Appalachian Trail 2010,  Thoughts

Trail Q&A

Alright, I’m finally getting around to the couple of questions that were asked a few posts ago. I know the videos probably cover a lot of the answers, but I will take a few minutes to answer the questions now that we are semi-settled in again.

Chris Hind asked: I’d like to know what backpacks and tents you guys will be using.

We are using Osprey Atmos 65 packs. Mine is the small version, Chris is using a large. I got my backpack from my dad who got it off of Steep and Cheap and it wasn’t what he was thinking it would be so he gave it to me. Chris ended up liking it and bought the same one in large.

Our tens is a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 2, a two person tent. It sets up super quick, probably 5 minutes or less and we’ve set it up in the rain before as well. It is a snug fit, but we bought it because we wanted two access points and room to store both of our packs under the tent at night. Don’t worry, the food and smellables will be going in a bear bag up in a tree.

Patrice asked: How many food drops are you planning?

I can tell you are quite the photographer, but what camera are you bringing?

When you blog from the trail, how do you plan to do it? Blackberry/IPhone? Or just relying on town computers?

Food drops…we haven’t gotten that far yet. We’re planning on working that out this weekend. We will probably do what the average person starting out does…more than they need. We got a lot of Christmas money that went towards buying dehydrated food so now we need to use it all. We will definitely be buying food in towns as well.

For photos we are using a Pentax Optio W80, which is waterproof. We’ve used it underwater in Florida several times and it works great. Of course we’d love to take our dSLRs but I don’t think those are trail safe, not to mention they are heavy! We’ll probably GPS some locations for future excursions and head back to take photos. I know there will be cool lady slipper orchids along the way. The camera also does video so we will be doing some clips here as well. As for batteries with the camera, we’re going to charge them all up at the beginning and leave the charger at home and as we go through batteries send them home to be charged and put in mail drops up the trail.

Blogging…we’re going strictly with computers in libraries, hostels, hotels etc. We wanted to reduce our bills and we don’t even own a Blackberry or iphone so we’ll stick with an old-fashioned cell phone that calls people. We are taking a journal and pen and I will try to write a lot at night or mornings and I think I will probably translate out some of those into blog posts when I get into towns. I could easily do several posts and schedule them on WordPress here.

So, are there any more questions? Come on, I know there are! Ask away!

We’re over in Dallas for a few days hanging out with Chris’ family. We did two small hikes the other day, one at Lake Grapevine which ended when we found a creek crossing that was swollen with water from the recent snows, and then another hike at the Ft. Worth Nature Center yesterday. A lot of trees have been broken from the snow and were blocking our path access on the trail. We met up with a guy on the trail who was a nature photographer and he gave us some tips on where to go take photos of birds around the Ft. Worth area. His website here.

More adventure talk later.

2 Comments

  • Patrice

    Thanks Misti! The videos (great idea) and post were both very informative. It gets me so excited for our attempt to thru-hike, which seems so far away. I am definitely on the “go for it” side of opinions about your thru hike and I hope all goes well with the weather, etc.

    A few more questions …

    What are you putting in your bounce box? I know you mentioned on the video putting in your camelbak cleaner, but what else? I’ve heard of people putting in chargers and clean clothes, so I was just curious.

    What degree sleeping bag are you guys starting with? Do you think you’ll switch it come summer?

    I’m sure it will change, but what do you guys plan to eat for meals? Always looking for new ideas/options.

    I think that’s it for now. I’m intrigued to see what you came up with for mail drops.

    Also, we live in central NH, so when you get closer to the state, I’ll see if we can be trail angels in any sort of way. Too far away to plan that though …

  • Chris Hind

    take a look at the lifehacker.com travel section.
    there are tons of things in there like portable apps you can fit on usb drives to use at internet cafes and such.
    google docs is great as well.

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