First Lesson of the CDT

Travel day went fine until we were taxing to the gate at the end of our second flight and Portrait received an emailed flight status update. Our third flight was delayed by an hour. Once we made it to our new gate for the hour wait we learned we were delayed another half hour. We ended up landing in El Paso an hour after our bus to Deming, New Mexico left. 
While waiting for a city bus to downtown I learned my first CDT lesson:  be flexible. While waiting we talked about ways to get to NM:  start hitching, but we only had an hour of daylight left, hitch in the morning, take the a.m. Greyhound, and start in Columbus, NM instead of Crazy Cook.
We ended up in a cheap motel for the night with the tentative plan to start hitching.  The CDT is more about figuring it out while you go than following a set route and that's just what we're going to do.

1 Day- Controlled Backpacking Chaos

We've been living in a state of controlled backpacking chaos for a solid week now.  All those last minute projects turned out to be more numerous and time consuming than I figured.   Some of them were so small they aren’t noticeable—tiny adjustments to clothing, to the itinerary, to food rations, and formatting SD cards.  Then there were some larger projects like spending nearly three days making a hip belt pocket for my pack, packing the bounce box, and mailing off t

A sample of the chaos

wo resupplies.

I loaded up my pack for an official weigh in at 17.5—that was with a generous five days of food (I packed a few extra snacks for the travel day) and two liters of water.  I ended up with a base weight just over 8 pounds—close enough to my weight goal to be satisfied.  After the weigh in I took out everything I didn’t want to go through checked luggage (money, ID, camera, phone, charger…), added a couple of things from Portrait’s pack that couldn’t be carried on (tent stakes and his water bottles to give his pack a more slender profile), and then to top it off I strapped on my trekking poles.  I had no interest in weighing the pack in its new heavy form.  I closed up the pack and was satisfied that I wouldn’t have to get into it again until I arrived in New Mexico.  I think I opened it back up minutes later.

I feel a little worn down, a little nervous, and I’d be happy to not see a sewing machine again for much longer than 6 months.  I keep thinking, once I get out there I’ll be able to catch up on sleep—no more late nights.  And I laugh a little.  Walking twenty something miles a day isn’t exactly restful, even if I go to bed just after sunset.  I’m looking forward to no more list, no more double checking, no more readjusting gear, and second guessing choices.  That’s the tiring part, not the late nights, and besides, once I get used to the desert I’ll be waking up at 4:30 a.m. like last year.

Leaving makes things a little sweeter and I’m more aware of them.  It’s hard not to notice something like our last “civilized meal,” the last shower for a week, the last time I’ll use my pillow, get my hair cut, or paint my toe nails for six months.  And every time I think it’ll be six months until I do a certain act again there is this little voice that whispers “I hope.”   It’s a voice of worries, anxiety dreams, and past injuries.  Even with the worry there is still no back-up plans and we tell people we’ll see them in six months.

Three planes and a bus should bring us to New Mexico tonight and then the CDT tomorrow.   

7 Days-21 Mail Drops

Loot from one trip to the discount food store

Over the winter I've been squirreling away food.  There's something oddly comforting about having five months of hiker food stashed away--that's nearly a year's worth of food for a nonhiker.  I have more king-sized Milk Way bars in a bin in the attic than I've eaten in my life thanks to a sale at Walmart.  My goals when picking food for a hike are:  a high calorie to weight ratio, variety, and never paying full price for anything.

The itinerary we've made up has me scheduled for 21 mail drops (including what I will have in my pack leaving from Crazy Cook) and 8 places where I will be buying food in town.  When I buy food in town it will be for the shorter carries:  mostly 3 day resupplies which makes sending a box uneconomical.  On the PCT I had 18 drops (counting what I left the monument with) and only bought food once and that was in South Lake Tahoe.  Buying food that one time was such a treat.  I walked out of the store with bags overflowing with food.  I still had a lot of it left when I reached Sierra City five days later and mailed some food and other things ahead and didn't reclaim them until Seiad Valley--a mere 464 miles later.

I dehydrated my dinners again for the CDT.  I'll be eating mostly all the same meals on the CDT that I ate (and loved) on the PCT.  I did add a new sweet potato recipe that I'm looking forward too.  For those meals, I bought all the food I needed on sale.  It was mildly tedious being at the mercy of sale prices.  It seemed like the stores had limited quantities of the foods I needed.  When I had what I needed food wise I used the biggest soup pot we had and filled it up.  I found out it could hold an entire five pound bag of potatoes, two bags of green beans, and four cans of beans.  One pot of food completely filled my five drying trays--but that was the goal, of course.

