For all those who care, and because I do, here is my gear list for backpacking. I ended up with a pack under 15 pounds for an overnight trip. Not too bad.

So I started out with my sleeping gear, including a nylon hammock, lightweight sleeping bag, inflatable pillow, and foam pad. Here they are:

This gets into the bag by rolling the pad inside the main compartment, and placing the bag, hammock, and pillow inside the pad.

I put a water bladder and my rain jacket also in the main compartment. Food, emergency supplies, and other essentials like bug spray and a camera went in the outside pockets. I felt quite impressed with my packing job.

I just had the most amazing overnight trip! A while ago I decided I wanted to go backpacking this summer. Not a big deal, except for little junior growing in my stomach. I wasn’t quite sure if I was up for it. We almost went a month ago, but due to work, weather, and other interference we didn’t make it. I had planned this great hike to the top of Logan Peak. So it was rescheduled, tentatively to this weekend.

This weekend came. I’ve been feeling really good and staying active. But Joe had to work a ton this week (two 24 hour shifts in 72 hours), and there was rain in the forecast. My desire to go could not be deterred. I packed up all our gear while Joe was at work, and as soon as Joe came home we were off. Here’s the itinerary:

Friday 4:00-8:00 pm–Hike a little under four miles up dry canyon to the cut off to the syncline trail.

Pretty uneventful minus a little stinging nettle. I had planned on four hours to hike to the trail cut off, and it took exactly that. It was a little hot at the beginning, but quickly cooled down as we hiked into more shade. Joe ended up carrying my pack for about 100 yards at the very end. Otherwise I had it the entire time–and mine was about the same weight as Joe’s. Neither were very heavy (I have good packing skills).

8:00 pm – 7:00 am Saturday–Set up hammocks and sleep

So fireworks mixed with thunder are very loud. I am very happy to report that it hardly rained. I have yet to get our backpacking set-up all that waterproof, so rain could have ruined the night. I slept pretty well–hammocks are the way to go backpacking. No stick in your back.

7:00-9:30–Hike the remaining two miles to Logan Peak

This was an interesting portion of the trail. The trail started out quite normal, albeit steep, and gradually disappeared so that all it consisted of was a series of fluorescent tape markers. Glad those were there–it took us within several hundred feet of the peak where we bushwhacked to the top. We met four-wheelers on the top. Doesn’t feel secluded like you would like a six hour hike to be. But we made it!

9:30-1:00–Descent

Didn’t follow the trail back–just clamored down the mountain for the first bit. We met up with the trail after a bit of searching. Then we zipped the rest of the way down. Much easier than up. Although both ways my legs were not enjoying it.

I am happy to say I hiked 12 miles while 5 months pregnant. Wasn’t too different from normal–just took a few more breaks. But I’m not planning to do it again for a long while. This was the last hurrah before the baby comes. And kudos to Joe, who is once again at work and very sleep deprived, for taking me.

So I have been thinking lately about how I use my time. I think work and sleep take up the bulk of my time (especially sleep–I can never seem to get quite enough thanks to little baby). But in between is really the fun time. I wanted to do things when I had more time without school. And I’ve been lucky enought to actually start filling my time with fun things. I’ve made jam twice, I am learning how to sew better, I’ve gone hiking on several cool new trails (but can’t go as far as I used to thanks again to baby), invited neighbors over for dinner and games, learned more about cooking in a crock pot, made rhubarb pie, played my accordion, read several books, do yoga everyday (I can touch my toes on a good day!), gone fishing (but not caught a fish. bummer), worked on furnishing the new apartment (not that we know where we are moving), and spent some relaxing moments thinking.

Time is interesting, because it we always want more, but never quite use what we have the best. It’s so easy to get caught up in distraction and entertainment and never really do the things we want to do. I don’t think I will ever accomplish everything I want to do, and learn about everything I want to learn about. But I can do some of it a little every day.

Joe and I are having a little boy. That is why I have been calling baby a he while he moves around–I’m glad I don’t have to change my pronoun. All was healthy and well with him. He was all curled up–I’m impressed with how flexible he is. We almost didn’t get any good pictures of him, but he peeked out his nice little head for one. He looks like he has Joe’s nose–but maybe not too. He’s also been kicking around for some time so that I could feel him–Joe even has a couple of times. It’s really fun right now.  

On Sunday I made up my own recipe and it turned out wonderfully. I have recently stumbled upon a great blog on crock-pot cooking here. Because of this discovery, I have cooked in the crock pot the last three weeks on Sunday, and have plans to make it a tradition. I was looking for a curry recipe on it, but didn’t want any obscure ingredients. I also sent Joe to the store, and he came back with slightly modified ingredients. I ended up just using what I had, throwing it all in the crock pot, and had moderate success.

