After 18 years of obsessively maintaining my backpacking “kit” I’m allowing some entropy to creep in. It’s a strange feeling.

I finished my Appalachian Trail (AT) section hike (2190 miles or so) in July.

After every other trip I would do a postmortem. I would consult the fix/replace/upgrade/discard list that I had keep “on trail”. There would usually be a trip to REI. Cleaning. Re-packing. Checking how much food was available in my “breakfast,” “snacks,” and “dinner” boxes for the next trip. Maybe starting to think about or plan the next trip.

But I’m done.

Things are mostly cleaned up, and mostly put away. Mostly. I went through the food boxes and threw away anything that was clearly past its prime or that I never got around to packing or eating.

I’ve finally gotten back out to check on the section of the AT that I maintain. Soon I’ll be going out for day-hikes to help with GPS surveying of the trail route in Pennsylvania. I also plan to join a crew working on projects in the north end of Shenandoah National Park.

But now, I don’t “have” to hike AT sections. I’m sure I will get out and do some backpacking next summer. There are an infinite number of trails, as in life!. I’ve had my eye on a few for a while (The Camino, Kungsleden, Dolly Sods, etc.) and may now have the freedom, time and health to explore some of them (knock on wood).

For now at least I have some space to decompress a little and allow some disorder to creep in to my gear and my life.