Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Day 2- Jim and Molly Denton Shelter to Rod Hollow Shelter

Note:. This is a previous section hike I wrote up and never posted. We have big plans for summer of 2019, so I am getting caught up on our section hike records.

Mar 3
Miles Hiked 18.4





Snow! We woke to a nice blanket of snow.
After cooking some breakfast and chatting with Overload, we got a late start at 0845.
Overload was a faster hiker, but we caught up to him 4 or 5 times throughout the day during his breaks.

Just before dark...after almost 10 hours of hiking, we walked into Rod Hollow Shelter, tired and ready for a hot meal. The temperature was already down to the low 20s. No problem, i thought...because i have this new Kovea canister stove with a remote fuel line. This allows the canister to be inverted, which works much better than a typical screw on the top canister stove.
    But i was wrong. The stove would light, but the canistet was too cold...after a minute or so it would stop feeding fuel down the line.  Every time this happened i had to remove the canister and put it inside my jacket to warm it up. I also had to look a very hungry Sage in the eyes and tell her we may not have the hot meal as planned. It was a very hungry look in her eyes.
     I finally got the canister to flow, and then played the delicate game of moving the canister close enough to thr flame to heat it, but far enough away to avoid an explosion and the associated shrapnel to the face. Apparently i struck the right balance, as we boiled some water and really enjoyed our rice and bean meal with Chili Cheese Fritos. Thanks Andrew Skurka for a great recipe.
Link here
The temperature was dropping fast, and with a forecast for the teens, we went for the warmest setup we could. That meant Sage slept in the shelter with her 15 degree down Marmot bag, AHE Jarbridge underquilt as a blanket on the top, and her foam thermarest pad.  I hung my hammock to see how well my 20 degree Hammock Gear top quilt and zero degree Underquilt would do in the teens.
Both of us slept warm overnight, i even had to unzip my jackets to keep from overheating. My thermometer showed 17 degrees in the morning.


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