Weekly Ephemera #148

• The Wife and I went to see the procession at the Santa Lucia Festival today.  It turned out to be a bit underwhelming.  The food from the stalls did smell good after the procession but we didn't partake.
• One reason I didn't buy any food at the Italian themed festival is that I'm getting blood work done later this week and pasta, bread, and other carb-heavy food would not be helpful.
• I went to see "Fantastic Four: First Steps" in IMAX this wednesday.  I like how Marvel is moving to smaller scale movies and varying the styles and stories.  I enjoyed the movie and can't wait to see what's coming.
• I watched more "One Piece" before starting the second season of "The Sandman".  I like "The Sandman" but it's too bad that the author turned out to be so stupid.
• I walked twice this week for a total of 12.7 miles (20.4 km).  I need to start increasing the length of my walks.  I feel like I'm slacking off.

Weekly Ephemera #120

Not much happened this week which, frankly for once, feels nice.  A few highlights:

• We were invited to Thanksgiving Brunch at the Wife's niece's home today.  It was a nice departure from the major dinner on Thanksgiving Thursday.  We all had a great chat about 'things' and I came home with a new red dog hair coat - Thanks Ruby!!!
• I walked two times this week.  I would have done three but Monday was rainy and windy and I just stayed home and hunkered down.  The walks I did totaled 24.8 miles (39.9 km).  They were a nice meander around the downtown area of the city.  I was going to cross the pedestrian bridge and walk on the Iowa side but the bridge is being worked on as they add an extension.  Temperatures are finally feeling like fall but that won't last as colder winter temperatures are coming this coming week.
• In between the walks I watched some television.  The Wife and I watched the latest seasons of "The Great British Baking Show" and "Blown Away".  We enjoyed "The Remarkable Life of Ibelin" (⭐⭐⭐),  I watched "Star Trek: Prodigy" (⭐⭐⭐), the director's cuts of "Rebel Moon" parts one and two (⭐⭐), and "Madam Web" a Sony/Marvel movie (⭐½).

That was it for this week.  Have a good week everyone!

Weekly Ephemera #114 - Post Travel Recovery

• It's been nearly forty-eight hours since we got back from our Great Britain trip and I think I'm starting to recover.  I keep waking up around 4am but that will change with time.
• Our trip was fun.  We only had a couple deviations from our original plan I listed here.  We saw and did a lot over the twenty-four days of our trip.  It was odd to be in an English speaking country for once.  I expect to start documenting our travels later this week.  I have to look at all the pictures the Wife and I took and I need to draft the posts.
• I haven't maintained my low carb diet as I traveled so the next few days will be consisting of trying to walk off some of the carbs and detoxing my diet.  I hope to continue my walking where I left off before our trip.  Fortunately we did a lot of walking on our trip including some six to eight hour walking tours and walking around several of the cities we visited.  I didn't keep track of how far we walked but there were a few days with multi-mile hikes.
• This week will be full of catch-up.  While Fall weather really hasn't kicked in yet I need to start prepping for winter.  Our furnace needs to be inspected.  Sprinklers need to be blown out.  Sadly, I am still wrangling with the insurance company about the hail damage from July and that wrangling will restart this week.  Homeowner life goes on.

Southeast Asia 2023 - Days Four And Five - Bangkok, Thailand

UPDATED 12-03-2023: Added photos.

Day Four (Monday)

The Emerald (jade) Buddha.

Our tour finally started with a tour around Bangkok.  First stop was the Grand Palace and the temples used by the king.  The complex is pretty magnificent.  Thai Buddhist temples are intricate and colorful.  They are a mix of Buddhist and Hindu which is something I didn't expect.  On the way back to the van we stopped in an alley where vendors sell amulets and charms.  We purchased several little clay tablet featuring Buddha and other deities.

Next on the itinerary was the temple of the reclining Buddha. This temple features sitting, standing, reclining, and walking Buddha statues.  We witnessed a blessing ceremony with chanting monks.

