This community! All of you whom contribute much needed information on how to, where to buy UL gear and the encouragement needed to get the job done!
When we were younger, my husband and I backpacked and enjoyed lots of wilderness and outdoor recreation and had jobs in the forest service (trail maintenance and fire fighting) and I was an endurance competitor for 20 years. As time has progressed our bodies have taken a lot of abuse. Packing a chain saw and gas, jumping out of helicopters and swinging a polaski can really tear a body up. Then came raising a family and having time consuming jobs and caring for elders, in other words life took over. So carrying the backpacking loads we used to was out of the question. Especially since DH had a spinal injury two years ago and I just recovered from plantar faciatis.
Discovering this UL site and links leading to others has enabled us to again take our packs into the backcountry and really, really enjoy what we love best, and that is traveling together and enjoying the beauty and spectacular environments we have here on foot.
This weekend we did 15 miles of the Arizona Trail, some of which we have long wanted to see but were unable to because we thought we could no longer do the miles and carry the loads. But we we wrong. About a year ago I started to get our kits together using only UL gear and slowly we began to train our bodies to climb the hills, take the heat and have fun pushing our physical limits AND shedding the pounds! That is an especially nice benefit!
So a big THANK YOU to all here from the both of us. Hope to see you on the trail!
