I have a bunch of new toys, including a mapping GPS and an LED flashlight. But the coolest product of all I've just recently acquired (as in, today). It's an Exped down-filled air mattress. For about the weight and packed size (and more than double the price!) of a thermarest, I can have 9 cushy centimeters of insulation under me. I've been lounging on it all evening and will sleep on it this weekend -but my preliminary conclusion is, so long thermarest. The stuff sack (unlike Cascade Designs, Exped includes the stuff sack with the product) is waterproof, with a drybag-like closure and a valve. You need the valve, because the stuffsack is also the bellows you pump the mattress up with. Down = can't blow it up with your breath if you want it to stay warm. Then, when you're done with the blowing up portion of the entertainment, you close the valve, inflate the stuffsack - it's *padded*, go figure - and pillow! *And* you can store the mat both folded in half and rolled, or rolled its entire width - both fit into the stuffsack, it's got some weird extender thingy that allows the buckles to be pulled through some slots, but that would require reading instructions. But, oh - cushy!
My list of places I will be in the next six months is getting longer than it has been in a while. Alas, only one of the entries on the list (the Charlottes) will require the new downmat. Not rocket science to thus conclude that the majority of places I'm going are 1) trips with hotels 2) for work 3) without my kayak 4) far from backcountry.
But. New mattress. Charlottes in July. Can't complain about the way 2005 is shaping up, now, can I?
My brother is in Africa, on a Kilimanjaro expedition. Andrew is doing real-time updates via satellite phone. I'm not even tempted to make fun of this, I think it's way too cool that I can see where they are every day.
I'd be jealous, were it not for the fact that I've been spending some of my evenings doing some planning for an expedition of my own. Lee hatched a Queen Charlotte Islands plan last fall, and since then, there's been a fair bit of research. I know a lot can happen between now and then, and I don't want to jinx anything - but we have our flights booked, so it feels like it really will happen. Whee.