Mail Drops! And an update on our contest! + more!

Hello interwebs! Right now we are on the road to Amicalola Falls State Park! I'm sorry for the inconsistent postings! You wouldn't believe how busy we have been these past two weeks.

Word to the wise: don't try to pack and move your entire apartment in one day.

Here's some quick updates!

Appalachian Trials Sponsorship Contest

We are currently in 3rd place in the Appalachian Trails 2014 Badger Sponsorship Contest! If you haven't voted for us already, please do! All you have to do is click the link, hit the Facebook "like" button above or below our video, and share with your friends! Third place wins some free LARABARS, dry sacks, and some sweet sandals, in addition to an e-copy of Appalachian Trials by Zach Davis. The 1st and 2nd place folks are hundreds of likes ahead. Like 400 likes or more. It's absurd.

Appalachian Trials has been an incredible source of information on how to prepare for an Appalachian Trail thru-hike and really, life in general. Zach is a great guy too!

Gear!

So with the crazy winter, we have switched back to the Gregory in order to bring our 0 degree bags. And good Lord our packs are HEAVY now. Especially with 10 days worth of Sheila's food. But, better safe than sorry. We can always send stuff home.

That being said, I won't be updating our gear list until we get back. We just won't have the capabilities. If you have any questions about what we are bringing, send us an email, or leave a comment.

Mail Drops and Trail Magic

If you're interested in sending us some trail magic while we are out there, we posted a Mail Drop page where you can find information on how to send us stuff while we are out there! We will update this list periodically when we have a better idea of where we would like to stop, and about what day we expect to arrive.

Blog Updates!

If you'd like to sign up for an automatic email list that will let you know when we make a post, please send an email to endlessfootpath@gmail.com. We will be posting hopefully once a week! I won't be using this format to upload pictures because it's difficult to format, so you can view all the photos of our adventure at Facebook.com/endlessfootpath.



Feel free to ask us any questions! We are more than happy to try and answer within the week. :)

Chase and Kelley want a 2014 Badger Sponsorship because!

Hi! We've been very busy getting ready to leave (4 DAYS!!!!) and in that time, we made a video! Please follow the link below, watch us be silly, and hit "like" at the bottom of the page! Every "like" puts us closer to winning some great gear and support, curtesy of Appalachian Trials...

http://www.appalachiantrials.com/chase-kelly-want-badger-sponsorship/

Thank you everyone!
Cheers,
Kelley and Chase

13 Days: Gear and Cake!

It is a truly surreal feeling realizing that you are in the process of selling off and packing up your entire life in order to set out on a 6 month journey to find your self, your passion and your purpose. Maybe I'm putting a little too much faith in how life changing this experience is going to be, but I have these butterflies in my stomach and this hope in my heart that everything is going to be different when we come back down to the real world.

Last night we hosted a group of our closest friends and family for an intimate goodbye and support-group meeting. We covered topics ranging from our gear and our winter worries to how to address a mail-drop and our itinerary. We drank and ate and talked into the night, and I can't be more grateful for their support. Our dear friends, newly engaged Anthony and Felica made us the most AMAZING cake in the world.

This was really just too much for my poor heart to handle. I am going to miss these folks so much.

We watched the NatGeo Appalachian Trail documentary on mute and narrated it (hilariously) ourselves. We planned visits on the trail. We even busted out a very special bottle of Stone Vertical Epic 09-09-09 to share with these great people. It was the best way to close out a very special evening. I only wish I had thought to bring out my Polaroid camera to capture the good times.

Things have been a little hard the past couple of weeks what with trying to pack and organize and make sure we didn't forget to order any gear. My dad has also chosen to be unsupportive of the hike, so it's been really tough for me to deal with, but surrounding myself with loving and supportive people makes everything easier. Next weekend is our big, final farewell bash. If it goes half as well as last night did, I will be so elated.

Let's Talk Gear!

As a result of our last shakedown on Standing Indian we made some big decisions and we are changing out our Big 4 and adding a few extra items.


