End of month-long vacation

[javacat]

I got home around 10:30 PM last night. It's nice being home, but also a little sad, because it means my Big Trip is over. I haven't fully unpacked the car yet, the car that is covered with dead bugs from driving down the northern part of the Calif. Central Valley at night.

My trip started with two weeks of backpacking, followed by a week of car camping on my own, a week of camping with a friend that turned into a week of hoteling, since it kept raining at night and early morning along the Oregon coast), and a week of staying either with friends at their house or at a rental house or meeting up with a third person for more camping.

Things I want to list or write more about - list for later.
Places and dates I was there.
The high fives: equipment All Stars.
People I met. Reminders to contact some of them.
Books - Aron Ralston's was fantastic, and I really honestly think that everyone should read Temple Grandin's "Animals Make Us Human," for all the science reportage on how human and animal brains work and scientific insight into how animals think.

Equipment All Stars.

• Petzl headlamp with multiple setting, using 3 batteries.
• Shock-absorbing hiking poles. These were required by the backpacking organizers, and I was surprised by how helpful they were both up and down hills while backpacking. It tightened up my arms also.
• Free backpack pouch, the kind that's a rectangle of fabric with some pull-cord straps. I used this every day - as the container for my personal bear-hang things on the backpacking trip (toothpaste, my trail mix, etc., e.g., anything that you have to take out of your pack and add to the nightly bear hang.) I used it nearly every day.  I pulled out my proper knapsack once and quickly abandoned it as being too bulky. It was just big enough for a shirt, book, keys, and a few other odds and end.  It was comfy, it stowed in next to no space, and I was amazed at how much I loved it and used it. 
• Thermarest Camp Rest, tho' I've known for years that it's the only way to go. I was always insulated from the ground and always comfy in my tent, even in rainstorms.
• I picked up two new used tents at the REI equipment sale I stumbled up just days before departure date, and really like them both, but especially the smaller REI Camp Plus  it is so easy to put up and take down. The bigger tent is nearly all mesh with a tight and low rain fly shell and it kept us surprisingly warm in the rain in Corvalis. I'd thought the heat loss would be much more than a standard tent, but no. 
• LLBean shirts.I should just link to these, huh. Maybe later. 

Having electricity, Internet, and tv is keeping up too late. I'm going to bed, try to keep to a normal schedule and write more later.

Comments

[cofax7]

Sounds like a great trip! I'm glad you had fun, and thanks so much for the note! And the doohickies!