Are we potential 2012 hikers?

It was a gorgeous warm spring day today. Good for hiking. There were hot breezes in the sun and cool breezes in the shady canyons. The ceanothus was in bloom filling the air with fragrance. The Man and I hiked up to the top of the mountains and back down again.

Along the way we made crazy schemes up for hiking the PCT. I thought of doing it as a tag team. While one is hiking Section A, the other is driving the car up to the end of Section A, enjoying some rest, getting supplies ready, doing trail angeling. When the other arrives at the end of Section A, they switch. Now the one who did Section A gets to rest, resupply, do trail angeling while the other hikes Section B. Keep going like that slowly up the trail, making forward progress at about the same pace as regular thru-hikers. Repeat the following year so you get to do the sections you didn't do the previous year.

The Man thought it would be better to leap-frog up the trail. While one person is hiking Section A, the other has driven the car up to the end of Section A and is hiking Section B. When the first person gets to the end of Section A, they take the car up to the end of Section B and start hiking Section C. That way forward progress is made at the pace of two sections at once. Since we'd get to the Sierras too soon, we'd turn around at Kennedy Meadows and hike back to the border letting each other do the sections we each didn't do the first time.

I liked my idea better because then we could bring the birds with us and not have to pay for expensive boarding. He liked his idea better. I don't really care either way because it's all just crazy talk.

Or is it? He said in 2012 he will turn 62 and be old enough to retire. He could quit his job to hike the PCT and if he didn't find another job when he got back, he could take early Social Security and retire right then and there. Wow, could we really be hiking the PCT in 2012?

Almost ready to go

I think I've got all my resupply boxes packed.

• I have one for Hikertown with food to get me to Tehachapi.
• There's one for Tehachapi. Even though there is a store, I have odds and ends to supplement what I can buy there.
• I'm sending one to Kennedy Meadows that includes new shoes, my tent and a bear can.
• I'm sending one to Lone Pine that has food for the stretch from Tuolumne Meadows to South Lake Tahoe. I can opt to forward the Lone Pine box to Tuolumne Meadows or have a go at the High Sierra again. Either way, I'll have to supplement it with stuff bought from Lone Pine.
• Then I have a big box to send to my mom's house of all my leftover food, the giant containers of Muscle Milk Tony bought me and some other odds and ends that I'll divvy up for Oregon and Washington when I get there.
• Additionally, I have two boxes with fresh shoes. I'll just ask Tony to send those to me when it looks like I'm going to need new shoes. Hopefully that will be roughly Ashland and Cascade Locks. Whatever is the logical start point of those two states.
  

I'm currently listening to my music library of Irish tunes while I study for my final exams next week. Every time I hear a good tune that I think I can learn, I'm looking up the music on thesession.org. If the sheet music is any good, then I'm copying it to a file that I'll print out to bring with me so I can practice some new tunes. I'm also including a list of all the tunes I already know with a few opening ABCs for the ones I tend to forget. Maybe this time I won't get stuck playing the same small batch of tunes over and over again because I forgot what I know.

I think the last things to take care of are these:

1. Print mailing labels
2. Put initial packages in the mail
3. Leave a pile of packages for Tony
4. Edit my web site so that it'll embed my PCT blog posts
5. Go

Being real

I just read this paragraph on someone's blog:

I want to ride the physical world out of vertical achievement. I love the material plane. I love being a body. I want to live ten thousand more lives. I want to smell the decaying leaves in fall and feel the sting of rain on my face and hear distant thunder and eat pancakes and walk in hot sand and lie in the sun, and sneeze and bleed and sweat and shit and fuck.

Instead I find myself in a climate-controlled building focusing my attention on the rules for transfer of information that keeps us all in climate-controlled buildings focusing our attention on the rules for transfer of information...

I think this is why I hike the PCT. To be real and physical.

The days are counting down. It's almost time to go be real for a while.

