I do not have ambitious backpacking plans for this year. There are two reasons for that: not enough time for a long, say a week, hike and the number of options that are a reasonable distance from my two bases of operations (my house in NY and my mother's house in PA) that I have not already hiked are few. The two I am seriously considering are the : Elk Trail in PA (see earlier post on my day hike on a piece of it) and an overnighter using a combination of trails in the Adirondacks (Central region). Both can be done over a weekend and should not be strenuous. At some point I would like to do the Gerard Trail that is in Oil Creek State Park in PA. It is about 36 miles (a loop) that is near the original Edwin Drake oil well. It is not strenuous (or so I understand, I have never seen it). Its major issue is that camping is only allowed at two lean-to site (equidistant) and requires an advance reservation. That means some good planning to pull off, so I will probably do that in 2016. I also do some day hikes both for fun and as preparation for my backpacking adventures. I have no definite plans on those, perhaps Catskills peaks or Adirondack peaks.
I will briefly consider what went well last year and want to keep doing or using and what did not go so well. Positives: my boots performed well and I am quite happy with them, the 'Crush' powdered drink mixes were good and really helped prevent soda cravings during the hike, powdered whole milk (e.g. Nestle's Nido) plus Quick plus water is a really good treat after a long day of hiking. Negatives: food - my pre-prepared dehydrated meals tasted fine but were too much food for dinner (maybe due to my dehydration), my homemade Cuber fiber tarp sprung a leak on the last night of my Loyalsock trip and probably need to be replaced (it cost me $200 for materials when I made it some time ago), I need to replace my Steripen which apparently broke just before my Loyalsock trip; I ended up using Aquamira which is okay but I like the Steripen treated water better [I am disappointed the Streipen did not last longer, not sure what happened], finally my Hennessy Hammock became uncomfortable after the second night of my Loyalsock trip, I am thinking I need the newer model with a side zipper because the bottom opening seems to hurt my legs and makes keeping the bottom warm a bigger challenge. I will need to address all of these, without adding weight to my pack which is the biggest challenge of all.
I will briefly consider what went well last year and want to keep doing or using and what did not go so well. Positives: my boots performed well and I am quite happy with them, the 'Crush' powdered drink mixes were good and really helped prevent soda cravings during the hike, powdered whole milk (e.g. Nestle's Nido) plus Quick plus water is a really good treat after a long day of hiking. Negatives: food - my pre-prepared dehydrated meals tasted fine but were too much food for dinner (maybe due to my dehydration), my homemade Cuber fiber tarp sprung a leak on the last night of my Loyalsock trip and probably need to be replaced (it cost me $200 for materials when I made it some time ago), I need to replace my Steripen which apparently broke just before my Loyalsock trip; I ended up using Aquamira which is okay but I like the Steripen treated water better [I am disappointed the Streipen did not last longer, not sure what happened], finally my Hennessy Hammock became uncomfortable after the second night of my Loyalsock trip, I am thinking I need the newer model with a side zipper because the bottom opening seems to hurt my legs and makes keeping the bottom warm a bigger challenge. I will need to address all of these, without adding weight to my pack which is the biggest challenge of all.