To organize five months' worth of food I used the same process I used for the PCT.  After grouping the maps into section to correspond to each drop I wrote the name of the town, the number of the box, and how many days of food needed on a scrap paper that I paper-clipped to that section of maps.  I laid the maps out, taking over the bed and a corner of the room, in numerical order.  With shopping bags of food hanging off my arm, starting with breakfast, I divvied out the loot.  17 different bars, five different types of candy bars, three cans of frosting, two bags of dried fruit, a dozen bags of s'mores trail mix, eight packs of sunflower seeds, seven beef summer sausages, five boxes of cheese and crackers...and then some.

Besides buying food for dehydrating at the regular old grocery store I haven't done much shopping at a traditional grocery store.  The prices just aren't as good as you can find elsewhere if you know where to look.  And I do.  Just down the street is a little store called Deals & Steals that's chalked full of supermarket cast-offs.  It's where each one of my protein bars came from--most of them cost 50 cents each and only three different types cost me a dollar.  They had one pound bags of pretzels from Whole Foods buy one get 2 free, so that ended up costing me $1.33 a bag.  They had Mars Bars with a whopping 280 calories per 63 grams marked down to 50 cents.  They had a s'mores trail mix that was so good I returned the next day and bought the remaining 12 packages. I think for awhile they knew me there as that women that buys all the protein bars.  I go there almost every other day just in case they have something new for cheap that I must have for the hike.

My hiker pantry

When I'm not at the discount food store I like to haunt Big Lots and buy their ridiculous cheap Goldfish.  I'm almost sure that 16 bags of Goldfish are not enough. I also did one trip to Costco in search of a few favorites:  Kellogg's Fruit Gummy Snacks, 5 pound bags of chocolate chips, peanuts, and bacon bits.  I was also on the hunt for hot chocolate, but after doing a few laps around the store I finally asked.  Apparently it wasn't hot chocolate season any more.  I'm still trying to get my hands on 100 pouches of hot chocolate.

Sadly hot chocolate is one of a handful of food items I'm still missing.  I only have about half the number of summer sausages and tuna packets that I need. I only have one bag of peach rings and zero orange slices (I probably ate a couple dozed packages of those two candies on the PCT) and I still need some sesame sticks, and pumpkin seeds, and...

So far, I've spent $430.00 on food.  I've kept a rather meticulous record this time.  I didn't keep records for the AT or the PCT so I don't have a comparison available.  My guess is, thanks to the discount food store, I've spent significantly less money on food this time around.

We packed up our first two boxes today:  six days of food to Doc Campbell's and five days of food to Pie Town.  It was a tight squeeze fitting six days' worth of food for two into one USPS Game board flat-rate box.    But it did all fit, and there is still a little room for extras (like hot chocolate and gummy candy).  Both boxes weighed in a 15 pounds.  We'll be taking those to the post office soon.

12 Days- No Back-Up Plan

Summit of Monadnock

Since being in Massachusetts Portrait and I have been on a handful of small hikes—like a couple miles round trip.  We did one overnight—a six mile hike along the crest of the Mount Holyoke Range. We spent a rather cold damp night on top of Mount Holyoke under the summit’s house porch.  Last weekend I went for an icy hike up Mount Monadnock with my brother.  Monadnock is one of the most climbed peaks in New England, but it was a first ascent for me and my brother and we had the summit and the snow flurries to ourselves.

Aside from the short overnight, I haven’t carried any weight on my back since finishing the PCT.  And I have not heard a peep from my Achilles tendons on any of these quick hikes.  There has been no Ibuprofen, tenderness, or swelling.  There hasn’t been that feeling of the tendons pulling tighter with each mile until my legs are taut from heels to knees.  There hasn’t been any discomfort at all.

Portrait on Mount Holyoke Range

Despite the pain-free hiking of late I do wonder how my tendons really are.  When I load up my new pack and go for a hike?  When I leave from Crazy Cook and hike a full day with a pack on?  When I’m hiking day after day?  Will six months of rest, a lighter base weight, lighter footwear, and a heightened attention to food and water weight be enough to prevent problems?  All questions I’ll be answering for myself over the next few days and weeks.

The tendons are not a sure thing, and knowing this, I have no back-up plan if my tendons do start to hurt. The goal has always been, through the planning and food prepping, to thru-hike the CDT.  There’s been no if’s or but’s.  I didn’t buy nearly 200 protein bars only to look at them and think about how long it will take to eat them all if I don’t finish the trail.  The plan is to hike the CDT.  That’s it.

20 Days- The To-Do List

Perhaps I’ve planned for enough thru-hikes that I’ve gotten really good at it or maybe my to-do list is deceptively short.  It has a measly nine items that are not checked off.  All but one of those items, making a sleeping bag stuff sack, has been started—most of them are nearly done.

