On my walk, today, I saw a white weasel. It was completely white except the tip of it’s tail, which was black.  It ran down the road and then turned into it’s home and stood up and looked at me.  It was the first white one I had ever seen. In the summer it’s coat will turn brown.
Backpacking wallet
For a wallet, I use a plastic ziplock baggie. I convert all my coins into food, before leaving town. I carry in it: cash, debit card, driver’s license and a data card. I make a data card like a business card on the computer, or just write everything down on piece of paper, laminating it is a plus. Included on my data card are my phone card number and pin, phone numbers of people I want to call, and phone numbers of outfitters that I might have to order replacement gear from, and my bank’s phone number.
I learned that sometimes when you get away from your life of passwords and pins that you can forget them… Once after a 12 day silent retreat in Thailand I stood in front of the ATM machine and to my horror could not remember my P.I.N. I didn’t remember until I returned home. After that experience, I write it down somewhere. I don’t list it as “pin” because if I lost my wallet who ever found it could empty my account. I write it as part of a phone number.
On the PCT I brought some travelers checks. On the Appalachian there are so many debit machines and places that will take cards that I didn’t find it necessary. I also carry a extra credit card and a copy of my data card in my pack in case I lose my wallet.
Bad idea.
It’s a film festival!
Because anything worth doing, is worth doing to excess, I signed up for the 8 movies at a time plan with Netflix, for this month. I hope to spread them out a little better so that I’m getting 2-3 movies everyday. Netflix – Rent, watch and return DVDs from home – Try free for two weeks
Water treatment and containers
For water treatment, I use Aqua Mira Water Treatment
. It’s safe for long term use and it doesn’t make the water taste bad, in fact it makes bad tasting water taste better. It weighs 3 ounces (85 grams) full and treats 30 gallons. Here is more information on it.
I don’t bring the mixing cap that it comes with, instead I mix it in the cap of my water bottle, that way, I figure, the threads of the bottle will get treated as well. I mix it in my bottle cap, wait until it turns yellow, then add it to my water. The water is then safe to drink after 15-20 minutes.
I don’t treat all my water. Most of the time I drink my water untreated. I rely on my instincts to tell me if the water is safe. If I can be, I’m picky where I get my water, but sometimes I don’t have that luxury and I’m forced to get my water from less desirable sources such as horse troughs and swamps. If there are a lot of floaters in the water I put my bandanna over my pot and strain the water through it.
A lot of folks use a Visine bottle filled with household bleach. It’s cheap, light, and is easy to find. but it makes the water taste bad, as does iodine.
To carry my water I have two Aquafina 1 .5 liter “disposable� water bottles. They last for years. I like Aquafina bottles because they are a little studier than some of the other bottles. They used to have a bigger top then other bottles but I think they may have changed that on the newer models. They weigh 1.5 ounces(42grams) a piece.
I also carry a 16 oz(.47liter) wide mouth Nalgene bottle
to use as a coffee cup, hot water
bottle, tea pot, and dipping cup for when the water source is very shallow. The Nalgene bottle is also good for mixing powders such as Emer’gen-C‘s. The Nalgene bottle weighs 2.5 ounces(70grams). (To clean a stained Nalgene bottle just add a little bleach to some water and let it soak.)
Total water capacity is 3 ½ liters, which was all I ever needed on the Appalachian Trail. For the PCT, I would often have to carry much more and would buy more bottles at the stores along the way as needed.
I have tried the plastic bag water carriers like platypus and they have failed me over and over. The plastic bottles have never failed me yet.
Related Post: Water filling tip
Related Post: Why I don’t carry a plastic water bladder
Emergency fire starting kit.
This is my emergency fire starting kit. It’s a spare Bic lighter and two Esbit Solid Fuel Tablets in a plastic ziplock baggie. It weighs 1.6 ounces or 47 grams. I’m thinking of trading one of the Esbit tablets in for a tea light. 
I have never had to start a fire on the trail, but I have needed an extra lighter when my other one stopped working. Also I figure I could cook dinner on the Esbit tablets if I ran out of fuel or my stove quit working.