The reclining Buddha itself was huge and pretty spectacular.  It's so big it is hard to take in.

It was time for lunch so we stopped at a restaurant on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. We enjoyed some Thai food as we watched boats go by on the river.

A truck engine on a long tail boat.

After lunch we boarded a long boat to explore the canals of Bangkok. The long boats (or long-tail boats) use truck motors and propellers on long shafts.  A large group of long boats crammed into a lock that lets you move from the river to the canals.

Once we left the lock we traveled through the canals to see homes and businesses built over the canal on stilts.  We stopped at a cafe and artists house which had a very hippy vibe to it.  We fed the catfish which were abundant in the canals.  Along with the fish we saw a water monitor lizard.  The thing was huge.  Its belly was big so it was probably digesting a fish or possibly a bird.

Wat Arun.

The last stop of the long boat was Wat Arun, a very large Buddhist temple and stupa.  The place was crowded with women of all ages dressed in the traditional costume of their favorite soap opera star.  The Soap opera takes place at the temple.  Walking around the stupa was difficult as we constantly had to avoid photobombing some selfie taking fangirl in a shiny silk dress she had rented nearby.  I think this was my first true superfan encounter.

That night we ate a meal at the Italian place in the hotel.  It was not very good which is strange since the other two meals we had there were pretty good.

Day Five (Tuesday)

This would turn out to be a very strange day.  We had only one activity scheduled, a cooking class at the Blue Elephant Cooking School next door to our hotel.  I was not looking forward to it as I don't like cooking and I don't like fussy food.

Two of the teachers first took the students on the Metro to a nearby food market.  There they explained different foods and ingredients that we would be using when we prepared four different dishes.  The market was extremely hot and humid.  By the time we were heading back to the Metro station the Wife was overheating.  When she overheats she passes out.  Fortunately she caught it before it got too far.  One of the teachers bought her water and she was very patient as we slowly made our way back to the school.  There the wife made the decision not to participate in the class since standing in a kitchen for three to four hours was not a good idea for her.  We made our way back to the hotel.

A water monitor lizard chillin'.

We headed to the pool as that was probably the fastest way to cool the Wife down and it worked though the lightheadedness would persist into the afternoon.

Later on when she was feeling better we took a taxi to the MBK Center which is also known as the knockoff market.  We bought some souvenirs, including magnets, and the Wife bought three 'high end' purses and a winter coat.  The winter coat, a Canada Goose brand, can go as high as $1,500 but she got hers for $100.  There was a hole in one pocket but the vendor fixed it on the spot for free (he had a sewing machine in his stall).

The next day we will be leaving Bangkok going into the countryside to see more cool stuff.

Phota can be found in my 2023 Thailand Google Photos album.

Weekly Ephemera #37

• Last Night the Brother-in-Law and his Wife stayed over.  We all went to the "Sister's Christmas Catechism" which is the Christmas version of Late Night Catechism.  This was the second time the Wife and I had experienced the show and our first Christmas version.  The interactive comedy routine is aimed squarely at the Catholics.  I am not a Catholic but I got most of the inside humor.
  
  
  
  While it was very funny at times I have to say I was a bit uncomfortable.  I do not like to be on stage.  This is an audience participatory act.  The Brother-in-Law got us front row tickets.  I didn't know this until we got to the theater.  I kinda got religion praying that she wouldn't pick me.  At one point she was standing three feet in front of me and we locked eyes.  I think she saw the fear in my eyes.  The Wife on one side of me and the Brother-in-Law on the other side were both picked to participate.  I got out without being called.  It was a relief.  We also got stickers.
  
  We talked to the 'Nun' afterwards and the Wife gave Sister Mary her "Ale Mary" t-shirt.
  
  The next morning we had a great breakfast with them at Louie M's Burger Lust which also serves great breakfasts.
• It was windy last week and at least a dozen balls blew out of the tree.  I put them back up after the high wind warning passed.  This will not be the last time I will have to return the balls to the tree.  A picture of the tree will be coming soon.
• I walked twice this week.  I did 16.8 miles total (27 km).  The weather was perfect for walking tho it was a bit windy on my second walk.