I’m still waiting on making my sleeping bag stuff sack because I’m still waiting for my new pack.  I don’t want to make a stuff sack that won’t fit into the pack.  If you plan on buying from a cottage industry remember that mid-winter through spring is their busy time.  Don’t procrastinate.

New home made cuben fiber food bag with food

I have a few food purchases to make still.  I want to wait for sales, but I’m running out of time for that.  My list of missing food is thankfully short:  summer sausage, salami, tuna fish, salty snacks, pumpkin seeds, sesame sticks, gummy candies, and hot chocolate.  For the first hike ever Snicker bars were not on my shopping list—I had nearly a case left over from last year and will be flushing out my candy bar selection with other choices.  I have all the food I have organized and it will be a quick task to complete sorting my food once I have it.

Maps are organized.  It took Portrait and me a couple days to print off the maps.  We went through and highlighted the town and wrote on the map how to get there—the maps were surprisingly not user friendly compared to the PCT maps.  I still need to get a decent GPS program on my phone.  As I write my phone is offloading a year’s worth of photos to Dropbox to make room for CDT photos.

It’s a little disconcerting not having my days revolve around hike prep.  I think about what I need to do daily, but I don’t work on the prep daily.  Nevertheless things seem to be coming together. I don’t feel stressed or overwhelmed.  There came a point during my PCT planning that everything seemed to come together and I was able to focus on other things (although I was dehydrating food the day before I left), but that came much later in my planning stage than it has for this hike. 

High Priority Tasks Resupply schedule Resupply boxes Buy food Setup phone with GPS app and maps Make Food bag Make Sleeping bag stuff sack Make Mom List High Priority Purchases Order plane tickets Pack Warm hat Warm jacket Medium Priority Tasks Make stove Find fuel bottle Pack bounce box Plan route Figure out shoes Water bottles Wear out socks

31 Days- New and Old Gear

For the CDT this year I will only have three items in my pack that have been with me all the way from Maine in 2009:  my cook pot, my long handle spoon, a stuff sack, and the head lamp that joined me in Pennsylvania.  Everything else is new since that hike, and a lot of my CDT gear is new since the PCT.

Most of the new purchases were made to replace gear that really didn't work for me.  My North Face pack was just too heavy to justify after wearing Portrait’s homemade cuben fiber pack and my GoLight Jam pack was simply uncomfortable.  They both gave me pack rash as well.  The original plan was to make a pack like Portrait’s, but that turned out to be a little too ambitious for my sewing skills…and my patience.  Last week I bought a ZPacks Arc Blast weighing in at 13.5 oz and costing $259.00.  I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet, but ZPacks assured me it will arrive in plenty of time.

My new sleeping bag

I replaced my tired North Face 15 degree sleeping bag with a Western Mountaineering UltraLite 20 degree bag for a weight savings of 15.21 ounces.  The new bag ended up costing me $246.05 which feels like a steal.  The bag retails in the mid $400’s.  I bought mine from MooseJaw on Black Friday for $435.00 and they gave me five times the normal MooseJaw points.  I used the points to buy a MontBell Men's U.L. Down Parka worth $188.95, and I didn’t even have to take out my credit card to make the purchase.  I have a measly 1,000 points left which will earn me just about nothing.

My little homemade tarp tent will be staying behind this year.  It is replaced by a new ZPacks Hexamid Twin Tent w/ Screen for a 7.7 ounce weight savings and hopefully less bugs in the tent.

Portrait sewing his food bag

There have been a number of small, less spendy changes.  There are new gloves, food bag, tent stakes, camp dress, sleeping bag stuff sack and sleeping pad.  I was hoping when I started making all these changes to have a less than 10 pound base weight.  As I was making the changes I changed my goal to an 8 pound base.  Right now my pack should weigh in at 8.5 pounds without food or water.  I’ll reduce it if I can, for the sake of my Achilles tendons, but the real task will be not letting the weight creep up on me.  

At Scout and Frodo's

Tonight I'm staying at the home of Scout and Frodo.  My little tent is set up on the lawn, dinner was eaten, last minute details attended too, and an alarm will be set for 5 a.m.  Breakfast will be at 5:30 and we are to be out the door at 6 a.m.  Four of us will be dropped off at the trail head.

This will be my first night camped out since October.  I can't really remember the last time I slept in my little tent, but I know the rhythm of life in a tent too small to sit up in will come back. Packing up in a small tent like that is a dance, and it's one I'm rusty on at the moment.

It's cool and quiet outside tonight.  Its early, but I'm tired.  I woke up at 5:30 this morning--maybe I was practicing for tomorrow's early wake-up call.  I didn't really go back to sleep, I was too busy thinking about the hike to sleep again.  I anticipate waking before my alarm goes off--more excitement than nerves, I think.  If I'm not ready now, I'll never be ready.

The plan is 20 miles tomorrow.  The goal is to enjoy it.  Live it.  And to sleep well.

Ready or Not

 

On Monday night my parents had a little bon voyage party for me complete with banners, balloons, and a castle cake.  We had over a mix of neighbors and family.  I had my tent set up on the front lawn with a “Home Sweet Home” sign on it.  My pack was in the living room if anyone wanted to lift it (or try it on).  I hung the PCT strip map up on the wall so people could get a better idea of 2,666 miles.  There were a few other pieces of hiking gear spread about and some hiker food for the tasting.  My Mom and I whipped up two of my lunch dishes for appetizers and showed off their dried counter parts.  And Dad was at the grill.

I was center of attention most of the evening talking about my past hiking on the A.T. and what the PCT has in store for me.  It was fun having a new audience to tell stories about my ’09 A.T. thru-hike.  We talked about rain, bears, river crossings, elevation, and people. 

For dessert my Mom had made a cake in the shape of a castle for me.  It came complete with colorful flags flying from the parpets.  It was delicious.

Tuesday morning it was back to work on preparation.  The leftover hiking meals where dehydrated.  Laundry was washed.  Pack was stuffed (multiple times).  Train itineraries were printed.  Three sewing projects were completed, including one for a hands-free umbrella set-up. 

My finale pack weigh in with everything and five days of food but no water:  21 pounds even.  I’m very happy with that as a final weight.  Right after the weigh in I took a lot of my electronics out and put them in my carry on luggage.  I then crammed clothing for my 10 days in San Francisco and San Diego into my pack.  It is looking very heavy at the moment.  I hope its not too difficult going from the airport to the hostel—I don’t like packs and public transportation.  It’s just awkward.

I’ll have to pick up fuel for my stove in San Diego, but other than that I’m ready to hike.  I’m happy to be doing some city sight seeing first.  I’m sure to get some miles in walking around.  

5 Days- Packing Your Fears

A common long distance hiker concept is that a hiker packs her fear.  If a hiker is afraid of being cold she’ll bring an extra warm sleeping bag and an extra hat when her jacket has a hood.  A hiker afraid of being hungry will bring a spare lighter and an extra ration of food.  A hiker afraid of getting lost will bring a map, compass, gps, and a Spot device.  A hiker afraid of loosing communication will bring extra batteries and a solar charger.

Since I first heard the expression packing your fear I thought fear was too strong of a word, but it certainly gets the point across.  When trying to be a light or ultra-light backpacker it is often a very fine line between under prepared, over prepared, and practically perfectly prepared.

Looking at my set-up I could come to the conclusion that I fear being cold, I fear the desert sun, and I fear my electronics not working when I want a picture or to write something down, and I fear not knowing what’s up the trail.  I don’t fear being cold as much as my 15 degree down bag suggest.  That’s more of a money issue.  I do fear the desert sun, but rationally so.  My Golite Chrome Dome Umbrella arrived yesterday.  I’ll pair that with my wide brimmed hat, long sleeve shirt, pants, sunscreen, polarized sunglasses, and light silk glove liners.  I’ll also have a bandana if I feel the need to look like a bandit robbing a bank.  And I have a base tan courtesy of the Florida sun.

Hiding from the sun.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve gotten sun poisoning—an itchy, bumpy, and painful rash.  I don’t always get it.  I can get a tan or a burn with no poisoning or poisoning with no tan or burn.  For awhile I thought I had grown out of it, but then I had the worst case I’ve ever had when I was on the A.T. for my ’09 thru-hike.  I was pretty miserable for a couple of days.  That was one of the only times I took pain medicine on my thru-hike.

My other fear of not knowing what is coming up on the trail is reflected in the fact that cannot and will not rip my guide book into small sections.  As of right now the book is whole.  On the A.T. I carried a guide book and a half.  On the A.T. and PCT most people rip the guide book into sections, carry what they need and get the next section in their maildrop.  Very reasonable and very light.  On the A.T. I read about a week ahead in the guide and would reread as I got closer and studying new pages.  As a result I know my A.T. shelters and mountains pretty well.  I can’t decide if I should rip my PCT guide in half, thirds, or leave it whole.  It’s dilemmas like this when I know fear is too strong of a word, but the concept fits.

7 Days- Solar Power on the Trail

A couple of weekends I was browsing at a city fest with my parents and we ended up looking at one booth selling emergency solar power chargers.  We looked for awhile, and talked to the salesperson, Jon about my trip and what I would need in a charger.  Solar chargers are not something I know very much about.  Just a couple of days before this I had decided not to research solar chargers and not to spend money on one and just buy a spare battery for my phone.  A spare battery I knew would weigh less, cost less, and would involve a lot less research than buying a solar charger.

We told Jon we’d think about, and then wandered away to get some fair food.  Over pineapple snow cones I weighed the pros and cons of weight versus money versus usability.  I didn’t get far with my rationing, but I did come up with some more questions.  We went back to the booth and before I could ask anything Jon handed me a charger telling me to give it a try.  It took me a couple of seconds to realize that he was giving me the charger for my hike.  I think most people have a desire (or at least an interest) in adventure and that makes the idea of a thru-hike very appealing to many.  Not that I think that most people want to thru-hike, but I think they want to help if they can.

My new charger in its pouch ready to trickle charge my phone.

I’ve had the chance to play with my new charger at this point although I don’t feel like I will know how well it will do what I want until I’m out on the trail and I will really know what I want it to do.  It seems like after spending the night plugged into the wall the charger has enough juice to charge my phone once as long as my phone is off.  I’m hoping that the charger will receive enough sun throughout the day to give me an hour of phone time every night for journaling. 

I keep waffling about buying the back-up battery.  My electronics are really starting to add up.  I have 25.8 ounce of electronics and cases.  That’s the same weight as my tent, cook pot, pot cozy, and 2 liter Camelbak combined.

***

In other news I crossed a few more items off my lists.  I made a few copies of my permits and put clear packing tape on them to protect them.  I finally printed out my California fire permit.  I have yet to print out and mail in my form to buy a BearVault.  I also arranged a ride from Warner Springs to the Kick Off—it feels great to cross that off my lists.  I sleep better knowing I won’t miss the hiker event that I’ve been hearing about for years.  Those are all small but very important tasks.  I worked on my food resupply more.  I’ll be mailing out my first 3 or 4 drops before leaving Florida and then my Mom will take over.  I need to check one more time that the 4 drops have all the food I need than box them off and cross them off my list. 

My bag getting a bath.

On Sunday I washed my sleeping bag and it was not as daunting of a task as it had been in the past.  Before I had washed it at home in our top loader machine and because it’s filled with down, it’s expensive, and has baffles that could be ripped out by the agitator I’ve always had to keep a very close eye on it.  It was not a toss it in the machine and come back in a half hour kind of job, but this time I took it to the laundry mat.  I tossed it in a front loading machine and watched it go round and round.  I was disappointed by how clean the water stayed.  I’m use to my hiking gear turning water black when I wash my stuff.  I brought it home and dried it for hours.  Now I have a bag with a lot of loft and no funky smell—that should last a week?

And there is still so much to do.  It seems like every time I cross something off my list three new tasks pop up.

11 Days- How to Make a Stove in Pictures

My old stove with 2,000 + miles on it with its replacement.

Gather supplies.

Draw a circle around the can 3/4 inches from the bottom and another  1 1/2 inches from the top of the can.  Use the hair tie to make an even circle.

Cut out the middle of the can using the guidelines (Use the paper awl or other pointed object to start the whole to make cutting easier).

From the top of the can cut out the mouth section.

(The can is upside down to better show the tabs that were cut).  Cut tabs on the top section on the can:  1. Cut tabs 1/2 inch wide around the can from the cut edge up to the "shoulder" of the can (the shoulder is where the can starts to bend inwards and upwards towards the lip of the can).  2. Pick a tab, snip off a sliver of the tab leaving a gap between the two tabs.  3. Add about 8 more gaps spaced evenly.

Fit the top of the can into the bottom piece.  It should fit in nicely, but snugly.

If you look at a Pepsi can the bottom is pushed inward.  When assembling the stove the tabs should but up against the indented portion of the can.

Fuel is added where the mouth of the can used to be.  Once lit the flame wicks up where the tabs are and comes out where the cut edge of the bottom of the can meets the shoulder on the top of the can.  My pot sits right on top of the stove--no need for a pot stand.

The new stove try-out.

 The rest of my cooking set-up:

Wind screen folded up, cook pot, lighter, knife, stove on a piece of tin, and long handled spoon.

15 Days- Bargaining at the Big Box Store

Awhile ago my Mom was out shopping and she spotted Hickory Farms gift boxes marked down 50%.  We think they were Christmas left-over’s that were about to go out of date.

On Saturday we went to the store with the hopes of getting an even bigger discount.  The boxes I wanted had 8 ounces of cryovac cheeses and two 7 ounce summer sausages for the marked down price of ten dollars a box.  We wanted them for five.  We ended up getting them for eight, which was still a very good deal.  An eight ounce block of cheese is usually 2.50 at the store and sausage goes for just under 4.00.

Now I have nearly half the sausage I want for the trip and enough cheese for six resupplies.  Tuna fish in water is buy one get one at the store right now.  I want to pick up about a dozen packages.  Ideally I want tuna in oil--more calories for the same weight.  Maybe they will go on sale next.

All of my prep is on hold until Thursday.   That will leave me a mere 12 days to finish everything.  The idea sends a small bolt of panic through me.

19 Days- Completed Projects

There are only 19 days left until I fly to California.  The fact that my countdown has reached the teens is a little daunting.  There is no more pretending that there is plenty of time—but I might be at the point where I don’t need plenty of time to get ready.

Lately my lists seem to be in good shape.  This week my Mom and I worked steadily on my Make, Modify, and Repair list.  Together with help from the sewing machine we crossed off all but three items on the list which leaves a pillow, rain skirt modification, and alcohol stove.  The stove I’ll make myself as soon as I get my hands on a Pepsi can.  I’m stumped on the pillow.  I always carried one in the past and I would get a small amount of glee using a pillow when other hikers were using their boots or balled up clothing.  I feel like it is something I should leave behind.  For the two years I’ve had my rain skirt it hasn’t received much use.  When I did use it the fabric would stick to my legs, bunch up, and then I’d have wet shorts.  I haven’t been able to figure out a way to make it stay down.  Velcro didn’t work, and that was about the extent of my ideas.

I’m still dehydrating food.  I’m getting very close to calling it quits, but I’m trying to preserve.  By my count I have lunch covered, but I only have about 80 dinners.  What I have doesn’t look like much food some I’m concerned I’ve over estimated.  It’s hard to tell how much food is in a glass jar after dehydrating.  I’ve dehydrated five pounds of potatoes in a stew this week.  The recipe called for ¾ a pound of potatoes for six servings.  I added two cans of beans which were not in the recipe.  So after hiking twenty mile days what is a serving?  It’s like one of those math problems I hated in grade school.  It’s also a trick question.  The answer is there is never enough food.

My little home.

The biggest project crossed off my lists was working on my tarp tent.  We added some Velcro tabs so the bug net at the bottom on the tent can be attached to my Tyvek foot print.  My new cut to mummy bag shape footprint is about 4 ounces lighter than my old Tyvek footprint.  The weight saving is canceled out because I added 4 ounces of clothing.  I’ve swapped my fleece lined leggings for lighter leggings and swapped a fleece long sleeve shirt for a dress.  I need to pack everything up and find out my new base weight.

I’m slowly filling up my Amazon cart with more hiking stuff.  I noticed a couple weeks ago that I’ve broken off one trekking pole tip.  I cleaned my poles for the first time in three years last week and they promptly stopped working.  The poles have taken a beating—they have lost their paint, but they are still straight and still lock—or at least they did until I cleaned them.  My Dad looked at them for all of a minute before figuring out how to fix them.  I’m also ordering a spare battery for my new smart phone.  I’ve typed up one journal entry on the phone and I think it took the whole day.  Hopefully I get better or I’ll have to carry a battery for each day between towns.

Also since I’ve last posted I’ve registered for ADZPCTKO (http://adzpctko.org/)—a big kick off party for the PCT hiking season.  In the four and a half days registration was open 512 people signed up.  I’m still working on arranging transportation to and from the Kick Off.  I did get in touch with a trail angel for a ride to Campo for the 22^nd, so that’s all set.  Just under a month until I'm on the trail.

28 Days-We ought to eat all our provisions now

"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our Provisions now, so that we shan't have so much to carry."  Winnie the Poo by A.A. Milne

Some goodies, including a 4 pound bag of chocolate chips

On Sunday after spending two hours at the gym walking six miles with my pack I went up the street to Sam’s Club to do a little whole sale shopping with a member card borrowed from my Aunt (Hi Sandy!).  I didn’t have a list, just the plan to go up and down every food aisle slowly.  At this point I know what I like to eat while on the trail, but I still took my time.

I started at the candy aisle and quickly added a large can of peanuts to my massive cart followed by a 48 count box of Snickers and a 24 count of PayDays.  In ’09 I bought four boxes of Snickers and didn’t finish them off until November of ’10.  I took a Snicker vacation in ’11 and I’m ready to return to them.  I might have to go get a second box—I’m not sure yet.

190 dollars of food in one box.

I went there looking for breakfast foods and snacks.  Since I was last in a whole sale store in ’09 I think the selection of food increased.  I found everything I expected, but I found some of it in different flavors than “original.”  I’m pretty happy with the variety of food I picked out and I even found a few things to add to my homemade and dehydrated lunches and dinners—like a giant bag of bacon bits.  I think any of my dinners would benefit form a handful of bacon bits.  Sadly, they only had tuna in cans.  Hopefully a grocery store puts tuna packets on sale soon.  They had some potted meats and yard long pepperoni sticks, which I’m not interested in.

