[pct-l] Ethical down, carbon meat and all that.

[Matthew Edwards]

That Mountain Laurel Designs Spirit Quilt is an excellent quilt.
I used it, the 28 degree version, the length of the AT.
Moisture was never a concern because the thing would be warm anyways and
was thin enough to dry out as I slept.
It takes some mental adjustmemt to realize that something without the
puffed up loft of down can be trap so much heat.
Two years before I started using synthetic I met Bernie and Stacy who used
a syth quilt and I admired the carefree attitude in regards to moisture
they had while I was constantly stopping each morning to dry out my bag.
Lint introduced me to MLD that year, I had Pack envy, and the rest fell
into place.

Hey, I have a sort of funny Vegan thru hiker story.
I met Bethany and Steve on the lawn behind the church in Sierra City.
All us hiker trash were snoring, rustling plastic food packages, tapping
away on electronic gadgets..
Steve gets up and starts a pot of water on their stove.
He makes about two quarts of oatmeal.
Then he starts pushing heshey bars, one by one, into the hot oatmeal.
It was fascinating to watch the solid chocolate disappear beyond the rim of
the pot.
I asked him what was up.
He said they were getting too skinny and had to "beef" up their vegetarian
meals.
Okay.. he didn't use the word beef.
My pun there.
They sat there and shared that entire half gallon of oat-chocolate and
licked the pan clean.
I met them again in Castle Crags and they had stopped trailside and they
were cooking with real vegetables. The smell was amazing.

Now I live in Wyoming which is solidly behind the lines of Beef Country.
If you tell anyone I admired them for sticking, except for the chocolate,
to their Vegan diet while on a long distance hike, I'll deny it!

-iceaxe