Happy Thanksgiving

To my friends and family in the United States, I hope you have a peaceful and healthy day of Thanksgiving.  The Wife has spent the last day or two cooking a thanksgiving meal for Mom, her stepson, and us.  Thank you for doing that.

The Wife and I will spend some of our day with my Mom before going over to the Wife's niece's house.  I'm sure overeating will be involved.

Let the Holiday season officially begin!

Weekly Ephemera #27

• On Saturday the Wife and I went to witness and celebrate the baptism of the Wife's niece's little girl.  I celebrated a bit too hard I think.  I ended up eating too much junk.  Bread, Ice cream (with M&Ms), macaroni and cheese, and a cookie ... all unnecessary carbohydrates.
• This morning, after a very restless sleep (I think I dreamt I was awake all night) I woke up with a headache and several random muscle aches.  I imagine this is what a hangover feels like.  Can you get a hangover by eating too many carbs?
• I walked two times this week.  I was going to walk three times but the heat and humidity in the middle of the week kept me inside.  I ended up walking 12.3 miles (19.8 km).
  
  

  

  Not a murder hornet but an eastern cicada killer.

  During one of my walks a saw what I thought was a murder hornet (actually an Asian Giant Hornet).  It was huge - between one and two inches in length.  A little Googling convinced me that I had not seen a murder hornet but what I saw was actually an Eastern Cicada Killer.   I'm glad I'm not a cicada.
• I was reminded of something this weekend.  During one of my walks back in February or March I had crossed an enclosed pedestrian bridge.  At the end of the bridge was a sensor activated sliding door centered on the end of the bridge.  After you pass through the door into a building you turn left and exit that building.  I turned left and saw what I thought was an open sliding door like the one I'd just walked through.  I ended up walking full speed into a remarkably clear pane of glass.  Instead of one sliding door, it was actually two normal swinging doors with glass between the doors.  I left a large smudge of the glass at face height (and bent up my glasses).  No one saw me which was good because I was a bit embarrassed (which may explain why I didn't post about it earlier).  I left hoping I wasn't on a security camera blooper reel.
  
  So, I crossed that bridge again a couple weeks ago and I noticed that there was a smudge on the glass at about face height.  I'm not sure if it's my smudge.  That would imply that the glass wasn't cleaned since early spring.  If it wasn't my smudge then I'm not the only clumsy person walking into that same clean pane of glass.  Nothing like schadenfreude to make me feel better.

Weekly Ephemera #26

After taking off a week to reassess things after my aborted attempt at finishing the Appalachian Trail (AT),  this week I restarted my routine.

• On Thursday I went out to lunch with my Mom.  We tried out a fast casual place called Foodies.  It was good enough.  The ice cream afterwards was yum.
• I restarted walking going out for three walks this week.  I started out slow with short walks as my legs were still a little achy from my AT experience.  Despite walking less than seven miles each outing, I managed to reach my twenty mile weekly goal I'd set earlier this year.  In the end I walked 20.7 miles (33.3 km).
  
  This coming week is going to be a really hot one with temps above 95℉ (35℃) with heat indexes substantially higher.  I haven't decided what I am going to do.  I will either do very short walks (5 miles or less), catch up on some shows in our cool basement, or a combination of both.

Planning: Appalachian Trail Food

When I came back from my 2019 AT attempt I was diagnosed as Diabetic.  I suspect this may explain why my body didn't feel like it was recovering each day.  I also suspect the carbohydrate heavy diet I ate on the trail contributed to the high blood sugar, high insulin resistant state I came home with.  When I planned my food then I only looked at the calories, if it could survive in my pack, and if I liked it.  Now I have to be more careful where those calories are coming from and this means I need to replace carbs with fat and protein.

