So, part of our trip prep is to move out of our apartment. Luckily we don't have to break our lease to leave, but it just so happens that our lease expires exactly one month from the day we plan to leave LA. So, what to do? Fortunately, my parents are locals and both have spare bedrooms. As of right now the plan is to spend about 2 weeks at my dad's place, followed by 2 weeks at my mom's. I'm not sure how you guys feel about the issue, but for us, moving sucks! The process of boxing things up and living in my very own box city is not exactly appealing. For example, I am sitting on my couch (which is for sale BTW) and I can't see the front door, or the kitchen, due to the enormous pile of boxes. So, we are going to be moving boxes for the next few weekends. Then there's the fact that we have to be completely sure when we pack something that we are not going to need it on the trip. This has led to a few re-opening of boxes to retrieve accidentally packed items. So, last night we packed everything into our packs to be sure we still had everything and to keep all our gear contained. We're golden. It's getting so close, it's so exciting!
I'm Torn!
Ok guys, I need your help. My predicament is whether or not to bring a pair of jeans on this trip. Initial response is, "no, jeans are heavy and don't dry quickly, which can quickly lead to a musty smell throughout your bag." Also, you might add, "Berkley, you're going to be traveling through a lot of hot, hot climates and jeans won't be comfortable, especially when it's humid." But, here's my thing... I live in jeans. I love a dress, but there will be places (with malaria carrying mosquitoes and the like) where I can not wear a dress. And if I'm thinking about how I look, at all, I like how I look wearing jeans more than when I'm wearing pants of a different material. GAH! I'm so torn! I need social input! Please tell me your thoughts!
We bought our tickets
No turning back now, we purchased our around the world airline tickets. We used the Star Alliance airline network so the dates are very flexible. But here is the general outline.
Denver to Frankfurt - June 28th
Istanbul to Dar Es Salam - August 16th
Dar Es Salam to Delhi - September 1st
Kathmandu to Osaka - October 9th
Osaka to Bangkok - October 29th
Bangkok to Singapore - November 29th
Singapore to Denver - December 29th
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Denver to New York City - TBD
New York City to Madrid - TBD
Madrid to Istanbul - TBD
After weeks and weeks of research I ended up discovering a little loophole when purchasing the tickets. If you don't want to read the specifics of how we saved around four thousand dollars and ended up with a freebie trip to New York and Madrid read no further.
When purchasing the around the world ticket , starting in Denver the ticket costs 13,000 dollars for the two of us. If you move the starting location to Istanbul keeping all stops the same the ticket drops to 9,000 for the both of us. But we still need to get to Istanbul to start the trip off. Thats where a specific credit card comes into play. After searching high and low to find the perfect credit card to use over seas I decided the CHASE Sapphire Preferred Visa was the best one. No annual fee, no overseas surcharges, and 50,000 bonus points when you spend 3 thousand in the first three months. We got two of these cards, one in my name and one in my wife's name. We used one card to purchase the tickets and the other to purchase a bunch of new gear for the trip. With our bonus points in play we used those to get tickets from Denver to Frankfurt, from there we will make our way to Istanbul and start the around the world ticket getting off the plane in Denver. BUT one requirement for the ticket is that you must start and end in the same country. So we have tickets that go from Denver to Madrid then Madrid to Istanbul that we can use within a calendar year of the first flight out of istanbul. So if you were able to follow all that what it means is that we saved four thousand dollars and got free one way tickets to Spain with a bit of research and careful planning.
I'm wearin Flippy Floppies...
So, as it turned out, these were our savior after some intense hiking. This weekend Seth and I decided to put our newly acquired gear to the test and go backpacking. For those of you who know our camping/vacation record, we always end up having an adventure. Be it a monsoon with hurricane grade wind in Monterrey that shuts down the town, dust storms in the Mojave desert, or deathly heat outside of Phoenix, Arizona in the Tonto National Forest, we always end up with a story to tell.
