"The PCT's calling card is its stunning beauty. It has a diversity of geography unequaled by any footpath in the world. Haunting and beckoning the PCT hiker are the implacable desert, the towering majesty of the so-called High Sierra, and the ruggedly bleak, northern Cascade range. Indeed, the PCT hiker faces much greater extremes of terrain and climate than on the famed Appalachian Trail. Completing this demanding challenge calls for overwhelming clarity of purpose."
I came across this excerpt recently and thought it summed up a few things quite well. The time is quickly approaching when I will be in the middle of the "implacable desert" with a fairly simple purpose: go north. It is an incredible concept the anyone can walk on this continuous footpath for 2,600 miles and end up literally across the country. But until then my days will be a flurry of activity getting all the pieces in place and hoping nothing is forgotten.
So how does one go about preparing for such an adventure? Lists, of course! The majority of my food I have pre-made or pre-purchased. Breakfast is instant oatmeal or pop-tarts, lunch is various energy bars, GORP, dried apples, and the most sacred of all hiker food.... SNICKERS bars! and dinners are a delightful array or dehydrated veggies combined with various pastas, sauces, and protein sources that I prepared throughout the past year from going to farmer's markets and sales. Despite every effort, it is nearly impossi-
ble to actually consume enough calories while hiking 20+ miles every day. It is estimated that a thru-hiker burns 8,000 to 12,000 calories a day and it is practically impossible to carry, or even consume, that amount unless I literally pitch my tent next to Dunkin' Doughnuts. So while on the trail I do the best I can but when I'm in a town you can be sure the thru-hikers will be congregated at the nearest all-you-can-eat establishment getting more than our money's worth!
Most of the trail is very remote and opportunities to buy cheap, nutritious hiker food is fairly limited. So for the PCT most hikers choose the option to pack resupply boxes ahead of time and have them sent to various businesses hostels, and post offices along the trail in a timely fashion (THANK YOU ERIC!!!!!). These boxes also contain my maps for that particular section and various odds and ends I may need like batteries and contact solution.
It is tempting to spend hours and even days going over previous hiker blogs and studying maps to plan every step ahead of time but the truth is I really just end up winging it. Yes, there are certain things that are important like knowing when I will need my ice ax and boots vs where it is required to have a bear-proof food container. But in truth I simply guestimate how many days it will take me for each section and pack a box with the maps and enough food. If i guess low I can always buy more, if I guess high I can always give my goodies away to another hiker, and if I get tired of my meal choices I can always swap with another hiker for some variety. Having a bit of faith that it will all work out in the end certainly comes in handy!
Even though I am hiking alone I'm not actually going to be the only one on the trail with the goal of hiking from Mexico to Canada in one hiking season. There will be about 300 people from all over the globe starting a thru-hike attempt and only half will make it the whole way. Some days will be a flurry of meeting strangers who quickly become family and some days will be totally solitary. There is a culture that goes along with this new world, one part is something called Trail Names. The idea is that instead of using your given name you are called by a name that more reflects who you are. Some of these names come from stories that happened on the trail: Singe is a girl who lit her tent on fire trying to cook out of the rain. Strider, Crazy Cloud, Hobo, Tom Sawyer, MadDog, Swami, Mouse, Flower, and Moon Walker are other examples just to name a few. My trail name is "Beads" because I have beads in my hair, pretty simple really.
More juicy details to come before I leave.....
Happy Trails!
~Beads
Greetings from beautiful Warner Springs in southern California. For anyone who ever thought there arent big mountains in southern Cali, Ive learned this is far from true. So far Ive had a 4,000 foot climb in a single day as well as an incredibly exposed and rocky 3,000 foot climb that I decided to do in the evening to avoid the heat. The path was bairly a foot wide and washed out in places on such a steep slope that anything lost over the side to the wind would surely never be recovered. There are peaks over 10,000 feet in the distance and awesome, ruggid mountains all around us. This is certainly no boring desert.
