New to the hobby.

Hey everyone! I'm Dave. I love hiking as well as camping so I decided why not combine them? I've bought the majority of the gear I'll need and have done a good amount of research (which i will be continuing to do). My first trip will hopefully be this spring on the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway in New Hampshire. Before that I'm going to make a few one night excursions just to get accustomed to my gear. Just thought I would say hello instead of just lurking. (and I promise I'm not the horrible type of new guy Lori was describing)

LOL!!

Welcome to the Forums!!!

You'll meet some of those types if you keep at it long enough

We all love to read trip reports and see pics if you took them, so keep that in mind. Personally, I'd love to hear about the places you can backpack out there.

Welcome to the forum and to backpacking. It's really a great recreation once you learn the ropes.

(and I promise I'm not the horrible type of new guy Lori was describing)

Good. We won't ask you for the $100 cleaning deposit then.

Seriously, welcome to the site, northeastern!

Have you read the articles on the home page of this site, left-hand column?

I'll start posting when I take on some multi-day trips!
And I have looked into the articles on the main page of the site, which is pretty extensive and helps build up on what I've already read.

The sentence "I'm going to make a few one night excursions just to get accustomed to my gear" excludes the horrible type diagnosis.

Have fun, don't let the bunyips get you.

Welcome - sounds like you're off to a good start, and have a workable plan. Enjoy yourself.

and welcome.

Thanks everyone! My main concern is cooking (I have a jetboil flash) but I'm sure I'll get it sorted out!

Welcome. I've day hiked Monadnock a few times and I'm very interested in that trail. I hope you share your trips!

I love Monadnock (except for it being overcrowded) and the greenway seems like an easy enough trail for my first multi-day. I'll let you know as well as post pictures.

Now that you have some new gear, it's time to start thinking about new and lighter gear.

Seriously, have fun and post pictures. Oh, those bunyips are pretty dangerous.

I hate it when those things chomp on me like that

To be fair, we REALY all should have waited to allow Lori to be the first one to reply....grin

I don't think anyone has ever seen a bunyip and lived to tell about it. But its scat often has bells and pepper spray in it.

Maybe i'll get to be the first

If you are worried about cooking, here is my advice ... get some dehydrated meals from Hawk Vittles. I love them. The pastas especially. It's great to have a meal that tastes like it was made in a kitchen after traumatizing your body and burning thousands of calories. All you need is some boiling water.

You can of course learn a lot more in the forums about backpacking cooking, but that is a no brainer to get you started.

Lots of stuff on cooking is available:

"Sarbar's" website, www.trailcooking.com. Lots of stuff using supermarket ingredients, rehyddrated with boiling water and stuck in a cozy 15 minutes. Saves fuel and no dishes to wash (Sarbar is my heroine!).

"Dicentra's" website, One Pan Wonders, is another good one.

There's a "Lite Food Talk" section here in the forum with a separate Trail Food Cookbook, with lots of yummy recipes.

Packit Gourmet is another great source for freeze dried food. You can buy in bulk and mix your own meals if you prefer (cheaper that way). Also a lot tastier and with less preservatives than Mountain House (yech!).

I have a cheap dehydrator (it does have a thermostat, which is important) that I use to dehydrate portions of the one-dish meals I cook during the winter. I also cook my own rice (in chicken broth or vegetable broth) and dehydrate it instead of using the (IMHO) inedible Minute Rice. I do the same for quinoa. Just be sure to start dehydrating small portions and test them at home--you don't want to dry a whole dehydrator full of a recipe and then find out it either tastes horrible or won't reconstitute! Sarbar's website listed above has lots of info on home dehydrating.