Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I need a new spork

I melted my spork on my shakedown hike while making some mac n cheese. whoops. looks like a good excuse to go to Bill Jacksons. There are some made out of recycled airplane parts or something like that. super light.

In the way of weight, I've been thinking about taking some Ultra Light techniques to my not really Ultra Light gear. Cutting toothbrushes in half, cutting off excess strap length on my pack, crazy things like that.

Also I'm considering building a tarptent.


Something like one of these. weighs only 18 oz, so it would save around a pound out of my pack. only costs ~$40 to make. I'm game. it uses a hiking pole to set up, so I'd also save space when I won't have to pack tent poles. Not to mention that it gives me more space than my current tent. The little things add up.

I took some time and sat down with my copy of the thru-hikers companion and looked at all my resuply options for the first 389 miles. looks interesting, nothing too intimidating, but good to know when theres a long gap between towns like the 68 miles between Hot Springs NC and Erwin TN.