Happy FriYay: Hiking Tales and Homeless Backpackers

Happy FriYay! It’s been a busy week here in the Carolinas. We went out and hiked 5 miles with our packs on Sunday after Mass. After the previous week and vertigo, I was a bit nervous. It turned out fine, thankfully. After my urgent care visit and a stronger antibiotic, the middle ear infection is gone and has not returned. I am very thankful for that. We managed to get several walks in with our packs after work this week, as well.

I don’t think I have ever confessed my addition to backpacks on this blog. Hi, I am Pattie and I am addicted to backpacks. I use them all. I have 5 North Face and two Osprey along with several others. Up until a few years ago, I still used my old Army issued ruck sacks! We camp and hike a lot, so I don’t feel guilty about my obsession. Truth be told, I could probably use one of my other backpacks for the section hike, but I decided that I wanted the advantages of the Ariel I purchased.

We are planning a few 2-3 day trips in our near future and will be using our Osprey packs. I tell you what, the support these offer is a FAR cry from the late eighties and early nineties military ruck sacks! I remember lugging 40-50 pounds PLUS and M60 with its ammo. Whoo weee. If I would have had these latest packs, life would have been so much easier. <Laughter>

While we backpack and camp a lot, we typically carry day packs and hike from base camp. So, I wanted to get a few miles in with a heavy load to assess things and determine if we had bit off more than we could chew. Nope. We’ve got this. I looked at some of the ultra lite packs and in all honesty, am glad that we did not go that route. The support the Osprey backpacks offer distributes the weight evenly — on your hips and across your back. It’s nice.

Last night, we did our usual walk around our neighborhood with a small detour. I told Marty, “Let’s change it up a bit tonight.” A woman thought we were homeless. We decided to dip out of the neighborhood and cross over to another. As we went past an apartment complex an older lady saw us and asked if we needed any water. She said, “There’s a spigot right over here. I can let you in to use the bathroom, too.” I told her as I pointed, “Thank you, but we have a house in the neighborhood right over there.”

She replied, “Oh my goodness, I thought you were homeless! I’m so sorry. Usually when you see people with big backpacks, they are homeless. ” I told her, “We are practicing with our gear to do 70 miles on the AT over 7 days in the Fall. She asked if Ghost was going to hike with us. We explained that he was and how he loves sleeping in our tent and in our camper. She apologized no less than 4 times. I told her that it was okay and said, “I appreciate you asking us if we needed water.” We laughed all the way home. Not offended. It was certainly nice to run into someone so kind! She really would have given us water and let us use the bathroom.

There are good people out there. To the right is a photo of what we looked like last night sporting our homeless look. <laughter> I’m going to laugh about this encounter until the day I die. My last thought on this– we could have been serial killers for all she knew. While I think it is nice that she offered us water and a place to use the restroom, there are a lot of crazy people in the world! Stay safe out there, folks.

We’ve accumulated so much gear over the years that we’ve been deciding what to take and what to leave. Not much has changed from the original list. I’m still taking my trusty North Face Eco Trail Down 35º sleeping bag. We’ve got our water filter narrowed down. Marty is going to carry a BearVault and I’ll be carrying the Adotec Bear bag. And blah, blah…. <smile>

As for dog gear, we will be sticking with the PupFlask for toting water. We love it so much that we have two. A big one and a small one. With the Grayl Geopress, we can filter the water and pour it right into the Pupflask, so that is a plus. The best part is that any water he doesn’t drink from the leaf shaped bowl goes right back into the container. No waste!

We recently found an amazing dog harness for adventurous pups. It has been crash tested and unlike other harnesses we have tried, it really is frictionless. Ghost is an escape artist and has backed out of harnesses before. We’ve been using a martingale collar, but for longer hikes, a harness would just be better. As long as he can’t back out of it. We’ve been using it for a short time, but so far, it’s looking like it is going to work out. It is very minimalistic and should keep him cooler than most other harnesses. This summer, we have had to take his harness off and on due to the heat. We use the harness in the car to keep him safe, though this is our first official crash tested harness. It’s the Saker Lander Harness and I’ll update you as we use it more.

Marty has to work this weekend, so no big plans for any hikes……