Distance = 0 Miles; People Met = 1
The emphasis during our humanitarian hike is more on the humanitarian than the hiking. Along that vein I’m changing the elevation stats previously reported to people met. Besides, keeping track of people met is much more enjoyable than calculating elevation changes. I apologize if you took great interest in the former stat.
We first met Deputy Barber the evening previous to our rest day. He stopped us while we were hiking into Carvers and he was on patrol. He’s an avid backpacker and allowed us to stay in an overnight rest area for two nights. He also owns a few stores in Hadley, where we spent much of the rest day doing the usual errands. He first came to the Big Smoky Valley for the same reason as most: mining. After working long hours and saving a good chunk of change he made his career change to Deputy Sheriff and entrepreneur.
Kuhl
Cindy has worn her Kuhl clothing from the start with great satisfaction. While I wore the parka from the start, out of unfortunate necessity in “sunny” California, I held off on my other clothes because, well, they looked too nice. “Save ’em for our town stops” I figured. Then we got caught in the river canyon bushwhacking I mentioned in my previous post. The only thing between me and a pair of shredded legs were the Kuhl pants I had in my pack.
ADT Men in Black (Kuhl pants)
“‘Tis a shame to wreck such nice looking pants right from the start, but it’s them or me,” I thought. However the pants proved to be rugged and much better for the task of resisting chaparral, sagebrush, wild rose and all manner of spiteful vegetation than were my legs. From all the river crossings I also noticed that the pants resist water well and dry fast, very similar if not superior to Gore-tex. It convinced me to finally join Cindy in wearing all Kuhl clothing for our upcoming seven day stretch. Looks like I’ll have to find something else to wear in town.
SmartWool
When we weren’t scratching our legs bushwhacking through river canyons we were wading through the actual rivers. “Back in the day” when we were thru-hiking trails in the seventies and eighties that would have meant wet and blistered feet as a consequence. Well, we still had wet feet, pretty near 24/7, but what a difference between the old wool and SmartWool. With the old wool we would have worn at least one other pair of liner socks, and occasionally two if our feet were in particularly poor condition, and our feet would still have been wet and blistered with the kind of trail conditions Cindy and I faced. Now we just wear one pair of SmartWool socks yet no blisters and terrific comfort. Our feet still got wet, though. Perhaps SmartWool can come out with a SmartestWool to address that as well.
My Kuhl pants are my absolute favorite too. They are rugged but are still very comfortable!