The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts

And it's making me crazy!

After spending the winter going over my gear list, measuring items to make sure I had the right weights, and stuffing it all in a big tub, my spreadsheet said my kit would be 15 lbs base weight!

Oh blissful Nirvana! With 4 days of food and a liter of water, I'd start out with a comfortable 25 lbs on my back!

So, with a week to go before hitting the trail, I packed my bag w/o food or water, put it on, and got on the bathroom scale.  Together we weighed 217.4 lbs, and alone I weighed 197.8 (ugh). Subtracting the latter from the former yielded 19.6 lbs. Yikes! The whole was greater than the sum of the parts by 4.6 lbs!

Where did that 4.6 lbs come from?

628 Miles To Go ...

Next week I'll start the final leg of my Appalachian Trail section hike. I'm meeting Blue Jay in upstate New York, and we'll drive up to the trail crossing near Manchester, VT where I got off in 2012. From there we'll hike south to the Connecticut border where we'll likely part company. I'll then continue to Harper's Ferry for the big finish.

We may be doing some kind of car cross where he drops me off, drives south to the next road crossing, hikes north until we meet, hands me the keys, and then I'll drive up to pick him up when I get to the car. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

On becoming a 99.968% pure, flip-flop, flip-flopping, blue-blazing, slack-packing, long-assed section hiker!

Before I started my hike I had logged way too many hours on WhiteBlaze.net, and knew I was gonna be a Purist!* Well mostly pure. I mean, I wasn't quite so anal that when I hitched into town from the south side of the road, then hitched back and got out of the car on the north side, that I'd feel compelled to walk back across the street to the south side to put on my pack and walk back to the north side so as not to miss 30 ft of "trail." If faced with a downed tree blocking the trail, I wouldn't push my foot under the tree as far as I could, then walk around the tree and push my foot in to touch the other footprint like some whose puriosity was decidedly greater than mine.

But I'd take the same trail out of a shelter area as the one I took in. I'd never blue-blaze*, never slack-pack*. I'd always leave my campsite better than I found it. And like any good purist, I'd loath yellow blazers*.

My New Bug Suit

Back when I was first planning my AT hike, I outlined my completely rational fear of Ixodes scapularis - aka the Deer Tick, aka the Black Legged Tick - The most common vector for Lyme disease. I had explored various strategies to avoid having those nasty hitchhikers latch on to me, and decided to use a combination of deet, and clothing treated with permethrin by Insect Shield. Such clothing protects one from insects thru 70 washings, vice do-it-yourself treatments which last 2-6 weeks, and 6 launderings.

Several major manufacturers of outdoor clothing offer such clothing, but I couldn't find any at my local outfitters. I turned to online vendors, and I outfitted myself with an ExOfficio Bugs-away Halo shirt and a pair of Columbia Bug Shield Cargo Pants - Both utilized Insect Shield treatment. I wore those thru several sections of the AT and experienced no ticks, nor any mosquito bites on areas covered by the fabric. I did have a tick latch on to my sock and crawl down inside.

I hadn't heard of Insect Shield treated socks ...