All packed up with no place to go?

All packed

We are all packed for 4 nights and three days in the cold, cold rain.  I've spent the week packing and planning and I even paid for expedited shipping on my daughter's pack.  I think it's the first time in my life I have paid extra for rush shipping.  But now I think my daughter is ill.  She says she is just tired from staying up to late last night.  It's almost noon and she is sleeping on a chair in the living room and she won't budge.

On the right is my daughter's new pack, (purchased with savings because she's only going to be young and sweet once)  it is a ULA kid's circuit.  ULA is the only light equipment company I know of that makes their packs in a kids sized, so getting the circuit for her was a no brainer.  But I accidentally ordered a small instead of a child size for her and the clock was ticking for this trip.

I sent an email to ULA and within 1/2 hour Chris at ULA called me on the phone to help me set up rush shipping. Now that's good service!  I opted to pay for Fed ex second day.  But the pack came in just one day and said Fed Ex Overnight on it!  Wow, nice!  I don't know if I should thank Chris for helping with the shipping or if Fed ex made a mistake.  Either way, I'll take it. So far I am quite pleased with the responsive customer support at ULA.

I'm almost wondering if I should have gotten the Catalyst for myself.  My Circuit is so stuffed with just 4 days worth of food and my daughter is carrying almost half of the food.   How will I ever be able to carry 6 days worth of food in it?  It does not help that I am carrying a three person tarp tent.  If I could just pack my equinox tarp that would give me a lot more room for food.  My base pack weight is good, but bulk is an issue and I'm not quit sure what to do about it if I am hiking with my daughter.

If I was backpacking alone I could get by with a much smaller cook pot and a smaller shelter.  I see now that the woman who did the PCT with her nine year old daughter had the Catalyst pack, I thought she had a Circuit.  Hmmm.. I'll keep working with my circuit for now.. I really don't want a heavier pack.  I'll just have to plan on resupplying every 4 days if we thru-hike Oregon this summer.

Perhaps I will only carry my Equinox tarp and just not use it unless it is raining.. but then there is the issue of bugs..

What food to pack for backpacking with a child

  I'm hoping to take my daughter on a four night backpacking trip.  This will be our longest trip yet and she will have to carry some of the food.

Here is what I have packed for our trip:

14.5 pounds of foods for 4 nights out 3 breakfast 4 lunch and 3 dinners

On the top row lunch and snacks from L-R:
  two packages of wheat tortillas with a one pound of peanut butter sitting on top of them.   14 power bars for my daughter

Next row down is dinner and beverages from L-R:
coffee and cocoa powder in little bags, One pound of sugar, some random peanuts that I tossed it at the last minute.  Bottle of hot sauce, bottle of "olive oil",  Dinner number 1 dehydrated potato with home dehydrated ground beef and squash.  Dinner number 2 red coconut curry with chicken and beef and rice.  Dinner number 3 Green Bean threads with dehydrated tomato sauce, lentils and a tiny bit of meat.   I need to add more meat to it.

Bottom row: Breakfast and snacks, L-R Emergen C power, Ginger cookies for my daughter, 4 bags brown rice,  4 bags of Powdered whole milk, Power bars for me.  Breakfast will be instant brown rice with milk and sugar and dehydrated raspberries from my garden.  The raspberries are in the dehydrator right now.

I have not added up the calories here, but I'm shooting for about 3,000 per day for me and 3,500 per day for my daughter.  I expect that I will be giving her some of my power bars.

Olive oil will be added to all the dinners to boost the flavor and calories.  I will be adding hot sauce to all my dinners as well.  We will each have two cups of milk a day.  One cup will be in the breakfast and the second cup will be mixed with cocoa and sugar for hot chocolate.  I'll be having instant coffee mixed with cocoa, sugar and powedered milk in the morning and after noon.

I will be cooking 2-3 times per day.  Breakfast, dinner and hot drinks will be cooked, so I will need to bring a fair amount of stove fuel.  All cooking will be done on an alcohol stove with a titanium pot.  We will be eating out of metal pots too.  I am working to get away from using plastics, especially for hot food storage.  Next trip I may go back to storing all my uncooked food in paper bags.  We are expecting close to freezing temperatures for at least one night of the trip so hot food is needed.

The power bars were all purchased at the price of 4 for a dollar because they are slightly past their sell by date.  You can see that there are no commercial prepared "backpacking" foods in this picture.  I'm a thrifty mom  with MSG sensitivity, so I don't go for Mountain house or Pakit (MS)Gourmet.

Olympic National Park Wilderness Planning Meeting in Shelton

Meeting took place in the room I like to call a hole in the wall



Looking back out to the lobby

 

ONP Rep Ruth Scott was very helpful and informative

The display

 

Common to all plans B-D bear cans yuck!

Current trail system

"Critter" shaved his side burns for the event

Big Creek

Big Creek Campground Logging Plan

I went up Big Creek today. Half of the loop is closed until 2015 and there is only enough parking for 2 cars.  But they are done logging already I think, so it's not too noisy.

They are expanding the Big Creek Campground.

Parking is at the start of this track log.

Gear Review: La Sportiva Omega GTX Hiking Boot

Gear Review: La Sportiva Omega GTX Hiking Boot

I bought these boots on sale at REI.  The day after they came I saw that the price online had been reduced by $50.  I called REI and they credited my $50 back because they have a 30 day price guarantee on all their stuff.

I've had these boots since last fall, it is now spring and I have put a fair amount miles on these boots, generally hiking twice a week.  This week the right boot started to leak, but it's not the fault of the boot.  It is starting to leak where my ankle brace is rubbing it.  The left boot is still perfectly watertight. 



Boot is starting to leak where my ankle brace rubs.
I did this test by filling the boot with water and
then watching for seeping on the outside of the boot.

I took a 13.5 mile hike on a day when over an inch of rain fell and my left foot stayed bone dry.  I have never had gortex boots stay water proof for this long before.  Normally I can only get about three months out of gortex boots before they leak.



Warming my toes with a teabag.
 I can only do this with truly waterproof boots

These are good sturdy boots over all.  The only weak spot I have found is the stitching on the side of the foot.  Some of the stitches have worn off now.  I should have put some goop over them when they were newer, but it's not too late.

I'm going to keep wearing these boots but with a little goop or silicone over the spot where the right boot is leaking. 

I don't think you will want to wear these boots in a lot of scree due to that seam, but these boots are perfect for soggy valley hikes in the Olympics.

The toe box is a little bit more narrow that I like, but my feet have adjusted.

I maybe should have gotten a larger size.  These are size 42 and my toe sometimes hits the front of the boot when I go down steep hills.

I like how you can tighten the ankle laces separately from the ones over the top of your foot that really cuts down on toe jamming.

I picked these boots because they offered the balance between weight and durability that I wanted.  Come summer time I'll be hiking in running shoes.

REI does not carry them anymore but you can buy them on Amazon.com by clicking this link:
La Sportiva Men's Omega GTX Hiking Boot,Grey/Rust,44.5 EU/11 M US and I might make 50 cents off the transaction.. :)