{"id":385,"date":"2012-03-11T19:23:50","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T00:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/?p=385"},"modified":"2013-07-07T15:10:43","modified_gmt":"2013-07-07T20:10:43","slug":"prep-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/?p=385","title":{"rendered":"Prep Hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather was beautiful today so I decided to take a short hike. There were a couple of reasons to get out and do some serious walking: I wanted to test out my knee to see how it has survived the winter, and I also have a new backpack I\u2019ve been dying to strap on. Everything went well, and I can report that the knee feels good. In fact – this point is baffling to me – it feels better after I give it a good workout. I\u2019m wondering where the dividing line between moderate exercise and too much is drawn.<\/p>\n

I would like to climb a few hills but that would mean driving at least 80 miles from Buffalo. With the price of gas I decided to walk in a town park not far from where I work in Cheektowaga. It\u2019s a nice little park with several miles of graded trails. The paths wind through woods on level terrain with boardwalks constructed over the swampy areas. When the weather is nice, I walk there quite often. But this was the first time I had sported my full backpacking equipment and I received quite a few strange looks. The nice weather had also brought out tons of people to the park.<\/p>\n

Most people would smile and greet me politely, although some kept their heads down and hurried by, like you do when you pass a homeless person with a sign. I explained to a couple of people that I was just getting used to my pack before I went on an overnight camping trip in the Spring, but for the most part I just smiled back.<\/p>\n

My new pack is a ULA Catalyst. They don\u2019t sell them in stores so I ordered it online. I\u2019m not in favor of buying something as expensive as this pack was without trying it on or even seeing it in \"2012-03-11<\/a>person, but it had good reviews from the trail community and I figured I could send it back if I didn\u2019t like it. I needed something a little bigger than my Gregory pack for cold-weather gear and several days of food while still remaining ultralight. It feels good and I like it.<\/p>\n

Everything is set for my AT hike at the end of this month. I\u2019m hoping to last a couple of weeks, anyway. After that I may drive through North Carolina and look at the small motorcycle I\u2019m interested in. I called a dealer and they have two in stock. Then I will head indirectly west. I know the timeline flor visit is extended longer than some would like, but except for backpacking in the mountains, summer in the southwest is too brutal. I will try to update with more stories along the way, even if they seem pointless to me. I know everyone is thinking of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather was beautiful today so I decided to take a short hike. There were a couple of reasons to get out and do some serious walking: I wanted to test out my knee to see how it has survived the winter, and I also have a new backpack I\u2019ve been dying to strap on. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1051,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/1051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}