Here’s the recipe:

2 c. uncooked brown rice

1 sweet potato

4 small potatoes

green pepper

onion

1 can tomatoes, undrained

1 package Golden Curry (easily found in the Asian food section)

5 c water

Peel and or cut veggies. Cook in crock pot on high for 4 hrs.  

I want to try it sometime with chicken or beef, and with different veggies. The potatoes did turn out a little soft in this batch, but otherwise it was quite good. We had tons of leftovers that we still haven’t finished and we’ve been eating it a lot: two people and a full crock pot of food goes a long way. I’m becoming more of a fan of the crock-pot–you put all these raw ingredients in there, come back and there’s delicious food—all without warming up the house. 

I was riding my bike home from work, when my husband called me and explained that a new computer had come in the mail. This was quite exciting because I had actually not ordered a new computer. One arrived on our doorstep for free instead.

About a month ago, I got a strange package asking for my information from Qwest. Attached was a set of rules for a sweepstakes a year ago–right at the time we signed up for our Internet. Apparently because I signed up for Internet during this time, I was automatically entered into the sweepstakes and I had won a computer from it.

It was a very happy day. Not so happy was finding out my external hard drive I had been using as extra memory didn’t work anymore. Also it takes a while to move all your stuff from one computer to the other. But its really cool the other one was free.

We arrived at the Grand Canyon on Tuesday afternoon, set up camp, and watched a pretty amazing sunset. The next two days we hiked around, stopped at almost every lookout, identified wildflowers (at least I did. Joe learned a few), took pictures until the camera was out of batteries (which happened much too soon), and relaxed a bit. The weather was pretty nice, except for one night of perpetual rain. The next morning we had to pack up the wet, muddy tent in a drizzle. As we were driving out of the park, we stopped at a  lookout and saw the prettiest view of the Grand Canyon. The clouds were floating around the cliffs just perfectly. Unfortunately this was after the batteries ran out. So no pretty pictures 😦

And if you do not look at any other picture, check out the helicopter and the mule. We were sitting enjoying ourselves, when we noticed a helicopter carting out a mule from the bottom of the canyon. It looked like it was still alive. Very strange.

Joe and I have been married for over a year now. It really doesn’t seem that long, and I am still adjusting to him and vice versa. For our anniversary, we should be going to the Grand Canyon next week. Joe has never been and I haven’t been since I was little, so it should be a lot of fun. On our anniversary, we spent lots of time together. We went out to lunch at Hamilton’s, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was pretty classy, and the prices weren’t too bad (at least on the lunch menu). For dessert, we ate some creme brulee, which we both had for the first time on our honeymoon. We also took our hammocks up a canyon a little ways, and laid in them and talked until it got cold.

I love the guy I married. He hasn’t stopped being the nicest guy I know, and is always trying to be better and help me out. It really has been one of the best years of my life.

I have not really seen my husband for two days. He just got promoted at work–and wow what a week he has had. He has training on top of his regular job, plus several interesting incidents that have come up. Joe works at a group home–now he’s over a house. I think he will do wonderfully at his job and glad he got it, but will be happy when things calm down and I can see him more.

I’ve been working myself. Yesterday I hoed weeds, today I took soil samples. My back did not appreciate the abuse I gave it. I’m glad I don’t have to do that too often. This week, we should get the community garden tilled, which means I am one step closer (and helping 50 other people also get closer) to planting vegetables. Our garden has been extremely popular. We filled 60 plots and are on a 20 people waiting list. If you didn’t know–I help run the garden as part of my work. So I should be busy this summer. I’ve got big plans that include less weeds than last year, demonstrations and classes, and an awesome veggie garden.

One more random thing. I pulled out my sewing machine for the first time today, and got excited about sewing. The manual actually has ll these useful tips that I want to put into action. Problem is right now I have no fabric and no thread. I do need to mend the quilt on my bed, but that does not require my sewing maching. Sadness.

I graduated on Saturday. Hopefully I will get used to just going to work every day. It’s nice not to have loads of homework to do. I was sitting one day, thinking there is absolutely nothing I have to do right now. Hopefully I will start doing all those things I didn’t have time to do in school. I already finished one book, and went fishing. (with no success).

I graduated magna cum laude, which in my school is based on GPA. I realized I had not gotten a B since 8th grade Drama. Except for I did kinda not study for one class this semester. Apparently all my study has helped me keep a high GPA, because I got a B this semester when I didn’t.That makes me sound really smart, and well I do excel at school. I didn’t have an extremely hard schedule either. I don’t know if this really translates into smartness in stuff that matters.