Backpacking places!

Stephany In The Tent

Backpacking is so much fun! Growing up, my family did lots of camping and so on, and eventually, my father and I did a fair amount of backpacking with the Boy Scouts and some horsepacking with my grandfather and uncle. I really treasure those trips we did together. They really were wonderful, and I thank my father for taking me on those trips and getting me excited about the wilderness.

I do believe that the times when I've been out in the wilderness have been the times when I felt the most close to the world and at peace with myself. I would like to share that feeling with others. Which is why I wrote these pages. To be able to give my friends a nice place to point them when I rave about a hike so that they can go try this hike too. Someday, perhaps I'll find an organization which will get kids out into the wilderness or something too, and I'll hopefully have the courage to go volunteer for that. :-) I used to be a a big fan of the BSA, but their attutudes about homosexuals have made me rather disillusioned with them. So if anybody has any good ideas, let me know. I'd love to help get more people in the outdoors!

OK. So here are some of the trips which Stephany and I have gone on recently. Let me know what you think. Have fun!

Oh, and by request, I have saved out our checklist which we used so effectively in our Lyon's Lake trip for our 30 minute departure. Here it is, in HTML format (kinda ugly), StarOffice format, and Excel 97 format. And here is a typical weekend backpack load, with how much everything weighs (roughly... I had to estimate in some places). Please excuse the format. It does kinda suck. Have fun!!

-tspencer