Gear Talk

Serenity Bug Shelter and Grace Solo Tarp from MLD

I just purchased this bad boy to be my companion for the duration of my trip!  Like I said previously, the idea of a tarp tent really makes me happy.  There are a lot of things I like about sleeping in a traditional tent, like the security and coziness, but there are a lot of things I'd like to get away from like the condensation, the stifling feeling, not seeing the stars, no breeze when the weather isn't nice, and lots of poles.  Oh and weight.  The tent I got way early on was a bit of an over excited decision and resulted in a lovely 2 person tent that weighs almost 5 lbs.  This practical little guy, made for one, weighs a total of 24oz!  1.5 lbs!  I just saved myself pounds of weight to carry around for 4-5 months.  Go me.

I also mentioned before that the idea of being a bit more exposed scares me in a good way.  I feel like it will definitely be a challenge to get used to it, but the rewards will be worth it!  Also, to work a tarp tent you have to be a lot more aware of the weather and manipulating it according to the winds, which you don't have to consider AS much in a traditional tent.  I also have a smaller pack this time around and so need to save space.  This guy gets REAL small.  No poles either, just my trekking poles.

Gregory J38

This is the pack I have right now.  I also have my old pack that I used in Yellowstone (21 days), The Bitter Roots of Idaho (30 days), and Alaska (40 days), but it's quite the monster, and rather beaten up.  Oh it did get a trip to Europe with my best friend Sarah who hiked the Camino de Santiago.  I'm not ready to let go of hip belts, though a lot of ultra light backpackers are anti hip belt.  My legs are my powerhouses.  Have you seen my hips?  Hip belt all the way.  This Gregory, I might name it Greg, is 2 lbs 12 oz, which is light weight for sure.  I've seen some nice ultra lightweight packs that weigh in under a pound.  Just can't afford one of those yet.

At 2,320 cubic inches it is on the smaller end of a thru hiking pack, and frankly I don't think it's marketed as a thru hiking pack, but at this point it's either this one or my monster pack, also a Gregory Pack.  Considering some people thru hike using old mesh laundry bags or very typical nap sacks, I'm thinking this will be great.  It's been my city biking and produce delivery pack this winter.  Always surprises me how much it fits in there.

Ahnu Sugarpine

Merrill Barefoot

Salomon X-tour

One consistent thing I read regarding thru hiking is variety in footwear as well as lighter weight footwear.  I have some Merrill Barefoot sneakers, similar to the ones above that I know my feet enjoy a whole lot.  They are very aerated, which I haven't decided is a good thing or not in the New Mexico desert.  I'm going to go with a good thing and see how I fare.  Then I've got my Ahnu boots for snowy climates, which I'll have shipped in, and my Salomon's were a gift and will replace my Merrills when they die, which may be sooner than later.  I've been told I need about 5 pairs of shoes for my trip.  I'm gonna go for these 3 and pick up more along the way if I need them.

Dirty Girl Gaiters!

When I heard of Dirty Girl Gaiters, well, I was beside myself.  Obviously I wasn't going to settle for some boring black gaiters.  These have a great reputation and are lots of fun.  The amount of designs she has is astounding, and I ordered this galaxy awesomeness!  I'm sure they lose any semblance of color or design after not too long on the trail!

The MSR Whisperlite International from MooseJaw

ANDDDDD, this lovely stove.  We've been giving each other the eye since I decided to go on trail again, especially after my last big trip in Alaska.  We ran out of our White Gas and where we thought we could refuel, we could not!  they had not received any shipments!  So, stuck with minimal wood in the tundra, in 99.99999% rainy days, we had to eat mostly cold food for 3 weeks.  This stove can use Kerosene, unleaded gas, and white gas!  Yay!  It should be in the mail soon!  The fuel canisters cannot be flown out, so I need to buy some in Lordsberg, or put a bunch of stickers on the outside and put gatorade on the inside and pretend they're my drinking bottles.....

That's enough gear talk for today!  My life on trail is getting clearer and clearer. 3 more weeks!

How I'm Prepping

These days have been busy days.  In almost exactly one month, I will be stepping onto the dry, treeless expanse of the New Mexico desert.  I am feeling the time crunch to get all my things together.  I have a big presentation at the Bloomington REI tomorrow, Thursday, to talk about what I'm doing and why.  I'm really excited and hope lots of people can come and support.  Hopefully we'll get some people to join the donation train!

SO, what exactly AM I doing to plan these days?

