Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is warm and dry!

Several new members have joined us, some local and looking for new faces and trips, a few just having moved here, some from northern Indiana and at least 1 from Ohio that I know of.  Welcome to all of you!

We have some upcoming trips that you should take a look at.  This weekend is Eagle Point Buttress in Red River Gorge.  The view from EPB are gorgeous.  You can see the Red River for miles.

There is a 1 or 2 night (your choice!) trip on the 15th in Deam Wilderness.  There are some folks going on the 14th I believe so you can make it a 2 night trip if you want.  Deam always offers some new places to explore and some excellent backpacking.

March 21 we are headed over to the River to River Trail in southern Illinois.  We'll hike from One Horse Gap to Garden of the Gods.  This is a new trail for me and I believe for most of use so well be seeing some new places and hopefully planning more trips in the future.

A social gathering of backpackers!  Kyle has setup a social for our meetup group on Fri. Feb 7th at BW3's in Castleton.  Kyle reports that they will take up to 140 in a group but he needs to let them know by Jan 30th.  Be sure and RSVP for this by then!

Do you carry a backpacking pillow?  I don't.  I generally will use a rolled jacket, water bottle or whatever I can find.  I actually used my trail running shoes one time..don't really want to do that one again.  So it got me to wondering what other people do for a pillow.  What do you use?

You can post the answer to that, ask questions or just get to know other people in our group in the Discussions sections here: http://www.meetup.com/backpackers-149/messages/boards/ or on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/649911785031501/.

I had an email from Lawson Kline of http://lawsonequipment.com thanking us for the business we sent him for the Sawyer Mini's.  Shipping is a little delayed.  You should have had an email from him regarding that.  Lawson tells me that his goal is to introduce 1 new product a week  and have introductory sales on those.  I am looking forward to what he comes up with next.

Everyone have a great week!

See you on the trail,

John

Indy Backpackers does not charge for our trips or charge annual dues.  If you have enjoyed a trip or benefited in any way we do appreciate a $5 donation or purchases from our SWAG store to help pay our meetup fees.
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Donations:  http://www.meetup.com/backpackers-149/messages/send/#