Wow. 2015 has started off fast and furious and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was out on weekend trips for the first two weekends of the new year and even managed to convince Mrs. Gent to let me out of the house long enough to do an 11 mile day hike last weekend. All that hiking has left me way behind on writing, however. Here are my post-hike thoughts after hiking a 23 mile loop around Linville Gorge just before Christmas.

New Favorites: prAna Stretch Zion pants
These are my new favorite backpacking pants, at least for winter temperatures in North Carolina. We’ll see how they handle the heat this summer.

In case you haven’t read about it yet, I did get them pretty wet and tested out how quick they dry. I found that they dried out in about 30 minutes of walking, even in cool and damp conditions.

Also, they are fairly water resistant as well. Moderate rain sprinkles beaded right off the fabric and my legs stayed nice and dry, until I started bushwhacking and everything below the knee got soaked through from the moisture on the vegetation, but only GORE-TEX pants would have saved me there and they would have been way too hot.

Finally, I think they’ll be fairly durable. Time will tell, but I broke brush for nearly a mile uphill, fighting all sorts of vegetation and green vines as thick as my thumb with thorns on them nearly an inch long. There are a few places on the legs where the fabric starting pilling, but no major tears.

Sizing Note: Pictured I’m wearing a Large x 32. At 5'11" 200 lbs, I usually wear 34x34s in denim jeans and 34x32 in outdoor pants (they tend to run long.) The prAna Large x 32s were way too long (I had them hemmed before I went out on this trip) and made me look like I had a fupa in the font. I’ve since switched to the Medium x 32s and they fit great and didn’t need to be hemmed (which I thought was kinda weird).

Put to the Test: Salomon X Ultra Mids
I picked these up in June, after my Kayland Vertigo Light boots gave me a deep bone bruise from rubbing on my ankle. It wasn’t a normal black-and-blue type bruise. It was a lump, almost like cartilage, that I had to roll out with a lacrosse ball to make it go away. EDIT: According to an REI saleswoman, that can happen with hiking boots. A pair of heel wedge inserts will normally do the trick and move your foot enough to get rid of it. I went out and bought all new hiking boots because when I went to REI the first time a less knowledgeable guy was working the shoe sales. The #patriarchy got me.

I was looking to start moving towards the lighter end of the specturm anyways (and I had purchased some Salomon Speedcross 3 shoes for trailrunning about a month earlier) and so I settled on the X Ultra Mids. I liked that they had a near copy of the the Speedcross 3 sole, which is super grippy and responsive, and that they had mesh uppers, which I assumed would help them dry faster, while still incorporating a GORE-TEX bootie and mid-ankle height, for support and waterproofing while crossing the small streams and run-offs that seem to intersect every trail in North Carolina.

By the end of this trip to Linville Gorge I’d put just over 100 miles on my X Ultra Mids. I have to say, they are exactly what they claim to be and are very good at what they say they should be used for. My feet just need to adapt better. They are basically beefed up trail runners. The sole is simply a stouter (but not by much) version of the Speedcross 3 sole. It’s very grippy and performs well in mud and wet rock scrambles. The sacrifice of that is that the sole is soft. My feet start getting fatigued around the 12 mile mark with these shoes and after 16 miles I don’t want to walk anymore. The random rocks, tree roots and other stumbling blocks that characterize North Carolina trails make me wish for a stiffer, stouter sole. That’s a reflection of what my feet are accustomed to. I’ve been used to wearing hard-soled Army boots and shoes for nearly 10 years (counting West Point, where we were in uniform every day) and it’s going to take me time to make the transition to softer-soled shoes for hiking.

EDIT: I’ve worn Zamberlan Vioz GT boots for about 40 miles now and I think they are too stiff. I’m going to give them at least another 60 miles to see how they perform, but I think the Lowa Camino GTX Flex will be my next pair. Thanks REI for your awesome return policy!

Maiden Voyage: Stone Glacier Access Bag
To be honest, I didn’t need this for a solo trip. I mostly bought it because I wanted more space and organization the last time I took Mrs. Gent on a trip. But because it was there and because it was new, I brought it along anyways. Hey, at the very least I’ll store my weather layers in there and not have to open my main pack to get to them.

Sure, it was nice to have the extra space and organization, but for a 2.5 day trip, completely unnecessary. Stone Glacier designed it with the backpack hunter in mind (as they do all their products) and so it has a long center zip that allows convienient access to the spotting scope pocket they placed on the inside of the bag. Personally, I always have issues with center zip pouches or even the side-zip long pouches that were pioneered by Dana Design and characterize many modern backpacks, especially Dana Gleason’s new ones at Mystery Ranch.

Call it my military background or my laissez faire attitude towards packing pockets, but I prefer to just stuff things in from the top, buckle them up and forget about it. Which is mostly how I used the Access. I’d unzip it about 1/4 of the way down from the top, pull out what I wanted and then stuff everything else back in. Convenient and dual purpose for however you want to use it? Yes. Necessary for one guy going out solo on a weekend trip? No.

If I were Kurt Racicot for a day, I would I would keep the size, take the zipper off and put a drawstring and top flap with buckle closure on the Access bag. But I’m not and he’s got way more backpacking and hunting experience than I do, so until then I’ll just have to teach myself how to sew or put up with what they sell (which is pretty good stuff anyways).

Well, that about sums up my thoughts after this trip. If you ever want to challenge yourself, try hiking from the Linville River all the way to the top of Shortoff Mountain. On this loop I went from the Wolf Pit trailhead to the top of Shortoff and two days later from the Linville River to the intersection of the MST with the Wolf Pit trail (pictured above). I think doing the whole climb in one go would be a heck of a time (*adds to checklist of hikes*). Let me know what your favorite gear is or what hike ideas you have in the North Carolina area. Recommend this post, drop a comment, or hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.