Fresh off a fine snowshoe hike on the Messalonskee Stream Trail in Oakland Saturday, I arrived home to find the annual Backpacker magazine Gear Guide issue in my mailbox.

That meant, of course, that not a damn thing truly productive was going to get done that night.

And so it went. For hours and hours.

144 pages of pure heaven. A cornucopia of sheer delight for this gearhead and thousands of others, too, I'm sure.

The trend continues far down the lightweight to featherweight trail... Packs, sleeping bags, boots, tents, stoves. In fact, on the final page there's a great chart detailing how to save an easy 11 pounds of packweight through some doable upgrades in gear.

There's reviews, notes, tips. Information to be digested, pondered, calculated.

How much more gear do I need? How much can I spend? How soon can I retire? What trails and travels should be next?

Such were the thoughts rolling through my backpacker-head Saturday evening, magazine in one hand, glass of cold beer in the other.

So much gear, so little time...