Final Day at Home

So the most amazing thing has happened over the last five months. Somehow I've managed to spent that time wrapping up my undergrad and prepping for this massive summer undertaking. I've gathered up 90 days of food, boxed it up, ready to ship to myself on the trail. I developed an itinerary for how I plan to cover 2600 miles of trail in just three months. I've put in nearly 350 miles of training, and feel pretty good about my physical condition. I've assembled all the gear that will keep me safe and warm over the course of this adventure. And somehow through all of that, this day seemed to be exceedingly far away. Suddenly, yesterday, as I walked back from receiving my diploma, it was here. Whoa, that hit me fast, because part of me never really wanted, or even expected this senior year to end. I was just having too much fun with everyone, and the end was always weeks or months away, then BAM! Game over. Undergraduate life has been forever locked away in our photos, transcripts, and memories. Now its time for things to get real.

I'm home right now looking at everything that come together for this trip (including a frantic rush to postpone jury duty that came up in June!) For anyone who hasn't followed me from the start though, let me give you a brief recap. This summer I plan to hike the 2,600 mile Pacific Crest Trail, starting at the Mexican border in Southern California and working my way up to the Canadian border. I follow the mountain crest up the center of the state, so no, I will not see the ocean. You can see the route below.

I'll be starting out in the high desert, and will be there for about 700 miles before transitioning into the Sierra Nevada mountain range, including a short detour up to Mount Whitney, the tallest point in the lower 48. After several hundred miles there I will move into the volcanic areas of Northern California, winding around massive volcanoes such as Lassen and Shasta. At the 1700 mile mark I will have finished my first state, and will head into Oregon and the Cascade mountains. As the trip winds to a close I will come through Washington, up to the Canadian border, and just across to catch a Greyhound bus back to the states for my flight home.

If you were wondering, no I'm not crazy, just ambitious. I'm looking to push myself to the limit as I need to walk an average of 28 miles per day in order to finish this before grad school starts again in the Fall.

I'm starting out solo (much to my mother's chagrin) but I fully expect to run into other hikers and spend time hiking with them if we're going the same pace. About 400-500 people attempt the full thru-hike each year, so I won't be the only one out there.

Yes, I do have a satellite emergency button, and I hope never to need it. The nice thing is that it lets me send 140 character check-in texts w/ my GPS location, so that will let me stay in touch even out of cell range. If you want to be on that list for text messages, please message me and I'll make sure to add you to my account.

For supplies, I clearly can't carry 95 days of food with me, so the plan is to box up 5-7 days of food and ship those boxes to post offices near the trail. I'll just have to walk in, show my ID, and I'll be all set for another week of hiking.

In terms of keeping everyone up to date, this will be my primary location for updates, at least when I have cell service. I'll try to post as many photos and entries as I can.

I think that pretty much covers it, so I'm off to pack my bag for the flight tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your support, and I'll see you all in a few months!

Trail Logistics: Food

One of the first questions I hear whenever I mention that I'll be hiking for 3 months straight this summer is "So what are you going to eat?" or "Where will you get your food?". Fortunately for me, there are a bunch of great options.

Food: I'll be hiking for approximately 10-12 hours each day, so the primary concern is the quantity of food that I'll need. Based on a couple rough approximations, I expect to consume about 6,000 calories a day. I'll adjust as I go, but it does mean I have to be very conscious about my food choices. Pretty much anything is fair game, and its amazing how your mindset changes when you go shopping. "Normal" people go into the store and look for low calorie foods, whereas I'll be looking for lightweight, high calorie foods. Bring on the Pringles, pop tarts  and snickers! My main staples will include instant potatoes, beef jerky, minute rice, Knorr sides, trail mix, and muesli (oats, nuts, raisins etc). I'll only be cooking dinners, so everything else is meant to be eaten with no preparation in order to get me back on the trail as fast as possible.

Resupply: 6,000 calories a day translates into something like 3 lbs of food. Obviously I won't be carrying food for the entire summer with me, as I'd need a team of pack horses to move it all. Instead, I've planned out a quick and easy resupply strategy to minimize the amount of food I carry, without causing too much disruption to my schedule. Every couple hundred miles (or less) the trail comes within a reasonable distance of a town, and I will use those opportunities to get new supplies for the upcoming section. My strategy revolves around the use of 'mail drops', essentially shipping packages to yourself for pickup at the post office. I'll pack up a dozen boxes of food before I leave, and have those shipped to various post offices along the way. There are several advantages to this method: I get exactly what I want in the box, I can buy in bulk, and I get everything quickly and easily in one place. Of course, I will supplement my diet with fresh foods at local grocery stores, along with the occasional luxury of a steak or burger in a restaurant while in town. The main disadvantage to this method is that I have to time my town arrivals around post office hours so I can actually pick up my package. As it stands now, I plan to do about 12 of these mail drops, along with a number of other small stops to pick up perishable foods along the way.

As it stands today, I have planned out my itinerary for the first 1,000 miles of my trip, and I'll be developing the last 1,600 miles over the next week. The nice part about all of this planning is that it gives me a pretty good familiarity with each section of the trail, so by the time I get out there I feel like I'll really know and understand what I'll be hiking through each day. 94 days to go!