A short set from Pokhara, Sarangkot, and the hills around the lake.

A short set from Kathmandu and the Kathmandu Valley.

I have the privilege of being able to afford all those random little backpacking items, and while I don’t baby my gear, I do try to take care of it. Especially things that keep me safe. Here’s what I do after every trip with a few of the items. I have what are probably the two most popular water filters on the market: the Katadyn BeFree and Sawyer Squeeze. The point of this article isn’t about comparing filters, but I recommend both: I use the BeFree for solo day hikes / fastpacking or if water is plentiful, and the Squeeze in pretty much every other situation (e.g. if I need to filter for other people). If buying now then I would be super keen to try out the Platypus QuickDraw.

Where: Katoomba to Mittagong (via Hill Top for reasons below) When: 2020/12/27 18:00 to 2020/12/30 morning Distance: 131km, with maybe 30 km of buckwhacking (details below). Conditions: Day 2 was pretty weird, as it started quite hot, probably around 27C, and then it just opened up and poured. Forecasted to unload 20mm, and I think that felt about right. Useful Pre-Trip Information or Overview: I found a few GPX tracks and added a several backup tracks in Gaia GPS, but opted to follow the boring “quicker” route. I think the GPX I used was not one that had been recorded, but just one that had been created. This was one of the planning mishaps for my adventure: I overestimated possible pace. The GPX had 5km/hr …

Read below for a long list of warnings. After reading some of the comments below, e.g. from Des, it seems like the track can vary significantly depending on when you do it. TL;DR - in winter, after bush fires and floods, this track is a 7/6. Left Katoomba Railway Station at about 10:00am on a Saturday in early August, so I guess technically still winter. I packed quite light and intended to do this in two days, and hopefully even get back to Sydney by 5pm. I had all the topological maps offline in Gaia GPS, and created a route based on the maps in Wildwalks; I couldn’t find a GPS trace. For the record: not a single time did I ever feel lost. It is very simple from a navigation perspective: keep Cox river to …

In about 2001 or 2002 I read a book called “Beyond Backpacking - Ray Jardine’s Guide to Lightweight Hiking”, which set me on a path to being as light as possible. It came in very handy when I did my first section hike of the PCT, about 7 days, and I vaguely remember a total pack weight of about 25 lbs - with 4 litres of water. I was a broke college student then, so I guess clipping toothbrushes and straps really paid off. I also used a weird mesh hammock thing and I think a tarp of some kind. I have been “ultralight” ever since, even when renting equipment in Patagonia.

There are a lot of books on parenting. Before my daughter was born I read a book on pregnancy, one of those 500 pages texts from a high class place - Mayo Clinic or Harvard or something like that. It was helpful, but given I can’t even remember the name, clearly not something that I considered life changing. However, after reading Thirty Million Words: Building a Child’s Brain I was all hyped up to drown my new kid in words. We travelled a lot when she was young, so didn’t have a lot of books, but she sure had them read to her. When I took a year off as a stay-at-home-dad I kept having those 30 million words ticking in my mind. By the time she was 2 1/2 she was getting five books read to her a …

I have two first aid kits: one that is in my bag when I go to work, and another when I go hiking. The one in my bag has more stuff in it, but overall the contents are pretty similar. In particular with the hiking kit I am only carrying what is likely to be used, items that cannot be improvised with what I can find, and items that I know how to use. It would be easy to pack my fears and include a tourniquet or triangle bandage or EpiPen, but if I allowed myself to fear that level of risk I would also wear a helmet while walking across crosswalks. The reality is I am much more likely to get blisters, minor cuts, and lots of sore muscles.

My hiking companion and I recently completed the Overland Track in Tasmania, and they posted a picture of our packs on a related group on Facebook. There was an overwhelming response, ranging from good job! to you’re a liar or you surely didn’t have a tent or you must be on a tour and didn’t bring food. I can understand the skepticism. Upon inspecting what people brought, and never used, there is definitely a preference for people to pack their fears. Considering this track seemed to be the first time many people have done a multi-day backpacking trip, there were a lot of things they likely would not pack after gaining a little more experience.

I recently purchased an Echo from Amazon, and we were contemplating how else to better integrate it with our somewhat minimalistic home. I thought it would be interesting to get it to link to a WiFi-enabled power outlet, but unfortunately they are pretty expensive in Australia. Then I stumbled across the Sonoff devices by Itead, and learned that they were somewhat hackable via a custom firmware. Coincidentally I received the two devices on the same day my daughter was off sick, so when she had her nap, I got hacking.