I started by looking at what I was eating in 2019 which I posted about here.  I replaced the Clif bars and builder bars, Belvita Breakfast biscuits, and Snicker bars which are all high in carbs.  I replaced these with Keto friendly (i.e. high fat, adequate protein, low net carbs) to help reduce the number of carbs in my daily diet.  These include the Quest protein bars and peanut butter cups, caramel fat bombs (love the name), and beef jerky.  I have kept other high carb items including the honey buns (for a breakfast high carb boost), the tortillas (for a base for the peanut butter and they were my favorite on the trail last time - yummy), and the trail mix.  Here is a list of the typical days worth of food: 

Item	Qty	Total Calories	Fat (gms)	Protein (gms)	Net Carbs (gms)
Mountain House Dehydrated Meal	1	530	20	12	40
Quest Protein Bars	3	600	27	63	12
Beef Jerky	4 Snack Bags	200	4	28	16
Caramel Fat Bombs	4	360	32	4	4
Quest Peanut Butter Cups	4	360	30	22	2
Honey Bun	1	350	19	4	40
Trail Mix	159 grams	819	56	23	56
Chicken	2 Pouches	140	6	26	0
Tortillas	2	420	12	8	66
Peanut Butter	4 Tbsp	380	32	14	8
TOTAL		4,159	238	204	244

After the substitutions I ended with a 35% Fat, 30% Protein, 35% Carbohydrate split (compared to the roughly 31%, 19%, 50% split I had in 2019). I'm hoping this will work better for me.

So my meal breakdown will be a Quest protein bar and a Honey Bun for breakfast; two tortillas with peanut butter, a Quest protein bar, and a pouch of chicken for lunch; the Mountain House meal and a pouch of chicken for dinner; and the remaining eaten as snacks throughout the day.  My issue usually is not eating enough while hiking.  I will have to try harder to eat everything allocated for the day.

One day of AT 'food'.

During my 2019 attempt I pretty much grazed throughout the day.  Stopping to rest becomes an opportunity to eat a snack and eating a snack forces you to take a more substantial rest break.  I learned this on the Camino, if I didn't eat a snack I would just stop for a minute or two at most before I moved on which was never enough.  Eating slowed me down and gave me a better rest.

My friends on Discord include several foodies.  I'm sure they are cringing reading this list of overly processed junk food.  Multi-day hikes have limitations when it comes to food.  Anything that requires refrigeration is a no-go.  Everything in my food list is shelf stable and, in some cases, will last forever.  The food has to survive being crammed into a food bag.  Anything that would crumble is a no-go. Also, at the end of the day I'm usually very tired and I don't want to spend too much energy preparing a 'real' meal.  In 2019 there were days I was too tired to boil the water for the dehydrated meal.  I have ideas for fighting that issue as well.  More about that when I actually get on the trail and try it out.

Another Chance To Get It Right.

 I started President Obama's first term with cautious hope.  Over the next eight years I was disappointed.  The President was too nice and the Congress was too obstructionist.  I still was hopeful through most of his two terms but unbeknownst to me Obama's presidency had started something malicious and idiotic.

Four years ago the hope of the New Presidency was gone.  I saw only disaster coming and, for once, my prediction came true.  The last four years of this narcissistic grifter has left our democracy in shambles with over four hundred people dead.  Conspiracies like QAnon have infiltrated the White House and the legislature.  I'm not sure where our nation is heading and it scares me.

Today we have a new President.  President Biden and Vice-President Harris enter office under the cloud of militant threats and a nation split along ideological and, frankly, idiotic lines.

Will they be able to correct our course?  Will America once again gain its proper place in this world?  My first instincts say that this will take one or two generations to right itself.  I want to have hope but I do not think there is much to inspire hope.  As always, Time will tell.

Dark Chocolate Oreos covered in fudge.

On a side note, I am continuing the tradition I started four years ago. I am eating a bag of Oreos during the inauguration.  in 2017 it was a family size bag of chocolate Oreos.  For this one it is a smaller box of fudge covered dark chocolate Oreos.

May the cookies and the next four years be full of healing.

