Ardennes 2013, part 2: Being on the Safe Side

August 25th, 2013: My pack list has undergone its usual last minute growth spurt. The forecast for the hiking area may be dry and sunny, but the air current is from the north east. We'll be camping either near the top or at the foot of the slopes, where we expect to be able to find some level surfaces for our ground dwellers to pitch their tents. At the top we may be exposed to the wind, and the foot may turn out to be a cold trap. Things might get quite a bit colder than some of the participants may be expecting, so I'm packing all the cold weather clothes I could possibly need and then some. I'm also keeping my food supply squarely on the safe side. I'm not a light weight hiker by any stretch, but I'm getting slightly worried that this mountain of stuff will be heavier than I'm comfortable with carrying.

The characteristics of outdoor gear seem to be distributed along three axes: functionality, weight and price, and a piece of gear can usually only be optimal in two of those three dimensions. Either it's useful and light but expensive, useful and cheap but heavy, or cheap and light, but not very useful. Something has to be useful to bring it along, so it becomes a matter of weight vs. cost. I don't have a ton of disposable income, so the balance is tipped toward cheap, heavy stuff. But down does make me jealous.

August 26th, 2013: I managed to fit everything I want to take with me into my backpack. Including water and food, it weighs in at a hefty nineteen and a half kilos (43 lb), but it sits on my back quite comfortably. Besides, the distances we're planning to hike aren't that ambitious. I'm quite confident that even if I turn out to be the slowest hiker in the group, we can still easily make it with a few hours of daylight to spare every day.

Given the terrain, we probably could do about twenty-five kilometres (15 miles) a day, if we don't want to hike after dinner, but that would mean about eight hours of near non-stop walking. People aren't going to enjoy that. We want to have a good time, we're not out to set some kind of record, there's no deadline we have to make except those we set for ourselves, so we set it so we can make it at our leisure. After all, what good is hiking and camping if you don't have time to swap tall tales around the camp-fire?