When I booked my trip to Killarney this year I had no idea that I’d be knee deep in preparing my home for sale by the time it was scheduled to start. I made the reservations in late March, and by the time August rolled around my life was in turmoil. I almost cancelled the trip because I simply didn’t have time to do everything needed to get ready for spending eight days in the wilderness. After a summer of home renovations I was really ready for a break though, so I decided to go for it. I quickly gathered food and gear while making the last minute preparations in three days.
Despite the mad rush we ended up with almost exactly enough food, and with the exception of fresh batteries and some rain gear our equipment was adequate, but not overly heavy. We took three packs for two people, and ended up with two 25 pound packs, and a third 35 pound pack that contained the 24 pounds of food we’d need. This proved ideal and really made the portages easier. Early in the trip we could do double carries, and then as the food bag got lighter and the portages longer we could double up the load and make a single trip to save time.
Even though this was the longest and toughest trip that I’ve done, and I felt out of shape after a summer indoors, it ended up being relatively easy thanks to the lighter loads.