Preliminary equipment test results

In response to the request made by Raised By Wolves in the comments section, we have a few thoughts about our equipment.

Bad:

• Rick's cheap light rain jacket was cheap and light, but not at all rain resistant. He is now using his old reliable, but heavier REI rain jacket.
• The alcohol stove was a bust for us. It took too long to heat water up and therefore used too much fuel. We are now happily back to our old faithful MSR Pocket Rocket, which we love.
• My shoes - sigh

Good:

• We studied ultra-light options. We got to light. Carrying less weight feels great.
• Big thumbs up for the light-weight, easy to put together Big Agnes Seedhouse 3 tent. We got the three person to have a little extra space and we're happy with that decision.
• We like our Go Lite Pinnacle packs so far. The torso of my pack may be a little short, but we're working on adjusting it. It may also be that I just need to build my back muscles. Every day the packs feel lighter (except when they are actually heavier, like when we've just filled up on food)
• We got rain covers for the packs which have worked very well for us so far. We heard that they do little good in a drenching downpour, but in regular rain they've been fantastic.
• We highly recommend Body Glide for frictiony body parts. I used this between my toes when recovering from the blisters, but it's very versatile for anywhere you get chafing. Hat tip to our friend Dave who is a long distance runner and recommended this to us.
• Also re: blisters Rick found some Dr. Scholl's toe tubes that are meant for corns but were the final solution for me and my blisters.
• Rick has long wanted to try a method for soaking long cooking soups and beans that we've found really works. We put the soakables in a zip lock bag with water, then stuff the bag in a Nalgene bottle. By the end of a day and half, or even a day, we just heat and serve.
• I love my kindle