[pct-l] trip report

[Phil Newhouse]

Lenny,

Any thoughts on the BV500 in the Circuit?

phil
irvine, ca

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Lenny Leum <littleleum at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> I'm still catching up on pct-l reading, I must say I have learned a lot
> since joining the list in November, although y'all can be ridiculous,
> bone-headed, uhhhh I'll leave it at that...  (not that I'm one to talk)
>
> Moving on, I just got back from an excellent 4 day solo adventure
> specifically timed to coincide with all the "crappy" weather we just had
> here in southern California.  For my rain gear, I relied on a poncho/tarp
> and wind shirt/pants.  For shelter I used the tarp and underneath I rolled
> myself up into a burrito made from a 8x10 k-mart blue tarp.  With this
> system, *you* are going to get wet at times, most notably when transitioning
> from poncho to shelter or vise versa.  In the morning, getting a little wet
> wasn't too bad, just do a couple jumping jacks and walk around camp with the
> pack loaded while eating breakfast to get the blood moving.  At night, make
> sure you have dry clothes to change into, and a tiny little
> synthetic/absorbant pack towel can help also, wipe dry, squeeze out, wipe
> dry, etc.  One simple thing that would have made my life easier would have
> been 1 or 2 more plastic bags.  A "wet and beyond hope" bag would have been
> nice.  I
>  got lucky, on the 3rd day enough sun came through to dry out most of my
> damp clothes/bag/jacket.  I can see this system becoming very difficult
> under prolonged wettness...  If you are going to use a tarp for shelter, go
> out and practice using it and sleeping under it in the rain.  Seriously.
> Put everything in your pack, walk around the block a couple times in the
> rain, set up your tarp in the yard, set the alarm clock on your watch so
> you're not late for work, and try to get a good night's sleep.  Practice
> setting up your tarp!  Practice unpacking your sleeping bag, pad, bivy or
> whatever your sleep system is under the tarp without getting anything wet,
> then try putting it all back into your pack in the morning without getting
> anything wet.  If you're using down, you gotta ask yourself, what got wet
> and what the hell happened?  The trick is to keep your *stuff* dry. Turkey
> bags!  or whatever, just make sure everything that you care about
>  staying dry is in a plastic bag.  I had one plastic bag lining my sleeping
> bag stuff sack, one for extra socks and sleeping type clothes, and one for
> stuff I might want while hiking (beenie, gloves, windshirt).  That way you
> don't have to worry too much about your pack getting wet, it's gonna
> happen.  I also had a trash bag to put over my pack at night, this was
> especially usefull for the one clear night I had where everything froze
> solid, so at least my pack wasn't a popsicle.
>
> I found that the "three P's of pooping in the woods" turned out to be
> great.  One problem is it can be hard to hold the pee until after you've
> wiped up the poo, no problem, just splash a little water on top and pretend
> like it's pancake batter, mmm.
>
> I also had 2 major stream crossings and several smaller ones.  Because of
> the rain, the water was completely brown with mud, and it was impossible to
> tell how deep.  The only option I had was scouting around.  I was able to
> "find" a route accross that included linking together partially submerged
> rocks, with flat spots and dry rocks so that the crossing became feasible
> and non-eventfull.  Trekking poles are awesome for stability and for
> probing.
>
> What else... I carried a BV500 bear cannister, which was super nice in that
> I didn't have to worry about hanging and retrieving my food in the pooring
> rain.  I loaded the shit outta that thing, figured I'de put the new backpack
> to the test (a new circuit).  As to the food... hahaha... just for
> comparison, I eat half a pound of granola every morning for breakfast.  I
> eat a lot and have too fast a metabolism for my own good.
>
> 1.5 lbs granola
> baggie of powdered milk
> 2/3 lbs cheese
> 4 avos
> 3 tomatoes
> 1/2lb salami
> 6 pita breads
> 1lb peanutbutter filled pretzels
> 1lb sesame crackers
> 2/3 lb ish raisins walnut mix
> 2 mac-n-cheese
> 1 ramen
> 1 saffron rice
> 1 tasty bite
>
> Ok, so I didn't finish it all.  I used a bear can for 29 days on the JMT
> last year (yeah, we averaged less than 10 miles a day, so what's the friggen
> hurry if you have the time?)  The trick to packing the bear vault type bear
> can is to look through the plastic from the outside as you are packing, that
> way you can check for empty space... but I digress... I don't have a scale,
> but my pack was definitely over 40 lbs, probably 50, and it was more than I
> ever hope to carry with the circuit again.  It is difficult to completely
> take the load off your shoulders, even at low weights, but then again it
> only has a little aluminum stay as a frame.  That said, it is a great pack,
> but would recommend it with an ultralight mentality.
>
> Well geeze, can you tell I've been in the woods for a few days?  All that
> time thinking with no one to talk to, I think I'm borderline old man rambler
> status and I'm not even 30.  Hopefully someone gets something outta this...
>
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