Not so “Go-Lite".

As I was reading an entry at The Adventure Blog, I couldn’t help but think what the heaviest pack I have ever carried for an extended period of time, be it on a hike or just traveling. Ireland my pack weighed in at ~55 to 62 pounds and was only hauled from plane, to car to hostel to B&B and so on. Peru the 4 day Matchu Pichu trek ~20lbs, and the volcano hike was about 25lbs.

The creator and owner of GoLite, Demetri Coupounas, decided to not GoLite what-so-ever as he was going to attempt a 40 day full on assault on the 3,200 km long Appalachian Trail. The reason this was going to be a record is that when you usually do the hike from Georgia to Maine you usually have many food caches along the trail. Demetri packed all his food for the 40 days and 40 nights. This extra weight made his pack weigh in at a gargantuan 127 pounds.

Now if you have ever carried a pack for more then a day at 10 or more pounds while hiking on trails with elevation gain and loss, it tends to take its toll. I couldn’t imagine humping 127lbs for 40days non-stop, and neither did Demetri. It would seem that he made it several days -I can not seem to find how far yet -before he shipped home 121 lbs of food and will be picking up his food on stops along the way were he will meet up with a support crew -I assume.

So although he dose not hold the record of a 40 day hike while completely self-sufficient, he now holds the record for most weight shipped home from the trail. But you will never know your true abilities or if your dreams can be made reality unless you go after them. Good on ya Demetri

On the topic of going "lite"; we normally put the TV on later in the evening for a couple hours of relax time and more importantly mental relaxation. Most nights we follow this up by reading before sac time. But lately we have realized that we have over 80 channels of absolutely nothing.

So we are going back to the old system we had and have no cable for the summer and fall months and maybe reconnect for the winter. Summer is filled with hikes and bikes after work and on weekends, a new ultimate team this year and PATIOS for the odd pint or two. So we will save an additional $80/month for something we will not use anyway, and when we do just complain there is nothing worth watching anyway.

Thank god I bought 4 books in one shot as I am sure they will come in handy most nights. Speaking of that I only have a few pages left of Choke as I could not put it down and will discuss it when completed while not giving anything away to ruin it for those who may like to read it.