The trip was good and we had 32 people

We had more people than I thougt, we made tarp shelters that slept six each, we only hiked 5 miles and the temps were only in the 20's, we had a great time and I am going out again this weekend then the 4th to the 7th as well, I will keep you up to date, thanks for all the advice it was a big help.

bmwrider:

Hey, we need more of a trip report than that. Tell us what worked and didn't work. How it went. How was it with that many people?? Sounds like you enjoyed it enuf to do it again.

Well lets see what else I can tell you, I used an Osprey aether 70 backpack, an REI kilo 0 70 down bag and two thermarest pads 2" and 2.5" along with an all weather picknic blanket under ever thing to keep the bag from touching the ground and getting wet, I wore REI mid weight base layers, 100 weight fleece, 700 down jacket and taku pants, a patagonia powrstretch top and Moutain hardware shell jacket and some old insulated snow pants that never let me down, I packed a hatchet and Mora knife, MSR dragonfly stove, GSI double boiler pot, some freeze dried meals, oatmeal, energy bars and hot cider mix, we set up the tarps in an a frame type shelter made a fire hung around it for awhile, did a night hike to warm everyone up turned in for the night with warm bodies, mde breakfast te next day tore down camp a hiked out everyone drove to a bar restarunt for bergers an ten headed home. well t pads wrke gret to kep me warm bt I needes a sitting pad to for under my feet keep ground from sucking the heat out, I had one for sitting but could have used another for the tootsies, I’m not too crazy about my pack it feels like its slidding down my hips all the time, I’m gonna sell it and get a gregory again, I forgot my trekking poles and wished I had them, the trail had a frozen snowmobile track on it making it hard to hike in some places, Well I hope that’s better for ya.

bmrider
how old is the pack? I have noticed that new packs take a while to get to know them and how to adjust them, new waist belts are always a bit slick and slide down and after a few trips the wasit band sort of shapes to your body. Imagine when my spectra pack was new... I really hated the waist band, spectra is almost as slick as teflon, now it hugs my hips.

Cold tootsies means inadequate footwear. extra large booties with thick socks helps that.
Jim

Well the belt is heat molded to me, Osprey has an oven for that and quite a few of my customers have the same complaint about it (I sell backpacks at REI and I'm the product trainer for those products in my store) so I don't think thats the problem I think its the lumbar pad, its not shaped to fit in the pocket of the lower back like the Gregory packs for example. no big deal, I am cursed with the ability to try packs and sell them without losing money and get something else to try next, life can be tough sometimes LOL.