Monday, June 23, 2008

Back to Nature

Well my fully loaded backpack weighs in at 35 pounds. I'm pleased with that. I wanted to stay under 40. I went out to the trails behind Holmberg Park again yesterday and trekked for a couple of hours. This time I brought my Nikon SLR. I wanted to see what it felt like to have that around my neck while wearing the pack. My concern was that I'd have a 2-pound weight swinging around and thumping against me. My concern was well founded. I thought I could pin the camera down some using the backpack's chest strap. That didn't work very well since the camera strap was fully extended. So I shortened up the camera strap which moved it higher against my chest and the camera stayed nice and close. To take a picture I'd unclip the chest strap, remove the lens cap, and shoot away. That's fine until it rains. There's no room in my pack so maybe I could get a case. Or enclose it in a plastic bag. Or not endanger my investment and leave it at home. Something to think about. I head out to Ross Lake on Wednesday for a four-day trek with my brother John. It's a gear shake down trip to prepare for doing the Wonderland Trail in August.
While I was going through the trees an osprey was screeching high above me and it sounded eery. While I was searching for the osprey a greenish hummingbird flitted around the branches of a nearby tree, stopped for a five second rest and then took off again. The occasional bumble bee flew by sounding like a cargo plane. And there were some wildflowers in bloom. All in all a very relaxing time.

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