JMT Anybody?

I've been looking at hiking the John Muir Trail the first 2 weeks in August. If anybody wants to join me I need to know soon, a few weeks, so I can get permits. I've also got a number of other weekend trips in the planning stages, I'll post more about them when I get some details figured out.

If no one can make the JMT I hope it to be a TEAM 42 sponsered event. Also, I don't belive I will make the Jan meeting but give me a call if you need some additional input.

Later...

T.E.A.M. 42 Meeting

On Saturday January 16th (or Saturday January 30th if there is a scout event on Saturday January 16th) there will be a T.E.A.M. 42 meeting at Granite City Restaurant & Brewery in St. Cloud (3945 2nd Street South, St Cloud, MN) at 7pm.

Please let me know via comment or e-mail (feza0901@stcloudstate.edu) if you will be attending. You are also welcome to call me.

Main topic on the table will be
-Seeing each other's faces
-Is T42 ready for the February (or March) BWCAW trip?
-What are we doing in May?
-presentation and open discussion on the Future (next 3 years) logo of T42
-awards and recognition
-How will T42 adapt to changes?

Membership Stipulations

Just thinking...

Regarding the membership requirments of participating in at least 2 TEAM 42 Expeditions a year - Since TEAM 42 is Minnesota based I think there should be an out of state clause requiring 1 TEAM 42 Expedition a year.

In My Pack - The Essentials Bag

This is the first part of a several part series on what I have in my pack. Hopefully it will spark some debate and show people some ways to save on weight.

I have a bag called my "essentials" bag. It contains the following:

1. Small waterproof bag

2. Black Diamond Ion Headlamp

3. Mini Pack towl

4. Spare camera battery

5. Journal

6. Pen

7. Personal first aid kit

8. 30' of lightweight tent line

9. spare Ion batter

10. Water purification tablets

11. Moleskin

12. Soap leafs

13. Aveda Lipsaver, wrapped with dental floss and a sewing needle (already threaded)

14. Head of a toothbrush

15. Baking Soda (for brushing teeth

16. Listerine strips (for killing the baking soda taste.

17. Matches with two strikers

18. Two small fire starters

This kit weighs in at 11.9 oz. It's not everything I carry on me, but it's what I have in this kit. Depending on the season and the area being hiked, I'll add bug spray and sunscreen.

Check it out!

It's up and running, but has a long way to go. www.teamfortytwo.com

Ultralight...

Looking at Kort and Jim's packs this past trip reminded me of all the effort I put into reducing my pack weight. Check the feeds from May 2008 as I chronicle my pack base weight reduction. I've done much more since and will post an updated gear list in the near future.

Hard to believe that at one point I struggled to get my gear down to this weight.

Triangle of Communication

As TEAM 42 looks ahead to its second decade, some big changes are happening. The website (new), Twitter and Facebook are going to integrate to form the TEAM 42 Triangle of Communication.

WEBSITE

The blog is going to be integrated into a complete website that will eventually be hosted on www.teamfortytwo.com. For the website, I need the following information from each expedition member:

• Expeditions that you have been on (these include wilderness expeditions with or without TEAM 42. Front country or park camping do not count, ie, Many Point, Northwind, Stearns, etc). I need the expedition name, where you went, names of the participants and the date of the trip.
• A personal bio.
• Your favorite trail.
• Your base pack weight.
• Your favorite item in your pack.

You can just leave the info in the comments.

TWITTER

The Twitter account is up and running. All blog posts are automatically linked with the Twitter account, giving you real time TEAM 42 updates. You can sign up for Twitter and have these updates sent to your mobile device. http://twitter.com/TeamFortyTwo

FACEBOOK

I honestly have no idea what we are going to do with this. We have like three Facebook pages and I don't go to any of them.

BRANDING

Right now we have Jim's logo on the top of the website, mainly because that is what I had and I liked it. We should all agree on an "Official" TEAM 42 logo. We can go with Jim's, or if someone wants to submit something else for us to vote on that sounds good. If I don't hear anything by the end of the week, I will just assume that everyone is happy with Jim's logo.

With whatever logo we decide on, I think we should make a commemorative ten year logo for next year 2000-2010. It can just be an addition to the logo we select by putting the years on it or something. Ten years of expeditioning should be celebrated. I'll leave that up to one of our graphic designers.

We need to agree on how the writing of TEAM 42 should look. I have seen Team 42, TEAM 42 and T.E.A.M. 42. I have my preference, but we all need to agree so we write it the same way.

MEMBERSHIP

It was suggested on the last expedition that we have requirements for continued membership in TEAM 42. It was brought up that there are expedition members that do not attend any expeditions and therefore should be removed from the team or labeled as "inactive". The suggestion was that people go on a minimum of two expeditions per year, which should be easy considering there are about a dozen opportunities a year.

That's it for more, watch for more changes coming soon...