I am a Gear Freak-There, I said it....

Well, no camping or hiking for me this weekend. Looks like rain all 3 days so maybe a good time to clean up my stuff inside. A post on BP'er magazine forums got me thinking about my gear collection. I admit, I am a gear nut. It only took me 47 years to figure this out but yes, its true. I have too many of everything. Sleeping bags, Backpacks, bikes, tents, stoves, pads, bike wheels. heck I even have too many energy bars. Heck the picture above is just packs and sleeping bags only. One man only needs so much stuff. But I am constantly looking for more stuff. I don't always buy it, but I am sure looking for it. Its an addiction. I need a support group. Maybe something like GA (Gearaholics Anonymous). "Hi, I'm Kevin and I am addicted to outdoor gear". Thing is, I use almost everything I have at least once a month. Well, maybe not my mountain bike but I make up for it with 6500 miles on a road bike this year alone. Yes I could probably sell a tent or 2. Maybe even a sleeping bag (or 2). And all of those bike wheels are just in case I have a failure on my current wheels. But as soon as I sold it, I would probably go out and buy another one. Everything I have purchased has been scrutinized down to the penny. I never pay full retail on anything and I would say I am pretty thrifty on spending. I don't have the absolute best stuff on the market but its all top quality. So why oh why do I have so much stuff? Yes I take care of stuff in an almost anal way so it lasts me a long time. I have had a daypack for 20 years that has many miles on it. But I was thinking the other day I need to get another one. Is the one I have broken or worn out? NO. But I still had that sinking feeling in my mind that it was needing replaced. Would I give the old one to charity or sell it on E-Bay? NO. Just add to the ever increasing pile of pack collection. I have a 5 year old road bike that has over 25,000 miles on it. its a great bike and serves all my purposes. Its a much better bike than I am a rider. But guess what? Its starting to wear out a few components and my firing sensors in my "purchase" section of my brain have started to find 10,000 things wrong with it. I even went on Trek's Project One site last night and built up a $7000 "fix" for myself. I am sick and I know it....There seems to be very little cure for this sickness except revolving credit. Anyway, I have to go. I just realized I have a backpack trip scheduled in October and I need to look at the wings on my canister stove. Last time I was out I bent one of them just ever so slightly and I think I need to look at those new Jetboil things. And I also noticed my boots have a mark on the side that could be the start of some wear and tear....And that sleeping pad seems a little flatter...and....

Back to Mt. Rogers for Day Hike w/ Neighbors

Saturday September 5th dawned sunny and warm. My neighbors don't hike much but wanted to go up and see the ponies and maybe pick a few Blueberries. So we headed out after my Saturday morning bike ride for day hike. Jeff, Lori, Redd, Ian, my daughter Hannah and me (Also the lab mix Sierra) all left about 10 AM and arrived at Grayson Highlands about 12:30. As we arrived at the backpacker lot, I noticed 2 things: one, it was getting cloudy and 2, there were a lot of folks there. I figured there would be a few folks since it was labor day but I didn't expect there to be as many cars in the lot as there were. It was almost full. We all hiked up the trail and less than 500 yards later we were looking at 2 ponies. We stopped and watched them and took a few pics. About 3/4 way up the spur trail we started picking blueberries. For the first 2 hours, that's really all we did. Between the 6 people, we probably picked 2 gallons of the sweet berries. We kept going all the way to Wilburn Ridge. We thought we might keep going to Rhododendron Gap but Sierra was beat and lay down on a rock to sleep. The clouds stayed over us all day but no rain. The temperature was almost perfect at 60 degrees and low humidity. We ran into a few folks along the way but it wasn't as many as I expected since the lot was so full. We did notice many folks already starting to set up tents in places we didn't normally see them.

On the way back down, we picked some more blueberries (as if we didnt have enough). It was a beautiful day in the Mountains (they all are), and we got to see a lot of ponies. Even got to see some deer too.