Date: 2012-10-14
To: Prep #11 Fitpacking Here I Come
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

The phone rang yesterday about 5:45 PM. I'd left my phone on the kitchen counter and was upstairs in my little office area. I dashed down the steps and it was a number I didn't recognize but since it was a local number, I answered. It was Jeff, one of the guides of the fitpacking trip I'll be going on in a few days.What the heck is fitpacking ? "Fitpacking is weight loss backpacking" so it says on the website. Now I could stand to remove fat from this old body of mine, but I'm most interested in learning about hiking the Appalachian Trail and putting some backpacking miles on my feet and under my belt. This trip is called the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker Primer and we'll spend 5 nights and 6 days on the trail. We'll cover about 40 miles during that time and my husband keeps asking me what I'm going to be doing all the rest of the hours in each day since we're only going to cover 40 miles total. In general we walk about 50 miles each week but the terrain of our neighborhood is pretty flat. I'm focused on whether I'll be able to pick up and carry my backpack for 5 days in a row. We won't be twiddling our thumbs.Had a great conversation with Jeff who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2008. His trail name was Jukebox and I've read his journal on trailjournals.com. Bruce will be our other guide. He's a Wilderness Medicine certified Wilderness First Responder and a Leave No Trace Master Educator. I expect he'll be a wonderful teacher. I think there will be 6 fitpackers on this trip (2 from Minnesota, 2 from Georgia, 1 from Virginia and 1 from South Carolina). With the thought of having to carry enough earthly possessions on my back to live in the woods for 5 days, I may have become what's know in hiker lingo as a "gram weenie" -- one who knows the weight of everything in his/her pack because it has been weighed. I want to keep my pack weight as low as possible - say 17 lbs. or less (not counting water and food) because Jeff says I'll need to carry 10 LBS. OF FOOD -- WHEW ! They are providing the food and I have no idea what 10 lbs. of hiker food looks like. I'm supposed to bring a "bear bag" to hold my food. Well, I have two of them and I don't like the looks of either. One is made of stainless steel (supposed to be good for stopping rodents' teeth and the other is made of Spectra which bears have a hard time gnawing through. Both are heavy before adding 10 lbs. of food. See Food Bags photo. (NOTE: Thanks, Ned for sending directions on how to insert multiple photos. I've tried three times to no avail. I'll keep at it though). Here's hoping that when I stuff it all into my pack there is still room at the top to hold 10 lbs. of food in a bear bag ... except that the food won't go at the top of the pack because heavier things should be put in my pack closer to the middle of my back (or so says the info I've read). Now you know a few reasons I've signed on for this trip.On a side note, I'm going to leave my IPood shovel at home and go with one of my tent stakes for digging "the hole."I packed my clothes in ZipLock bags this morning. Then knelt on them (while praying -- just kidding) and squeezed out all the air. Hopefully, he won't ask me to open them. Then I weighed the bags - that's the pic at the top:One change of hiking clothes         10 3/4 oz.Windjacket/fleece           9 oz.Nano Puff Jacket           10 oz.Rain Jacket                11 3/4 oz.Rain Pants                 11 oz.Down Jacket and little hat 14 5/8 oz.(wear in camp at night)Sleeping clothes (sleep socks,lightweight thermal shirt and tightsrunning shorts if I don't need thermals 1 lb. l oz. TOTAL            5 lbs. 4 1/4 oz.   (Could be too much)May leave the Down Jacket at home and just take the Nano Puff (a synthetic down). May leave the rain jacket and pants at home and go with a sil-nylon poncho for rain (if weather is predicted to be nice)... decisions.decisions.P.S. I didn't take the rain pants or the down jacket and I put my clothes in a compression sack; ended up with 3 lbs. of clothes. Never wore the wind jacket fleece or the rain jacket and only put on the nano puff jacket the last night but we had gorgeous weather. Live and learn.