Date: 2005-01-05
To: Gearing Up.....
Miles today: 0.0

In the beginning, when were we at the peak of our, "gear hunting frenzy"; we read through these Trail Journals probably more interested as to what gear the hiker was using instead of what was happening on his or her hike. Boy, did we read alot of journals. Gear was a main focus at the time and we were desperate for information. We looked through brochures, read hiking and outdoor magazines, studied product research and comparisons, read books and went on internet chat rooms and asked for advice. You name it, we did it. It was fun, still is, for that matter. We still haven't purchased all of our gear, but almost all of it, at least all of the major items like the backpacks, stove, sleeping bags, tent, hiking poles, boots and so on. The rest has been decided upon and we are just awaiting an opportunity to try some things on or physically see it before we buy it. Some of these items are very costly and they add up which is important but probably more important is that you choose gear that is going to work for you instead of against you. You would think that with all the information out there that it would be easy to buy gear, but it seemed to work just the opposite. The more we compared, the more choices we had, the more philosophies we read, the harder the decision became. And, of course we struggled with what train of thought we were going to go with: the extremely light and compact, saw the handle off the toothbrush mentality, versus the not so concerned about every little ounce, I'm going to go crazy here, concept. We hopefully have settled somewhere in the middle, with Fancyfree leaning toward sawing her toothbrush off and me trying to figure out how I can carry one more book with me in that gigantic Gregory Whitney 5450 cu. in. backpack, the one with all the "barn door side pockets".An example of what that thought process sounded like with our struggle with which pair of boots to buy, went like this. Should we go with the low cut, extremely light, sneaker type shoe, or the same version but with a highr cut, or the one-piece, heavy vibram sole, all leather, gortex lined, classic hiking bbot, or maybe we should consider purchasing two completely different pairs of boots/shoes/footwear and switch off and on, depending on what the day's weather looked like or maybe we should go with waterproof socks and some of those new sandals that really aren't sandals but actually boots with the heels and toes cut out or better yet we could go barefoot like some of the hikers we've read about. Multiply that by 6, add 2, carry the 1 and punt.Wanna know what happened, what boots we chose? Fancyfree and I "hiked" over to the boot/shoe/sock section at REI, wearing our trial backpacks loaded down with 40 pounds of sand, and seperated, each to our respective section. We tried on boots, we tried on boots and we tried on boots, working our way through 2 sets of clerks, consulted with other potential boot owners who were as clueless and confused as us, and.....both of us decided on the same boot; the ASOLO 520 series. Go figure.So, all you need to do is multiply the above example by backpacks, tents, stoves, socks, sleeping bags, and the list goes on and on, and you can see just how much fun we've had gearing up for our adventure.Footloose