Tour-lust gear porn

My wander lust is itching again as I just picked up the book A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins.. lots of cool stories about Peters hike across the country with his dog. Very inspiring. So any who.. I had a good time on the trip with the shop, but my desire to go with just my son and I is driving me crazy. Im gearing up for a trip down to Myaka River State Park this winter break and im really looking foward to it. I got a few new toys for the adventuring to come and I have almost totally replaced everything that was stolen from my first gear rig.

The first and most important piece of gear is our new Trek Mountain Train 24. Caleb is getting awfully fast, but he is getting too big for a child trailer.. easy solution.. :) This way he gets to ride and he helps me pedal! I havent shown it to him yet as It will be a holiday present to him. I will also be using this to take him to and from school.

I got the MSR Whisperlite to replace my old Jet Boil. The reason i chose this stove was for the sake of not having to buy fuel canisters. The bottle is refillable with white gas and is infinately reusable. To me this is a better choice due to the fact that it doesnt require having to recycle bottles of fuel and that it will be easier to find liquid fuel than specialized canisters of fuel. I actually had the chance to use this stove on our first trip with the shop tour on two nights of cooking. So far I am pretty impressed.. i am still learning the nuiances of this type of stove but as I get used to it I like it more and more.

I recently bought a Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 tent that I have not yet recieved.. but it is a much lighter and packable tent than the Eureka 3 man tent my brother and I took on our first trip up to Inverness. The tent weighs a scant 4 pounds soaking wet, a nice departure from the 6 pound tent I was borrowing for the last trip and my 10 pound Eureka.

I got this new Marmot Trestles 15 degree sleeping bag.. I didnt use a bag on our first couple trips and I borrowed one for the last trip we took. I have an old Army issue extreme temperature bag but it weighs nearly ten pounds and is massive, so a nice lightwieght packable bag was in order. It seems like a low temperature bag for a Floridian traveller, but i do plan on doing some out of state trips eventually, and this thing weights less than 4 pounds. Caleb will be getting a bag from his grandparents for the holiday.

One last decided purchase was a packable rain resistant jacket.. its been cold lately and I figured I needed a decent jacket. I got me a Marmot PreCip Jacket. It is nice and warm and works nicely to keep me dry in light rain as I had a chance to test that all day today. Caleb has much nicer winter clothes that Angela bought for him years ago.. thanks Ang. We are looking foward to our next trip to Myaka very soon. Details on that to follow.