When I was hiking the Appalachian Trail in the Shenandoah’s, it had been rainy and cold for days. It wasn’t just vertical rain but this thick wet mist that would roll into my tent and get everything wet. Supposedly, there was a camp ground with a laundry mat, showers, and a store off the trail a bit, but it was so foggy that I couldn’t find it. Walking through the campground, I was yelling, “Hello?, Hellooo?â€? Finally I found the camp store, laundry mat and showers.   After buying food for the next section, I did laundry and took a shower. The laundry mat seemed so cheery with the bare Fluorescent bulb buzzing away. While I waited for my clothes to dry I dreaded going back out into that wet cold fog.
Another hiker and I camped at the campground by the bathrooms; they were heated and had one of those lovely hand dryers. We had a hard time pulling ourselves away from the hand dryer.
Day after day it rained, and night after night I crawled into that wet tent.
According to the guide book there was a cabin coming up. It was a cabin that thru-hikers were not supposed to camp at, around or even stop at. I decided to check it out. It was a locked up cabin with a covered rock porch with a fireplace. There was another hiker there checking it out. I called to the woman I had been hiking with and told her that I had found accommodations for the night The other hiker decided he was going to build a fire in the outdoor fireplace.
My friend and I gave a half hearted effort to help him gather wood but we were both thinking it was futile; the woods were so wet. He gathered his dry kindling from the lower dead branches on trees. He also shaved the wet bark off some of the wood. I scraped wax from the mantle left from past resident’s candle burning and he used guide book pages for paper. Soon he had a nice fire going. It was so cheery and we were all so happy; never having imagined that this wet cold day would end up like this. We all laid our bags out in front of the fire and laughed and talked while the fire warmed our bodies and spirits.
Other things that you may have can be used as fire starting aids. For example any petroleum products like Neosporin or Chap Stick. If you carry alcohol gel you might want to try that.
Menstrual care on the trail and off.
This is what I have been using for the the last 10 years. It’s called ‘The Keeper menstrual cup” It comes in two sizes: The Keeper A (After birth) and The Keeper B (Before birth). It weighs .75 ounce( 22 grams) including the little bag. I insert it, pull it out when it is full and empty it, pee on it ( pee is supposed to be sterile) to wash it or wash it with water, or just empty it and stick it back in. It’s easy and light, and I never have to carry or buy any menstrual supplies. It’s made from natural rubber. I’ve been using the same one for 10 years; I don’t think they wear out.
Sewing kit for the nomad
This is my sewing kit. It’s a box of dental floss with a couple of needles, with eyes big enough to accommodate the floss, in it. It works so well, it is all I ever use to sew things. Total weight: .50 ounce (15 grams). The needles are also handy for popping blisters and digging out splinters. The dental floss of course is also good for flossing your teeth.
Warming up.
The weather is warming up; in the twentys F during the day, and sunny.
When the moon light hits the snow it makes it almost like day outside and lights up the cabin so well that I don’t need a candle going.
I can remember when I couldn’t understand why anyone would live on the east side of the Cascades. I know now; it’s beautiful and sunny so much of the time. Quiet, sparsely populated, and long views. Winter, here, is as good as summer.
Lyme disease on the trail.
Hiking through Connecticut on the Appalachian Trail, I got a lot of warnings about Lyme disease. They said when I got done with my hike that I should take 4 weeks of doxycycline because the chances of getting it were so high. They told me stories of how they were not treated or under-treated with antibiotics and had serious complications from Lyme disease. They said to get 4- 6 weeks of antibiotics.
I wasn’t feeling well for awhile, tired and achy but that is sort of normal for being on a long distance trail. One morning I got up and started hiking… I hadn’t been hiking long when I laid down on a big rock in the sun and went to sleep. I just wanted to sleep, but after awhile I forced myself up and started hiking, after a couple of miles I laid down again for a nap, and then hiked a couple of miles with my knees aching and laid down for another nap ; I was so tired. I looked at my guide book and saw that from the next road crossing I could hitch-hike to town. I sat down on the road, too tired to stand and hitched a ride to a big old three storied B& B.
