backpacking: packs

I was wandering through costco and saw some high sierra tangent 45L packs on sale for 39.99usd.  Much cheaper than what they normally go for.

I grabbed a black and a blue one, one for the wife, one for the 12yro (she's already 5'7").  Has 2L hydration and pack cover included.  Quality seems decent enough.  I'm actually somewhat impressed with the fitting system on these.

The tangent didn't fit my 8yro, so off to craigslist I went.  Scored a good condition deuter fox 30 pack.  Very nice pack, just fits her with everything adjusted as small as possible.  It uses the same adjustment system as the high sierra packs.

I'm still on the hunt for a pack for my 5yro.  Tried an REI tarn 18L but that won't even hold a sleeping bag.  I'd like for him to carry his bag, a pad and a few personal items.

instruments again.

I notice back in 2012 that I said I wouldn't solo on ukulele. Early 2014 I bought a mel bay fingerpicking book and started down that road. At the time I also printed some of Welti's tabs. This year I bought both of Tony Mizen's books and recently started picking on the lanikai lu21B I never played before. It seems I noodle with the ukulele more than anything. The xaphoon? I should grab that again. It's limited in what keys you can play. Ocarinas? Not so much. I'll pull out a double to play along with my daughter's piano pieces to help get her used to someone else playing.

backpacking stuffz

This past summer I took my family camping with my dad to the rio grande reservoir. Its been many years since I'd been there...always for backpacking. We hiked part of the wemenuche trail, just a small section. I'd hoped to make it to the waterfall bridge. My now 5 year old son burned out before we turned up the creek.  My girls (8 and 12) did better.

Then I found out that my brother, his wife and an old backpacking buddy wanted to hike up to flint lake later in august. So of course I started having ideas about taking my 8yr old daughter on this trip.

My old equipment (ca 1996) dana designs astralpane 120L expedition pack, ca 1995 msr alpine cook kit (1.5l and 2.0l stainless pot) thermarest camp rest with chair kit some 20F rei sleeping bag. northface 3 person 3+ season tent MSR whisperlite internationale stove some goretex type raingear (which doesn't work worth anything, btw, breathable fabrics will get you killed).

All this crap is heavy, not a big deal for a 28 ear old. One trip I went in with 80 lbs. I had kids, married etc and all this stuff got shelved. The MSR stove disappeared while on loan. the zipper broke on the northface tent while on loan. A lot of little stuff disappeared as well.

A couple of years ago we started some limited car camping. I monitored slickdeals and grabbed a 2 person mountainsmith and 2 person northface tent (flint II), both noticeably lighter than the old tent.

I also bought a z-rest, some nasty rollup pad and a small scout thermarest pad.

I also bought a chinese msr XGK knockoff, a campsor 9.   I'm a little scared about parts availability. Also bought a tiny pocket rocket stove clone on amazon sale. More to come...