Spring is finally here.
I’m making final preparations for my first trip of the 2008 backpacking season this weekend. I’ll be hiking a 23 mile section of the Appalachian Trail in western Massachusetts. I hooked up with some other section hikers from the Whiteblaze.net community who I haven’t met yet, but seem like very nice people and very experienced backpackers.
We’ll be hiking north from Dalton, MA to North Adams, MA including a final section over and down Mt. Greylock. Weather conditions are predicted to be dry and sunny, but a little on the chilly side with highs in the mid-thirties and night time low down to 20 degrees F.
As you can imagine, I am very excited to be getting out for a multi-day trip after a long New England winter. This will be a chance for me to get back into shape and I plan to do a lot of gear testing on this trip, so you should expect a lot of new gear reviews next week when I get back home.
Some of the new gear I’ll be field testing includes:
- Black Diamond Firstlight Tent
- MontBell U.L. Thermawrap Pants
- Snowpeak Gigapower Titanium Stove
- Exped Downmat 7 Sleeping Pad
- North Face Snowshoe 0 degree Sleeping Bag
- Backpacker’s Pantry Freeze Dried Dinners
My pack weight is a little heavier than normal with all of this cold weather gear and my base weight without consumables is weighing in at about 19lbs. With food, water, and fuel I expect my pack weight will be just under 30 lbs and I added the optional aluminum stays to my Startlite pack last night because they help transfer the load to my hips more efficiently. Packing all of this gear into my Starlite has been a close thing, and I realize that I’ll probably need a higher volume pack in the future if I want to start serious winter hiking and mountaineering. It’s just a matter of time. A lot of my rock climbing buddies already backpack in the White Mountains in the winter.
Earlier this week, I blocked out vacation days for all of my trips this season. My big goal is to hike the Green Mountain Long Trail, end-to-end this year, a distance of 272 miles. I have 7 trips dedicated to the Long Trail and a few more in other areas of New England. I also plan on spending close to 2 weeks this summer in the Catskills and Gunks, hiking and top roping. I love this region of New York state and we’ve been going back there for years.
When will you be going on your first trip of the season and where are you headed?
Related posts:
Backcountry.com Coupons
No user commented in " Rites of Spring - First Trip of the Season "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackLeave A Reply