Anyone with access to a television or the internet (or even those lucky enough to live here) knows it's been snowing non-stop in the New England region for a while now.  Feet of snow have been accompanied by bone-chilling temps, with the above-freezing line having been cross maybe once or twice in the past month. Most people hunker down in their houses with the heat cranked, and await the arrival of spring... 
I test out my sleeping gear!

On a warm day, of about 28 degrees, I took some time in the back yard shoveling out an area to stake my tent.  As mentioned before, I've got the MSR Hubba NX single-man tent.  This was the first time I've set it up outside (the first being in the living room, as I've mentioned before) and I wanted to get a grasp on setting it up with the fly.  I wasn't exactly fast at doing it, nor the most intelligent person.  Upon completing the set-up, I went to get inside of it and realized that the tent was backwards, with the fly opening to a solid wall instead of the tent opening.  So I had to undo the fly, remove it, un-stake the tent, flip it 180 degrees, and re-attach all aforementioned points.  Words cannot describe how foolish I felt.

Anyway... As the evening approached, I bundled up in my layers of fleece, and headed out to my humble abode.   Spatially, it's quite roomy.  Air mattress- Thermarest NeoAir Trekker-  is comfortable (I've used this before on a hiking trip last August) and weighs less than a pound.  It collapses to the size of a tupperware container, and while it isn't self inflating, it allows for a solid 20-breath cardio workout to inflate it.  The 20 degree bag did fine until about 4 AM when I woke up and was unable to fall back asleep.  Checking temps, it was below 10 degrees outside.  Instead of pointlessly shivering for another hour before getting up for work, I went inside and slept by the fire.  Hopefully it won't be getting that cold on the trail, but in the event that it does, I'll have a few more layers of clothing available to me than I had ready while at home.

The tent's going to be used a few more times before I leave, and I'll be ordering a ground cloth and some new tent stakes just to have extras.  Other than that it seems to be a great (and comparably light) piece of gear. 

How does someone prepare for a hike of mammoth proportions? This personally is a remarkably challenging question to answer, due to a few things:

1) I don't work a 9-5 job
2) More often than not, I'm traveling with work
3) I hate gyms
4) I don't live with mountains in my (immediate) back yard

These aren't excuses for physical exercise (in fact, there's a fair bit of time in my usual day where I'm moving, lifting, and walking a good distance) but they're challenges. I spent a lot of time last summer, when work is usually slow, walking around the local lake. Most people will walk once around it- approx 3.2 miles- and go home. I found myself walking for hours, sometimes 10-14 miles a day. I will admit that it's pretty much a flat walk... But it was better than nothing, right? The problem was that once I started traveling again, I didn't have access to that lake, and 12-16 hour work days don't give me much time to go to a hotel gym.

To remedy this, a friend and I came up with a plan. I have a habit of always asking for a 'room with a view' when I check into a hotel. I like the option of photographing skylines, should the mood strike. Tying into this habit, we decided that at least once a day during my stays, I would walk up to my room from the lobby. A genius plan: urban mountaineering. Last week, for example, I was on the 34th floor of the Marriott Copley in Boston. More often than not I'll also walk down the stairs to street level, then back up. One night during that stay I did 68 flights of stairs in under 12 minutes. Granted I practically ran down (it becomes rhythmic) but my climb back up was quick! Not bad for a 600' elevation gain.

I also did some more hiking this weekend.  Yesterday was a beautiful day, around 30 degrees, so I headed back to Breakheart Reservation, this time spending 95% of my time on the wooded trails... all of which were covered in 8-10" of untouched and pristine snow.  This takes a good physical workout and amplifies it as I am forced to literally break trail.  I didn't make it into the woods until about 1530hrs, so I didn't leave myself a lot of time to hike before the sun set.  In 90 minutes, however, I did 3.2 miles, with just under 2,000 feet in elevation change... again with 30lbs on my back.  The Granite Gear pack really is incredibly comfortable. 

My walk was pretty cold, but I was able to enjoy views of the sunset from the top of a hill, and also snack on an icicle... something I haven't done since I was very little and staying at my grandmother's house during winter storms.  We'd break them off of the porch overhang and eat them.  It was actually quite refreshing and lasted a good 20 minutes!  The one I broke off was about 18" long.

I'm back on the road with work now (currently posting from JFK in NY waiting for my flight to Los Angeles) but am really buckling down for gear review and coming up with what's needed before April 2nd when I fly to Springer Mountain - specifically, fly to Atlanta then drive to Springer Mountain.  It's amazing how quickly time flies.

A hugely important aspect of this kind of undertaking is being comfortable with your gear.  The last thing anyone would want would be to get down to Georgia (some people travel across the globe to get to the starting line of the A.T.) and to not be familiar with the equipment that will not only be your home and possessions for the next 6 months, but also that can be life-saving in certain situations.

I had the day off on Sunday, and decided it'd be a good time to get more familiar with the gear that I have gotten over the past few months.  The most important part of this gear being the MSR Hubba NX 1-man tent that my wonderful grandparents got me for Christmas this year*.   This was my first objective for gear test day numero uno.  The MSR Hubba NX is the newly revised replacement of the well-known Hubba 1P.  The model series includes the Hubba, Hubba Hubba, Motha Hubba, and Papa Hubba (1 through 4 man tents, respectively).   The one-man has a respectably light trail weight of 2lbs, 7oz.   Set-up consists of a single pole that splits to a Y on both ends.  Setting up for the first time on the living room floor took me about 2 minutes, which included moving a chair out of the way.  This thing is a breeze!  Tear-down took about as much time including rolling it back up and putting it back in my pack.  After this fun activity came something even better!  I packed up my bag with everything I'll be taking with me this April, and headed out for a local hike.  In the interest of a "challenge" I also put in 2 extra full Nalgene bottles (~4lbs) and two 5lb barbells.  Better to get used to it now, as the addition of food for the months of hiking will add roughly 10lbs to my pack weight.

I headed over to the Breakheart Reservation just north of Boston and did a good 2 hour baby-hike with a friend.  Terrain isn't overly challenging, but it's certainly not flat.  There are options of many miles of trails as well as a paved path around multiple lakes.  We mainly stayed on the wooded trails, but when we crossed over the paved ones I certainly got funny looks due to my bright red Marmot rain jacket, and the large backpack strapped on to my shoulders.  The good news is that everything is comfortably fitting.

I'll most certainly have to keep doing this kind of thing as my work schedule allows...  hopefully even be able to head up to the NH White Mountains with my dad and do a more rigorous hike or two before April.