Happy Birthday To Me

Present time!

This past Monday was my 56th birthday. My youngest son now refers to me as a geezer. The battle to stay adequately fit and mobile isn’t getting any easier. My hips seem to be fossilized every morning when I wake up. But as my wife’s granny used to say, it beats the alternative.

I had to work a 16 hour shift on my birthday, but my family eased my pain by gifting me a true treasure trove of gifts, every one of which was backpacking-related. I give them a 10/10 this year.

Probably the best of the lot was a pair of Julbo Explorer sunglasses.

I’ve had my eye on these for some upcoming desert and alpine hikes. They won’t be getting used on the green tunnel of the AT, but I’ll break them in this fall in Zion. Mine feature the Spectron 4 polycarbonate lenses, typically used for mountaineering. Visible light transmission is merely 5%. They have excellent coverage too, as well as a whole bunch of fancy features like 360 degree adjustable temples, front venting, and removable side shields. Almost as important, they look pretty badass too.

I also got a pair of CNOC (pronounced “knock”) Vecto 2L water bladders. These are made out of a really tough and flexible material that withstands over 200 lbs. of pressure, perfect for squeezing through a filter. Mine are the standard models that are compatible with Sawyer filters, but they just came out with a BeFree compatible version as well. Each bladder weighs 2.6 oz. I’ll be using these for desert water carries primarily, but I’m going to try one of them out on next month’s AT section hike as well. The orange one is for dirty water, the blue for clean.

What’s really nice about these is how the base opens up all the way, which makes it much easier to use shallow water sources.

Something that I’ve wanted for upcoming desert hikes is the Ursack Minor shown below.

The Ursack Minor is designed to thwart “mini bears,” i.e. mice, rats, marmots etc. AKA vermin. Mine weighs 4.6 oz., which isn’t much more than my SWD Lunch Box. It has a capacity of a bit over 10.5 liters, so it should suffice for desert hikes of up to one week. I expect to use it on upcoming hikes in Zion and Big Bend, and on a planned Arizona Trail section hike next spring.

That velcro closure is surprisingly strong by the way.

That last gift is something small but incredibly useful and versatile- the original Billi Bandana with an all fabric bill.

I love hiking with a bandana, but I’ve learned that my rain jacket needs to be used with a bill, and I didn’t want to have to carry a separate visor or cap. This bandana serves both purposes, and only weighs 1.7 oz. I will definitely be trying it out next month. Pretty stylish too.

I really dig the bonefish pattern, but I also received a couple of cool tie dye patterns as well.

So, it looks like it was worth it getting another year older. And it’s nice to know that my family supports my hiking addiction too. Perhaps they’re just trying to get me out of their hair more often though!