I lingered in bed this morning. Partly because it’s cold outside the tent and warm inside my blankets. But also I just didn’t feel like moving. I wish it were still bright early in the morning. It’s hard to get up when it’s still dark. It doesn’t feel natural.
I’ve not felt very focused today. I did get my workout done in the morning before breakfast. I did walk to the mailbox before that. I had a shower and ate breakfast. I worked.
During breaks, I worked on packing up for the travel days and the backpacking trip. I’ve been gathering most of my backpacking gear since I unpacked from the last trip, so it was mostly in one spot.
After work, I ate dinner and then it was time for family zoom. I did dishes and then repackaged all my food during the call. I’ll admit, the dishes were waiting for the zoom to get done. I can sometimes self-motivate to do dishes, but it is so much easier to do them when I’m on a zoom with my family.
I was curious how much weight I was saving by switching to baggies. For the dinners, I’m saving about 12 grams per meal, a little less for the lunches because I use smaller bags for those. Still, that’s over an ounce and a half. Every little bit helps.
After the call I got to packing the pack. I knew it would be heavier for this trip because I’ve got more food to carry and I’m bringing the bear spray. I may or may not actually pack the bear spray out. I haven’t decided yet. But I’ll have it if I want to bring it. The pack is quite full, and weighed in at 32.6 pounds. Heavy, but not the heaviest I’ve carried. And it will get lighter and lighter the more I eat.
While I was packing, I realized I didn’t know where my knife and whistle were. I know I had them when I hiked Pueblo Summit at the end of July. I’m pretty sure they made it home in the car in the cup holder. But I can’t think of where I put them when I got home. They’re hooked to a carabiner, so they’re a unit. I’ve been meaning to replace the knife, but the whistle is one that Ambrose had before I met him. Super loud, has a mini compass and a thermometer built in. I cried thinking that I might have accidentally thrown them away or lost them somehow. But if the whistle is gone, then it’s gone. I’ll get a new one, and the new one will remind me of Ambrose because I had to get it to replace the old one.
I think I have another whistle somewhere in the gear box, but I don’t like it enough to go looking for it. I’d rather buy a new one. Hopefully I can find one up in Moscow tomorrow. Along with a knife – though I don’t have any anticipation of having trouble finding one of those.
This is going to be a good trip. I’ll have to work hard every day. I’m planning on doing something different with my note taking. Instead of writing at my breaks, I’m only going to write in the evening at camp. Maybe at lunch. For breaks, I’m planning on doing a video and doing verbal notes after each break as I hike on. I think that will reduce the amount of time that I spend at each break, which will help me get more miles in the day.
A few weeks ago, I bought a powered scrub brush to clean my bathroom with. This evening, I finally used it to scrub my tub and shower. It seems to work quite nicely, but it also sounds kind of like the dental assistant doing a polish on my teeth. A bit squicky. Still, it’s better than bending over the tub to scrub. I might just make cleaning my bathtub a regular thing instead of something that I only do when I want to take a bath and the tub seems grody.
In the morning, I’ll be taking down my yard tent. I’ll put it back up when I get back, but I don’t want to leave it up while I’m out of town. Outside sleep tonight, inside tomorrow, then outside again, but in the little tent.