Date: 2019-02-23
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Miles today: 0.0

Saturday morning Feb 23 day 6While I¢m waiting here for the others to rise I thought I would do a quick gear review Gopher and Peach just took off they will camp out hopefully at lowgap shelter tonight. We will see them later today as we will be slack packing SOBO from Hogpen gap . It¢s confusing I know but more on that tonight.Favorite Gear so far;Leki Trekking poles- I love these poles they give me great confidence with balance and helps relieve pressure on my knees.Knee compression sleeves medium size. This keeps my knees feel held together while I¢m hiking. The compression increases the blood flow and when I take them off at night they recover nicely.Thermarest. Z seat - most would consider a luxury item and it is but when you have 5 days of rain and you are in your warm comfy sleep clothes you don¢t want to sit on a wet bench, log or rock. Also if it¢s dry and cold this will prevent the cold ground from sucking your body heat. I love it!Inflatable pillow- tucks in nicely at the head of my mummy bag and stays put thru the night. It¢s funny how the small comforts that we take for granted at home are the best. I also love my air mattress.REI Igneo 20 with thermo reactor liner. This sleep kit has kept me very warm. On the coldest night I sleep with ice breaker 200 long underwear bottoms and top lightweight North face fleece. Light weight Merino wool balaclava on my head and once I added my R2 Patagonia fleece for extra warmth and down booties over my wool sleep socks. I keep my puffy jacket handy and use it as a magic cloak over my head to protect me from things that go bump in the night. Truly if anything I¢ve been too warm at night but the Smokies will test me soon.I love my Altras Lone peak 3.5 with the Awesome superfeet blue inserts my lovely sister in law gave me for Christmas.This combination works very well for me. I use the injiji toe sock liner with Darn Tough socks. No blisters or foot problems so far. Trust me I still love boots and two of our group use them but the trail runners seems the way to go for me. My feet stay amazingly warm even trodding thru creeks. I can¢t comment on snow yet but I did bring waterproof socks seal skins which I have been using over my sleep socks and with my camp shoes ¢Crocks ¢for moisture protection.Least favorite GearMy very expensive Marmot gore Tex proshell jacket. I¢ve had this shell for several years and recently applied a spray type water repellent. But the jacket leaks just like the cheapest ones out here and it¢s probably several ounces heavier. Also I¢m not too pleased with my BP paclite goretex pants as I¢ve gotten wet down there as well. I know everything gets wet out here in this kind of mess but my point is save $400 and by cheaper rain gear. Halo tip of the day.Pump up sack doubling as a pac liner- for me the process is too slow and it¢s not a waterproof liner I¢m switching back to a white compactor bag and blowing up by mouth.Sadly my worst gear fail are my shoulder straps on my Back pack.They slip and one time they completely came disconnected.I¢ve tied knots on the end and resolved it for now. Other than that I love this Arc Haul Zip the comfort and weight is spectacular.I can¢t think of any other issues truly I¢m pleased with all my initial selections and have used everything except my tent , which is funny because I thought I would never sleep in a shelter. I¢m slowly learning!Good morning from the mountains !! disregard good night below.