I wish everyone a happy adventure filled 2013. Some advice: “Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.” – Sidney Freedman 4077 MASH (TV Series).
Merry Christmas to all and to all a great year. I hope that everyone has a great Christmas and an exciting fun and very enjoyable new year.
House all decked out.
This pas weekend we decorated the outside of the house as well as inside for Christmas and were pleasantly surprised that the weather has been so warm. It was in the 60s all weekend and even today. It was a nice change of pace as in year past its always really cold and we have already had snow or ice a few times by now. Now I am not complaining about the weather by no means however I am quite worried as to when winter will really come and if it will be a late one?
One of the things I have been really worrying about when it comes to my trip is being equipped to handle all of the seasons that I will be hiking through. I will be starting in mid March and during that time in previous years Springer Mountain has been incredibly unpredictable. So the question is what to take with me. I do not want to take to much and at the same time I do not want to take not enough and end up being cold. Most of my conundrum falls in the clothing department and very little hinges around the main gear like stoves, first aid, or tent. I have a feeling I will end up taking lots of gear with me and once I get some miles on my boots and get my gear bugs all worked out.
How do you plan for your multi season trips and what is your method for layering?
More gear updates to come as I start get my final gear list together.
Happy trails.
Adam
PS do not forget you can sign up for my emails news letter here or get my blog post updates directly to your inbox by clicking here. I also have a few t-shirts left. If you are interested please contact me via my contact form to make sure that I have your size as quantities are limited.
Hey everyone I just wanted to let you all that there are some t-shirts still available to order. There is only going to be 1 run of them. To order them head on over the t-shirts merchandise page.
Here are what I have left in the women’s shirts: Small – 3 | Medium – 4 | Large – 5
Here are what I have left in the men’s shirts: Large – 1 | XL – 2 | 2XL – 4
roceeds from the sale of the shirts will go toward funding my Appalachian Trail Thru-hike and a portion will go to The Dusty Camel Young Explorers Grant. All Shirts run small and are 100% cotton so wash accordingly.
The price includes shipping. Costs of shirts vary depending on ship to location and size.
Happy Trails
Adam
I wanted to share with you a funny story that happened last week. I typically end my day walking downstairs and waiting for my girlfriend to pick me up after she gets off work. On this particular day last week it was raining.
One thing you must not that even though I live in the Midwest you would think I lived in a desert and no one has ever seen rain. It happens every year when anything made of water falls from the sky. It is almost as if it takes everyone by surprise and they all go temporarily stupid. People forget how to drive cars and they end up in ditches upside down, freeways are shut down, mass chaos ensues. All of that happens when it is just a little bit of rain. I will not even get into what it is like when it snows or the rain freezes. (more…)
Sunrise over Clinton Lake near Lawrence Kansas 9/8/2012
This past weekend was unforgettable and very hard to put into words. A very good friend of mine who I have talked about before Donnie ran in another 100 mile race. What made this race different than any of the other races we have crewed for him on is that it was a trail race.
During a 100 mile race the participants test not only their physical endurance but also their mental endurance. These folks run for 100 miles straight. They do not stop and sleep for the evening and carry on the next day. They run from dawn to dawn and sometimes dawn to the next afternoon.
Our job as crew was pretty simple. Get to the next aid station before our runner and then supply the runner with anything they need food, drinks, gear for the next section of the run. The runners had a 25 mile circuit they ran with aid stations roughly every 6 miles. There were 3 aid stations that they passed through. some of the aid stations they were required to pass through twice during the same circuit. (more…)
I hope you have been staying cool with all of these really hot summer months this year. Because of the heat do much of anything outdoors has been pretty brutal. I have been working on more logistics and planning of the trip. Did you know that there were roughly 105 post offices you can send drop boxes to along the Appalachian Trail? That does not include the hostels and outfitter shops that also accept packages.
I am sure by now many of you are asking what a drop box is so let us take a look at what these handly little boxes are. Drop boxes are boxes you fill full of food, gear, or anything that you think you might need or want at a particular pont along the trail. Once they are stuffed full of goddies you have family and friends send them ahead of you on the trail. Many of the locations will hold a package for a Thru-hiker for up to 30 days. When the hiker picks up their package they also might need to send things ahead that they might not need right then but think they will want it in the future. Those boxes are called bounce boxes. They get their nickname because they bounce from post office to post office ahead of the hiker. Hikers can also choose to send stuff back home that might not be needed or wanted anymore. I also plan to send back my memory cards to be archived and backed up at home then returned.
Things you might find in the drop boxes.
Those are just some of the types of things that I will be boxing up in the next several months into many boxes to be shipped out. I do not have a finalized list of where I will be sending my resupply boxes to but as soon as I know I will get that list to you all.
Stay cool and happy hiking
Adam
You might have seen on twitter the other day we have a new resident in our backyard. He / She is pictured below.
This is our first “exotic” city animal since moving into the house. We have had mice, bugs, and chipmunks, but this is the first one that neither of us will attempt to capture / fight. (more…)