December 2016

Zero to sixty…

Six months ago I didn’t own a backpack. The closest I had been to camping was 4 years in the army where I packed everything in my Humvee and had a 250′ extension cord running from the generator to my tent to power the electric heater in the winter and the fan in the summer.  “Camping food” was an MRE, later it meant a steak on a grill and a beer.  Adventure camping was a hammock in the yard of my friends family cabin.

Then this last year I planned a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota with my cousins.  Four days away from it all, carrying everything we needed to live in and out again.  I spent days going over lists, searching (and spending way too much money) for items I thought I would need.  I read dozens of blogs, but most of them were 1) written by people who are much more hard-core than I am, and 2) written by men.

The information was good, sometimes was great, but directed toward people who probably already have a majority of their gear and are looking to upgrade, or trying to go “ultra-light”.  Ultra-light is awesome, especially for an old woman who needs to carry all the crap for a few miles before getting to the campsite, but unless you have a few hundred (or thousand!) dollars just sitting around collecting dust, it can be a bit intimidating.

I started looking around.  I did spend some money on things that would really make a difference for my comfort, but I also tried to find ways to cut corners on some of the basics so I would have enough money left so I could actually get out instead of needing to work some extra weekends just to pay for equipment I wouldn’t have time to enjoy!

After my first couple of trips and talking to my friends and people on social media I realized there are others like me.  People who want to get out, specifically women who want to get out and  enjoy the great outdoors, but think it is too much… too much money, too much work, too many years since they were “young”.  I wanted a blog that was directed toward those people, but the blogs were few and far between, and I didn’t like the blogs. I don’t have time to go through the ads!

So here we are.  Let’s see if this is useful to people (anyone…?).  I sure hope so!