I just realized I packed a whole bunch of a certain item for lunch and have not ever tasted it to see if it's any good. I am going to have it for lunch today. Tony and I did a pudding test last night. We made pudding with powdered milk and freeze-dried raspberries. I learned that you have to let it sit a lot longer than 5 minutes so the raspberries have a chance to soften.

(Update: The item is tasty. It's dried lentil soup prepared by adding water and letting it sit in the sun for a little while. Eat with chips, pita chips, crackers or tortillas and a touch of olive oil.)

I have to admit that I'm not completely ready with my resupply preparations. What I mean is, I haven't completely thought through some of it. And my bounce bucket has too much stuff in it. I need to think that through, too. I'm really putting things off to the very last minute, aren't I?

Alternate route

All the trails above Santa Barbara are closed because of the Jesusita Fire. Someone has even managed to close all the trails that aren't officially closed. I started to worry that if they don't open the trails in a week and a half, I'll have no way to begin my hike to the PCT.

So I got to thinking. I remembered that one day Tony and I were hiking one of our trails and noticed a small new trail had been cut as an offshoot of the main trail. We decided to follow it and ended up on a road with a water tank. So I went online to Google maps and found the offshoot trail and the road with the water tank. I figured I could walk up that road and sneak onto the trail. Unfortunately, that road appears to be a private road that goes closely by several rich people's homes. No doubt they would call the cops on me with my backpack and all.

So I panned the map around and found another road with a trail I have never seen before that leads to a trail that I recognize. Another secret trail sparing the rich from having to drive to the trailhead! This one isn't as close to the rich people's houses. I think I could sneak by quickly before anyone saw me.

So my route may change. I may spend a little more time winding around the front country trails of Santa Barbara in order to get my hike started. I'm not going to let the paranoid moneyed people prevent me from taking a walk in my public forest.

Water report for MY hike

Someone went out and did a hike on much of the trail I'm planning to do to get to the PCT. He sent me an awesome water and trail report. I feel so much better knowing what I'm in for and where to tank up on water and where to find it again. Having this info makes me feel raring to go.

It also cheers me that someone left a comment encouraging me onward. The saying is HYOH — hike your own hike — but sometimes it's a good feeling to know you're hiking for/with others in spirit.

Just two more weeks.

Restless worries

These last few weeks before I set off on the completion of my journey are proving to be difficult.

I'm quite bored. I feel a restlessness inside not so much for hitting the trail as for getting a job. I should be employed and productive, but I'm not. And what am I planning to do? Recreate. This seems irresponsible. Didn't I already have my chance at this? Haven't I recreated enough? Add to these feelings the meta-worry that maybe I will continue to feel this way while hiking thus jeopardizing my chance at completing the trail. And if I don't finish the trail, then what? Go on forever with a lingering, niggling unfinished goal, a dream unrealized?

I wish I was not such a worry wort. I must continue. I must finish.

Another year of paralyzing resupply decisions.

I feel a bit paralyzed creating my resupplies. I do not want to send a bunch of stuff from home to the trail. I want to buy as I go. But I have a lot of leftover food from last year I want to use up and a bunch of delicious new freeze-dried fruits and veggies to also use. And I have at least one place I will already be sending my bear canister, so I may as well send food. I'm having a hard time with this.

I think my start date will be May 24 or May 25.

May 24 is a Sunday. But it might be easier to say good-bye to Tony on May 25, which is a Monday.

Laces thought I ought not to take the bus in Santa Barbara to get to the trailhead. She thought I should walk the whole way through Santa Barbara. She's the proud owner of an imaginary ball of twine she unwound all the way from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Perhaps she's encouraging me to unwind my own ball of yarn.

Part of me feels I don't have what it takes to do that. Part of me thinks I'm not dreaming big enough and that's why I have decided to return. I am going to keep things open and let them unfold. Perhaps starting without the bus holds the possibility of things unfolding differently than they would if I did take the bus.

