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[pct-l] Update F;ight of the Spiriteagle



Hi All -
We're taking a much needed break in Cle Elum, about 30 miles from 
Snoqualamie Pass. Washington has been wet - 12 days in a row of grey skies, 
of which 8 were wet. Lots of fog, off and on drizzle. Typical northwestern 
weather, I guess, but not what we hoped for. The forecast is for rain for 
the next 10 days. Grrrr! At this point, we only expect about 14 more hiking 
days, plus a few days off. We plan to go to the ALDHA-West Gathering at the 
end of the month, so there is no point in finishing too early, so we're 
taking our time. The next section - Alpine Lakes Wilderness, is supposed to 
be beautiful. We are looking forward to it. The last section was mostly 
hidden in cloud. We've only seen Mt. Ranier once, and then it was wreathed 
in clouds. There were miles of clearcuts, off and on. Depressing except for 
the accompanying masses of ripe huckleberries. Jim is suffering from 
Mazama's Revenge, so can only look longingly at the berries that I am 
devouring. The time off is helping, I think, though I'm not sure that ice 
cream is recommended treatment for stomach problems. We probably won't get 
access to a computer until we're done, so wish us well. Hope to see some of 
you at the Gatherings in October. Walk softly,
Jim and Ginny
Spirit Eagle
_________________________________________________________________________

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Cc:            PCT-L@backcountry.net
From:          Jeffrey Olson <jjolson@uwyo.edu>
Date:          Thu, 07 Sep 2000 18:26:49 -0700
Subject:       Re: [pct-l] pack dilemna
Content-type:  text/plain; charset=us-ascii

I met a woman hiking the PCT who had just had back surgery and was told she
could never backpack again.  She was backpacking, wearing a Jansport D-5.  I
have lower back pain and cannot take any weight on my shoulders.  I have a long
Jack Wolfskin internal with load lifters that takes all the weight, and a
Jansport D-3 for group trips.  The shoulder straps hold the pack to my chest
with no weight on the shoulders...

Jeffrey Olson
Laramie Wyoming...

"Reynolds, WT" wrote:

> There is nothing better than a D-5 for walking down the trail. Two solutions
> that I have tried.
> 1-Strip the pack bag off and replace it with lighter sacks that you lash on.
> This reduces the convience of the D-5 but drops the packweight to about 3
> pounds
> 2-Spring for a Kelty Cloud. Configure with stays and hipbelt. Toss
> everything else. The Kelty hipbelt is very rigid and acts more like a d-5
> than anything I have tried. [My wife hates it however because it doesnt
> contour to a woman's hips]. Packweight 2 pounds.
>
> I do NOT believe a fanny pack will work because the weight rotates the
> pelvis, something that the D-5 is very good at not doing. Additionally, I
> find that even a 10 pound pack places more weight on my shoulders than a d-5
>
> Tom
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jack Young [mailto:youngjack@hotmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 8:49 AM
> To: BackpackingLight@egroups.com; PCT-L@backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] pack dilemna
>
> For me going ultra light isn't much of an option. I went through a
> windshield when I was 4 yo and it really put the zap on my upper middle
> back.  Now that I am almost 40 I have to be very careful, daily excercises
> blah blah blah.
>
> My PT (who is a backpacker) telling me to keep as much weight off of my
> shoulders as I can.  Of course I like to not only hike light but hike long.
>
> The lack of flexibility in a conventional frame pack really bothers me these
>
> days. It seems to me that my best option may be to go with the configuration
>
> that Michael has on his ultralight webpage of light pack on the shoulder and
>
> a hip pack.  I would probably go with a bigger hip pack and smaller shoulder
>
> pack.
>
> My dilemna is getting the right configuration or just throwing that idea out
>
> and starting with something totally different. It feels like an overwhelming
>
> task partially because I have hiked so long with my old jansport d5 that I'm
>
> unsure aboutanything else.
>
> Anybody have any experience in this area?
[ *** too many quoted lines.  automatically truncated *** ]

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