Not all trips go as planned, and this one definitely did not. However, everything happens for a reason.

A look at the backpacking sleep systems that we currently use, and a review of some of the gear that we have used in the past.

Back in October, my friend John organized a backpacking trip for four of us to hike part of the Current River section of the Ozark Trail.  We would start at the Peck Ranch trailhead on October 14th, and end up at the Powder Mill trailhead on the 16th.  Although we did face a few difficulties along the way, I think that we would all agree that we had a good time in the end.

After our first backpacking trip, we decided that this was definitely something that we wanted to continue doing, and we needed to start planning our next trip. We typically take a trip somewhere for our anniversary in September, so we figured that would be a great time for our next backpacking adventure. While looking for destination ideas, I found an article in Backpacker magazine that stated that September 2012 was supposed to be a good time to try to see the northern lights. It also stated that northern Minnesota was the best bet for seeing them in the lower 48 states. Since seeing the northern lights is on our bucket list, we decided on the Angleworm Lake Trail in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area near Ely, MN.

Back in 2012, Tammy and I decided that we wanted to start backpacking. For years we had enjoyed hiking and camping and had been intrigued by the thought of combining the two activities. We talked about it for a while, and finally decided to take the leap.