This afternoon I received my Gossamer Gear Gorilla 40 backpack. It’s so light! I put it on without anything in it. I have to admit, I couldn’t wait. I’m such a geek.
The most I can say is I love pretty much everything about the design so far, well at least from a superficial level, since I haven’t exactly put any gear in it and walked around yet. The only concern I have is about the shoulder straps. This is an issue for me also with the Osprey Exos 58, which is my current bag. The Osprey shoulder straps have a tendency to dig into my underarms, literally slicing them open when I train. I don’t have that issue when on trail though, because unlike during training, my hands are on my trekking poles most of the time, lifting my arms up and away from my body. During training on concrete and a bridge, its not necessary for me to use trekking poles, yet having my underarms shredded can be annoying. I modified the pack for training however, covering the straps with a bandana. It’s not a perfect solution, but helps save my skin from decimation.
I’m not saying I predict the Gossamer Gear Gorilla 40 will dig into my underarm as well, cutting them open, but by just trying on the bag without anything in it, already I can feel the straps hitting the skin of my underarms in an awkward way. I guess the true test will be when I fill the bag and take it for a trial run, but I’m concerned this is going to be a repeat problem with the bags I buy. Maybe my shoulders are more narrow than most? Who knows? I’ll post an update once I’ve had an opportunity to try the bag during a true dry run. This may just be a matter of adjusting some buckles and the straps themselves.
I also finally finished the draft of my Fastest Known Time announcement tonight. Part of attempting a world record for a self supported hike on the Appalachian Trail is making official announcements, contacting the previous FKT world record holder, and other preparations. It’s not just a walk and I announce to the world I rock. The Fastest Known Time pro-board is where you post your intention and they are the organization that verifies your record once you have completed the attempt. They pretty much set the rules, guidelines and standards. I’m pretty anal retentive, and for some reason I gave myself a huge amount of pressure when writing this announcement, taking forever to complete the task. Plus, I borrowed a lot of the wording I used for my announcement from the previous FKT self supported record holder, Heather “Anish” Anderson. Borrowing makes me uneasy, but there was no way to explain in better words or my own words what the heck I was about to do. So, I borrowed. Don’t worry, I stated in the announcement itself I was repeating her words. Being that said though, I have the luxury of having an awesome editor at my disposal, Andrew Elias, who edits my writing for FtMyersMagazine.com. I sent him the copy of my announcement, Heather’s announcement, and the FKT website with the link to their rules for the game. Hopefully he will indulge me by agreeing to review my announcement before I run out of time and have to post it. I’m hoping to do so by August 1st. Yeah, I know. I’m cutting it close. Once he gives me some advice or edits me, it’s getting posted to the FKT pro-board and I’m official. Another hiker off to the races!!!
I let my bank know today that I would be traveling. One less phone call to make before I leave. Last year I forgot to let them know in advance and panicked. I had to call them from on trail, and my cell service was way less than desirable pretty much my entire hike. It took all day just to get to an area where I could get the call to connect. I did not want the worry or hassle this year and took care of it in advance thank God. I do love though how even with good reception it isn’t exactly easy to get your travel plans confirmed through the bank over the phone. I had to keep calling over and over, trying to get the automated service to recognize the state name Tennessee. It would run me through five minutes of verifications and steps, then each time I would say that particular state name it would tell me it didn’t recognize what I was saying and would hang up on me. Ugh. I finally callled and went straight to a rep, who then told me to do it online. Thanks buddy, but at least that’s one less thing to worry about. On to the rest of the preparations!
