More Packout Pictures

More pictures from packing out here in Madison. The plan is to start driving north next Tuesday, June 3, so watch for another big update early next week. After that blog posts will be weekly while we are on trail. If you want to receive blog posts via email, shoot an email to Rob (rlwilliams12@gmail.com) who will be maintaining our website and posting on our blog during the expedition.

Packing out fruit and veggies from Just Tomatoes.

Meg creates a spice kit.

Trying on our new PFDs from Kokatat.

Emily packs out peanut butter from the Superior Nut Company.


Going through the first aid kit.

Putting the L in TL

At Manito-wish, TL (Trail Lunch) is pretty much the same every day. Which isn't a bad thing -- what more could you want than peanut butter, honey, bannock, cheese and sausage? While we nailed down a couple of our TL essentials a few months ago with our sponsorships from Bob's Red Mill, Usingers and Cabot Creamery, we have also had a couple of sponsors step up in the last few days to cover the rest of our TL needs.

Superior Nut Company, a local Cambridge, MA company is providing us with 30lbs of peanut butter. Enough to keep us well-fueled through all of those late afternoons when the wind rises and the glare is in your eyes. There is nothing more central to a great TL than peanut butter and we're psyched to have Superior Nut Company on board.

Another key TL ingredient is honey and we've been lucky enough to receive 10 lbs of "pure, sweet honey" from Willi van Haren. Thanks also to Ambra for helping us make the connection!


A classic TL on the Back River in 2005:



Notice the peanut

Packout Pictures

The Stirr's basement with our wonnegon (courtesy of John Stanley) front and center.



Emily pulls out a new Whisperlite from Backcountry.com




Meg tries on our brand new gear from Kokatat, and our new Chota boots.





Meg putting together our repair kit.



Setting up our new Stretch Tiros and Stretch Dome from Sierra Designs in the back yard.

Packing out

Emily, Meg and I have finally converged at the Stirr house in Madison to begin packing out. The To-Do list at this point is out of control but at least we can start making some serious progress now that we're all in one place. Yesterday we sorted through the BPE explosion in the Stirrs basement and tried to figure out how many nalgenes and how much extra seam grip we need to buy. Getting all the gear laid out in one place is both reassuring and a little intimidating -- at least it's all here, but then again there's so much of it!

We also sorted through the boxes of food that have been arriving here all spring. After some complex calculations Emily discovered that we have enough mini Luna Bars to eat six per day for the entire summer. And they are caramel nut brownie flavor!

On the agenda for today: sorting through maps, a trip to the hardware store and a conference call with Karen and Beth who are still at work in North Carolina and Ohio, respectively. Stay tuned for more updates and pictures. Also a special thanks to Lisa Goodman for stopping by to chat yesterday!