I told the women at the B& B, that I was more tired than I had ever been in my whole life. She said “I’ll show you to your room�. She walked me up all these flights of stairs each landing I would hopefully think we were there. Finally we got to the room and I went to lie down, but she said, “No, you need to check in first� so back down all those stairs with my aching knees and so tired it was really everything I could do to concentrate on getting down them. I checked in and walked back up all those stairs. I wasn’t there 5 minutes when she called me on the telephone and said that she hadn’t charged me enough and that I would need to come back down and pay her 5 more dollars. I said, “I can’t. You can come up and get it, or I will pay you in the morning but I’m not doing those stairs another time.� Even in my weakened state, I thought it was sort of comical making a sick person climb all those stairs.
I took a shower and looked in the mirror and found a tick on me. I scratched it off. There is no telling how many ticks I had had on me. I found that one because I was at a
hotel, I wouldn’t have found it had I been on the trail. Now it wasn’t just my knees that ached but every joint in my body. I called my son and through looking on the Internet he determined that I had Lyme disease. My neck ached terribly and I would get chilled and be looking at my sleeping bag on the floor, yet I would be too tired to get it. Then I would get really hot and look at a glass of water but I was too tired to reach for it.
The next day I climbed down the stairs and called a taxi to take me to Great Barrington Hospital. I slept in the chair in the waiting room. The nurse practitioner said that she would not prescribe antibiotics unless she was positive I had Lyme disease and that the test was not valid unless you had it for a long while and sometimes even still if wouldn’t necessarily be right. She took my temperature, and said, “See you have a temperature, that’s why you are tired.� I said, “what about my joint pain�. She shrugged her shoulders and charged me 125.00 dollars.
That night I moaned all night long from the pain in every joint. I had chills and then fevers. The next morning I had a bull’s-eye rash. I called that nurse practitioner and she said that she would have to see it before she would prescribe any antibiotics. I had taken a bus to another town and told her I was very tired and couldn’t make the
trip back. She still refused me antibiotics. I made an appointment with a doctor that was closer to the motel and he looked at the rash and said it was a textbook picture of a Lyme disease rash. When he said that he would prescribe 2 weeks of doxycycline. I said, “No, everyone says 4-6 weeks.� But that is all he would give me and I was too tired to put up much of a fight. Then he charged me 85 dollars and sent me on my way. I took the antibiotics and in a few days, I was ready to head back out on the trail.
After I finished the trail I started getting hot achy knees, I read in the Merck manual that that is a sign of the kind of arthritis that you get from Lyme disease that hasn’t been treated fully. Also from reading stuff on the internet I learned that you should have 4 weeks of doxycycline. I found a Lyme disease specialist and went to him. He said that I was under-treated and that it may be too late. He prescribed 6 weeks of double doses of doxycycline and amoxicillin and charged me 175 dollars. I took them all and since then have not had the hot achy knees.
It’s really hard to find decent medical care when you are sick on the trail. It’s hard to get to the doctor and it’s hard to fight with them when you are sick. Many of the hiker’s doctors would prescribe the doxy for them. If you have a doctor see if you can get a prescription before you leave in case you need it. It’s criminal that the medicines that we need are locked up. I’m willing to take the consequences of my incompetence but it is so frustrating, unfair, and deadly to be at the mercy of incompetent doctors.
This year, when I went hiking, I soaked my clothes and my tent in Sawyer Premium Insect Repellent Military Style Clothing Treatment, Soak System It’s supposed to last for 6 washings. I don’t like deet and would rather the insect repellent be on my clothes then on me.
Hiking the AT (Appalachian Trail)
The Appalachian Trail is a a 2200 mile(3500km) trail running from Georgia to Maine in the Eastern United States. The only book I used for the entire trail was Wingfoot’s Thru-hikers handbook
. It has all the data you need: water sources, shelters, towns and the services the towns offer, and the mileages between them. I brought the entire book, minus the cover, and ripped out and threw away the pages as I used them. The whole book, I think, weighed 7-9 oz(226grams). I ripped out the days page and kept it in a small plastic ziplock in my pocket and the rest of the book was kept in a gallon size ziplock in my pack. The trail is very well marked with white blazes painted on the trees. I didn’t need any maps or any other guide book.