This time the story takes place in the Sespe Wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest. The plan was to make it to Willet Hot Springs, and possibly make our way all the way up to Sespe Hot Springs. We set off with our back packs filled with only what we needed. This wasn't going to be one of our gourmet camping trips with grill pans and beer, we brought boil in bag freeze dried food. Not even tents, we brought our bivy sacks. Anyhoo, we set off on Friday morning into the wilderness in our newly worn in boots, minimalist backpacks, and Mochi. We had a few river crossings where we had to hop across rocks and some where we needed to wade across. Mochi was pretty good at river rock hopping, but wasn't too keen on wading. Seth ended up carrying her, as she paddled in mid air. Pretty funny. We were over half way to the hot springs when Seth's feet started hurting. He was already dealing with a blister when we began so we patched him up with some moleskin and we kept going. Then my feet began to hurt. Like I mentioned to every soul who fit me for boots, I need a big toe box because my feet swell when I do physical activity. My toes were being squished together.
Even so, we were having a good time. The weather was nice and warm with a cool breeze here and there. And Mochi was having a blast. She did not have to look far to find a butterfly or lizard to chase. Eventually I spot something I thought was a bearded dragon. Seth, being the quick and coordinated one, was able to catch it for a closer look. The little critter didn't seem to be bothered and it turned out to be a horny toad. He was super calm and posed nicely for pictures. Pretty cool. We ended up finding a few others along our trip, but this one was the coolest because he was the first.
Speaking of critters, he wasn't the only little guy we ran into. We came across frogs, bats, a California kingsnake, a garter snake, and skinks. Mochi found the skinks. There was a hollowed out log where we ended up camping that was apparently filled with skinks. Mochi nabbed a few of their tails and the wriggling sent her wild!
Back to the adventure. The last 4 miles of the hike to the hot springs was a lot of up and down terrain. By that point our feet were in pretty bad shape. Not a difficult hike, but our feet were causing much difficulty. For Seth, the pain was lessened when we were going downhill, because the pressure was off his heels. For me, the uphill climbs provided a touch of relief because it eased the pressure in my toes. So it was a lose lose situation. We made it to the Willet Campground with a few hours of sunlight left to spare. When we asked some skinny dippers where the hot springs were, she pointed the way, but mentioned that her and her 12 buddies were staying at the sight by the spring. We were in pretty bad shape but we decided to keep going in search of a campsite away from all the people. We made it about a mile or two more over the next ridge and just as I was about to collapse from pain Seth found an awesome campsite. There were makeshift benches of logs on piles of rocks and a fire pit and on top of that it was right by the river. Plus, we were past the hot springs so no one was heading our way.
The first thing I did was take off my boots. That was a surprise. I had blisters on almost all of my toes, with monsters on my pinky toes. To add insult to injury, it looked as though I might lose my left pinky toenail. Gees. I hobbled over to the river to soak my feet while Seth took pictures before we lost all sunlight. The river felt so good.
After a good soak we started a fire and cooked up some delicious Santa Fe Chicken and Peppered Steak and rice in a bag. The Santa Fe Chicken by Backpackers Pantry was pretty good. Then we boiled up some water to drink and basically hit the sack!
The next morning, after very little sleep, we were ready to hike the day away. Mochi was a little worn out. Not only did she over exert herself the day before, but she was up all night keeping watch, barking or growling at anything that moved. After some coffee we taped up my toes and Seth's heels, then headed up to the hot springs. The hot spring was lukewarm at best, and to be completely honest, it was kind of gross looking. Murky like. It wasn't worth us getting all wet to be in tepid water in the heat of the day. So we decided to do some hiking back towards the car and find a cool campsite along the way to spend the night.
We began to hike in a bit of pain, but our spirits were high. Though in a bit of pain, we were still having fun. A little before hitting the halfway point Seth noticed rain clouds heading towards us. So much for our forecast of 0% rain. Thank you to the California weathermen. We decided that staying the night would not be in our cards. At a bit of a hobbler's pace we made it to the first big river crossing and had to/got to take off our boots. The relief was amazing, but what we found was unnerving. We were in pretty bad shape. The cool water of the river felt good on our feet. But, there was no way we were putting those boots back on. We slapped on our flip flops and trudged along.
Flip flops are difficult to walk in when they are wet. They get slippery and this is a precarious situation while carrying packs up and down rocky terrain. But, we were managing. Then, about 4.2 miles to go (we checked) Mochi decided she was done walking. "You go on! Just leave me here!" her eyes told us. Gah! Rather than leave our dog in the wilderness, we arranged the Crazy Creek on the back of Seth's pack so that she was carryable and she started nodding off to the rhythmic beat of Seth's pace. 
