Idaho, Idaho...Headed Out to Idaho

Our big backpacking trip this year will be in Idaho's Sawtooth Wilderness Area. I'm very much looking forward to getting out of the city and into the mountains. The plan is to do a 6-night, 7-day loop. I spent much of yesterday finalizing our food. The menu looks alright (this time I'm experimenting with TVP), although for lunches I bought a salami stick. And, truth be told, it just seems weird to have a meat product that doesn't need refridgeration after being opened. However, I am a big fan of jerky (although I have yet to serve it at a party or bring it to a potluck dinner), and jerky doesn't need the fridge either.

My new pack is loaded and ready to go!

My other choice piece of excitement is my new backpack. I've been using Ken's old Kelty pack, which has been good to me, but I've been longing for one of my own. I now have a brand-spanking-new Osprey Ariel 65 that's made for women. We took a test overnighter on Sunday with it. We started up at Donner Summit and hiked up towards Warren Lake. We only went in about an hour-and-a-half because Ken had to work on Monday, but it was long enough for me to notice the difference. I especially noticed how much better this pack feels on my hips. It's amazing what a difference there is between the old and new packs. The other big improvement is that the shoulder straps are spaced closer together so that they actually fit where they should on my shoulders and I don't have to rely on the chest strap to pull the shoulder straps in.

Sunset views from our campsite

I also bought a new tent that we tested Sunday night. The zipper on Ken's tent is failing and we didn't have time to send it in for repair, so off to REI we went and I bought a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight tent. It's a 2-person tent made for backpacking and is an updated model of the tent Ken has. We looked at all the tents at REI, but I decided on this one because it seemed to be what would work best for us in terms of size, price, and quality. The main difference between our two tents is that with Ken's, in order to set it up you have to thread the tent poles through fabric loops and with mine, there are clips that secure the tent to the poles. Happy tenting!

My new tent with the rainfly