[pct-l] RE:questions for couples

[Pearson]

Amanda & Oats

1. We carried one Ursak each for our food on the entire trip. Heavier 
than a silnylon bag, but the mice didn't eat any of our food.  Through 
the Sierra's we each carried a bear cannister as well. (Garcia and Bear 
Vault) We went straight through from Kennedy Meadows to VVR (plus a Mt. 
Whitney side trip) and had 12 days of food to carry and we were packed 
to capacity. If you go out Kearsarge Pass you may not need to pack so 
heavy and maybe one can would do for both of you.

2. We didn't use our Whisperlite for the trip but met folks who did and 
all had the same complaint about it clogging and many hours spent 
cleaning it along the way.

3. We used a homemade quilt ala Ray Jardine. It worked out great!  It 
came in at just under 3lbs because of modifications we made to it and 
thicker insulating material.  There are kits available from his site (if 
you're inclined to sew) that make the project much easier than when we 
first built ours.  Also I believe there's instructions on how to divide 
the bag so each person can carry half rather than one person carrying 
the whole weight.  Because it was our very first backpacking trip, we 
also carried two 1lb Western Mountaineering bags with us. (Thru hikers 
with back-up bags!?!)  We didn't know how cold or warm we slept so it 
was a bit of insurance.  We only used them about 6 times the entire trip 
but after coming down from Mt. Whitney it was COLD and we were happy we 
had them that night! (Cold meaning water bottle freezing, boot freezing, 
condensation in the tent freezing cold.)

4. We used a Henry Shires Squall and were quite satisfied with it's 
performance.  We were going to drop him a note when we completed the 
hike to give him some ideas for modifications, but his Squall 2 covered 
all of them.

Hope this helps you!

Start Slow & Taper Off