Thursday, October 3, 2013

JMT 2014, Feeding America, and The Clymb

It’s October already!  Time to start gathering gear for our next long-distance adventure, the John Muir Trail in 2014!

First…let the fundraising for Feeding America officially begin!

Last March and April, the girls and I walked the 500-mile Camino Frances route of Spain’s Camino de Santiago to raise $10,000 for Global Fund for Women and GirlVentures, two female-empowering, nonprofit organizations.  For the John Muir Trail in 2014, we’re turning our focus to poverty in America.  Specifically, we want to help obtain groceries for families in need.  

This is where you come in.  From now until the end of our thru-hike (September 2014), you can contribute to our virtual food drive.  Donate directly to our page on Feeding America’s website.  Whatever you can afford will be great -- every cent helps!  Our fundraising goal is $2200 – that’s roughly ten dollars for every mile of the John Muir Trail.  $2200 is enough money to buy 17,600 meals!

Gear Gathering

This is going to be a long trek…and guess who’ll be carrying almost all the food?  You guessed it – Mama (me).  The girls are old enough and strong enough to carry everything else they’ll need, but I’ll have to shoulder all the food weight.  Since we can only resupply a few times during our thru-hike, I will sometimes have to carry five+ days of food for three people.  Since I can’t get around the necessity of carrying a lot of food, I’ll have to shave pounds off our gear.  This means replacing almost everything we now own with ultra-light versions of…well, everything.  I’ll also need new hiking shoes, and the girls will need new shoes and clothes (kids grow too quickly!). This is where The Clymb comes in.  There’s no way I can afford to pay full price for every piece of clothing and gear we need to buy.  Thankfully, The Clymb offers top quality, name-brand gear for insanely discounted prices.  For example, they’ve got a Lafuma sleeping bag on sale right now for $64.98 (the regular price is $120)—that’s the same brand the girls and I have used on every camping trip we’ve ever taken.  That’s over five years of backwoods camping – plus, we recently used our Lafumas on the Camino.  Good stuff.  Another example –  footwear.  The trail runners I used on the Camino are (understandably) falling apart, so I’m about to purchase the boots I’ll use on the John Muir Trail.  The Clymb has the same stuff I’d get at REI, EMS, or Lahouts…but at theclymb.com, it’s all 40-80% off the usual price.  Merrells, Vasques, Garmont, Keen – the inventory is excellent.  I currently have my eye on the Hanwag GTX, but I’ll let you know what I eventually decide to buy.

So…over the next few months, I’ll be purchasing upgraded gear for me and the girls.  I’ll get what I can at theclymb.com first (why pay full price if you don’t have to?) – what The Clymb doesn’t have (ultralight tents, for example), I’ll purchase elsewhere.  Stay tuned – I’ll start posting the details of our gear list next week.  In the meantime, donate what you can to Feeding America!  

6 comments:

cherelli said...

So excited for you! we spent 7days walking through some of the Ansell Adams wilderness a few years ago, since then the JMT is on my list to complete (finish with mt Whitney) one day, I love that it seemed there were resupply options every 4 days along the trail with a short walk to the local PO to collect packages of food if needs be...enjoy planning! I hope the fundraising goes well!

Jake said...

Trish, there are great gear list ideas and JMT trip reports on Backpackinglight.com Finding ideas to lighten you and the girls packs would be pretty easy.

this one is from a family with 2 daughters also.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=67366

there is a gear list at the bottom of the first page.

Patricia Ellis Herr, Alexandra Herr, and Sage Herr said...

Jake, excellent, many thanks. I will check out that thread and that family's gear list!

Unknown said...

Trish - you probably already read Sierra and Heather's blog but I enjoyed their review of the ULA backpacks http://sierrapct.blogspot.com/2013/05/gear-review-packs-tents-and-more.html

Not sure where you stand with packs. I know the feeling of packing for many - Claire and Sadie can hardly carry anything.

Just wanted to pass along her thoughts on their packs.

Looking forward to following your progress - although we haven't hiked the JMT - we spent some time hiking in that area this summer and is was spectacular!

Christine

Unknown said...

Trish - you probably follow Sierra and Heather's blog but if you didn't see this review of the ULA backpack - it's a good one:
http://sierrapct.blogspot.com/2013/05/gear-review-packs-tents-and-more.html

I know the feeling of carrying food/gear for many - my kids aren't quite able to carry much at all.

Looking forward to following your progress. You might check out Henry Shires tarp tents too - we love them - have 2, a 2 person we used on the AT and 3 person now - I'd love the 4 person.

Christine

Patricia Ellis Herr, Alexandra Herr, and Sage Herr said...

Christine, many thanks! I am going to send Sierra and Heather a message to see if they wouldn't mind my sharing their blog on my site (I'd like to mention them and post a link).