Lake Parker Training Hike
Disclaimer: This post is NOT sponsored. All the gear mentioned in this post was purchased by me at retail prices. I have no affiliations with any of the companies or brands mentioned.
Preparation
In my ongoing attempt at getting into shape for my upcoming thru-hike, I have been working on getting my pack weight down. With my bear can, my base weight is around 19 lbs. For those unfamiliar, base weight refers to the pack weight with just the gear and not consumables like food, water, and fuel. I am thinking of switching to a bear bag instead because it would save me about 2 lbs of weight, but the bag hasn't arrived yet. So, for today's hike, I loaded up my pack with all my gear including the bear can. I even loaded about 3 days worth of food into the can and filled both 1L water bottles full of water. I then weighed my pack using a luggage scale and got a pack weight with consumables at 29 lbs.
I also recently got a couple new pieces of clothing for the hike, so wore those for today as well.
On the Trail
The trail today was the paved walking path next to Lake Parker. It was a very flat and easy to walk. There were plenty of people out with their dogs and children too. Even though there were signs about coyotes and gators around, I didn't see any. I did see the unfortunate remains of a poor baby racoon and a mouse during my walk. While the pack was noticeable, it really wasn't that bad.
Reflections / Lessons Learned
I don't have any rubber tips for my trekking poles, and since the path was paved. I ended up not using them and just had them strapped to my pack. If I am going to do more paved paths, I should probably get some. I also went with the bottles instead of a bladder like I have done on previous hikes. The bottles were easy to pull out and put back in on the sides of the pack and just as easy to drink. Will probably keep the bladders for day packs, but bottles seem to be the way to go for backpacking trips.