The Cats

I have been struggling mightily with the fact that I will be leaving my cats alone while I go off, traipsing about the countryside. They were to be cared for by one of my land mates but still, it isn't the same as having someone living here, with a lap and all.

Two things happened yesterday. First I went into a local pet store to buy a cat box scooper-outer. Cheap- two bucks. I am embarrassed to say that I left the store with the scooper, as well as a cat tree.

Now, I have been a cat owner for most of the last 30 years. During these decades I have declined to buy my cats one of these contraptions, mostly on the grounds of cost - they are expensive! But yesterday I was filled with... what? Remorse? Guilt? I don't know but by the time I checked out I found myself buying the biggest, ugliest cat tree I could find. The cats love it!

Additionally, I just found out I will have a cat sitter for the five or six months I will be gone. The relief I feel cannot  be overstated. This is a good situation for me, the cats and my new cat sitter. Everyone gets their needs met and I have less to worry about. There is such a thing as trail magic! Even before I hit the trail.

Chance, on top.

Mono pod making

This photography thing has been a struggle for me lately. I have been trying to make this iPhone do everything I need, but the process has been making me sort-of crazy. In this vein I have decided to try and make one of my walking sticks into a mono pod. This helps me hold the phone/camera steady while I am being creative and hopefully, interesting in my image production.

So here is the process

First I drilled a small hole all the way through to the shaft below. Second I drilled a larger hole in the top of the grip to give the epoxy a good place to fill, and hopefully hold.

Then I took a bit of wood and drilled a hole, epoxying the rod into it. The black tape is to protect the threads.

I pushed the wood (and the screw) up into the grip from beneath and made it ready to epoxy in place.

So there we have it. Threads I can screw my phone/camera onto, making a steady holder for the beast. I added the wing nut to protect the threads and the small string to make it harder to lose the nut when not on the top. This added .4 ounces to one of my walking sticks.

I'm satisfied.

party time and fund raising

Hi all. I just experienced the greatest day. Angela and friends put together a going away party for me and a fund raiser for the City of Hope. Today we raised more than $650 buck-a-roonies for the City of Hope, in honor of my friends Lisa and Chris. Great people, sun, no rain, good food and times. How much better can it get? Here's a photo of the green stuff... checks underneath!

All thanks to my generous friends!

Geek factor rising

Here is a silly video I took while doing a training hike this morning. Note the glasses... when a friend saw them he asked if I was going off to play racquetball... pah! For this trip I decided to get some Bucci frames and put my prescription in, with transition lenses... one pair of glasses rather than two. It does look a bit geeky though ;-)  Fortunately, I care not!

I found them!

Ever since Backpacking Light, the website, closed it's product line I have been looking for the perfect small sized containers for backpacking. I could find them online but the cost per piece and for shipping made them silly expensive. I went to the local health food stores and backpacking shops, to no avail. Yesterday I dropped into the local artist supply store and found these little containers that hold no more than .5 oz. Twelve for 3 bucks! Love it!

It's the simple things....

New pack (almost) done!

Is anything ever done, as in complete? I doesn't seem so. At any rate, this pack is done, expect for the sternum strap... somehow I lost the hardware for this pack. Never mind. Remind me though, if I start talking about making another pack, just what a pain in the arse it is! Geeze.

It probably took me 30 hours to get this far... not really the time to do this when I'm trying to get ready to hike the PCT. Much more important stuff to do. The weight, without the sternum strap? 16.1 ounces. Not too shabby - Woohoo!!!

Back of pack with sit pad in its sleeve

Side of pack

Front of pack

Roll top with Y strap that goes over the top.













What made this pack more complicated to make was using a pre-made aluminum stay on the inside back of the pack. This meant I had to figure out how to make a channel for the stay to slip into without it slipping back out again, as well as figuring out where to put it. Plus adding in the sit pad sleeve made the whole thing much more time consuming. Lots of sit'in and stare'in on my part on this one. A challenge though!

Newbie Anxiety

The silliest stuff keeps me awake these days. Should I send shampoo to myself along the way or leave the shampoo gods in charge of my cleanliness? If I weren't such a doily I might be willing to do that but, unfortunately I can't stand the smell of most shampoos. My friends have been kind to me and have given me containers of stuff received at motels along the way. I have been airing out a bunch of these, perfectly sized (1 oz) containers but after one week outside, they still stink.

Recently A and I went over the hill to San Jose and visited a teacher supply place, with lots of good stuff for teaching and other educational adventures. I found some bottles, perfect in that they are unused but not-so-perfect in that the volume is probably four ounces, four times what I need at each resupply spot. What to do? Carry extra liquids for a few weeks in order to accommodate my olfactory problems, biting the bullet to make each shower sublime?

I vote for sublime.... plus, bears won't smell anything perfumy sweet in my vicinity. Mostly just hiker stank.