Trekking Gear…..

 

I wanted to do one more post about the trek, this one talking about the various equipment and clothes that we took……

As for clothing, we basically took three sets of everything…..three pair of Trekking pants (or skirts for me), three short sleeve shirts, three long sleeve shirts and three sets of socks (both wool socks and liner socks).

The “super stylish” skirts that I wore were from Macabi 

(http://www.macabiskirt.com/shop/skirts/macabi-skirt)

I told Michael while we were gone that I wish I had the foresight to shorten the skirt just a bit and take some fullness out of it.  When I just looked at the website, I see that they have a new “slim line” skirt that would have been better.

Even without these changes, these skirts were perfect for the trek.  I selected them because they covered my knees which was the culturally sensitive way to dress.   The skirt had two large pockets that were perfect for carrying my little camera, bandana, etc.   I will definitely wear them again!!!

Other clothing items taken were…..

– Rain gear (tops and bottoms)

– Fleece jackets (these were great to have in camp)

– Waterproof Parkas – these weren’t necessary since we didn’t have any wet or snowy cold weather but we could have needed them.  With our weather, we could have just used down jackets instead.

– Snow Pants  –  same as above….not used but we could have needed them

– Wool hats and gloves – the gloves were from “Smart Wool” and were amazingly warm even when damp

– Long Johns  –  we took two sets, but only used one

 

We each had a sleeping bag and silk liner.  In the lower elevations, we often just slept with the liner as it was too hot for the sleeping bag.

We had never carried inflatable pillows but found them to make sleeping MUCH more comfortable.

We were told to bring our Thermorest sleeping pads, but the pads that REI provided were super comfortable so we never even pulled them out of the duffel bags.

Headlamps were a necessity around camp, both for walking around after dark and for reading in the tent at night and packing in the early morning hours.

Instead of carrying daypacks, we chose to take our full packs from ULA (Ultralight Adventure).  These fit us well and we knew that they would be more comfortable than a day pack.  All along the trail, Michael kept asking my how my pack felt and I could honestly answer “what pack”?   I was only carrying about 10 pounds and I really didn’t notice it at all.

One of the most necessary pieces of equipment were our trekking poles.  They were used for balance and support and often for pulling ourselves up onto that next step.   After using them for 10 days, I was amazed that I could walk without them.

I mentioned this in one of the posts, but one of the best things we did was to take a Hydration System that allowed us to carry 3 liters of water with a tube and suction nozzle that attached to the front of our pack.  This allowed us to be able to drink while we walked without having to stop!!

At the last minute we were advised to also bring a Nalgene bottle just in case the water was too hot to put directly into the hydration bag.  Since all of the water was boiled, it sometimes hadn’t cooled down much so this was a necessary product to have.

 

As for non-trekking equipment, we may have gone a bit overboard, but it certainly worked well!!!

We took two cameras, the small Sony Cybershot that I love…..

….which fit perfectly in my pocket and was always ready for a quick photo.

We decided to purchase a new DSLR and after much research, decided on a Canon EOS 70D ….

After we purchased the camera, I started looking at various accessories and found this wonderful lens cap cover from OP/TECH USA……  It is called a “Fast Cap” and it screws onto the lens with the cover on a spring that opens easily.  It meant that we didn’t have to keep up with a lens cap!!

The next thing that we needed was a camera strap and some sort of harness for the trail.   I went back to the OP/TECH USA website and found a system that attaches short straps onto the camera itself and then has  a locking fastener that attaches the camera to whatever strap you are using.   We bought the normal camera strap….

….and also the camera harness strap….

  This strap worked well as it kept the camera from bouncing around as Michael walked.   Also, the camera itself could be easily unsnapped from the harness so that I (or someone else) could use it.

We were concerned about whether or not we would be able to recharge batteries along the way so we bought extras for both cameras (5 for the DSLR and 4 for the Cybershot).   We did not have any problems with recharging so we could have probably only taken 3 and 2, respectively.

I knew that I wanted to be able to organize my blog posts while we were away and had really wanted to be able to type them rather than hand writing.  After a lot of searching, I decided to purchase an HP Pavilion 2-in-1 Laptop.

The best features of this computer were that It can be used as a tablet or a laptop, it had a USB port, and it only weighed 2.4 pounds.  Let me say here that Michael carried this during the entire trip so his view may be that it weighed 2.4 HEAVY pounds!!! 

Finally, I knew that I would want to take notes on the trek, but also knew that I wouldn’t want to have to stop every 10 minutes to pull out my notebook so I purchased a Sony  Digital Flash Voice Recorder….

The next problem was how to attach it to the pack and Michael came up with a great solution to wire it to a carabineer and let it hang from my pack strap….

This worked perfectly as I could keep walking while I hit one button, recorded my note and then hit the button again to stop the recording.  Amazingly the batteries lasted for the entire trip!

At the end of each day, I would transcribe my notes and Michael and I would go thru the photos and write up any notes about those as well.   It ended up that I was too tired to actually write the blog itself but having these notes sure made it easier when I got ready to write.

The other thing that we did each day was to back up the photos.  The computer didn’t have enough memory to store all of the photos, so I would empty both memory cards onto the computer and then save them to 2 other memory cards which we carried in our packs.    It may have been overkill, but we sure didn’t want to lose the photos!!

In case you haven’t figured this out from the previous posts, we had a MARVELOUS time.   The trekking, the scenery and the crew were everything that we could have ever hoped for!

It is amazing to realize that we were in the middle of all of these stupendous mountains…..

….and have returned to tell the tale!!!

Thanks for traveling with us once again……