Gear

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are walking in the woods with my brothers, father and uncle.  As a teenager we would go camping and hike to waterfalls or climb mountains in the Ozarks.  I took a camping class in college and made a B (a bit embarrassing for an engineering student and a story best accompanied by a strong drink).  As an adult, I still find a hike in the forest refreshing.  I am unsure if it is the solitude, the bird songs, the fresh smells or something else but I crave hiking. I had a lot of gear like good boots, layered clothing and a hat. My point is that even though I am experienced, there was still gear I needed that I did not have. The tour group sent a comprehensive list of all the gear I would need, so over my training period I slowly gathered all the correct gear.

I started with a new backpack.  My old one (in the Portland picture yesterday) has been all over the globe and is like an old friend. However, it will not hold enough for a 9 day hike so I had to shop for a bigger one.  I began online and quickly found  the REI store.  It is amazing!  REI stands for recreational equipment incorporated.  I like their gear and their website.  I also found a great backpack on clearance.  Now I love getting a good deal so I purchased this one:

When it arrived, I filled it with some of the items I already had like hiking pants, moisture wicking shirts and basic supplies.  I wanted to get a feel for wearing it like it would normally be packed.  I also added extra weight for training purposes. I played around with the adjustments until I was happy with the fit. Then I wore it for my stair climbing.

Last Christmas, my engineering team gave me a $100 gift card to Bass Pro Shop.  So on my next gear forage, I went there.  I needed four one liter Naglene bottles for Kili.  These are required because at some point we will receive boiling water and these bottles won't melt.  Also when sleeping on the glacier they won't crack if the water freezes.  Bass Pro Shop also has great wool socks so I grabbed a few pairs of those.  The brand name was Red Head which made me smile.  I have a great fondness for redheads (right, Trish?).  I got another pair of hiking pants to finish off the gift card.  At this point I am feeling pretty well equipped.

My third major forage was in Santa Fe.  One of our first stops in town was the REI store. If you remember, we were there over Memorial Day weekend.  This just happens to be their biggest sale of the year. Woohoo more deals!

I acquired a number of essential items on sale: trekking poles, a 1.5 liter water bladder, a compass and gloves. Since this trips is about personal reflection, I needed to be able to take notes.  I am an engineer (read huge nerd) so the only obvious solution was to take my iPad along. Since there are no outlets on the mountain, I clearly needed a solar charger for my iPad.  I had researched good ones and when I found it at REI it was on sale; yeah!  This is it and it worked well on the trails in Santa Fe.

While in REI I also got a consultation on the fit of my backpack.  He showed me what all the adjustments were for and taught me how to adjust it on the fly.  The REI employees are great.  After grabbing some more long underwear (I don't like to be cold that's why I live in Florida), I was fully geared up for the trip.

So here is what I will look like climbing up Kilimanjaro. 

One final note for those of you considering a similar hike: the tour group rents gear.  Living in southern Florida means a sleeping bag rated to -15 degrees is not something I could use often so it went on the rental list.  I also decided to rent the heavy mittens, the outermost pants and a pad to sleep on (a small luxury since I am old after all).

That about covers the gear.  I leave one week from today and I am very excited.