What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

I am not talking about the hike. I am talking about how to figure out what the heck I am doing on this computer and setting up to blog.  OMG!!!  Talk about a cluster!  I thought trying to figure out my rain jacket was going to be the tough one.  Ha!  

So let me tell you a little bit about that, my rain jacket that is.  Husbands always think they know it all and with some things they do.  Like when my husband told me not to wear my rain gear next to a blazing campfire because I would get a spark on me and melt holes in it.  Which is exactly what happened a year ago.  Well, I packed away the pants with the hole in a gear bag and completely forgot where I put them.  So this spring began the great adventure of rain jacket comparison.  Well, I didn’t want to spend full price so off to eBay I went.  I got a really good deal and the first hike of this year got an opportunity to wear it.   I wasn’t too surprised when the hike was over and I was a little wet in areas under the jacket.  As hikers know you never really stay dry inside rain gear because of sweat.

The next hike my cousin Lisa and I went on we also got rained on.  This time it was with flash flood warnings and all.  When we got back to the car after 2 days of rain, I took off my great deal rain jacket to notice that the lining was flaking off.  When I got home to inspect what was happening I wasn’t happy.  The lining in every place I had gotten wet was flaking off.  To the trash it went.

Enter rain jacket #2.  I ordered this on brand new.  I figured there is now way I will be getting wet now.  Pit zips, secure hood, covered zippers down the front and and pockets.  The third and fourth hike of this season it also rained.  Plenty of rain to try out this jacket.  Well, I figured things were going quite well, felt like I was staying dry.   At the end of the trail, I’m talking off my jacket only to find out I have a pool of water building up around my waist.  This is worst than the first jacket I am thinking.  Luckily my sister-in-law Beth was visiting from Idaho.  Her family has hiked extensively out west and she knows a few things about hiking gear.  I told her the current situation and upon looking at the jacket she told me that I may have to add velcro to the pocket covering to keep them securely in place.

I haven’t had the chance to do so yet, but I know I am not investing in another jacket so I will make do with what I have.  Which might mean digging out my original jacket the the pant’s got a burn hole in and trying that.  It isn’t as light as this second jacket, but I have never gotten wet in it.  I still have maybe a month before the snow flies here to figure this out and if not I guess I will be like the rest of the masses and figuring it out on the trail because really, isn’t that really where we do all our learning?

I know there’s air up there somewhere!