Aug 11: Getting to the Sierra Foothills; Gear checkout

I headed out Friday after work, only to get stuck in the usual Bay Area TGIF commute. It took an hour to get to the east bay, and another hour to Tracy, about double the time as it would have taken with light traffic. Surprisingly traffic was still slow and go on the west edge of the San Jouquin Valley. I pulled off at In'N'Out and order a double double *with* onions.

At sunset I finally pull into a Jamestown motel and wait for a Hell's Angel and his girlfriend to check in. It takes a few trips to unload all my gear into my hotel room. I had reserved a room here so as not to have to drive through Yosemite at night, and it is a big relief to stop moving. I go through my gear one last time, and practice setting up my new one person tent. Having not seen a demo model at the store, it is a bit discouraging as it is not a self-supporting tent but required stakes to become a complete structure. I decide not to hammer the metal stakes into the motel floor.

My backpack still weighed too much at over 57 pounds (26 kilos). Here's where that weight came from:

I did not have as much time as I would have liked to trim the weight down as I was coming off another long trip a week or two prior to this. The decision to use film rather than digital media was simple -- based on my experience to date, a competent digital camera like the Nikon CP99x eats batteries like a hiker drinks water; and more importantly digital media still doesn't capture the as great a range of light and dark as film. I ended up choosing a film-based 35mm SLR camera atop a simple L bracket atop a monopod. The reasoning was that I'd usually be shooting in bright light and hence the tripod took too much space and weight. Also once you take a tripod, you need a heavier panhead. A tripod takes more time to setup and breakdown.

I also decided to take a tent, because I didn't have enough faith that there would be no storms in the Sierra, and I'd read it may make a marginal difference in reducing bear attacks (compared to sleeping in the open, which I did on the last trip and had a bear practically lick my face). After reading Ray Jardine's book on traveling the PCT lightly, I decided to pare down the weight of my footgear by taking light boots and running shoes. The only maps I had of the PCT were either tons of USGS quads or some large Tom Harrison panels, so I decided I'd rely on my companion's maps. My pack as loaded in my car, was many more pounds than I would have liked. Although considerably lighter than last year's Mt. Whitney backpack trip at 70 pounds, this trip was many more miles. I agonized over what to take, but with only a 2 week break since a wonderful excursion to the Canadian Rockies, perhaps not enough time and energy to focus on reducing my packload. I've resolved for the next such trip to have less than 40 pounds.

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