[pct-l] trip report

[Lenny Leum]

Hello all,
I'm still catching up on pct-l reading, I must say I have learned a lot since joining the list in November, although y'all can be ridiculous, bone-headed, uhhhh I'll leave it at that...  (not that I'm one to talk)

Moving on, I just got back from an excellent 4 day solo adventure specifically timed to coincide with all the "crappy" weather we just had here in southern California.  For my rain gear, I relied on a poncho/tarp and wind shirt/pants.  For shelter I used the tarp and underneath I rolled myself up into a burrito made from a 8x10 k-mart blue tarp.  With this system, *you* are going to get wet at times, most notably when transitioning from poncho to shelter or vise versa.  In the morning, getting a little wet wasn't too bad, just do a couple jumping jacks and walk around camp with the pack loaded while eating breakfast to get the blood moving.  At night, make sure you have dry clothes to change into, and a tiny little synthetic/absorbant pack towel can help also, wipe dry, squeeze out, wipe dry, etc.  One simple thing that would have made my life easier would have been 1 or 2 more plastic bags.  A "wet and beyond hope" bag would have been nice.  I
 got lucky, on the 3rd day enough sun came through to dry out most of my damp clothes/bag/jacket.  I can see this system becoming very difficult under prolonged wettness...  If you are going to use a tarp for shelter, go out and practice using it and sleeping under it in the rain.  Seriously.  Put everything in your pack, walk around the block a couple times in the rain, set up your tarp in the yard, set the alarm clock on your watch so you're not late for work, and try to get a good night's sleep.  Practice setting up your tarp!  Practice unpacking your sleeping bag, pad, bivy or whatever your sleep system is under the tarp without getting anything wet, then try putting it all back into your pack in the morning without getting anything wet.  If you're using down, you gotta ask yourself, what got wet and what the hell happened?  The trick is to keep your *stuff* dry. Turkey bags!  or whatever, just make sure everything that you care about
 staying dry is in a plastic bag.  I had one plastic bag lining my sleeping bag stuff sack, one for extra socks and sleeping type clothes, and one for stuff I might want while hiking (beenie, gloves, windshirt).  That way you don't have to worry too much about your pack getting wet, it's gonna happen.  I also had a trash bag to put over my pack at night, this was especially usefull for the one clear night I had where everything froze solid, so at least my pack wasn't a popsicle.

I found that the "three P's of pooping in the woods" turned out to be great.  One problem is it can be hard to hold the pee until after you've wiped up the poo, no problem, just splash a little water on top and pretend like it's pancake batter, mmm.

I also had 2 major stream crossings and several smaller ones.  Because of the rain, the water was completely brown with mud, and it was impossible to tell how deep.  The only option I had was scouting around.  I was able to "find" a route accross that included linking together partially submerged rocks, with flat spots and dry rocks so that the crossing became feasible and non-eventfull.  Trekking poles are awesome for stability and for probing.

What else... I carried a BV500 bear cannister, which was super nice in that I didn't have to worry about hanging and retrieving my food in the pooring rain.  I loaded the shit outta that thing, figured I'de put the new backpack to the test (a new circuit).  As to the food... hahaha... just for comparison, I eat half a pound of granola every morning for breakfast.  I eat a lot and have too fast a metabolism for my own good.

1.5 lbs granola
baggie of powdered milk
2/3 lbs cheese
4 avos
3 tomatoes
1/2lb salami
6 pita breads
1lb peanutbutter filled pretzels
1lb sesame crackers
2/3 lb ish raisins walnut mix
2 mac-n-cheese
1 ramen
1 saffron rice
1 tasty bite

Ok, so I didn't finish it all.  I used a bear can for 29 days on the JMT last year (yeah, we averaged less than 10 miles a day, so what's the friggen hurry if you have the time?)  The trick to packing the bear vault type bear can is to look through the plastic from the outside as you are packing, that way you can check for empty space... but I digress... I don't have a scale, but my pack was definitely over 40 lbs, probably 50, and it was more than I ever hope to carry with the circuit again.  It is difficult to completely take the load off your shoulders, even at low weights, but then again it only has a little aluminum stay as a frame.  That said, it is a great pack, but would recommend it with an ultralight mentality.  

Well geeze, can you tell I've been in the woods for a few days?  All that time thinking with no one to talk to, I think I'm borderline old man rambler status and I'm not even 30.  Hopefully someone gets something outta this...