Pack: Gregory Deva 60 and Baltoro 65

These packs are Cadillacs! You hardly realize you're carrying 30lbs. At a massive 5lbs 11oz, these guys weigh twice as much as our Osprey Exos packs. Why? Because we decided to carry heavier, bulkier gear to combat the winter weather and we need the extra space and extra comfort of the bigger packs. We will be switching to the Exos in April though, if the weather normalizes.



Sleeping Bag: Mountain Hardwear Lamina 0

Yeah, we decided we needed a zero degree bag. The night we were on Standing Indian, the temps dipped into the teens with 35mph winds. It was cold! We were able to stay warm and to get some sleep, but Chase had trouble keeping out the drafts. We will be switching back to our Zpacks Twin Quilt when the weather warms.



Sleeping Pad: NeoAir Xtherm

This is a warm pad! And super comfy! And it weighs almost nothing! And it takes up half of the space that the ProRest pads took up! Overall we love this pad and we are confident that it will provide all the of insulation from the frozen ground that we will need. We plan on using these the whole trip.




Tent: TarpTent Stratospire II w/ solid interior

We decided to also purchase a solid, windproof interior for the TarpTent, so hopefully with the combination of the warmer bag and windproof layer, we will stay nice and toasty even in the worst conditions. We will be switching back to the mesh when the weather warms.

Other Gear:

In addition to all of the above, we also purchase a couple pairs of down booties to keep our feet warm in camp, we are ditching gloves for mittens, and we also picked up some items for Sheila. She will be getting a fleece blanket and fleece booties to wear in camp to help protect her from the elements. We think that with these additions our winter camping experience will be much better over all. 

I will be working on updating the gear spreadsheet today and tomorrow so that it reflects these changes. I will also be posting a new page with a list of mail drop locations if you want to send us some magic!

23 Days and Counting: Winter Shakedown

This past weekend, Chase and I took advantage of a long weekend to test out our new sleeping bag and packs by hiking the familiar Standing Indian loop trail in North Carolina. We drove up Friday night and checked into the Sapphire Inn in Franklin just as a light snow was beginning to fall and temperatures dipped into the teens. This was Sheila’s first soiree with snow and the first time I had been in the stuff in almost 10 years. We were pretty giddy, even as our cheeks stung from the wind as we rushed from the car to the hotel room.

The next morning, the forecast at the 4000ft Rainbow Springs weather station called for temperatures below freezing all day with a slight chance of snow and lots of wind. The sun was shining so we didn’t think too much of the weather and we were pretty confident in our gear. After a hardy breakfast, we headed to the backcountry information station, suited up in wool gloves and mid-weight jackets, and set off on the 4.7 mile Lower Ridge Trail that would lead us to the summit of Standing Indian Mountain, our intended camp for the night.

We didn’t get on the trail until after noon and breakfast seemed like it was ages ago. The Lower Ridge Trail turned out to be very strenuous and I was exhausted in the first 2 miles. Between the lack of calories and the biting cold, I felt absolutely drained. I wanted to push on to camp without stopping, but my legs felt like jelly and I couldn’t keep going without some energy. We stopped and munched on Nutella and graham crackers, which were delightful, but soon the sub-freezing temperatures and blowing wind stole all the warmth from our fingertips. We knew we had to get moving again to get the blood circulating. We pushed onwards and upwards and the feeling finally returned to our fingertips just as we reached the AT and the side trail that led to the campsites and summit.

I was very excited to reach camp and set up. I was cold, I was tired. The view was beautiful and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. We pitched in the most exposed area as possible on purpose in order to test out how the tent would fair in the wind and how our sleep system would handle the intense cold. We reached camp about 2 hours before sundown, but I couldn’t keep my toes warm outside of the sleeping bag, so I sat in the warm tent while Chase tested out our stove by making us some hot chocolate. Our Ti-Tri stove is pretty awesome. Chase loved being able to use wood as fuel, though it took him a minute to get the fire going. He did comment that if you wanted to use the wood-burning function as a little campfire, you would need a lot of wood to keep it going.

