Practice Hike

So, on Friday I had a test hike.  

I grabbed all the gear I have (except for a few things I forgot), shoved it into my backpack, and walked ~7 miles to a pub, had lunch and walked back.  Upon leaving, my backpack weighed just shy of fifteen kilos (14.96kg to be exact) of which two (and a bit) was extra water that I didn't allow myself to drink.  It was ballast.  To simulate food (and the gear I forgot or didn't have).

The hike went well on the whole, I made good time in taking a bit over 2 hours each way.  My pack wasn't too heavy and I think I could do the same walk with a slightly heavier bag without much difficulty.

However. 

I did manage to get two blisters.  The first half of the walk went without problem, but the second half - the way back - suddenly left me with pain in two spots on my feet.  This might be because of bad lacing of my shoes.  The alternatives are slightly more worrying and troublesome - my shoes don't fit my feet or my feet don't fit my shoes.  Over summer, I did quite a bit of walking and hiking in my boots with no problems; since then I've been excercising.  It is possible that my feet have changed size or shape because of the gym; or perhaps it's because I've not worn my boots in quite a while and my feet have grown used to my everyday-wear trail runners.

Once my blisters have healed up, I'll be heading into town to check if my feet have changed and to reluctantly buy new shoes if they have.

Also on the to-do list is to have my final couple of shakedowns before waiting (impatiently) for the trail.

Wish me luck!

It's Happening!

IT'S HAPPENING!

I have confirmed tickets to fly out from London Heathrow on the 10th of April, getting me in the following day at Atlanta, Georgia!  Then I have a flight home from Boston Logan on the 8th of October to London again!  These aren't direct flights, though but they are fairly cheap and I can adjust them for free(ish) thanks to STA's multiflex pass.

As such, I am very very excited!  I am also panicking a little about my gear list.  Here's a link to my lighterpack list; but this isn't final yet.  It's sitting at about 12 or 13kg, when I want it to be around 9kg really.  If I ditch some of the starred items, I get it down a kilo or two but not to that 'magic' number of 9.  So yeah, I'm worrying over that.  It's probably unnecessary but still.  Now that I have flights booked, thoughts keep racing through my head such as"What if I don't make it?" or "What if I trip?" and these mostly turn into "What if my bag is too heavy and makes me fall?" or "What if my bag is too heavy and slows me down?".

To try to help deal with this, I'm rereading and rewatching other things.  I just finished rereading How To Hike The Appalachian Trail by Chris Cage, and started rewatching Dixie's Homemade Wanderlust (since completing the AT, she has gone on to do both the Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail).  I also plan to rewatch both Darwin On The Trail and Follow Bigfoot.  I'll also try to get around to rereading Appalachian Fail by John Desilets's failed through-hike.  Hopefully, they'll help calm my fears, and if they don't?  Well.  I'll just have to start hiking scared.

Gear Testing

Testing gear is important

Before going out on hikes, especially long ones, it is important to make sure it all works and you know how to use it.  It is beyond stupid to go out into the woods and spend ages working out how to put up a tent in the dark at night after miles of hiking.

So, last night I tested my gear in the garden.

Temperatures dropped to about -3, but I stayed toasty warm.  Using a DD Hammock Stand to hang my hammock and starp up, I was comfy and dry in case it rained.  It didn't, but just in case.  The tarp was a little lower than I'd like, as it was hung from the hammock suspension and not its own suspension.  It meant I didn't haven't much headroom; I had to stoop rather a lot to get under the tarp. 

My two fluffy quilets from Enlightened Equipment, the Revol and Revelation, kept me very warm.  I was dressed up in thermals and had a bottle of boiled water in case I needed it; but the quilts were more than enough. 

I grabbed a pillow from the house to make sure I was comfortable, and I was.  Very.  Very very comfortable. 

In all in all, my gear works pretty darn well it seems.