Spot on in the land of ultralighters . . . · Jun 6 by Kurt Peterson
A combination of good fortunes befell me this past weekend—a good friend was up for a visit, we made it out for a night on the Trail, rhododendron was in full bloom, and my first true ultralight backpacking experience was a success.
After teaching the “Packing Smarter & Lighter” class, the third in the Backpacking 201 series, I decided to walk a little of my own talk by applying some of the elements I teach into personal practice. Having already been a lightweigter with a total pack weight usually in the 25 lb range, I wanted to try delving deeper down and reaching the sub-15 lb realm. After some initial clothing-shedding decisions, I reached for a pack in my gear closet that weighed in at a paltry 14 ounces—although a great many of you might refer to it as compression sack rather than pack.
Tossing my beloved therm-a-rest aside in favor of a Ridgerest that could double as internal pack support shaved even more weight. Losing all warm clothing but a windshell and a fleece vest dropped it even further, and opting for AquaMira over my filter got me even closer to my goal. Thought I know I could have gotten even closer to the ever-elusive sub-5 lb base pack weight (without food & water), there was another reason for making it out into the woods for the weekend—gear testing.
Plopping another 7.37 ounces of additional weight may seem counter-intuitive to my original goal, I was nonetheless very excited to try a new piece of gadgetry that our hardgoods buyer has been all ga-ga over—a Spot Personal Locator Beacon.
Along with this, my Nikon D70s in a chest harness bag, a two-person shelter, my Western Mountaineering bag, first aid kit, headlamp, rain gear, food & water, and other odds and ends, I came in at a fairly impressive 14 lbs. 9 oz.
My buddy and I headed for a nearby loop hike connecting the AT and the Mau-Har trail into a nice little 13 mile loop that takes you down past waterfalls and up up and over 3 Ridges, an easily identified mountain in the area just shy of 4,000 feet.
Well trod by thru-hikers this time of year, we were honestly a little surprised we didn’t encounter more than we did. But for a lack of northbounders, we were certainly greeted by a fair share of snakes including this not-so-playful trail-side timber rattler.
Color-drenched rhododendron and a handful of rose azalea at the 3 Ridges summit greeted us on our hike. After the final 2200 foot slog up to the summit and our campsite, we settled in for dinner, relaxing, and some tinkering with the new-fangled Spot.
It’s remarkably simple with just four buttons but plenty of useful ways to offer your friends and family a little peace of mind while you’re out in the backcountry. 3 Ridges isn’t exactly the middle of nowhere, but it was still a good testing ground to explore some its features. At the push of a button, it transmits a signal (3 at a time and over the course of 20 minutes for redundancy) to the Spot GPS satellite network. From there it plots your location, and then depending on which button pushed, sends an immediate message to up to 10 different email addresses or cell phone numbers. One button turns it on and off, one tells people you’re OK, another lets your peeps know you need help, but it’s not an emergency (like locking your keys in your car at the trailhead), and the last is, “911,” which transmits your coordinates every 5 minutes to emergency services in the area for up to 7 days with a full battery charge.
Additionally, you can set it up to track your progress so it sends and saves your location and allows contacts to track your progress using Google Maps™. Though all I got to try was the on/off and the OK buttons, I was impressed when I got home to see the email it sent to my fiancee simply indicating I was OK and providing a Google Map link to where I was. Simple, easy, and far more reliable than hauling around a cell phone which probably won’t work anyway. Though you have to purchase an annual subscription, this will be a purchase I’ll be making on my next big trip. If you don’t want to take my word for it, listen to Survivor Man’s endorsement.
As for the rest of the hike, we slept in late, and I enjoyed some morning shots of the summit top Rose Azalea.
Then enjoyed a morning saunter back down to our car enjoying a remarkably light pack. Perhaps next time I’ll explore the realm of the “fanatically lightweight.” Until then, feel free to email me or comment on your ultralight tips, tricks, and methods.
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