While Chase was still fiddling around with the stove, some other hikers came up to check out the view and to pitch camp. They had three dogs with them, two big males and a female puppy. Sheila loved playing with these dogs and had a blast with them, but the owner wasn’t very responsible. He let the dogs roam free all over the camp and didn’t pick up after his animals. One of the dogs kept trying to come in our tent. It was really frustrating because it is experiences like these that make people resent seeing dogs on the trail. They were fairly well-behaved, but they just didn’t have any boundaries and the owner wasn’t stepping up to the plate. I’m just glad that all the dogs got along.

We made dinner a little while later and buttoned down the hatches as the sun was setting. Sheila was cozy-comfy in her Ruffwear Cloud Chaser jacket and a polartec buff wrapped around her ears. She curled up on her Therm-a-rest foamy and fell asleep quickly. Chase and I shuffled around in our Zpacks twin quilt and relished the warmth of our NeoAir Xtherm pads. Despite the warmth of these items, the wind still managed to infiltrate into the bag. This kept Chase up most of the night. Sheila woke up a few times looking for extra warmth. I tried wrapping her in my silk sleeping bag liner, but this didn’t do much for her. Eventually she crawled down to the bottom of the bag and didn’t come out until the sun came up. This created problems in and of itself because Sheila would push our pads away from one another and allow the cold from the ground to seep between us. Overall, we didn’t get a great night sleep, but it wasn’t as terrible as it could have been.

The next day we decided to head down the Kimsey Creek Trail back to the car because we realized we didn’t bring enough food for Sheila. On our last hike with her, we had to force her to eat. This time around, it didn’t seem like we were feeding her enough. While it sucked bailing early, we got the chance to see a very beautiful trial in the winter. The icicles and ice formations along the creek were really beautiful.

Overall, we learned a thing or two about winter hiking and camping.

1.  Get mittens and down booties. Keeping our fingers and toes warm is really important, and we found that our wool gloves and water-proof over-gloves were not sufficient. Mittens keep your fingers warmer because they are pressed together and generate more heat. Down booties would be great for camp when your boots and thick socks do little to keep out the cold on short walks around the campsite.
2.  Get a solid interior for the tent. Our Tarptent currently has only the mesh interior, which will be great for summer, but in the windy and cold conditions we encountered, having that extra layer of nylon between us and the elements will be well worth the extra couple of ounces.
3. Get Sheila a sleeping bag. Well not exactly a sleeping bag. I loved how easy it was to slip the liner beneath her and kind of tuck her in it to try and keep her warm, and I would love to get a heavy duty fleece liner to help her stay warm at night. We went to REI but they don’t have anything child-sized in the world of bag liners, so I enlisted my friend Roni to help sew Sheila a bag. I would like for it to be a warm fleece on the inside and a soft-shell material on the outside, kind of like her Cloud Chaser jacket. The plan is to order a couple of yards of Polartec fleece from the Interwebs and fashion her something warm. I may try to use a couple of patterns online.

40 days and 40 nights

Things are really moving quickly now! Honestly I don't have much more to update on, other than the fact that we finally compiled all of our winter gear, weighed it out, and packed it up. If you want to check out the full list, visit our gear page above.

Here's a summary of our Big 4:

Backpack: Osprey Exos 46 (2lbs 4oz)

Tent: Tarptent Stratospire II (2lbs 8oz)

Sleeping Bag: Z-Packs Twin Quilt 900 Fill Power Down XL (20 degree) (1lb 14oz)

Sleeping Pad: Thermarest Prolite Plus (1lb 8oz)

The only item out of our Big 4 that we are looking to probably replace is our Thermarest pads. They're bulky and heavy and with the smaller pack, we really need the space. I've been looking at the Thermarest Neoair XTherm pads, but at $180 I'm a bit hesitant to pull the trigger. We haven't paid full price on hardly any of our gear so it's a hard pill to swallow.

Tomorrow we are set to pack up some things around the house, take the Christmas decorations down, and organize the storage shed. I'd also like to fill out our Appalachian Trials lists and post those sometime next week.

We've decided to do a winter overnight at Standing Indian in a couple of weeks. With the crazy weather this week, we'd really like to make sure that our gear is sufficient in case we get caught in a winter storm. For once, I'm hoping for cold and snow!