I came to the trail with enough water to get me to the next water source and enough food to get me to the next food source. That’s how I hiked the whole trail and it worked great. I found that buying my food along the way gave me more freedom. I didn’t have to wait for my packages in towns or stop at towns that I didn’t want to stop at. I would usually buy food every 3 days or so. For one stretch in New York there was some source of calories every day. Sometimes I would hike out of town with a whole pizza wrapped up in foil in my food bag. Town food has a lot more power to it then a box of old dry food that you send yourself.
To prepare for the AT I would suggest reading Beyond Backpacking: Ray Jardines Guide to Lightweight Hiking and getting your pack weight down. My base weight ( all my stuff minus food, water, and fuel) was 11-12lbs(5kg) and probably never weighed more then 25lbs(11kg) fully loaded with food, water and fuel. My load included a tent with full bug and rain protection, a warm sleeping bag and a good stove. I had everything I needed; that’s important, don’t go so light that you don’t have the gear you need to take care of yourself. So many times I have put the rain poncho shelter, the 1lb sleeping bag, and the 13oz backpack on my gear list only to be hit with the reality that the pack hurts my shoulders, I get wet in the tarp and the 1lb sleeping bag is too cold.
For foot wear I wore Chaco Z/1 Sandals for the entire trail. I wore socks with them and when it got snowy or cold I wore them with neoprene socks. In the snow my feet were cold and uncomfortable, but they survived. Buy the right size for your foot and don’t worry about stubbing your toe. I have hiked over 4000 miles (6400km) in sandals and though my toes go right up to the end, I have never stubbed them.
I also read books by people that had hiked the trail and read online journals about people who had hiked it. It helps to kind of know what to expect.
weather
It got down to -12 F(-24) yesterday and a strange haze covered the entire sky and blocked out the sun. I had to bring the generator inside to let it warm up before I could start it. It was 11 degrees F this morning ; I think things will start warming up.
My wood stove is very small but so is my cabin; my cabin is 19′ X 11′(6 X 3.5 meters). Most of the time it heats the cabin fine but when it gets really cold it has some problems, mostly because in my small cabin are 11 large single pane windows. Last year
not knowing how cold it would get or how I would react to the cold I bought a portable propane heater and a 12ft hose, so I could hook it up to a 20lb propane canister. I never used it because it seemed kind of whimpy to not deal with the cold. This year I hooked it up and use it to help the wood stove heat up the cabin. It has been very nice to wake up in a cold cabin, turn on the propane heater and then start the fire. In a very short time my cabin is cozy again.
It looks like it will be a sunny day today but with the rising of the sun, the temperature is dropping.. How can that be? It’s already down to 6 degrees. I’m always interested in the weather, now.
Simple composting toilet
This is my composting toilet. I use it, throw the paper in it, and cover with sawdust. When it is full, I dump in under a big pine tree and rake pine needles over it. Next, I rinse out the bucket with my saved gray water and throw the water on the pile. There isn’t any smell.
I’m thinking about building a small addition on to my cabin, so it could be kept in it its own room. It’s a very simple system that I learned from reading the book The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure. Now Free and downloadable at: http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html
You don’t have to use sawdust. You can use what ever you have: bark, duff, whatever. For material to cover it outside, the idea is to have something fluffy that allows a lot of air to get to it so it can heat up, kill any bad stuff, and compost fast. In the book, he recommends straw. I use pine needles because that’s what I have, but you could use leaves, weeds, or what ever. My bucket is called a Luggable Loo. It’s a five gallon bucket with a toilet seat lid. In the book he builds a nicer looking system. You could just use a 5 gallon bucket with a regular lid.
Chilling walk.
The warmest it got today was 2F (-17C) degrees. The sun isn’t even down and it’s already in the minus. I snow shoed down to my mailbox, 2.5 miles(4km) away. It was 2 F(-17C) degrees and the wind was blowing some of the time. I didn’t feel that cold but now that I’m back I feel chilled to the bone. Times like these I really miss having a bathtub.
Most days I walk down to my mailbox to retrieve or send a movie from Netflix. Some days I walk down to mail a movie in the morning and again in the afternoon to receive a movie. On those days I get 10 miles(16km) in. It’s my getting fit by watching movies plan.