Beautiful weather in DC this weekend!

...and so I had to get and be outside for much of it.... with my pack!

First stop was the grocery store. I walked over with about 10 lbs in the backpack and shopped around for powdered milk and cocoa and large trash bags. I also got my week's groceries, so I left with an additional 20 lbs. I managed to fit it all in and wrangle it on my back for the too-short walk home. Felt good! I weighed the bag as soon as I got to my luggage scale, and it came up as 32 lbs! (This is my goal weight for pack weight.) I could definitely handle that for 7 blocks at a time, so it's most likely do-able for 7 hours at a time.... right?

After I loaded a medium sized lunch into my gut, I loaded up the pack again. This time it was with 2 [unopened] bottles of wine, a collection of canned food, and 3 liters of water. Back up to 21 lbs, I took off for a 2 hour hike around the mall. Hiking boots, shorts, and hiking poles - the whole dorky package. I was sorta hoping I wouldn't run into many people (even tho the weather was gorgeous and everyone would surely be out and about), but as soon as I got to the Capitol building, I realized that it was healthcare weekend. So, all the protesters were out and about, and I was plowing through. The mall was filled with people, and it was a beautiful DC sight.

Long story, the shoes and pack were great, and the poles were completely unnecessary. (Doubt I'll bring those out with me again for training - they belong on the trail...) Hike = success. Confidence = high.

Sunday, I headed up to Baltimore for lacrosse (great wins ladies!!) and arrived early to set up my new tarptent (http://www.tarptent.com/contrail.html). This thing is great! It's 24.5 ounces and pitches with one of my hiking poles. I need a bit of practice to get the hang of the "quick set-up," but it turned out ok, and can only get better.

Can't wait to see more nice weather now that it looks like Spring has arrived.