ADZPCTKO and a brief return to the trail

I attended the ADZPCTKO, otherwise known as the kick off, where 600 people gathered to send off this year's batch of thru hikers and attend workshops and have reunions with old friends. It was a very nice time. I enjoyed everything about it.

I am glad, however, that I did not attend kick off before my hike last year. I don't think my hike would have had the same inner quality of personal discovery if 600 people had be there at the beginning giving me advice and making it seem like a big party. I remember being surprised how many nice people I met on the way having expected the hike to be a solitary walk in the wilderness. The kick off would have taken away that pleasant surprise.

After the kick off, a group of us went to hike the section of trail southbound from Devil's Slide to Highway 74. In our group we had one section hiker (Tony TrailHacker), one thru from 2007 (Not A Moose), two thrus from 2008 (Cuddles and Laces), one from this year (Pi who I thought was Pie the whole time) and me.

We planned for an early start, but some in our group were late. We got a late start and drove to the highway to arrange our car shuttle. While hiding the key, one in our group wedged wood splinters deep into his thumb. So we drove to the hospital in Palm Springs.

He kept apologizing for ruining our hike, but we actually had a great time going to Palm Springs. We got to see parts of the trail (from afar) again, drive through Cabazon, share stories about the trail the whole way and finally, set up a tarp on the hospital lawn which was hugely entertaining.

After the thumb injury was taken care of, we drove back to Idyllwild and stayed at the campground. There were three thru hikers there and Tom from the Internet cafe at Kennedy Meadows cooked us some burgers and fish with wine. We had a nice time sharing stories.

Finally in the morning we packed up and headed for the trail. Our thumb injury person decided not to do the hike, so he drove our car down to the trailhead at Highway 74 for us, which saved us a huge amount of driving at the end. We appreciated this greatly because at the end of the hike, we ended up driving one person to Lake Morena and another to Pasadena anyway. Not having to clean up the car shuttle with a trip to Idyllwild meant we got home before midnight.

The hike itself was wonderful. We climbed up Devil's Slide and avoided having our permits checked by volunteer rangers. At the saddle we rested briefly and then stepped onto the PCT. Not A Moose exclaimed, "I'm home!" Yes, that's how it felt. I exclaimed, "It feels good to be back on the trail." It was really nice to be with people who know how this feels. I hoped Tony could see that I'm not so crazy after all. The trail is home when you have lived on it for so long. It's where we all want to be. None of us ever really stops thinking about it.

Shortly, the trail turned to snow and we walked on snow for several miles.

As always, the stories and hype about the snow was all lies. Yes, there was a lot of snow and yes some of it could be considered mildly treacherous, but even this big scaredy cat was never scared. All the anxiety I felt last year about the supposed dangerous ice axe-required conditions on Apache Peak simply never materialized. Laces, Cuddles and Not A Moose advise everyone to ignore all heavy-handed warnings about scary things on the trail. The boogy-man around the corner never appears. They should know since they finished the whole trail.

Did you hear that: The big scary boogy-man around the corner never appears! Ignore all dire warnings! Don't give up! Do not skip! You will be fine.

The trail was simply amazing. It was so beautiful. At one point Tony turned to me to say that this was prettier than the Sierras and so much closer to our home. He wants to plan a trip in the area again either with a friend of ours who has attempted a thru several times or with another friend of ours who needs to have his tendency for enormous pack weights punished out of him. Fuller Ridge ought to cure him.

While hiking from Devil's Slide to Highway 74, I felt like I got a good taste of the whole So Cal section of the trail. Just like how my Honey Burt's Bees lip balm fragrance brings back all the emotions and memories of my experience last year, the combination of the snow and high mountains, granitic boulders, long descents, ridge-walking, precipitous cliffs, lack of camping, cattle trough water sources, transition zones, ravine cha-cha and pointless switchbacks winding around to nowhere brought it all back. Wonderful!

We stopped for water at Tunnel spring, a lovely cattle trough with cold clear water that had a slightly sulfer smell. Aquamira took care of the taste.

