Feeling rushed/anxious on the surface, but elated deep down. I've done everything I needed to do to prepare for this hike (from my knowledge). My last home cooked dinner for the next 4 months was spinach ricotta tortellini's with pork and capers on top. I had it with with my family here in Grand Rapids, MI. We all watched the Disney movie Moana together afterwards. I leave for the beginning of the Continental Divide Trail tomorrow morning, thankfully my Mum is taking this time to drive out to the southern terminus, simplifying things a bit. We should be arriving at a motel in Deming, NM on Saturday, April, 29th and walking north on the 30th from the Crazy Cook Monument. All my mail drop's are ready to go (all 21 of them), and my gear is all packed after obsessively packing and unpacking everything.
I've made a few tweaks to my set-up this time around. For instance, my sleeping gear will be tarp/bivy combo, a torso length closed cell foam pad, a inflatable pillow, and a quilt. The Mountain Laurel Designs Patrol shelter is a more storm worthy a-frame style tarp which is has beaked front entrance and a closed toe. The bivy is the MLD Super-light, which I've used on my last two hikes off and on, love it, especially for cowboy camping and seeing the stars at night. My sleeping bag has changed to a Enlightened Equipment Revelation 20°F, I'm looking forward to being able to air my feet out as the temperatures at night fluctuate. The inflatable pillow will be a luxury item.
Now for the rain I decided to use a Frogg Toggs jacket, I know they aren't too durable (I'll likely have to mail myself another at some point) but they are one of the lightest/cheapest rain jackets out there that does fairly well at keeping you warm/dry. This will also be a replacement for my active/wind layer this time around, however breathability may be missed. Also, In conjunction with the Toggs I'll have a antique Golite umbrella that I used back on the second half of AT.
My camera gear is another area that changed, I'll be using a RX100V, it's much more compact and weighs less than my XT1 I lugged around in a fanny pack for the last two trips. From the tests I've done the image quality is impressive, the only downside is that the controls will definitely take some getting used to, especially the menu (ugh). Another thing I'm excited about is my battery pack and charger which uses Qualcomm Quickcharge, the pack is 20100 mAh and will fully charge in 4-5hrs instead of 12hrs and will fill my phone up around 7 times. It will be nice not having to worry about finding a plug in every town I stop in.
Lastly, for miscellaneous items I bought is a mini harmonica in the key of C, and a big foam thumb. The thumb is to aid in catching rides into town. I have no idea how to play the harmonica, but there will be plenty of time to practice.
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Here's all my gear spilled out below:
Here is a list of my starting gear list for my trip (Note: "Consumable" weights refers to gear that is used only in certain sections of the trip):
A little stop motion video I made of everything:
