Final Pre-Hike Update

It has been a busy week!  A week ago yesterday was my last day of work.  I started my drive from Tucson, AZ on Sunday at 2 PM after handing in my keys to my apartment. Sunday night was spent camping in Sedona, AZ in Oak Creek Canyon.  I arrived after dark and quickly realized I was not in the desert anymore!  It was cold and snow was still covering the ground in patches.  After a dinner of dehydrated chicken burrito and rice with tortillas, I quickly settled in for a chilly night in my 15-degree Marmot sleeping bag and my Tarptent Notch.

Sedona, AZ Camping

On Monday I crossed the border into Utah but did not make it any farther than Bryce Canyon.  I have wanted to explore this area for a long time and after delaying for many hours, I finally decided that this trip was not the time to get too deep into canyon country.  I was on a mission and the PCT was calling me.  I ended up doing a quick 2 mile hike into some of the most beautiful scenery in Bryce Canyon National Park - and I just barely scratched the surface.  I am definitely planning a return trip to Bryce Canyon, Arches National Park and the many other brilliant places in southern Utah when I can devote more time to exploring these amazing landscapes.

"Hoodoos" in Bryce Canyon

Monday night was spent camping in a flat spot off a dirt road west of Bryce Canyon.  Dinner was Mac-n-Cheese shells with smoked salmon out of a tin-foil packet.  Yummy!  Temps were colder than the previous night as frost greeted me in the morning and my 2-gallon water bottle froze during the night.

Car Camping near Bryce Canyon, Southern Utah

Hiking in Bryce Canyon

Tuesday was a day of driving.  Canyon country turned into pasture-land as I made my way up I-15 through Utah, south-eastern Idaho and finally into Montana by the end of the day.  Montana is a lush and fertile place with streams and creeks running through valleys of cow and horse pastures surrounded by snow-capped peaks on all sides.  These looked like the happiest cows alive!  I wished I could stop and do some fishing and just enjoy the wide-open space.  After searching for a motel in Butte, Montana and not wanting to pay $75/night for a Super-8 motel, I headed west about 15 miles and ended up at an RV campsite with about a half-dozen tent-only camping spots - none of them occupied.  $23 paid for a site complete with a free shower!  I'll take that over a Super-8 in a sleezy part of town any day!  By Wednesday at 2 PM I was pulling into my mom's driveway in Spirit Lake, Idaho. 

These last three days have been spent re-packaging all my resupply boxes, seam-sealing my tent, shopping for final supplies (more fuel cannisters, extra mini-bic lighters, Kathoola Micro-spikes ordered online and a new spork) and NOT shaving!  With just a few days until I touch the border fence and start hiking north, I can say that I am as mentally and physically prepared as I will ever be for this journey.

I will share more when I am on the trail.  Bring it on PCT!

Osprey All Mighty Guarantee

What could have been a bad omen has turned into an example of great customer service.  Two weeks ago I walked into my apartment - new camera case in hand - and proceeded to test it's size to see if it would fit in my Osprey Exos backpack's hip-belt pocket.  Here is what I found...

I had no idea that objects could self-combust!  Did my pack - the most important piece of gear that I would carry for the next five months - just inexplicably melt while sitting harmlessly on my floor?  I looked around for evidence of a searing liquid dripping from the sink above where it leaned against the wall.  Nothing.  Were rats burrowing into my wall and chewing up my gear?  Nope!  I was utterly dumb-founded!  The seams were falling apart with only a gentle nudge!  The fabric was literally melted in places.  The left shoulder strap buckle had completely melted and fallen apart!  

