Things are slowly coming together. Also I bought a stickpic, its a cool little gadget that attaches my camera to the end of my trekking pole, as demonstrated below.

After attending Andrew Skurka's presentation and reading his book about lightweight adventure equipment I became curious about the bivy/tarp shelter system. The bivy sack that he uses costs about $170 and the manufacturer takes 8-10 weeks to make them because they are a small company. So I made my own for about $35 worth of materials. It's not a professional sewing job, but I'm proud of the result. Oh and it only weighs 6.35 oz.

I'm also working on a rain skirt. A rain skirt is a waterproof skirt that one wears while hiking in the rain. The ventilation is superior to that of rain pants and the weight is less.

Chocolate is a necessity, bars are convenient, the dehydrated food is piling up in the freezer, and my boxes are starting to get filled. I have some tofu jerky and salsa in the dehydrator right now. I've found that a jar of salsa fits on a single dehydrator tray and some big scoops of salsa can flavor up a meal on the trial nicely.
     
I've got lots of fruit powders that I mix with powdered milk, protein powder, and water to make a smoothy, then add some granola or cereal and you've got a mighty fine trail breakfast.