I'm going for a three day backpacking trip in King's Canyon National Park this weekend, but it seems things are conspiring against me.

First off, the Kitty destroyed my thermarest. It now has a large number of small claw shaped slits in it, and thus does a very poor job of being airtight. For some reason, cat attacks don't seem to be covered by the thermarest lifetime warranty, either. I could get a Z-rest to replace it since that would not have this problem (this is already the second thermarest I've had to replace due to leaking), but for some reason I really prefer the extra padding of inflatable pads.

I was already pretty pissed off by having to replace my sleeping pad, when to make matters worse, my beloved fleece jacket died in the dryer. The main zipper exploded; now it doesn't have a handle and it only goes up unless you use a small pointy object to depress a little lever which unlocks the ratchet mechanism. This is probably reparable, but the jacket is already in pretty sorry shape. I've had it for at least 8 years, maybe closer to 10, and it has accompanied me on a wide range of adventures. I loved that fleece dearly, but it is time to let go. I'll probably buy a new one at REI or something, although I just know they won't have an exact replacement.

In related news, I bought a new camera bag for this trip: the Lowepro Nova 3. Its main feature is that it has belt loops that fit on the hip strap of my pack, so I can carry it on my waist. Hopefully this will be better than attaching a bag to the side of my pack like I did last time.

posted: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:14 | permanent link to this entry