1st time intro.....

Decided to get back into backpacking recently and joined the site a week ago. Just wanted to do a quick into and say howdy.

Currently in Visalia so plan on doing alot of Sequoia-Kings Canyon once I finish getting "my stuff".

Did alot of backpacking in the Army, wouldn't call it so much backpacking if you consider jumping out of an airplane and "hiking" to your destination with a 100 pound ruck......

I went to the REI used gear sale Wednesday night and while I didn't get a backpack I did get a tent. Got the REI half dome H2C for 20 bucks. Only thing wrong was it had a bent pole and a connector was missing. But i did pick up the REI Ridgeline 65.

Hope to go in August and enjoy reading the posts.......

Welcome. I found "regular"backpacking a lot more fun than Army backpacking. Hope you have a great time.

Welcome! If you haven't already found them, there are lots of excellent articles on backpacking and on gear selection listed in the left-hand column of http://www.backpacking.net/, the home page of this site.

I think you'll find that we on this site travel considerably lighter than the Army! We love what our military does for us but we don't think it's necessary to haul quite such a load out on our trails!

Thanks for the replies and I don't plane on getting anywhere close to packing that heavy. I know its still a little heavy but the max Im shooting for is 30 pounds. And I love the articles I've read on the left side. Very iunformative as well as the insight others have provided.