Just for fun I thought I would try packing my gear into the book bag I used to use in college. It was a giant LL Bean Super Deluxe book bag. When full, it sticks out about a foot from your back. I got teased a lot, but since I commuted to school on a scooter from my house in the mountains, I had to carry around rain gear and jackets and needed all that space to store them, in addition to my books. It holds something like 2200 cubic inches.

My gear fits in there with room to spare for food. Theoretically, I could go backpacking with just my book bag. I would try it except that the zipper is broken, thanks to my parrot who gnawed on it. I can zip it, but every now and then it splits open. That is not something you want to have happen when you're backpacking.

The problem with going ultralight with gear is that eventually you have honed your gear down so low that not only is it light, it's small, too.

I put all my gear back into my Osprey backpack. It all clumps down at the bottom of the pack in a big lump. There are limp and lifeless pockets everywhere. I suppose it won't hurt to have a big pack with little inside. It offends my hiker-chic sensibilities. This is silly. Fashion should not matter. Maybe I'll try my old external frame pack next.

Backpacking over Prez Day

I'm going backpacking over Prez Day weekend. I hope to god it does not rain! I really want to go.

I'm so excited to be going, I just packed my stuff. I wanted to see how much my gear weighs. I'll be hiking with a local ultralight guru and I don't want to be laughed at.

I am missing my rain pants and my bivy sack since they have not yet come in the mail. But I packed my two-person tarp and bug bivy and all the rest of my gear, minus food and water. I weighed it on the bathroom scale. It's about 14lbs. Not bad, considering that 4lbs of that is my backpack.

I have asked Tony for a Gossamer Gear pack for my birthday. They are on sale. Then my pack weight will be even lower. My Osprey pack is really nice, but now that I've gotten the quantity of stuff I down to a tiny minimum, the pack is too big.

Yesterday I made an attempt to salvage my old Jannd pack. I weighed it on the bathroom scale with all my stuff in it. Only 12lbs, but the 12lbs feel awful. The problem I had hiking the PCT was never the weight of the water. It was the poor fit of the pack. It just doesn't ride right on me. No amount of ultralight will help.

I have too many sleep systems. I have a tarp, bivy, bug bivy and tent. But I want a choice to sleep outside or inside. Part of the fun of camping is the camping part and I want to make the most of it and be able to cowboy camp if I want, bugs or no.

Big luxury in my pack: sun shower. My plan for the PCT is to spend less time in hotels. Now that I'm poor, hobo showers and stealth camping will be my new way of life. I'll test it out on Prez Day. A quick shower at the end of the day might improve warmth when I sleep, too.

My two classes

So I'm whiling away the months until my hike can begin again by taking classes at City College. I have a database class and a Unix class.

I know only a little about databases. Just whatever I've been able to figure out when asked to do something for a job. My class is exactly what I need. At the end of the class I'll know how to design a database and understand all the issues you have consider to design a database correctly. I'll know SQL.

The teacher is a hoot. He's funny and passionate about the subject. He reminds me of Karl Halbach, my geology teacher when I first started City College in the 80s. He was so passionate about geology that you couldn't help loving the subject. I ended up majoring in it.

My other class is just an introduction to Unix. We'll learn the utilities. That's perfect. I know only what I've been shown to get a job done and only what else I've figured out on my own. I know enough to be dangerous.

It's nice to be around people all excited about computer engineering and programming again. It reminds me why I enjoyed this field. I wish I was a computer programmer.

Maybe taking these classes is a good thing. Maybe I should take more time and do it. Get a solid education in programming.

How to make the money last so I can do it?