New Gear

I bought a new pack this week, the EMS NorthPeak 50. It has a lot more room than my old pack, and fits much better. I was flopping back and forth between this one and one made by Gregory. All of the packs from them fit, and felt great. They were a bit more expensive but that wasn't the only reason I chose the EMS one.

I also picked up a book titled 'Cookery' by NOLS (The National Outdoor Leadership School.) The book seems great with many recipes, though it's not quite what I thought it would be. The book focuses on portioning and multi day, multi person trips (so far,) and I don't see myself there yet. (Multi day, yes, Base camp near the car somewhere - also yes.)

This week I also went to a backpacking clinic at EMS. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't a glorified sales pitch and very much, 'this is the information you need to know.' It was however more of an outline of what you need to know, than any hard useful information.

The outline covered; first aid, survival skills, cooking, not getting lost, trip planning, LNT*, gear selection including clothing, tents, cookware, water filtration, and more.

[LNT - Leave No Trace - I have to tangent a moment, I felt like I was at UPS all of a sudden when he called it LNT - Everything at UPS has some sort of acronym to it. DECR, DLN, PLARSTAC, and UPS to name a few.]

The follow up to this clinic was yesterday (Saturday the 13'th,) with a hike up Mt. Oceola, and though I really wanted to go, and should have gone, I do need to get some different clothes for this cooler weather.

I think though, that I will suggest this hike as our trip for next weekend.