While resting at the saddle above the spring, Laces asked how I was feeling about my coming hike. I admitted to questioning my commitment at times. And certainly I was questioning my fitness. These two days were a lot of work. I'm not in thru-hiker condition anymore. But I live in Santa Barbara and have spent time with people who have a lot of money. They can buy anything they want. I know that there is nothing in this world that they could buy and no place that they could fly to on their private jets that could make me happier than how I feel when I drink my fill of sulfery cattle water or find a sheltered, warm spot out of the cold wind. It's when hiking the trail that those small happinesses magnify. I feel like I've found the secret to happiness. The source of true wealth.

Going SoBo we met so many hikers on their way. The journey is still fresh and new for them. The energy and big smiles they all had were so infectious. You could feel it. The life-changing journey, the coming alive of following a dream was reflected in their eyes. No wonder so many people want to get involved in the trail even if they cannot hike it. They all want a taste of that radical aliveness.

Kickoff is coming up!

The PCT Kickoff is coming soon. I'm very enthused about going.

We'll be picking up Lenny and two other people on the way. First we will have to stop in Idyllwild, unless Lenny has gotten all the way to Cabazon. We'll pick Lenny up there. Then we'll have to swing by Scissors Crossing to pick up Rockstar and her friend. Then we'll drive to Lake Morena for the kickoff.

I offered to bring a barbecue grill. They wanted a gas grill so they could set the food to cooking without having to babysit the grill. They said they could use my non-gas grill if I don't mind babysitting it. Ok, so now I have a job.

We'll enjoy Friday and Saturday of the Kickoff. Then Sunday it's off to drop people back off at the trail, unless they've found other accommodations (maybe we can all trade rides around so our drop-offs are more convenient.)

Then Sunday afternoon Tony and I will park at Pines-to-Palms Highway and start a hike of the 30 miles of trail I missed last year due to a forest fire. We'll hike to Devil's Slide trail and then get a ride back to our car. Maybe we'll take a side trip to summit Mt. San Jacinto.

Hopefully I'll be back home by Tuesday night so I can go to my database class.

Tony took the entire week off. So maybe on Thursday he and I can go to the San Rafael and do another hike.

Meanwhile, I plan to hire my niece to take care of my birds. Tony's son worked great the first couple of times, and then didn't even show up the last time. One of my birds didn't eat for at least 1 whole day, maybe more. She had escaped her cage and spent the time in the bathroom. The vet weighed her and her weight was down. I hope my niece can handle the birds, especially big old Ariel.

Lots of fun coming up!

Revised Itinerary from Santa Barbara to the PCT

Many local people are interested in my big adventure of just getting to the PCT from Santa Barbara.

Finding a route to the PCT from Santa Barbara is not an easy thing to do. Trails in our area are not as well-maintained as the PCT. Often the trails are abandoned. There is no guide book and no data book. There is no water report. I have looked at maps, searched the Internet, emailed total strangers, gotten in contact with old acquaintances, and gotten advice from friends and strangers alike.

So, my revised route is going to be to this:

1. Romero Trail in Santa Barbara (bus #14 drops off 2 miles from trailhead) to the Divide Peak OHV trail at the crest.
2. Divide Peak OHV trail to Murietta Divide via the Monte Arrido trail.
3. Murrieta Canyon dirt road to Murietta Trail.
4. Murrieta Trail to the Ortega Motorcycle trail. Last water at Maple Camp on Murietta Trail.
5. Ortega Motorcycle trail to an unofficial trail traversing the Dry Lakes Ridge.
6. Dry Lakes Ridge trail to Highway 33.
7. Highway 33 to Middle Sespe Trailhead. Water available on Sespe Creek.
8. Middle Sespe Trail to Piedra Blanca.
9. Sespe Trail at Piedra Blanca to Johnston Trail (possible side trip to Willet Hot Springs!)
10. Johnston Trail, past Sespe Hot Springs (more hot springs!) to Little Mutau Creek Trail.
11. Little Mutau Creek Trail to dirt road near McDonald Peak. Long dry stretch (10-12 miles minimum) between Little Mutau Creek and Buck Creek.
12. Dirt Road becomes trail on way to Sewart Mountain, and then turns on to Buck Creek Trail. I hope I can find the turn.
13. Buck Creek Trail to Hardluck Camp. Water available.
14. Road at Hardluck Camp to Los Alamos Campground. Campground host available.
15. Shortcut cross-country across creek to Hungry Valley Rd.
16. Hungry Valley Rd and frontage roads along I5 to Highway 138.
17. Highway 138 to Oakdale Rd.
18. Oakdale Rd. to where the PCT crosses (Databook says the name of the road is Pine Mountain Rd. Topo says Oakdale. Same road.)

