A brief update on what’s been going on and what we have coming up.  No more news as of yet from SLU with respect to the results of the evaluation for DBS.  I have an appointment with them next month and I imagine that they’ll tell me that physically I’m a candidate but mentally I’m not ready.  And they would be correct.  I would love to have my hands back but not wild about having wires shoved in my brain!  I typed up this post, so things aren’t as bad as I make them out to be.

Preparations are wrapping up for the upcoming AT section hike in May.  Shuttle from Damascus, VA to Erwin, TN is lined up.  We’ll start hiking back from there with overnight stops at Mountain Harbour and Boots Off hostels along the way.  We should arrive back in Damascus just in time to enjoy the Trail Days festivities.  Deep Woods’ brother in law David will be joining us this year.  Should be fun having another tagging along.

Actually, I’ll be the one tagging along.  If my reckoning is correct, I’m about ten pounds heavier than last year and have done absolutely nothing to get prepared physically.  My diet consists almost entirely of pizza, cheese burgers, donuts, ice cream and soda.  Not good. Deep Woods and David are going to kick my butt!

In other news, I picked up a ULA Circuit and is it ever sweet!

Initially, the plan was to make another pack, something between my Cuben and Osprey packs for those times that I needed to carry a bit more gear on solo trips. I bought a bunch of swatches of different fabrics trying to decide what to make it out of but eventually came to the conclusion that my hands weren’t up to the task and Loonie has more than enough on her plate.  Anyway, I love my frameless Cuben pack but it doesn’t carry well with much over 18-20 lbs.  Even with a base weight of  7 lbs or so, throw in more than four days of  food and your water and it starts to hurt.  The Osprey is a nice pack for when Loonie and I hike.  Plenty of room but its a boat anchor.  At a bit more than two lbs with the hand loops, bottle holders and hydration sleeve removed, the Circuit hits a sweet spot between the two weight-wise and there’s more than enough room for the kind of trip coming up.  The craftsmanship of these packs is absolutely amazing!  It probably would have made more sense (and cost a lot less) losing the ten lbs of fat vs saving 2-1/2 lbs over the Osprey by using the Circuit but I’ve been coveting the ULA packs forever.

Food is all together.  Now I just need to take the new pack for a spin to make sure the fit is set and start counting down the days!  Stay tuned.

More to come…