This was not going to work. 20 extra pounds dangling off the back of Seth's pack was not a good situation. So, what do mothers do with their children? They swaddle them to their chests. This is kinda similar, right?
Then, as if hiking up and down rocky terrain, through rivers, in flip flops, carrying 35+ pounds, and trading off the doggie hammock wasn't enough, the wind began to pick up and the heavens decided to open. With our forecast of 0% chance of rain we hadn't packed rain gear. Now, our feet were in pain from being blistered, and our body was beginning to ache from the situation (i.e. hiking in slippery flip flops with lots of weight). A few more river crossings later, and we finally made it to the car. Luckily we brought extra shirts.
We blasted the heat and headed home. After stopping at Mulberry Street Pizza in Sherman Oaks to say hello to my dad (and grub on some well deserved lasagna pizza) we were in our humble abode. We washed Mochi, then ourselves, tended to our wounds, and hopped into bed. Sleep hurt, and waking up hurt too. We're both pretty stiff and I'm gonna lose one, if not two, of my pinky toe nails.
The moral of this story is, forget the boots. Flip flops will do. Needless to say, we're both returning our boots once we can walk without waddling.
As for the rest of our gear, everything was pretty stellar. Our pants (Seth=Rock Guide from Patagonia, Berkley=Horizon Tempest by North Face) were awesome,drying quickly and super comfortable. Our backpacks (Seth=Baltoro by Gregory, Berkley=ACT Lite SL by Deuter) were comfortable and held all our stuff. Both packs have lots of handy loops to hook things to the outside if needed (like unworn boots and dogs with low morale). The travel towels by McNett were super absorbent once the rain began. Seth's Capilene shirt by Patagonia was light and breathable and dries extremely fast. My Merino Silkweight by Patagonia was a favorite of mine too. I didn't feel it on me, wet or dry. I've decided on two bras (so far). For this trip I used my coolmax travel bra by Travelsmith and it was perfect. I didn't feel it on me and it wicked really well. My underwear by Patagonia were awesome, as usual, and Seth is still liking his Champion skivvies. As you can see, our cameras are rocking the house. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1 takes great photos and Seth has been doing a lot of experimenting with exposure time and HDRI, and it's turning out great. And, our Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3 is perfect and portable and the GPS feature is awesome. Though we found some pitfalls, it's better to do the testing out here when we have a comfy bed and all the amenities to recuperate. This is why you don't buy new gear for a big trip!
my boots kicked my ass..
My blisters have blisters on them, nuff said.
So close! (yet so far away)
Fourteen weeks until we embark on our great adventure! That's 96 days, 8 hours, 34 minutes! Aahh! We're pretty excited. And my god have we been blowing through money! Though we're not bringing much, the items we're bringing are mostly new so it's been a bit overwhelming at times. But, we've gotten some really cool gadgets, clothing, and accessories to help us on our way. Some favorites? Well, first of all, we both got a new backpacks. A few weeks ago Seth and I weighted up our packs and went for a hike up Red Rocks Canyon in Malibu and my old backpack was really making me uncomfortable. Seth ended up carrying it for a bit and had the same problem. So, we decided that I needed a new pack. I now am the proud owner of a Deuter ACT Lite 60+10 SL. Fancy name, I know. I'm excited. Then,Seth kept looking at his 105 L pack and we finally decided it was too big. He ended up getting the Gregory Baltoro 65L in green. He's liking that a lot. And, last night we packed all of our things into the pack cubes and found out that everything fits in the backpacks with a bit of room to spare, which is good. We need room for souvenirs along the way.
Also a great find was our prescription organizer. We found a travel store (Magellan) in Santa Monica that had an entire store dedicated to traveling, clever. So, among other things, we found a solution to our prescription dilemma. We got tons of super useful prescription drugs from our awesome travel doctor (Dr. Terri Rock), and didn't know how we were going to effectively store them in our pack. It's like a little fold out book with baggies that hold the pills. Really useful. So now we will have a convenient way to keep our anti malaria, anti altitude and other anti pills organized.
When I try to think about other cool purchases we have made I can't think of just a few. We have our big ol telephoto lens, a great tripod, bras from Patagonia, and a waterproof GPS camera. Before we actually leave, when we actually have all of our our things, we'll compose a list of what we have in each of our packs, and on our person, and probably take pictures to load as well. That way you all will be able to see what we think it takes to travel for 6 months.
Now, does anyone want to buy our couch?