Welcome to episode 167 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking, or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to

love backpacking, then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the

essentials, how to lighten your load, and how to make the most of your time on the

trail. I'm your host Heather Legler, and'm Josh Legler and this is the first 40 miles.

Today on the first 40 miles Friday night is always date night and for this week's date night we're packing

and prepping for a quick winter backpacking trip and we'll tell you why.

Then we'll review a sleeping pad with a 4.4 our value that's a

win for budget-minded backpackers. And we've got the perfect hack that will make your

sleeping pad stay in place. All this and that's about it.

Today on the first 40 miles.

Well we're recording the first 40 miles today from our backpacking room. We used to have a little

backpacking bin where we stored all of our gear and then it kind of morphed into a

backpacking tower of gear that took up a couple shelves and a closet and then

we just decided recently to kick one of the kids out of their room and take over a room with backpacking gear.

Okay, he actually moved out of the room.

He did.

Voluntarily. It was his own choice. And then we were left with an empty room.

And my big motivation for moving it all inside instead of keeping it in the garage was because of little

mousey issues. We were having fun little

surprises inside of boxes and not my kind of fun surprise. So everything came

inside and it's actually really convenient now. It's nice. We got the backpacks hung on the walls and everything stacked up in the closet and in bins. So it's a nice way to organize it for our family.

...