Today's walk was the shakedown cruise for my brand spanking new Gregory Whitney 95 backpack. I wrestled with it a few minutes, then took it for a walk to Riverside Park (Mile 1 on the trail) and back-- six miles. So how was the pack? Two words: very nice. Like Colin Fletcher, I have a soft spot for the Gregory brand.
I had stuffed the pack with laundry, two sacks of flour, and various items I had bought during my trip to REI yesterday (bear spray, sunblock, flashlight, etc.). What a contrast with the Eddie Bauer 2-strap pack! I had 35 pounds in the Gregory, and with the hip and sternum belts firmly cinched, I felt almost no weight at all on my shoulders. There were long periods during today's brisk walk where I actually forgot I was wearing a pack!
The pack itself was easy to figure out, partly because my previous pack was also a Gregory I-frame (internal frames pretty much dominate the market now; E-frames are a lot harder to find than they used to be), and partly because the design is sensible in its own right. One cool feature of the new pack is the strip of material that partitions the upper and lower halves of the main chamber. This means you can place heavier items in the pack's upper half and remain confident that the items won't sink lower as the miles roll by.*
They say you absolutely have to love your pack and your footwear before you head off on a long trek. By that standard, the pack stays. The only discomfort I felt was gravity-related: I did feel the weight of my pack's contents when going uphill. That's not the pack's fault, however.
Shout-out to Tim of REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) for his kind help in fitting me for a pack yesterday. His sage advice has been taken to heart. Good luck, Tim, on your trans-Atlantic voyage.
*Purists will sneer that proper packing also solves the weight-shifting problem. I tend to agree, but I also think that, if a piece of technology makes your life easier and doesn't prevent you from doing things the way you're used to doing them, you'd do well not to sneer.
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4 comments:
With all this walking are you losing weight?
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I've lost about 7 or 8 pounds. Not much when you're starting off at 297 pounds! I was this close to the dreaded 300.
Kevin
Wow! You never looked that big in your photos - somehow you wear it well. Actually, I'm surprised you haven't lost more weight.
Do you drink a lot of water? It's interesting; the relationship between how much water you'll have to carry (even considering the amount of free water you'll find as you go) and how the weight of that water carried will effect how much water you'll need.
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