The Oakdale choice adds about 5.5 extra miles vs staying on Highway 138 all the way to Hikertown. But it will be a lower speed road, more scenic and there will be water nearby at the PCT. I will feel safer not walking along Highway 138 for as long a distance.

Mileage taking the Oakdale/Pine Mountain detour will be 6.5 miles along road plus 8 miles to Hikertown. Staying on 138 it is 8 miles straight to Hikertown from the junction with Oakdale/Pine Mountain Rd. It is a lot of extra miles but I think it will be worth it to feel safer. I can always change my mind once I am out there, too.

I'm still debating leaving a crappy bike hidden in the bushes near Hardluck. I've got one. It could be the reason the Universe allowed me to find it. It's just good enough to ride but not good enough for me to want to keep forever.

Trailjournals

I started a Trailjournals journal for my PCT hike. I'm realizing now that it won't be as good as posting my updates here. When I post them here, I can set it up so that the system automatically emails the post to my mother. Trailjournals lacks those sorts of features.

Also, I was able to show my posts from here on my other web site last year using a PHP script. The HTML that blogger creates is well-formed. The HTML that Trailjournals produces is circa 1997 tag soup. There is no way to style the dates or headings because there are none. Just HTML attributes and font tags. It's a mess. I can still embed it, but it is sucky.

I wish I hadn't started the Trailjournals journal now. I will have to post my entries in both places in order to have all the features I want.

Sun glasses and indecision

I got some Sport Eyz sunglasses. They are just plastic with some foam padding and a cord with a cord lock. No frames. They seem pretty good. Best thing is I can wear my reading glasses underneath. The problem is how to carry them. I can't just fold them and stuff them in a pocket or prop them on my head. They fit rolled up in a small container I have. They come rolled up in an even smaller container, but it seems too small to put them in there again.

I'm having a hard time making up my mind about part of my trip to hike to the PCT from Santa Barbara. A friend of mine suggests hiking through Alder Creek and up Piru Creek. It looks like such a long way. And I've heard that Alder Creek trail is pretty much not there anymore. It would be so exhausting. But then I'd be south of Pyramid Lake and able to hike up Fish Canyon from there after a long roadwalk. Meanwhile, I'm thinking I bet I could find that darn Bailey Trail and accomplish the same thing--getting to the south end of Pyramid Lake and thus to Fish Canyon. If I couldn't find the Bailey Trail, then I could always hike out to Hardluck and then follow all those long roads, hiking frontage roads and then Highway 138 all the way to Hikertown. Not appealing, but at least I can find the way.

I don't know what I should do. Attempt finding a trail that's been abandoned, a trail that Tony and I could barely see on our preview, but was indeed there, a trail that is visible on Google maps satellite view. Or, hike along a river that would get my feet wet and have me climbing over rocks and boulders without a trail for over 10 miles, the only chance to change my mind being to hike whatever progress I made forward in reverse, something I am sure I would be loathe to do. Do they release water from Pyramid Lake into Piru creek? Would I be flooded out while I was trying to sleep?

And I haven't even seen Fish Canyon. But my friend says he's hiked it many times, so it must be ok.

