Gear Check! (Part Two)

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Continuing on our list of gear, Chris and I invested and broke in over the past several months our hiking boots. Chris went with the Montrail Torre GTX and I nabbed a pair of the Asolo Stynger GTX. We opted for boots for the ankle support but know some folks prefer to go with sneakers and low top hiking shoes. Chris opted to toss some arch support in his to keep from any toe bump and as we found the downhill can be as strenuous as the uphill in this hike this should definitely help him.

As for clothing, we both went the convertible route so we can zip off the legs to shorts if need be. The weather can be really warm during the day with the sun beating down and drop drastically at night. We figure the more versitile our clothing, the better. We've stocked up on silk sock liners and wool top socks to help keep clear of blistering but have our handy 2nd Skin just in case. You think with all the gear plugs we'd get some kind of discount!

We have our odds and ends we've been getting together and above is a picture of the largest stuff we'll be packing in our backpacks. What you see are our sleeping bags, sleeping pads and our Sea to Summit stuff sacks (blue and red in the center) all rolled up. To give you some scale, the stuff sacks are just about the size of a football.


We picked up a couple of LED headlamps courtesy of Petzl and their Tikka series. Those suckers are bright. I really wish we had these bad boys a couple months back when the daylight started escaping us from the summer time. We had been so used to hiking up and down Kennesaw Mountain with daylight to spare but with the change in time and helping out some out of towners by taking family photos of them with the changing colors we got to the top of Little Kennesaw as it was starting to dusk. On our descent it got steadily darker and Chris pulled out his cheapy stocking stuffer headlamp I got him in '07. It put out such a pitiful little glow that we vowed to kick it up a notch. Now I feel like I'm emitting 1.21 gigawatts!

It's been fun gathering and testing out everything as we've gone along. It's been a blast getting out on the trails and breaking it all in. I'm sure nothing can truly prepare us for the altitude but Chris and I are pretty determined and stubborn Capricorns!

We have had our personal trainer below working with us. We can't let her down!

Gear Check! (Part One)

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First off, I'd like to thank the heavens for giving me a hubby who researches EVERYTHING! He's made it quite enjoyable to stock up on all the gear we need to ease this trip where we can. After a lot of consideration (read: months and months of hmm's) and countless trips to what we now consider our second home (read: REI) we are outfitted and have tested all of our gear.

We booked our hike through Peru Treks and those very thoughtful folks tossed up a helper list of everything we would need to nab in preparation. Using it as a template we procured the following:

Backpacks:

We both started out with daypacks a while ago when we started getting into hiking. Chris has smaller Osprey pack with hydration bladder and since he's been thoroughly impressed with their brand and quality he upgraded to the Osprey Atmos 50 Liter. He moved his hydration pack from his day pack to this one. I started off with a Camelbak and actually ran through a couple of "fittings" for my next pack for comfort. I eventually came across my pack, the Deuter Futura Zero 40 Liter. I, too, moved over my hydration pack from the Camelbak and found it fits nicely in the Deuter.

Sleeping Bags:

Next up we have the essential sleeping bags. We knew we'd need something to accommodate cooler weather so we decided to go with 15°F down bags. Chris had his eye on the Marmot Helium EQ (Tall) pretty much from the beginning and so sticking true to his conviction, picked one up. I wound up getting a Big Agnes Roxy Anne (Petite) and have got to say it's one of the most comfortable sleeping bags I've ever owned (it just barely beats out the Care Bears one I had as a kid)! The coolest feature, I think, is the integrated pad sleeve that allows me to slide my sleeping pad in the bottom of the bag so there's no rolling off. We hadn't gotten to go camping but we laid out on the porch in the 25°F weather and stayed nice and toasty.

Sleeping Pads:

We were sold on the Therm-A-Rest ProLite series of self inflating mattresses. They've proven to not only be very comfortable but compact and light weight. We've used them a good bit and they even weathered a trip to Ohio with our rambunctious nephews rolling all over them.

Rain Jackets:

Chris has been pretty impressed with the Marmot brand so he was pretty excited to find the Marmot PreCip rain jacket. It's been his jacket of choice since he bought it except for on extremely cold days. I'll admit at this point I was hunting on the clearance racks and chanced to find The North Face W Venture jacket for a steal! This is when I also found out that Chris thinks the pit-zips double as tickle-zips and proceeded to assault me with "gootchie gootchies!"

DOH! Adventures in Homesville.

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[ORIGINALLY POSTED 10-11-07]

Wellllllll. Wednesday's hike fell through for a couple of reasons. First, I was cooking dinner and apparently a sliver of glass wanted to make its home in my right heel. It bled a good bit and makes it painful and just plain annoying to walk on. I've still yet to get it out - the cheeky bugger - but I VOW it will not deter me from Saturday's hike. Second, Chris came home with a nasty bout of his sinus allergies. He gets them pretty horribly and has the LOUDEST sneezes as a result. Eyes watering and everything. So outdoors was not on the menu unfortunately. It's ok I guess. The sweet man that he is bought me an Isis CamelBak as part of an early 1st anniversary gift. So I'll test out hauling 100oz of water on my back on Saturday. I'm pretty excited.