Down to the Wire

It seems like time has flown. Somewhere the winter went away and we are suddenly leaving in less than three weeks, though we still haven’t found a day sunny enough, or free of obligations enough, to seal the seams of our tarp tent.

Slowly, in bursts of activity, we have gathered together, sewn together, scrounged up, or bought shiny new off the shelves, most of our gear. Sye has made a couple pop can stoves, while I engineered some fancy mosquito head nets and fleece mittens. One particular triumph was finding Kevlar infused nylon to make into bear “proof” food sacks, all for a fifth of the cost of the commercially marketed Ursack.

Sye has been attempting to break from his perpetual accumulation of black clothing, and with a little success! He found some super snazzy pink nylon pants at the thrift store the other day, though I have some doubts as to whether or not they will make it into his backpack. I found a dorky turquoise sun hat. Sye shall be dark, mysterious and hip on the trail, and I shall be bright and ridiculous like a parrot.

We’ve been a little discouraged about our sleeping bag situation. We found two bags compatible with all our criteria (light weight, on the warmer side, somewhat affordable) except that they don’t zip together. Alas, cold nights will be colder, and we’ll have to cuddle like inchworms.