One of the more daunting tasks I have in front of me in regards to getting ready for the AT next year is gear. While shopping for gear for one person is expensive, I am actually having to shop for gear for five people and that is going to be expensive. I have been poking around various sites like REI and EMS to get an idea of what the price will be and the numbers just kept getting bigger and bigger. I was feeling a bit disheartened when I stumbled across this article over on the White Blaze forums and have to say that this renewed my excitement and made me realize that getting gear for everyone wouldn't be the nightmare I was thinking it might be.
Not only did this article point out ways I could save money with bargain shopping, but it had some awesome links for making your own gear. At first I was like "what? make your own gear? Is that a good idea?" Then I started to read some of the designs of what other people had made and realized that making my own gear was actually a perfect answer to a few of my problems.
Aside from the cost of brand new gear, one of the biggest problems I was having was figuring out what to do about Jade. Jade is tiny and weighs forty pounds soaking wet. Looking through the various children's packs I wasn't finding any that would actually fit her tiny little back and shoulders, but with making a backpack for her I can actually make one that fits to her perfectly.
Along with being able to fit the gear to the kids better another advantage of making my own gear is that it gives me and the kids something to do that is a visible sign of progress toward our goal of the trail. It's hard to keep kids focused on something that happens tomorrow and keeping them focused on a goal that is nearly a year away is not easy. With making our own gear though, I have a way to keep the kids not only focused but invested in the trip.
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