• Dehydrating tons and tons of fresh veggies
• I don't want to have that low nutrient rich diet a lot of thru hikers subsist on, and I can't help myself.  I want to make delicious foods that I can share with any hikers I meet along the way
• Dehydrating tons of fresh fruits
• Think pineapples, apples, bananas, pears, raspberries, lemons, limes, oranges.  Some of the citrus has gotten blended up into a powder, while others are going to be kept to soak in my water bottles to add taste and vitamin C
• Making delicious dehydrated snacks as healthy treats
• Coconut macaroons, when dried are super light and quite calorie dense, great nutrition profile too.  Fruit leathers from apples, bananas, and raspberry puree.
• Making green powders from dried greens
• So far I haven't mastered making this taste very good....I think it's going to be a chugging in the morning sort of thing.  Just get some hardcore nutrients and anti-oxidants into my body
• Making/ putting together electrolyte drink powders
• Taste is off.  This is the dried citrus, blended with salt and powdered honey.  The piths threw off the taste.  I'll be mixing it with a more commercial electrolyte mix to even out the taste
• Researching last bits of equipment I will need to pick up before heading out, like an ice axe...
• I'm actually excited about that
• Dreaming about forgetting to bring shoes and waking up in a panic
• Or a compass, or enough clothes, or being in the wrong state
• Starting my route planning
• How many miles am I going to average.....?
• Getting addresses sorted out for the first leg of my journey
• Mail on trail is like the holy grail!

Packing Light

Source

As some of you know I have been reading Ray Jardine's Beyond Backpacking and it is pretty phenomenal.  I'm getting to the point in my planning where final decisions need to be made and my vision for my life on trail must come together.  At least in material.  So far, the most intriguing and inspiring change that I've been reading about is using a tarp instead of a tent.  I've always been a huge tent person, adamantly against the idea of being even MORE exposed in the dark of night than I already am.  BUT, suddenly this seems like a great idea.  If there is one thing Warren introduced me too from the start, in a good way, is pushing your boundaries of comfort.

I will never forget my first year at Camp as a 7/8 year old cubby, who I can openly admit was definitely spoiled and accustomed to the finer comforts of life.  The memory that sticks out to me and I think of every time I intentionally take a cold shower or have no hot water available, is on the last day when my extremely patient and amazing counselor, Charlie, insisted I shower in the Homaji basement, which were the only showers at the time for us.  I can only imagine what that meant about my hygiene levels because I definitely avoided showers.  It was right before parents were coming to pick us up, so, you know how it goes, we HAD to be clean.  The water would not warm up to a temperature I deemed hospitable and I threw a fit about it.  Also, have you seen the old Homaji basement.  Creepy place.  Not like it is now, beautiful.  Anyway, After a time Charlie's perseverance paid off and I showered.  I probably cried the whole time or something.  I think I cried a lot as a young camper.  Sorry and thank you amazing counselors of Warren!!!

So the point of that little trip down memory lane is that that was the first memory I have of a lesson that has become invaluable to me.  I took my first steps in learning that discomfort is not something to fight but something to accept.  Discomfort is part of the world, both in nature and in city life.  If you fight discomfort your entire life you'll be that crying cubby who smells bad and makes a well-intentioned counselor's day that much harder (think figuratively).  Accepting discomfort is an art and a practice in patience and perspective.  I've had SO many more lessons about accepting discomfort and learning about the happiness and peace that comes from that acceptance.  Like accepting the bugs at the Archery range allows you to rock the bow and arrow.  Or accepting the discomfort of standing on top of the Pamper Pole allows you the feeling of victory as you smack that buoy.  I can't say I ever accepted the cold of Half Moon Lake, opting out of the swim test every year or intentionally failing so I could get out more quickly, until I became a counselor.  I had to encourage those kids to accept discomfort and pass the swim test for their own future enjoyment and accomplishment.  Only then did I ever finish a swim test.

Source

Bringing this all back:  I want to sleep under a tarp.  I want to scare myself a little bit so that I can grow a little bit more and accept that exposure in order to connect more deeply with the earth.  I want to step away from my world of constant comfort and find comfort in lack.  So, I'm going to try that out!  I think it might change my life for the better.

Anyone here have experience with tarp camping?

Where is the time going?

It's hard to believe that in a little over 2 months I'll be on trail!  It has been a fair few years since I've had the opportunity to really book it with a pack on my back.  My last trip in the woods in a tent was honestly our OCC trip to Chapel Bluff when I returned to Warren 2 years ago.

As the winter keeps poking its icy finger in my ear, just to make me uncomfortable and be annoying, I get more and more excited to be in the desert in New Mexico, feeling the sun on my Chicago pale skin.  I'll be sure to be sunscreening heavily at the start because I can only imagine how harshly that UV will be to me this year.  Our summer in Chicago was almost entirely a long-sleeved summer, which means, even then, I did not have the opportunity to add some color or vitamin D to my life.

So what does it mean to be in New Mexico in April?  Welp, you may think that it'll just be hot, being the desert, but I'll be in the "high desert," at elevation, which means very cold nights and scorching days.  So, I'm keeping my pack extra light for this stretch and am going for running shoes, thicker bottomed because I have a fear of giant cactus spikes maiming me.

It's an amazing community so far.  I have been staling some blogs of people preparing and of people who have hiked the CDT in the past.  It's all coming so quickly!

