Looking at my upcoming months’ activities, I decided to begin in earnest, readying all I’ll need for the April backpack with JJ and Jeff.

While figuring out what I need, I work off an inventory of previous backpacking trips so I’m not reinventing the wheel each time. I emptied my backpack of much of what I usually use on trips and first took stock of the most important gear, making sure everything was in working order. I even opened and set up my Tarptent. The last thing I need is a tent that doesn’t go up and stay up. After an incident while cowboy camping (no tent) where a scorpion crawled across the groundcloth 3 inches from my hand (while journaling), I no longer cowboy camp.

I made good headway today. My backpack is mostly trip ready with everything I will need. Next is planning food for the 11 days. The lighter my food, the lighter my pack. Hence I started dehydrating. Today I made Kale I’ll sprinkle on meals I cook. Last month I made beef jerky and those breakfast banana thingies I posted a photo of on February 22nd. Next, I’ll start thinking of dinners. I’ll probably buy them from this company.

Ray didn’t know what Kale was. Here is the dictionary definition:
Main Entry: kale
Pronunciation: \?k?l\
Function: noun
Etymology: Scots, from Middle English (northern) cal, from Old English c?l — more at cole
Date: 14th century

1 a : cole b : a hardy cabbage (Brassica oleracea acephala) with curled often finely incised leaves that do not form a dense head; also : its leaves used as a vegetable.

Steamed Kale ready to be dehydrated.

3 hours later - dehydrated, crispy, Kale.

Tailwinds, how’s it looking? Not the kale:-)