I am two steps closer to the big journey into the wilds. I have purchased an orienteering compass, and a sleeping bag. The sleeping bag is a perfect fit for what I want to do. It’s super light, and super small, which is important for a long journey, because I don’t want to be bogged down with equipment.

The bag is a simple fleece sleeping bag. It’s rated for 50 degrees, a bit on the high side for sleeping in the mountains of the high desert, but for me it will work. It would be no good for sleeping out under the stars, with the crickets and worms crawling on your face at night, because it has no outer shell to repel moisture. It would act as an environmental sponge, and you’d wake up a living puddle. But, since I will be sleeping in a tent, it’s exactly what I need.

The bag has only one real drawback. Blue fuzz. My khakis are covered in it, just having opened the package to take a good look at my new possession. I’ll have to fix this before I go into the wilds. Sierra Club members that hike by might spit at me if they see me covered in blue fuzz. That just wouldn’t do.

Wisdom has gotten the best of me, and the week long experiment has been shortened to a 2 night educational trip. Had it been a jump-n-go thing, I’d be up there already, and probably dead from exposure. But since I had time to think things over, I realised that going up into the mountains for 7 days, with no way to get help, was.....well......stupid.

Every year here in the Vegas valley, some hiker or hikers die from stupid mistakes of the inexperienced, thinking they can just walk out into the wilds with little or no knowledge and conquer Mother Nature. I decided it would be more fun to return home after my trip, than to become a statistic. So, two days to gauge how much food I eat, and water I drink. Get a better understanding of how I will handle the absolute isolation, even if just on a shorter scale.

Now, I’m running over in my head the options for backpacks. I know I want a big frame pack, so when I come across other hikers, they will know I am for real. Just like my golf bag. I can’t hit the ball to save my life, but I have a giant golf bag, so I look like a pro, and get the respect I deserve (or, the respect that a pro deserves, and I pretend to).

I’ve narrowed it down to two bags. The giant backpack. And the Uber Giant backpack. They are only $30 apart in price, and both hold just shy of everything I own in the world. The big question is how much hiking will I do in the future. For this trip, neither is really that important. I’m getting dropped off, and I will be camping near the drop point. No long distance hauling of supplies and gear needed.

The Giant pack is designed for what the manufacturer calls “moderate” trips, or long weekends. And it surely is big enough to pack a good load. But it’s also not so huge that it would be ridiculous on an afternoon hike through the mountains. The Uber Giant pack is for long trips. It’s great, because you can drive to your starting point, pack your jeep in the backpack, and walk till you’re ready to start driving again. But for an afternoon hike, it would be a ludicrous. The frame is taller than my mother is. You can carry a sleeping bag, a tent, and enough food and water for a week (plus, of course, the jeep). It’s a bit much to climb to the top of a hill, shoot a few pictures and climb back down again.

What I hate to do is buy the wrong one. The smaller one wouldn’t be enough for a really good trek across the mountain range, but if I never get to that point in my outdoorsing “career”, the Uber Giant bag is a total waste. I guess, I will have to do the only sensible thing.

Get both.