And The Cupboard Was Bare ...

I do my shopping on Mondays.  In this time of Covid-19 it is the only time I get out of the house.  Today I went to whole foods to purchase a couple items I use for homemade trail mix.  I add the trail mix to cereal and fruit and eat it for lunch.  Two of the items I was looking to buy in bulk were slivered almonds and pumpkin seed.  Here are the bulk bins at Whole Foods:

Empty bulk goods bin at Whole Foods.

At Sam's Club I am still amazed that there is no toilet paper.  What are people doing with all of this paper?  Paper mache?  I suppose this tells you how many people do their duty at work/school instead of home.

Empty toilet paper isle at Sam's Club.

Walmart is trying to keep things stocked but it may become a losing battle against all the people panic buying.  Soon grocery shopping may become a scavenger hunt.  The times we live in ...

Appalachian Trail: Food Extra

For those who are wondering what I eat on the Appalachian Trail (AT), here is a typical list for one day's worth of food and a few tidbits of food info:

Food Item	Qty	Total Calories
Mountain House Dehydrated Meal	1	500 - 800
Clif Builder Bars	2	560
Clif Bars	2	500
Belvita Breakfast Biscuits	1 Pack of Four	230
Snickers Bars	2	500
Honey Bun	1	360 - 540
Trail Mix + P.B. Bites	1	900
Tortillas	2	280
Peanut Butter (for the tortillas)	4 Tbsp	360
	Total:	3,550 - 4,030

Typical day's worth of hiker fuel.

• Items change depending on what's available at the store I'm supplying at.
• The mountain house meal is my dinner.  All other items are eaten during my hiking day or when I arrive at my destination.   The number of calories does vary depending on what I can buy. One thing I may have to experiment with is replacing the mountain house meals with things like mac & cheese, instant mashed potatoes, and knorr pasta/rice sides - basically anything that can be made using only boiling water. These things are more complicated to make and clean up after but they can be cheaper and more compact.
• Most hikers struggle with getting diversity in their food choices.  I have always been an eat the same stuff every day type of guy so the lack of different foods doesn't bother me much.
• I take a multivitamin as the food is more calorie oriented than nutritionally oriented.
• My food bag holds about five days worth.  I may be able to fit more if I replace the mountain house meals.  I really don't want to carry more food since each day weighs over two pounds but some stretches of the AT will require more food.  Of course, the food weight goes down as it is consumed.  So, when you leave resupply towns your pack is heavy and it is much lighter when you go back into town.
• My favorite thing here is the tortillas and peanut butter.
• These calories do not make up for the calories burned hiking every day.  The calorie gap is filled when I enter a town and chow down.

P.S.:  Did you know they make Cookie Butter? It looks like peanut butter but tastes like cookies!  How did I not know this?

Appalachian Trail: A Second Try ... A New Plan

Some of the more observant readers may have noticed the addition (or re-addition actually) of the Appalachian Trail tab next to the Magnets and Camino tabs.  As soon as I decided I would make a second attempt on the Appalachian Trail (AT) I started making a new plan.

The new plan builds on the first with the addition of lessons learned on my first attempt.  I was only on the AT for six day - I walked off the trail on the seventh day - but I learned a lot about weight in that week.  So, this time around, I looked at ways to shave weight off my pack.

My first planning attempts were zero day centric (a zero day is a rest day with zero miles walked).  I thought I would hike, on average, six or seven days and then have a zero day in a town.  The problem with this is that food weighs a lot.  With up to 15.75 lbs (7 kg) of food, along with a few other things I didn't need, I ended up with a 45 lb (20 kg) pack on my first AT attempt.

A more reasonable amount to pack in the bag.
(See here for first attempt packing)

My new plan is resupply centric first and zero day second.  As I planned I looked for easy towns to stop at that had grocery stores/outfitters where I could buy food.  If there wasn't a convenient place I found a convenient post office where I could resupply by mail.  I managed to get the resupply period down to between three and four days.  This means I will be carrying less food - up to 9 lbs (4 kg) less.  Along with the other things I have scratched from my list I reduced the weight of my pack down to 36.3 lbs (16.5 kg).  I was aiming for 35 lbs but ... I was close and it it definitely better than 45 lbs.

