and home again

[silentq]

I rented a car for the weekend and drove cris and myself out to Mount Greylock for his birthday camping trip

Comments

[cris]

I think, for future trips, we can plan our water refills better so that we don't have to carry as much with us across the distance. We might also be able to pare down some of the extra stuff that we brought but didn't use (like, personally, looking back, having the tarp and footprint was a little extraneous)

I still look back on that sunset somewhat wistfully. I don't necessarily want to grow up to be semi-retired park ranger mountain guy, but I do feel a wee twinge of envy of how he gets to spend his summers.

Also, it's interesting overlaying our experiences over the trekking descriptions in the Lonely Planet Patagonia guide. Their estimates for time are a wee bit ... optimistic.

[silentq]

Yeah, if I'd packed in more than an hour, I'd have pared down the cooking supplies (the frying pan is heavy and we didn't use it). I think the extra food was good, I would normally have eaten more than I did, but I could have done w/o some of the clothes. I had my swiss army knife as well and didn't use it at all. I was even considering swapping out the toothpaste for a smaller tube. :)
To put it in perspective: the ranger has to maintain the privy. :)
I never trust time estimates in guide books until I've done a hike and gotten a sense of how their rating system maps onto my abilities. I'm glad that we had the Wilbur clearing option this weekend, getting to the next shelter would not have been fun.