I received a call yesterday from Karen's nephew Clay who is a student at the University of Alabama and he is definitely going on the trip. That was good news and I know he will truly enjoy himself. Bradley Jones, who made the Pinhoti Trail trip with me will also be going.
My son Wes is starting to put together his gear for the trip. Wes has been with me twice before and has soloed in the Chisos overnight. However, this will be his first long distance backpack trip. He has always been great in the outdoors and does love Big Bend. His friend, Jeff, is working to get himself off so that he can take the trip.
In anticipation of the trip I am bugging the potential group with emails as to what to expect in Big Bend as far as weather and terrain. I sent them all a daily weather report for Big Bend that is posted everyday on their web page. The high for today is 70 and the low is 23. The temperature extremes in the park always amaze me. Because it is a desert and you get radiant heating and cooling, the nights can be colder in the low desert than up in the mountains.
This is also the time before the trip that I start getting all my gear together and begin the culling process. My problem in time past has been taking too much gear. I am always trying to plan for every emergency both medically and gear wise. I am hoping to reverse that trend this year. I am only bringing one extra pair of socks and underwear. I will reducing my first aid kit to the bare minimum. I do not need every possible gear repair item that I own.
My repair items will be a sewing kit, duct tape, super glue, tent patch, stove repair kit (I spent hours a few years ago trying to fix a balky stove) and a couple of heavy duty safety pins. I usually carry extra straps, webbing, buckles, glue sticks, head light lamps and the like.
My food bag in time past was always the heaviest thing in my pack (other than water). I always packed a breakfast, lunch and dinner for each day along with snacks, tea and coffee. In addition, my dinners were always Mountain House or Backpacker Pantry freeze dried foods. This year I am going to bring pop-tarts for breakfast, peanut butter crackers and chocolate for lunch and instant rice/potatoes and chicken breast for dinner. I want to keep my meals down to no more than 1 pound per day. I will keep some trail mix in my pocket for snacks.
I am going without a tent this year to save on weight. Instead I will carry a silnylon tarp that only weighs 18 ounces rather that my 5 pound Marmot tent. I will use my trekking poles as tent poles at night. I practiced setting this up over the holidays and it seemed to work fine. It does rain in Big Bend but normally not heavily so this should do me fine as long as I can stay out of the wind.
Over the next couple of weeks I will continue to refine my packing list probably adding and deleting the same items several times. But that is the fun of it. Anticipation!!!!!
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