Date: 2002-10-21
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Just finished reading through several of the triumphant journal entries from this years thru-hikers who reached Katahdin. Talk about inspiring !!   ...sure wish it was March 2003.I'm still weeding through some final gear choices for 2003. This past weekend BA Turtle and I headed up into the Medicine Bow for an overnighter. Temps have really started to drop at the higher elevations (10,000 ft +) here in Wyoming. We had sunshine and a gorgeous blue sky our entire way in but the evening was something else all together. On our way out one of the trails we spotted 2 lakes off in the distance. Being the adventurous types that we are   ...the idea to bushwhack hit both of us at the same time. We got our bearings and noted a few landmarks and then off the trail we went. That's something you can do pretty easy out here that is a bit more difficult back on the AT with all the dense foliage and ground cover. Anyway, after an hour or so of wading through some hip deep snow drifts we found ourselves along side the lakes. They were 3/4 frozen over but the ice was crystal clear and you could literally see the trout swimming beneath the surface. We set up tents and fired up the alcohol stove for a nice hot lunch. Been experimenting with the alcohol stove (Trangia Westwind) and finally have that little sucker working well. Found out that a big part of the equation is ventilation. For those of you who have one or are thinking of getting one, I'll just tell you in advance that if you're smelling heavy vapor while cooking you are wasting fuel and not getting an efficent burn out of the stove. Anyway   ...enough stove talk. The real point of this whole story was the bushwhacking experience. It adds an interesting dimension to a hike. We heard some hikers in the distance on a ridge but no one even came close to our little "hide out" on the lake. Needless to say that after the sun dipped behind the mountain the temperature dropped like a bomb. We got our food hung and crawled into our tents for the night. I'm using my little Walrus Zoid 1 and really liking it. Easy to set up and just enough space for me and my stuff. Definitely not a generous shelter but I can get my boots and even my pack under the fly in the vestibule area if need be. Had a 20 degree down sleeping bag and was a tad chilly - that will tell you hold cold it got !! Most likely the rest of my winter hiking will find me hauling out my 10 degree bag.Talked over my plans for the AT next year with BA Turtle. Now I've been hiking on the AT for the past 14 years or so but, having thru-hiked the AT in 2001, Turtle is a good reference point and a good person to bounce ideas off of. I've pretty much decided to forego mail drops per se next year. I am going to use the "buy as you go" approach and just manage a "bounce box". I did the whole mail drop re-supply thing for Turtle in 2001 and we both agreed that, at least for us, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. She'll no doubt send me a few "care packages" along the way but they won't be my main supply of food. I am figuring on a 4-5 day interval between towns/re-supply opportunities. That will allow me to vary my diet somewhat.   In my bounce box I'll have a lot of the bulk items that I can draw from and avoid having to carry a lot of extra stuff.Well that's the latest from this end. Many thanks to the folks who have read my journal entries and who have sent me personal messsages. Truly looking forward to getting out there and meeting the many hikers with whom I will be sharing the trail in 2003.