I accidently stayed a half hour after closing time—I blame the Nutterbutter cookies that I stood in front of debating if they should be in my cart or not (I went with not) for too long.  I rang up with 190 dollars of food that all fit into one big box—it looked like more in the cart.

Almost 7 days of food with 4,453 calories.

Sunday I bought the food so Monday I took it and spread it across my floor in tidy little categories.  Awhile ago I had broken my maps into section for mailing and I used them for the base of my food planning.  I started small with drink mixes and some food that I had left over from last summer ridge running.  I have nineteen drops planned—and that counts what I’ll have in my pack on day one.  I quickly laid out breakfast, second breakfast, morning snack, afternoon snack, drink mixes, and hot chocolate powder.  I might have over done it buying two boxes of hot chocolate mix.  I ended up with 140 envelopes hot chocolate and I plan on being out there for 150 days.  I had planned on bringing tea as well, but I’ll wait and see. 

For one 7 day section that I prepped I ended up with 4,453 calories of snacks and breakfasts which breaks down to 636 calories a day.  Besides missing lunches and dinners I’m missing half my breakfast for that section.  I’m planning on having half oatmeal and half breakfast bars in each drop.  Each section I prepped yesterday is also missing goldfish crackers, cookies, and gorp (that’s what the 4 pounds of chocolate chips are for).

Most of my drops.

A lot of people don’t do food drops because they worry about getting bored with the food in the drops.  That doesn’t worry me at all.  It’s never been a problem on my other hikes—my Snickers vacation wasn’t due to boredom, I simply ran out of them and without a Sam’s Club card of my own I didn’t feel like replacing them.  I try to pack a smidgen less than what I’ll want to eat:  if I’m out for seven days I bring six candy bars.  That way I have the option of bringing a different type of candy out of town or making do with an extra handful of peanuts.  A little bit of hunger makes me appreciate my food a lot more. 

The dehydrator has been humming along, but I’m no where close to done yet.  I had to toss one mistake, but since then I’ve made three batches of artichoke soup and today I’ll be making a Thai dish—or at least the veggies and the sauce for it.  And while that dries I’ll be at the gym walking.

31 Days- How to Tell When You Are Almost Ready

How to Tell When You Are Almost Ready for a PCT Thru-Hike:

You stop structuring your day around waiting for the mailman and UPS to arrive.

You stop checking Steep and Cheap every twenty minutes for a good deal.

You delete sale emails from REI, EMS, Backcountry, Sierra Trading Post, Campmor... instead of reading them.

You spend more time hiking than reading gear reviews.

You stop adding new items to your to-do lists.

Your to-do list has more items crossed off than pending.

You're able to tell people "I'm starting my thru-hike next month."

You start to sleep better as you finish buying gear.

You start to sleep worse because you're too excited.

You start to dream about doing the PCT on roller-skates because someone hide your hiking shoes.

You start to eat more fresh foods to make up for five months without.

You say "just about" when someone asks if your ready for your hike.

You start rediscovering your other hobbies.

You time how long it takes to break down and pack up camp.  Then you try to do it quicker.

You spend the day trying to cut your base weight by a pound.

You start finding things to do like learning bird calls or constellations.

You sleep in your tent for practice.

You cook all meals on your camp stove.

33 Days- Take Your Pack to the Gym Day

Florida Hiking

Took my pack for a six mile walk yesterday in one of the Florida preserves near here.  It was a very windy day, and rather cool for Florida.   The trail had almost none of that loose sand from the other day but it was just like all the other Florida hikes that I've been on.

Right after the hike I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill with my pack on.  I was only there for an hour and fifteen minutes but I had a lot of curious glances come my way.  Only the guy at the front desk asked where I was backpacking to.  I don't think he was expecting me to say Canada.

36 Days-A Practice Hike: Shifting Sands

Should have known something was up with mileage covered

Around 8 o'clock Friday morning we left for a practice hike that boasted high sand dunes, prairie, cypress tree groves on two loop trails-9.7 miles and 3.5 miles with a connector trail-for a hike of 17 miles.  Some of the hike followed the Florida Trail and some was State Park trail.

After an hour's drive we arrived at Jonathan Dickerson State Park.  We talked to the ranger about the 9 mile loop and bike trails and he gave us three different maps for the park and trails.

We parked, made some last minute adjustments and grabbed our stuff and were ready to hike.  This was the first time I had my new pack out for a hike.  I weighed it before we left home.  With two liters of water and all my gear-even my insulated jacket came along for a hike in mid-80 degree weather-the pack was at 17 pounds.  My food bag was empty so I bulked it up with a large bath towel and pj bottoms to give the bag the shape, but not the weight, of a full food bag.  In the parking lot I added lunch and snacks for a total weight of 18 pounds.