I'm leaning toward finding the Bailey trail through sheer determination. After finding trails all last week, I think I've gotten pretty good at it.

I wish it was time to go. I need a job, something to do!

Stick Pic

I made myself a homemade Stick Pic, a little doodad to attach to the end of my trekking pole and screw into my camera tripod mount in order to take pictures of myself. I made it from 1/2" adjustable clips intended to hold wire bundles together. Seems to work ok.

I drilled a hole through the plastic in the center of the clipping part and through the wall mount. This was not easy as it was hard to hold the thing while I drilled it. Then I screwed in a set screw. I wonder, as I screw the camera into it each time, if I'll end up driving the set screw further and further into the plastic. Time will tell.

I don't know how long it will last, but I can make a few and put the extras in my bounce box.

Meanwhile, two more pairs of shoes have arrived. I have 4 pair now.

New shoes

I've ordered two more pairs of Brooks Cascadia II shoes. They are closeouts. I'm going to be very happy to have them. Once they arrive I will have 3 brand new pairs of them and one used pair. I hope this will see me through the PCT. I used them on the Sisquoc last week and was in love with them. The perfect shoe for me.

Yesterday when I went to my class I found myself walking down the stairs the same way I walked down the hills on my hike. Knees bent, hips low, fast walking. Fast walking everywhere. I don't know if it's the vitamins I have been taking or I'm still enjoying the power of the pork products I consumed on my last night on the Sisquoc, but man I feel so healthy and strong lately.

I just received my PCT2008 video in the mail. It made me so homesick and so excited and so sad for all the wonderful friends I made and don't even know their real names. I can't wait to get back out there. Hiking the PCT is The Right Thing To Do.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my database and Unix classes. I really like computers. I like it when they get into the complicated stuff, the ones and zeros, the bits and bytes. I wish I was smarter and could understand it better, but I enjoy it anyway. When I return from the PCT I want to continue studying databases. It feels like another right thing to do. There's creativity in computers. I wish I had known that when I was young.

I'm back and feeling creative

I spent 9 days hiking the Sisquoc in the Los Padres forest last week. It was wonderful. I feel so energized for hiking again.

I spent some effort on food, testing some recipes from the One Pan Wonders web site. As is typical of me, I barely followed the recipes. Part of the reason was that I had to split up my food at the last minute because Tony was going to carry some of my food in to me around day 5. I ended up changing the ingredients around a little bit to do that. In any case, the food came out delicious. I felt well-nourished. Let's hear it for the power of pork products!

Today I made some gear for myself. I made a pot lid and a windscreen from aluminum cookie sheets. They came out well. I hope the lid is sturdy enough to survive mistreatment inside my pack. I'm hoping to save a little weight with it.

I also went shopping at the thrift store looking for new hiking clothes. I've torn up my hiking pants hiking in the Los Padres. I found a pair of almost white Royal Robbins ladies convertible pants. They are ok, but the zipper is on the side. I bought them anyway because I figured the price was good. I also found a pair of Gramici nylon pants. They are very large, but they are blue and it's nice to have a little color to wear now and then. They lack zippered pockets, but I think I can manage with them in our backcountry.

I found a really nice hiking shirt there, but it was a men's XXL. People are so fat now you can't find any clothes to fit. Yesterday I shopped at three different stores and could only find one pair of mens size small pants. I would have bought them but I would not be able to hem them because there were zippers at the bottom of the pant legs. For pants that cost $70 I would like to be able to hem them.

One other thing I bought was a boys jacket with a hood. I only wanted the hood. I'll have to give away the jacket. The hood feels really warm. I can wear it while I sleep in my quilt when it is cold like it was this past week on the Sisquoc.

Finally, I bought a cheap backpack and cut the back pad out to slip in to my G4 backpack in the back pad pocket. I don't like putting my sleeping pad in there. This back pad will serve as my sit pad and hopefully help keep my back a little cooler. The G4 is a little hot because the area of my back that it presses against is very large.

