikers to arrive soon. A quarter to a half inch of rain is forecast overnight. It was warmer today and tomorrow is forecast to be near 60. I¢m planning on hiking in shorts tomorrow for the first time on this trip. If it¢s not raining when I leave the shelter, I will probably skip the rain jacket also. It¢s fairly heavy weight and I intended to use it when it¢s colder. There¢s a point where having it on makes me wetter because it holds in so much heat. The new boots are still working well but are still in the break in period so I will be keeping the miles down for a while. The wider boots, strategically applied KT tape, and foot glide are keeping new blisters from cropping up for now. Tomorrow will be a big test, because I will be going 7.4 miles with a full pack. If I can, I will probably pull over and change into dry socks in the middle of the day.Zin Master ¢The journey is the reward.¢