Filling up the time until I start….

by buying gear and stuff and sending it back, and buying more stuff and sending it back…and sometimes buying the same things over again. We’ve become chatty with the mailman, whose son did some section hiking on the AT, but not with the UPS man, who just drops the packages, rings the bell and runs away.

I’m not an inexperienced hiker, but nearly all of my hiking has been done in Europe, where there is an extensive network of mountain huts. So the camping part is new territory for me. Camping in Europe is in campgrounds and mainly people there camp to save money. They like to drink a lot also.

So back to camping gear…sometimes I feel kind of overwhelmed by all the options and choices. Am I making the right ones? Will I be cold or hungry or be warm and well fed but have a 50 lb backpack? Sometimes I think my head is going to explode if I read one more review for gear. But on the other hand, it is also a lot of fun.

However, my backpack base weight is already a few pounds more than I had expected, so now my gear purchases are limited to things like a tick remover – I think it weighs three grams.

Another thing I am doing is getting into trail shape – very important because my reasoning is that then I can carry those five extra pounds of “luxury” items (isn’t it funny how the definition of “luxury” can be so flexible!).

But it still seems like a long time till my mid April start…