When it comes to gear and backpacking, my natural creativity is so much more amplified. In regular life, people think I'm somewhat creative, but I don't think I am.

Guide book

I went through my torn up guide books and put the pages back in order. I seem to be missing one page from the area around Ash Camp in Northern California. I have two N. Cal guide books, but I hate to tear up the other one just for that page. I guess I will xerox it.

As I put the pages back in order I felt overwhelmed at the effort of getting ready once again.

Poof. I'm unemployed.

Just like that it's all over. I walked in to work today with about 20 minutes of tape left to analyze. After 5 hours, I marked my last whale and that was it. No more job.

Now my job is to hike every day. I may also run.

I plotted on the google maps satellite view some of the trail I may do on my walk from Santa Barbara to the PCT. This weekend Tony and I will go out and examine the area to get a better sense.

Approved

They are letting me hike the PCT again and they're letting me into Canada. Thank goodness I'm still worthy of Canada.

I have my permits. I have my gear. I'm all set except for the resupply issue. I suppose I should think about that a little bit.

Mostly I'll just wing it, but I need to plan out the resupply for the beginning and maybe take some notes about Oregon and Washington so I'm not completely in the dark.

Next weekend Tony and I are going to preview the area where my proposed route meets the PCT, around Pyramid Lake and I5. A friend of mine suggested hiking more toward highway 138. He seemed to think that I could walk comfortably along the road, or that there might be a trail near the road. Perhaps there's something leading to Pine Mountain Road. Tony and I will try to check it out.

Shelter for the PCT

Trying to figure out which shelter/rain gear system is the best for me this year. Basically my choices are to use a tent and an umbrella, a large tarp and an umbrella or a small poncho with a bivy sack and no umbrella. All these systems also make use of my Houdini windshirt, which is not capable of keeping you dry in a downpour, yet has kept me dry riding my Vespa on rainy days in Santa Barbara.

Here's the weight breakdown. Looks like the poncho system wins on weight. The guy lines couldn't possibly make up for the weight of the other options. It is, however, less luxurious in the rain. Fortunately the PCT doesn't experience a lot of rain. I suppose I could toss the 8x10 tarp into my gear for Washington where it's likely to be the rainiest. Having some extra space when you're hunkered down against the rain would be nice.

None of these includes seam sealing weight.

Shelter/Rain Gear

Option 1
The One tent	16 oz
Houdini windshirt (not waterproof)	4 oz
umbrella	10 oz
+A16 Bug Net as an extra	6 oz
Total:	36 oz
Option 2
8x10 tarp	14 oz
guy lines	?
A16 Bug Net	6 oz
Houdini windshirt (not waterproof)	4 oz
umbrella	10 oz
Total:	34 oz + guy lines
Option 3
Poncho tarp	10 oz
guy lines	?
A16 Bug Net	6 oz
Houdini Windshirt (not waterproof)	4 oz
Equinox bivy sack	6.5 oz
Total:	26.5 oz + guy lines

It pleases me the poncho system is the lightest. A goal I have for this year's hike is to be closer to the natural world, to sleep more outdoors. Another goal is to lessen my pack weight. The poncho system does both!

Here's another way to look at this:

Pros and cons

	Generous shelter in rain	Generous shelter against mosquitos	Sun protection	Option to sleep outside
Option 1: The tent option, 36 oz	x	x	x	x
Option 2: The tarp option, 34 oz	xx		x	x
Option 3: The poncho option, 26.5 oz				x

So the question is, with a half pound to 3/4 pound advantage in weight over the tent system, is the relative deprivation of the poncho worth it? Will its advantages make up for the disadvantages?

Since I did not outline the advantages of the poncho, here they are. These are advantages the poncho system has that the others do not:

1. Campsite selection requires less space
2. Half a pound or more less weight
3. Quicker to put up and take down
4. Closest to nature
5. Ultralight chic