Shortly we will be heading out on our first backpacking trip. That would be were you carry all your food, clothing, cooking and sleeping gear on your BACK!! Lots of people do this - it seems as though age doesn't matter - well, maybe!
Plans started back in early January, 2011. We invited my sister and her husband to join us - they too were excited to give this backpacking thing a try. Last summer we spent two nights in Denali National Park in Alaska sleeping in sleeping bags in a tent. Tenting in Denali was similar to what we are planning now but we didn't have to walk 10 miles a day to get to our designated camping location. Even though we slept out in Denali we still were very short on all the supplies we needed for a 40+ mile backpack trip.
A lot of the fun in any trip is the preparation. And there has been lots and lots of preparation. The four of us have made several trips to Pittsburgh to go to REI to purchase our hiking/camping gear and hiking/camping clothing. REI is a wonderful outdoor retailer. Along with driving to the store we have been shopping on-line for just the perfect equipment and clothing for our trip.
After many hours of research this is a list of major purchases: Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 Tent, Gregory Diva 60 Backpack, Big Agnes Lulu Sleeping Bag, Exped SynMat 9 Deluxe Air Pad with Pump, Solomen Trail Runners, Montbell #2 Titanium Cooking Pot and Black Diamond Trekking Poles.
As you can see we have been out practicing with our packs over the last several months in preparation for this five day hike. I'm excited to share some upcoming stories and photo's of the trail.
Our hike will start in Pen Mar, Maryland and end at Harper's Ferry, West Virgina looking forward to sharing a story or two from our hike along with some photo's.
