Road Trip 2022: By the Numbers

2022-07-23
PA

I like to finish each road trip with a little introspection and some things to remind myself to think about for next time. One thing I've thought a bit about this trip is aesthetics. While some of the pictures I post are chosen simply because they tell a story, many of the photos I pick based on what looks good to me. But for some reason most of us have a similar sense of aesthetics. If we see a picture of a mountain, or a beach, or a sunset, most of us react the same way. I wonder what sort of survival instinct led to this behavior.

For this trip, I have the usual pile of numbers to consider:

• Days spent: 21
• Nights in a tent: 12
• National Parks visited: 10 (5 new to me, 10 new to Valerie)
• Museums, State Parks, National Monuments, etc. visited: 12 (9 new to me, 12 new to Valerie)
• Pictures taken: 2802 by me
• Miles hiked: 103+
• Miles driven: 6473
• States visited: 19 (5 new to me, 16 new to Valerie)
• Entry Fees not paid due to $80 pass: $195

The entry fees were lower than the previous trip because two of the parks are cave parks (you pay for tours instead of entry) and three of the other parks (Hot Springs, Indiana Dunes, and Cuyahoga) had free entry. On the other hand, two of the monuments (Devils Tower and Capulin Volcano) did have fees. But even if we lost money the card would be worth it for the convenience.

Our spring training was limited this year for a number of reasons, and that hurt us some. Last year we were regularly doing 8-12 mile hikes with plenty of PA hills to climb. This year we only did one or two long hikes. The lack of training combined with the altitude made for some tougher hikes. We pushed through, even the 10 miles with 1600 feet of climb at 10,000 feet. But I think it would've gone better if spring training was more consistent.

I switched to a different camera this year. I went to the Canon R6 mirrorless. The main reason I switched is because the mirrorless is half a pound lighter which adds up over 10 miles. At the same time, I switched my primary lens from a 24-70 f4 on the 7D Mark II to the 24-105 f4 on the R6. This gives me a little more flexibility on my everyday lens, but it is 2 ounces heavier. So my standard kit went from 54 ounces to 48 ounces. Because the mirrorless cameras use a different lens mount, I ended up replacing some of my lenses. I went with an 16 mm prime for my wide angle and a 100-400 f5.6-8 for wildlife, the latter saving a whopping 30 ounces (almost 2 lbs) and several cubic inches from the 100-400 f4-5.6 I was using before. It isn't as nice, but a lens that I have with me is worth more than a much better one left in the car. I also picked up a 50 mm f1.8 prime to use in caves. All of the lenses saw action this trip.

Our Osprey day packs were the workhorses this trip. We had Clik camera packs (discontinued but I got a second one from eBay), but the Osprey holds more. We also used Osprey water bladders and they worked great and fit in both the Osprey and Clik packs. I had picked up an extra set of magnets so we had them on all four packs for faster swapping.

The Kelty tent had pluses and minuses. I really did like that it was mesh starting maybe ten inches from the ground all the way to the top. On a hot or starry night all that screen was great. I didn't like the fact that the rain fly didn't fold up out of the way; we could only basically throw it on the ground at the back of the tent if we wanted it to be ready to pull over should weather threaten. Furthermore I found the tent a bit clunky to put up solo since the poles were one on top of the other, meaning that you had to loosen the top pole so you could install the bottom pole. We usually teamed up to set it up so this wasn't a real issue. Also one of the poles developed a tear in one of the metal segments so I will need to try to get that replaced. Overall it served its purpose and survived the trip but I liked my REI half-dome better.

I visited five new states this time around, leaving me just five more to go. Most of them are even close together in the Deep South. No telling when I will get there; hopefully soon. Valerie added a dozen states to her list and got to see most of the Midwest.

And just to wrap up, here are some more pictures.