By Ed Maurer

Taking down my old external frame Kelty Pack from a shelf high up in our garage brings back fond memories of hiking on the East Coast, including Vermont’s Green Mountains and New York’s Catskills and Adirondacks. It also carried my stuff along the Appalachian Trail which, literally, was our road to Damascus, Virginia. These hikes happened during those sweet years of our early marriage when Helen and I lived in a cozy nest on Manhattan’s west side, and before Eric arrived at New York Hospital on Labor Day, 1972. Backpacking vacations gave way to day hikes, many of them in my native Switzerland.

When Helen and I picked up backpacking again, now firmly ensconced in Mission Viejo, we headed for the Sierra Nevada and reached its wilderness trails mostly from the east, and when our son settled in the Gold Country with his family, we began to explore the western approaches of the Range of Light, too. The Sierra early on demanded that I carry more stuff than fit into the Kelty pack, and it was retired in favor of a large internal frame affair which helped us along on the John Muir Trail. 

During the last few years, we still camped above 10’000’ thanks to John Kaiser’s mule packs, where mules obviate the need for a backpack.

We also spent many summer family vacations at Mono Hot Springs near Lakes Edison and Florence, where our 2 kids and 5 grandkids have become as entranced with the Sierra as we are, and we look forward to future holidays there with an ever-expanding family. And even though we’ll probably not be backpacking again, I just may take my red Kelty pack along for old times sake and pass it on to our younger generation.