What 'other things' did I get rid off you ask?  Things like packing two shirts instead of three.  Do you really need ten Band-Aids when five would suffice?  Extra carabiners?  Do I need a flint and steel if I have a lighter?  Do I need a fancy nylon zipper bag when a Ziplock baggie would be enough?  All these, among many others, are little things individually but, when I cleaned out my pack at Neels Gap last time I sent nearly 6 lbs (2.7 kg) of unneeded stuff home.  Also these are non-consumable mostly so, while food diminishes in weight as you eat it, these items continue to be dead weight.

A slightly more compact setup this time.
(See here for first attempt packing)

Along with reducing my weight by changing the resupply plan, I also shortened my miles for the first month.  Last time I aimed to average 10 miles (16 km) a day for the first three or four weeks.  This time I am keeping the average below 8 miles (13 km).  This will make my start easier but I will have to pay for this ease with harder (i.e. longer) stages later on.

Less weight and shorter initial stages will make the start of my AT more doable for me.  I'm looking forward to being less exhausted at the end of the day allowing me to be more engaged with the other hikers I encounter along the way because it's not the trail but the people you meet along the trail that makes the AT experience.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

The Wife and I had a great Thanksgiving Day feast at my Moms.  Now I have a full belly and am kind of sleepy in a content sort of way.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Escaping To Trivia

It's been a while since I've posted.  Just haven't been interested in writing much.  Things have also been fairly quiet here.  This weekend turned out to be busier and full of blog-worthy activities.

It started Thursday evening when the Matron of Honor (MoH) and the Best Man (BM) came down to visit.  We celebrated their arrival with a delicious burger dinner at Stella's and a visit to a tap room (Kros Strain Brewing).

On Friday The Wife and MoH went to a spa for facials in the late morning.  In the afternoon we had a leisurely lunch at Blatt Beer & Table across from the College World Series stadium in the north downtown area of Omaha.  The restaurant is named after Rosenblatt the former College World Series stadium.  The Beer Nuts enjoyed the beer and I enjoyed the chicken and waffles.

After our lazy lunch we went to the House of Conundrum (HoC).  HoC is an escape room.  You can enter one of seven rooms and you have an hour to solve puzzles to get out.  We ended up doing the 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea room.  This was our first escape room but the MoH and I have both played online room escape games so we had some idea of what needs to be done (my favorite online escape rooms games are those by Rusty Lake and Forgotten Hill).  We ended up needing only one clue from the HoC employee and we ended up solving everything with a short minute to spare.  We all left the House of Conundrum thoroughly entertained.

Friday ended with some Winter Olympic open ceremonies, snacks, and lots of good conversation.

On Saturday, after clearing away the two to three inches of snow we had overnight, we tried to go the the Early Bird for a late brunch but the wait was too long so we ended up at the 11-Worth cafe instead.  After a hearty brunch we spent some time at another tap room in the Blackstone district called the Scriptown Brewery.  The MoH and BM had three tap rooms/bars on their list to visit and we successfully hit all three.

The main event for Saturday, and the whole weekend frankly, was the charity trivia contest at the Wife's school.  The Wife and I were joined by the MoH, BM, the Brother-in-Law, his wife, their three daughters and two boyfriends.  They had changed the rules of the trivia game since we participated a couple years ago.  The changes (No buying of answers. No jail) were all improvements.  The questions were challenging.  After winning the first trivia in 2014, coming in second in 2015, and not doing well at all in 2016, we ended up in sixth (out of twenty) which we consider an improvement.  If we'd just gone with our guts more we would have ended in the top three at least.  We all had a good time and I'm sure we will be participating again next year.

As an added bonus, the Wife won the fifty-fifty game which paid out some good cash - More than the second place trivia team won and more than enough to pay for the today's breakfast.

