A Test Run

Day: 286

With 24 days of hiking the Sierras coming up, piles of new (i.e. untested) gear, and a plethora of free time on my part; I decided to convince my mother and Mike (my step-father) to load up their backpacks and run a test hike just to be sure everything works and we haven’t forgotten anything before we start what is called the “most beautiful” trail in North America.  The John Muir Trail is also the longest trail in the country that is not crossed by a road, meaning lack of civilization if we did happen to forget a vital piece of gear.

We decided on a short section of the Pacific Crest Trail (which the JMT is a part of further north) and since I didn’t get home from work until 4:30am this morning we got a late start and didn’t quite make the trailhead until 3pm.  Giving ourselves only enough time to get about 5 miles in before we set camp and cooked ourselves up some dehydrated mush (aka Beef Stew).

Now first thing first, after spending hours arguing with the shitty stove Felicia and I had in Mongolia just to get it to boil water, my favorite new thing in my backpack is the Jetboil, which lives up to its promise to boil 2 cups (like 0.5 liters) of water in two minutes and weighs barely anything.  Spectacular!

Other new toys I got which I am excited about:

-A carbon-fiber Gitzo tripod, it may only go up to 28″ but it’s rock solid and weighs slightly below a pound (meaning: not exactly cheap)

-New North Face one man tent, tiny and cramped, but when everything has to be on your back for a month you’ll deal, to save the extra two pounds (1 kilo) over my other tent (from the bike ride last year) which my mom and Mike will be using.

All in all the day/night went fairly well. We realized we might be planning a little too much food and our thinking about adjusting, and my boots which have spent the last two months all over Asia with me have been broken in nicely.

The countdown is two weeks until we begin in Yosemite Valley.