Time is flyin' by...

Holy Crap! It's only 112 days until we leave for 'gonquin.

I finally picked up my pack. The whole ordeal of buying it was almost painful. I bought it off a guy in Montreal back in January. He's a student and I think there were many distractions for him once he had it sold. Thankfully I arranged an in-person cash deal so that I didn't get taken.

Anyway, here's a review of it. I dropped by Jim's on the way home with it and we gave it the once-over and I have to say that I'm really impressed with it. This is a pack I would never have bought from the store. By that I mean, it's way out of my price range. I would've wanted to buy it but I couldn't justify the $350-450 price tag. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of the fact that I got it for $100. It has some marks on it but functionally it's in perfect condition. Now I just have to figure out all the features. Jim has a book on how to pack and carry your backpack to minimize fatigue.

As I've said before, this is going to be the first year that I do the kind of camping I always intended to do in Algonquin. This is going to be physically demanding and require light weight packing and that really gives me a buzz. Jim and I were talking and someone asked him, "What if it rains?" and we're both of the opinion that it will only make it more triumphant when we lift the canoe out of Cedar Lake at the end of the trip. Will it make it harder? Hell yeah, but it's nothing we're not up to.

A little side note: it kinda wierd that I'm talking about it raining on our trip and right now there is a big storm brewing and there was just a long, very loud, window rattlin' roll of thunder.

Freaky.

Back to 'gonquin. I've started to eat right again (it took a long time for me to get out of vacation mode) and I managed one visit to the gym this week. Next week will be better, I'll be back to three days again. I want to make sure that I'm not slowing us down on the portages and not puttin' out the power on the long stretches of paddlin'.

I think I'm gonna gather everything I plan on taking and do a mock pack-up this weekend to see what the pack feels like. Granted I won't be able to put the food in but I'll put something else in there to simulate the space and weight I figure the food will be.

Speakin' of food, does anyone know any good things I can make in my food dehydrator. A good recipe for jerky would be a good place to start. Also, if there are certain fruits that are better than others for this type of a trip, speak up and let me know. I knew the dehydrator my Mom was tossing out would come in handy one day. (see my previous post about being a pack-rat. I come by it honestly!)

Well, I gotta get some stuff done before I go home for the weekend. It's a long weekend here in Canada. We get Good Friday off. Have a good weekend and I'll post about how my mock pack-up goes and what crazy looks I get from my wife next week.

Happy Easter!