REI... take my money

Our tax return deposited for both our state and federal in February... and its a good thing it did... we ended up walking into REI ... and this happened...

https://www.gocomics.com/sarahs-scribbles

Allow me to explain. We decided earlier in the month that we were hiking Mount Wilson together... 14 miles of mountain.... and so we made arrangements for friends to watch our little man for a Friday sleepover and all fun play day on Saturday so we could leave and hit the base of the mountain super early.

and then wet weather hit our little bubble of the world... and snow is expected to hit the mountain again... just the day before we plan to hike it, and it's not going to melt since its going to be in the 30 degree range at the top of the mountain... We can't change the weekend since there are child watching logistics involved... and since we aren't stupid people... we dropped money on gear to make sure we are safe during our travels... 

Unfortunately this was AFTER we had already decided to spend a certain amount to get additional hiking gear.... #facepalm 

Before the bad weather appeared in the forecast, we picked up some basics for me to hike with hubs, including finally buying some proper hiking underwear, items to assist us using the wilderness restroom, some dry sacs to help sort out some gear, and another set of socks and liners for me). We used some credit card rewards money and that made our $200 REI trip more like $100 and felt that we were embracing our model to not drop crazy amounts of money at REI.  

Then the weather turned and I had to go back to the store... 

Apparently a trail runner, who was in a group with 3 other people, and they were not newbies, fell off the mountain and plummeted 180 feet to his death because he ran into some ice and wasn't prepared for it .... on the same mountain we plan to hike...  So, we both now own micro spikes for the "lets not fall off the mountain" win... (These are medal spikes that attach to your hiking boot to give you additional traction with your poles so if you hit ice, you have more traction to hopefully avoid falling)

I also now have a very respectable synthetic bottom base layer because they don't make mid weather pants in my size...  These are my general hiking pants from Columbia (they are amazing and I wear them all the time because they are thin, breathable, black and just all over awesome --- and they come in SHORT sizes)... but I needed something a little warmer for the 32 degrees we are expecting... and the only mid-temp pants in the store, that had short sizes were too small... by ONE size. I tried seeing if i could just buy the next size up online, but they decided not to make them larger than that in the short sizes. While I could get the pair they had in the store on, and move in them, they were too snug to pay $100 for... I tried on a regular in the next size up but I would have had to hem them like 8 inches and the pant seams would not be in the ideal places because of my shorter frame, which could lead to chaffing.... which is bad on a 14 mile hike... and I just couldn't pay $100 for a pair of pants that i'd have to attempt to fix in order to wear them... So instead I got a base layer that fits under my light weight hiking pants for added warmth.

I DID TRY finding base layers online and at Walmart... but they didn't have anything, so I spent money on the expensive pair from REI... making our second trip $200 

And then if you remember, hubs is on a no soda bet for an entire year... and he has been true to his bet thus far... and will likely keep to it because if he drinks soda, he looses like $80 at this point, and his grand prize.... which is a light weight back packing tent "of his choice" ... and he has his eyes on the $600 Zpacks duplex. We have been watching a ton of hiker videos because you can't buy this tent at REI... or in a store... 

• we have taped out the floor in our living room to get an idea of how big it is... and if we would both fit inside of it... 
• we have looked at other "tall people" claiming they fit in the tent, but everything is subjective. If you sleep slightly curled up, or flat, it makes a difference.

So we are still on the fence... and so we hit up the reddit hiking community and we were able to find a few local folks who will meet us in a park in a few weeks and will let us see their tent so we can see if he fits... or if we can both fit... so we picked up two foam sleeping pads that we can toss in there to gauge how much space there is when we do the meet up.

I'm also thinking that we are going to need to cut part of my foam mat off and tape it to hubs mat because they don't make foam mats for people who are taller than 6 feet... and we don't know if he's going to be "okay" with a sleeping pad that is 6 inches too short... I see how he sleeps at home and he's a straight leg sleeper on an angle... so he might benefit from my cutting my pad down to size and using my extra.