Well, I continue to be at best sporadic on this blog. I've been a bit better on the god blog.

Recently I've been anxious for spring to arrive. I really want to get back to hiking and backpacking. I think Will is getting old enough to really start participating too. I don't think Josh or Teresa will be too gung ho on it, but Teresa at least will go sometimes and on the other times it wouldn't hurt me to get some alone time in the woods. Right now, the only good place will be low in the valleys, and it will still be pretty cold with all that. Anything high will be snowy or worse. Of course Will wants to go snow camping, so maybe I can arrnage something like that. We'll have to see how the weather holds. This next weekend we're headed to SLC on a birthday trip for him. And on the other day he wants to invite friends over to play.

I lack a couple pieces of gear to really get back to backpacking. My old REI internal frame finally broke last summer. The plastic piece that holds the sholder straps to the adjustable frame just broke. The straps are still tethered to the pack by som webbing, so the pack was wearable and could be lugged out (someone else did it, I was carrying Will who got several stitches for the gash on his knee.) But the pack just isn't useable in any realistic sense. I'm going to take it to REI in SLC this next weekend to see if it can be repaired. I hold little hope that it can. Even if the pieces are still available (I bought the pack used in the late 80s) I suspect that it would be cheaper to buy a good second hand pack than to repair this one. The second thing I need is a good pair of hiking boots. Fortunately these are less essential than the pack. I can make do with tennis shoes and a pair of field boots as long as I don't try anything to difficult. And of course I'm not likely to get too difficult with Will along. So for now, I'm in the market for a good pack. I've been looking online, and found a few that looked good, but I've been out of the loop on packs for a while and don't really know what I'm looking at. I'm hoping to take some time at REI to try a couple on, though wilth Will in tow that may be difficult. The next option is to head to sportsmans warehouse and another local place and poke around. between that and some online reviews, I should be able to get back up to speed enough to make a cgood choice.