The Next Steps

Teaching Yoga on Silha Porch with Grace Getchell

Welcome to the next chapter of the Portage to Camp story.  My name is Lia Allen and I was a camper and counselor for 12 years along with my brother, Khaled Allen, and my dad, many years ago, Charles Allen.  Let's just say that us Allens love us some Camp Warren.  You can find us still on a plaque on the riding arena.  Khaled and I were active members in the riding program and even worked the horse program when we got to be on staff.  When offered the opportunity to give back to camp, and specifically the riding program, we couldn't have been more excited to donate that riding pavilion.

I was probably 18 years old then. My contribution was more sheer excitement rather than actual donation. I'm now 26 and I want to give back in my own, more direct way.  Camp has been the one consistent part of my life since I was 7 years old.  My family moved A LOT during my childhood, but Warren was always there for me.  Even now, many years later, Camp has provided me with friends wherever I go, a community of amazing people who love and support each other, and opportunities to have adventures and grow.

When Ryan and Reid carried that canoe and pack all the way to Warren 2 years ago, I was pretty impressed that you could do something like that and people would help pay for kids to go to camp. Beyond impressed, I was thoroughly inspired! So why not extend the plan?  Why not make it my own? I'm more of a backpacker now than a canoer, but I want to help bring the magic of Warren to kids who might not be able to normally go.  The friendships, the open-minded community, the inspiration, the connection with nature, and all the amazing people and places should be accessible to kids who want to go and people should KNOW about it!

That consistent connection with nature allowed me to find so much more happiness, stability, and truth than I believe I ever would have found without it. And so, with that introduction, I'm publicly announcing the continuation of Portage to Camp through my trek across the Continental Divide Trail.  It's a 2,600-3,100 mile journey (the official route isn't actually complete so milages vary depending on which way you go) from the border of Mexico to Canada.  This will take me from April to September and my goal to make people aware of how important a place like Warren is to young people and adults alike.  I want to be able to help more kids go to camp and make more people see why it is important.

I'll be updating this blog pretty regularly so please follow along as I tell stories of preparation, trail adventures, awesome friends who will be joining me along the way, and an inevitable conclusion in September.  I'm getting more and more excited and I hope you are too!

Love and hugs from Chicago!

Day 23-26: Homestretch

The last four days we went from Marble to Nashwauk to Kelly Lake to Hibbing to Eveleth. This stretch of the Mesabi Trail has been impressive. Rolling hills, mine pits, and pine forests surrounded us. We are truly in north country and are enjoying the fresh, crisp air.

The past few days we have had a few camp friends come say hi to us and show their support. As we mentioned previously the girls came to visit is in Marble. The next night Dave Searl made the treck to Nashwauk to see how we were doing and to catch up. When we stayed on Kelly Lake, Meghan stopped by to hear our stories.

Tomorrow is our last day, and with all the commotion going on at camp with our arrival and the start of another Warren summer, now would be a good time to summarize the trip.

This trip has been an eye opening experience, one that we will never forget. It has been exciting, fun, difficult, painstaking, and at times monotonous. There have been stretches of beautiful landscapes, and stretches of busy highways and city noise. We have seen the multitude of positives that small-town MN has to offer. Abe and I have spent both hours laughing and hours in silence. We have had the same conversations over and over again thinking that they may turn out different this time around.

If we had to choose one takeaway from the trip it would be that there are still so many people out there who are willing to lend a hand to a complete stranger, out of the kindness of their own heart. We would like to thank many of those people now, knowing this trip would have been dramatically more difficult without you: Jen and Jan in Bowlus, Vinnie and his family in Brainerd, Dave the farmer, Jim in Little Falls, Matt in Marble, Mike in Crosby, the Durhams in Grand Rapids, our parents, Tommy, Marlee, Villano, Pom, Greg Pomerantz, Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace. We would like to give a special thanks to Meghan Cosgrove and Dave Searl for helping us every step of the way. And finally to everyone who supported us in sending nearly 15 more kids to Camp Warren this summer!

Camp Warren will always have a special spot in our hearts. Portaging 300-miles is the least we could do to give back to a place that has given us so much over the years. To all the past and present Warren staff we want to thank you for everything that you have done and continue to do to make camp a truly magical place. Here's to the next 85 years!

Nothin' to it, but to do it.

Day 22: Marble Boys

The portage from Bovey to Marble was scenic but uneventful. Around lunch we were contacted by Courtney, Allison, MJ, and Fish who were hoping to camp with us that night. The idea of hanging out with some of our favorite camp people made the afternoon hike go by in a flash. We arrived in Marble in late afternoon and quickly met a few locals. We asked them about camping options in the area and one of them said there was an off-the-beaten-path camp site on a old mine pit. This sounded like a great option for us and the four girls.

The six of us were joined by our new friend Matt and a couple of his buddies from the town. MJ brought her guitar and we had an epic sing along with the whole crew. Definitely one of the best nights of the trip!

Tomorrow we are off to Nashwauk.

Nothin' to it, but to do it