Backpacking in Shenandoah National Park

This will be our last backpack before our summer trip... last time to shake out some new gear! It was hot and buggy and the poison ivy was very healthy indeed.



We came across two bear cubs climbing a tree. Mama-bear was no where to be seen so we think she was at the base of the tree (out of our view) coaching her babies. We also saw some cool butterflies, including this one...


Here is our very cool and super-light-weight new tent. It's called a "TarpTent" and weighs in at under 3 pounds, which is really incredible for a huge 3-person tent. It's set up with the trekking pole option, but it also comes with it's own traditional style tent poles. We also dehydrated our food ourselves - each of our packs weighed in at just under 20 pounds!

Bob taking a break next to the stream. Speaking of water, we also ditched our heavy MSR water filter and used a 2-part water treatment called AquaMira. It takes 15 minutes for it to kill all the bad stuff before you can drink it. We each drank plenty of water treated this way and neither of us got sick.