The Wisdom of Patience and Preparation

It has been close to eight months since I made a commitment to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in mid-July, and probably a year or more since the idea first entered my consciousness.  In my journal, since August 14th, I have been keeping a running countdown of the weeks left until I will say goodbye to my friends and family and set out on this adventure - and now that list is almost all crossed off!  Each weekend I cross out the prior week so that visually I can see the progress toward my goal.  There are now just six weeks until I turn in my keys to my apartment, pack my belongings into storage, and then drive up to Idaho to spend some time with my mom and make final preparations before flying to San Diego on April 26th.  My patience over the past eight months has been tested more than ever before, and I feel extremely anxious.  I know there is value in this space I am in right now - I just need to learn to appreciate it.  It is an interesting feeling being so near to a goal and knowing that it is inevitable, yet still feeling like it is so far away.  Six weeks still feels like an eternity to me.

Anatomy of a PCT Resupply Box

As I sit here inhaling the smoky scent of beef jerky drying in the dehydrator and with boxes of supplies lining the wall behind me, it occurs to me that it could be valuable to share exactly what is included in one of my re-supply boxes with all of you who are thinking of planning your own long-distance hike.  This aspect of planning has taken me the most time and effort, but seeing these packages finally come together is really satisfying and quite a relief!  This has been a major hurdle and now it is one less thing standing between me and the crunch of my first steps on the trail. 

Knowing that at least half of my food on the trail is already prepared (I am only shipping re-supply boxes to 12 towns along the way) will enable me to enjoy large stretches of trail and plenty of zero-days in town without worrying about food shopping or fuel re-supply.  So let's get to it!

The Long Wait - Confessions of a PCT Dreamer

I must confess, I am little obsessed with counting down the days until I am able to begin my thru-hike, and mark the beginning of a radical change to my lifestyle.  I do obsessive things to psychologically distract myself from thinking about the last few months of this long wait, to manage the motivational drought I have, so that I can mentally cope with having more than three months still remaining until I am standing at the trail-head ready to take my first steps.


I began keeping a journal around the same time I made the choice to hike the PCT, and that first entry was made on July 9th, 2011 while sitting in a Barnes & Noble bookstore with a latte and a new black vinyl journal.  With a little bitterness, I wrote:  "I can only see the tunnel narrowing in front of me as my choices in life slowly dwindle until there is only a straight path leading to my uneventful retirement and subsequent enrollment into an assisted living facility.  Here I will spend my last days watching National Geographic specials on the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks while sipping a bottle of Ensure through a straw and wondering 'what if?'"  That was a turning point - almost exactly 7 months ago today.  A few days later I had already made several rough gear lists, PCT preparation lists and had gone to the library and borrowed and read through a good portion of several travel and hiking books.  On July 14th I exclaimed, "Only 37 weeks until showtime!" (I was short by a couple of weeks)

More On Food Dehydration and On-Trail Meal Strategy

As I am approaching the 100-day mark in the countdown to the beginning of my hike, I wanted to provide an update on my food preparation for the PCT hike.  Here is what has worked for me so far...


I decided early on that I would ship pre-packaged meals to myself in only half of my town stops.  For the rest, I will rely on resupplying in town or enjoying restaurant meals when available.  I am more happy with this decision now after getting a taste for how much work would be involved in preparing and packaging 150 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks!  Even if you cut that in half, that still leaves 75 days of meals to prepare - no simple task.  For these meals, I am finding that dehydrating food is the most effective way of getting the nutrition and convenience I will need on the trail.  See my previous blog on dehydrating potato soup for a description of one of my first experiments with dehydrating soup.  Some advantages that I like are:  guaranteed nutrition through knowing what goes into each meal (dehydrating preserves the nutrients in the food), lightweight, variety, ease of preparation on the trail, and definitely taste!  I have relied on the following sources for tips and recipes for this endeavor:

Dehydrating Potato Soup!

Nutrition is important to me.  Hiking through mainly small towns on a 5 month Pacific Crest Trail hike will require some nutritional trade-offs, but I plan on swinging the pendulum at least a little bit in my favor by pre-planning some nutritional meals and then dehydrating them, prepackaging them and shipping them to myself in several stops along my hike.  See my PCT Itinerary for my planned stops and shipping locations along the PCT.