The trail started off very exposed to the hot sun and parallel to Highway US 1-a very busy main road.  The trail undulated across high sand dunes.  The treadway was a very fine and very bright white sand.  It was loose and deep and shifted dramatically underfoot.  I'm used to the very stable, if sometimes rocky, treadway of the AT.  When the ground underfoot changes with every step your body has to constantly correct itself-from the placement of your foot, to ankles, knees, and hips and all the muscles in-between.  It’s a much more physical way to hike.  It got me hoping the desert of the PCT won't be as sandy.

Sandy trail after railroad crossing

I don't think we were even a mile in before I started missing my trekking poles.  I hadn't needed them before on the other hikes I've done in Florida.  I was missing the two extra points of contract of the poles on the sandy uphill’s-even though they were very small inclines.  By lunch time my hands had started to swell up from hanging at my sides for so long.  A lot of hikers use poles to avoid hand swelling.

We were hiking along, doing pretty well, when we came to a road crossing that wasn't on any of our three maps.  Painted on the road were two orange arrows one pointing left the other right with no clue as to which way we should turn.  We went right and followed along some train tracks that we knew we needed to cross.  We could sometimes see our orange blazes on the other side of the tracks but the vegetation was so thick there was no chance of crossing.

We saw a bridge up ahead and realized we had to cross the tracks on the bridge.  It is illegal to cross train tracks anywhere but an official crossing and the trail had only recently changed to reflect this.  At one point the trail made a sharp right off the road into the shrubs.  Trail was so new it had been blazed but not cleared.  On the other side of the road we could see the trail on a gated dirt track.  We crossed and followed the trail all the way back to the two painted arrows.  That new section of trail added 2 miles to our hike-I think it was then that I knew I wasn't doing 17 miles.

After lunch they tried to play the train crossing trick on us again.  Instead of following the tracks up for a half mile and then back we took the road for a half mile and rejoined the trail after the crossing.  At this point we were about two miles from our car.  We were beat.  We were achy.  Our Florida hiking guidebook had billed the hike as one of the best with not to miss views.  Those views must have been on the other loop.  We were unimpressed with the shrubby palms and grassland.  There were a few patches of cypress tress that offered some beautiful shade.

The nicest part of the hike

In the last ten minutes of the hike we came to a lake.  A cool breeze came off it and there was a boardwalk with two benches.  We sat for a minute, but at that point, after 13 miles, we weren't feeling like lounging in the hot sun-we were feeling like a swim.  We finished our hike and drove to the swimming area.

The swimming area was a part of a river that had been roped off.  The roped off section was about 50 feet down river from a sign which cautioned about frequent alligator sightings.  We took a very quick dip in the warm water, dried off and went home.
On Saturday were were all a little stiff.  I was thankful I didn't have to get up and walk twenty miles.  From the pictures of the PCT that I've seen nothing looked like beach sand like this hike, so that's a little reassuring.  

40 Days-Artichoke with Lemon Soup

I took a small break from the dehydrating.  It is to the point now that any procrastination means something may not get done.  I have one month and ten days left and I would guess that I have half of my lunches done and a third of my dinners.  Dinners are still giving me troubles, although I did come up with a winner:  Artichoke with Lemon Soup.

This is a light soup with a strong artichoke flavor backed by lemon and is brightened up with the vivid greens and it can be made hardier in camp by adding some meat.

Artichoke with Lemon Soup

Artichoke Lemon Soup in the dehydrator.

1lb artichoke hearts (fresh or frozen)

½ cup rice (cooked in stock)

1 cup stock (for rice)

1 cube bouillon dissolved in 1 cup water

1 teaspoon tarragon (dried)

1 can of Great Northern White beans

½ cup greens (spinach or collard)

2 tablespoons lemon juice (or to taste)

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Cook rice in stock.  Once cooked transfer to a large saucepan add all the ingredients.  Cook until hot then turn off heat.  Because the artichoke hearts are much larger than the beans the soup needs to be blended some.  Using a blender or food processor pulse small batches of soup to end up with a chunky final product (or puree, it preferred).  Spread on trays to dehydrate.   My first batch filled three trays and I used two fruit leather trays and one tray covered with wax paper.

When in camp rehydrate with hot water and eat as is or add meat (tuna/ chicken pouch or summer sausage).

When making soups that I plan to dehydrate I use less liquid than typical.  Cooking the rice in the stock infuses the rice with flavor.  Dissolving the bouillon cube in a cup of water will give the soup the flavor of the bouillon without having to remove the excess water from the broth while dehydrating.

The recipe is about 8 servings so maybe four servings on the trail.  Maybe even less.  It dried to almost nothing.   I'm really looking forward to this meal on trail.