Today we went to mass at a nice chapel at the Poor Clare Monastery before heading to Le Peep for breakfast.  Unfortunately there are more than one Le Peep and some went to the one off Dodge while the Wife and I went to the one off of West Center.  We realized the error and we joined the others for a good breakfast.

After breakfast we all scattered heading home in a several directions.  The Wife and I promptly took naps as we don't have the stamina we used to have.  The last four days wore me out but the trivia contest, escape room, and all the good food (and way too much caffeine) made for a great time with family.

Time to recuperate and catch up on some Winter Olympic sport.

Anniversary Dinner Theater

For our twentieth anniversary, the Wife and I went out to eat in an ... interesting ... restaurant.

A raccoon soaking its front paws in a cool wading pool.

The Alpine Inn is a bar with food located north of the Florence area of Omaha.  It sits along a road that climbs through the woods in the rather beautiful Ponca Hills.  The Alpine Inn's claim to fame is not it's food but rather its unusual entertainment.  The restaurant feeds its scraps to raccoons.  As you eat you can watch the raccoons lounge around and take dips in the wading pool right outside the dining area.

We were concerned that the high temperatures we've been experiencing (95℉ - 35℃) would keep the raccoons away like it did with the Carlsbad's bats but the pool was just an irresistible draw for them.

The ambiance of the restaurant is shabby dive bar which is perfectly fine for us.  It had a quirky, biker bar, run down, yet comfortable feel to it with a friendly staff.

The menu is limited but is predominantly fried chicken-centric.  The Wife and I had the chicken dinner which consisted in a more than generous portion of fried chicken and potato wedges.  No silverware was provided which fits the place perfectly.  If you can't eat with your hands then why are you here?

Overall it was an experience full of good food and good nature filled entertainment.

Appalachian Trail: And The Packing Begins

I have always been a late packer.  When we go on our long vacations I always pack the night before.  So far I have never forgotten anything that I needed.

Packing for the Appalachian Trail (AT) is a bit more complicated.  Friday afternoon I brought everything together and laid it all out on the basement floor.

That is a lot of stuff to get into one bag!

What you see in the picture above is enough stuff for seven days.  This includes two pairs of pants (I will be wearing one), three shirts, three pairs of socks, toe socks, and underwear, winter and rain gear (I described this gear here), toiletry kit, first aid kit. tent, sleeping bag (and bag liner), stove and cooking pot, and roughly two pounds of food for each day on the trail.  Also included will be my tablet, an external battery pack (to charge the table and cell phone), a camera, a GPS, and all the batteries, chargers, and cables that go with these.  Water will be carried in soft-sided platypus bottles.

Everything packed away in my backpack.

As you can see it at left, it all fits in the bag ... almost.  The blue bag on the top of the pack is the second food bag I had to buy.  I mentioned before that it would be a tight fit to get all my food in one bag and, in fact, it was too tight a fit and a second bag was necessary.  Both food bags will fit in the pack but it would be too full to seal properly so one food bag will be strapped on top.

After I packed the backpack, I weighed it.  As usual, the pack was heavier than I expected.  I expected forty-two or forty-three pounds but ended up closer to 48 pounds (21.8 kg).

It seems to be a lot but, when I think about how I can whittle it down I can only come up with less than a pound of excess.  The tablet (and external battery) is probably the heaviest "luxury" item I have.  I will probably leave the sandals at home along with a few small things.  My weight will go down once I can ship my winter gear home which may be fairly early this year.

The weight of the pack will also go down as I eat my way through the food bags.  If I eat everything, the pack weight will shrink by just over two pounds (1 kg) per day.

It will be interesting to see if I eat it all.  On my first Camino I didn't eat nearly as much as I should have and lost weight over time.  I was just not very hungry when I was walking or when I was tired at the end of the day.  I ate better on my second Camino but still lost a few pounds.  Whatever happens I suspect I will be adjusting the amount of food I will be eating as I go.