Fitpacking Hike

 The phone rang yesterday about 5:45 PM. I'd left my phone on the kitchen counter and was upstairs in my little office area. I dashed down the steps and it was a number I didn't recognize but since it was a local number, I answered. It was Jeff, one of the guides of the fitpacking trip I'll be going on in a few days.

What the heck is fitpacking ? "Fitpacking is weight loss backpacking" so it says on the website. Now I could stand to remove fat from this old body of mine, but I'm most interested in learning about hiking the Appalachian Trail and putting some backpacking miles on my feet and under my belt. At the end of the trip if the backpack waist belt needs to be tightened because I'm a half inch smaller, than thanks be to God. This trip is called the Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker Primer and we'll spend 5 nights and 6 days on the trail. We'll cover about 40 miles during that time and my husband keeps asking me what I'm going to be doing all the rest of the hours in each day since we're only going to cover about 40 miles total !  In general my husband and I walk about 50 miles each week usually in the morning. I hadn't really stopped to think about that because I'm focused on whether I'll be able to pick up and carry my backpack for 5 days in a row. We won't be twiddling our thumbs.

Had a great conversation with Jeff who thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2008. His trail name was Jukebox and I've read his journal on trailjournals.com. It's comforting to know that he has hiked the hike (kind of like walking the talk). I think there will be 6 fitpackers on the trip (2 from Minnesota, 2 from Georgia, 1 from Virginia and 1 from South Carolina).  Another guilde will accompany us, Bruce, who has wilderness medicine training. Nice to know but I hope we don't need his expertise on a personal level. I'll bet he will teach us what we need to know ... just in case. 

With the thought of having to carry enough on my back to live in the woods for 5 days, I may have become what's know in hiker lingo as a "gram weenie" -- one who knows the weight of everything in the pack because it has been weighed. I hope to keep my pack weight as low as possible - say 17 lbs. or less (not counting water and food) because Jeff says I'll need to carry 10 LBS. OF FOOD -- WHEW !  They are providing the food and I have no idea what 10 lbs. of hiker food looks like.

I packed my clothes in ZipLock bags this morning. Then knelt on them (while praying -- just kidding) and squeezed out all the air. (I hope he doesn't want me to open the bags). Then I weighed the bags. Next I put them in the waterproof stuff sack above and then I repacked them in a compression sack and that's what I took.

One change of hiking clothes          10 3/4    oz.
Windjacket/fleece                              9          oz.
Nano Puff Jacket                              10         oz.
Rain Jacket                                      11 3/4   oz.
Rain Pants                                        11        oz.
Sleeping clothes (sleep socks,
lightweight thermal shirt and
tights, running shorts if I don't 
need thermals)                               1 lb. l oz. 


May leave the rain jacket and pants at home and go with a sil-nylon poncho for rain (if weather is predicted to be nice). May take a trekking umbrella. I sweat ALOT when I hike and putting on rain gear makes the situation worse .... decisions.decisions.

What things look like at camp. I would like to be better organized; guess it takes some practice.