Resupply Prep, Post 1- Non-Food Stuffs

 

Last week, I took advantage of one of our last free weekends until we leave and started prepping our resupplies. I spent an entire Sunday running to 3 or 4 stores, organizing, dividing, packing and prepping pretty much all of our non-food stuffs. I bought out WalMart’s entire supply of travel sized wet wipe and baby wipe packages and Woodman’s entire supply of travel sized sunscreen :)

It was a bit overwhelming at first to dump out the shopping bags and look at all of the items...where to begin? But after sorting them it wasn’t so bad, I had a rough idea of what was needed for each individual bucket, so I basically grabbed one of everything and put it in a ziplock bag.

 

David and I bought our resupply buckets from Menards along with jumbo boxes of candy bars!! Who would have thought Mendards would have jumbo boxes of candy bars at a super discounted price PLUS a mail-in rebate?! Sweet!

 

After sorting everything, I put our supplies into ziplock bags and dropped them into the bottom of our respective buckets. Now all we have to do is finish planning, buying, prepping and packing all of our food! We’ll wait another month or so to do that . In the meantime, we’ve been picking up a few things here and there that will keep, like beef jerky that’s on sale, large bags of M&M’s that we had coupons for.

 

The picture below is a slightly more organized version of our resupply piles...

 

First Test Drive Hike

We went on our first hike of the year on Sunday! The weather is finally above freezing in Wisconsin, so we took advantage of the sort of warmish weather and hiked all day at Devils Lake! Although we've technically been "hiking" in the Red already this year, it's different because we have to hike to get to the crag to climb, we're not hiking to hike, and we aren't carrying the same weight or even using the same packs/gear.

We packed our packs as if we were on the trail. We brought all of the gear we'll have on the trail, including bear canisters for our food, stoves, water filter, sleeping bags etc. My pack weighed in around 31-32 lbs, David's was about 40.

We test drove the new insoles we got for our hiking boots. Mine were great and very comfortable, David's need some adjustment. I also had the opportunity to try my new trekking poles, which were helpful for the descents.

We made trail food for lunch with our stoves and even with 30+ mph wind, using our bodies as wind breaks, everything worked great! We got to try out our food pouch cozy prototypes, which worked great! We made them out of insulating bubble wrap type stuff, which David picked up at Lowe's in Lexington. We basically just cut a long strip of it wide enough to accommodate a quart sized ziplock bag, folded it in half to create a "pouch", and left enough extra to fold over a flap at the top. We taped the sides with a piece of duct tape. I plan to make a few adjustments for my final product, but overall the super basic design worked just fine. We had tasty, warm food for lunch!

David made a couple of on-trail adjustments, including moving his bear canister from the bottom of his pack to the middle. It was bumping against his tail bone causing pain and leaving an irritated bump. He put something softer, the tent and clothes bag, in the bottom compartment and was good to go. He also adjusted a sock and shoe when he felt a "hot spot". We have an agreement that anytime a hot spot is felt, we stop and make adjustments immediately in an effort to avoid blisters. After all, our feets are our only mode of transportation on the trail and we need to take good care of them!

At the end of our hike, which was around 6-8 miles and took about 5-6 hours, we determined that our pack loads need to be lightened if at all possible. My feet hurt and my legs were really tired. David's back hurt and his knee was in some pain. We talked about what we could possibly reduce to save weight... but beyond eliminating a long sleeve base layer, we really only had what we needed in our packs. Nothing "extra". Maybe we could reduce the amount of water we carry at any given time, stopping more frequently for water rather than carrying more than what we need in between water sources. Hopefully as we continue to train and get in shape, we won't have as many aches and pains.

The next morning we were both sore, but as the day went on, felt fine. My hips were, and still are a bit tender and sore from the hip belt. We ate a lot of calories and got a really good, full night's sleep, so the recovery definitely helped and will be key while on trail. We both thought that, yes, if we were on trail and needed to repeat yesterday's hike again today (and for the next 20 some odd days) we could do it.

For our next hike, I'll be trying a second pair of hiking boots that are more heavy duty. Carrying a heavy load on a more heavy duty pair of boots should help my feet. I'll also adjust the torso length of my pack in hopes the hip belt fits better and doesn't cause so much discomfort and pressure. David is going to try shaving down his insoles or somehow adjusting them to be more comfortable.

Overall our first test drive hike went great! It served its purpose for exactly what we wanted, to test out our gear and systems and then make adjustments accordingly. Maybe 1 or 2 more hikes and we should have it down. We also had the pleasure of taking in some pretty views of the lake! I've never seen the lake only covered in ice, I've seen it covered in a few feet of snow or in the heat of summer. The ice made it look very different and very beautiful!