I'm not gonna worry about organizing this, so my thoughts will be kinda random.
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| Pacific Crest Trail |
The PCT is said to require around 6 million steps to complete it. This might work for me, but Jan's stride is about 5" shorter than mine (yet still pretty long for one who is 5'-1" tall), so she'll probably have to budget for around 7 Million steps. Most people hike the PCT going from south to north and that's how we plan to do it, beginning at a PCT monument on the Mexican border 1/2 mile south of the tiny town of Campo, Ca., and terminating at the Canadian border near Manning Park, B.C. An edited version of an ancient Chinese proverb states that "...a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". We hope there will be someone at the starting monument willing to take our photo as we launch our first, significant step. Perhaps some Homeland Security guys will be hanging around, as the monument is located right beside the infamous "wall" (in which case, it's likely that we will be automatically photographed).
The idea of the trail was conceived in1902, and the PCT was finally completed in 1968 with the conjoining of several existing shorter trails and then by filling in the gaps through acquisition of land, or with easements, and by constructing new trail sections. Generally, use of the trail is limited to equestrians and hikers (no bikes, or motorized vehicles), exceptions being where local usage is governed by a unique jurisdiction with different rules. Because of the random way in which the trail developed, together with issues of topography and private property rights, etc., the PCT winds around such that the approximately 1,000 miles that a crow would fly from Mexico to Canada has morphed into a convoluted pathway totaling approximately 2,650 miles. It is, as are most footpaths, very crooked, and it often meanders west, east--and even back south--for long distances. We will have to travel about 2 1/2 times as far as the crow.
"Through-hiking" means hiking the entire distance in one season. Often people "section hike" the PCT (in pieces), some taking as long as 20 years to cover the entire distance. Jan and I plan to "through-hike" the entire distance this summer because we are fortunate enough to have the time to do it and we sorta doubt that we have 20 years of trail hiking left in our aging bodies. We're gonna take a bit over 5 months to do this project, beginning on 15 April and finishing around 23 September.
Why are Jan and I hiking the PCT? We don't know why ('cause we can..., 'cause it's there...--no rational reason comes to mind, really). I've spent a bit of time hiking in the beautiful N. Cascades and each summer, around the first week of September, I've encountered several happy, worn-out and raggedy, through-hikers (they are easy to recognize--one's sense of smell is the first indicator). The hikers have been in their final 90-mile push to complete the hike. I've always thought I'd like to try it. At some point Jan and I were discussing it and one of us (we can't remember who) suggested we give it a go. There is no guarantee that we will actually finish the hike, as there will be many challenges along the way. It is a grueling trip, but with some worthwhile potential rewards of a personal nature. Right now, Jan and I are very busy preparing, and we're a bit stressed because we don't want to forget anything and we seem to be running out of time. We have purchased train tickets to San Diego so we now have a mandatory time line (the train leaves the station on 10 April). If we do this pre-hike stuff right, then the actual walk should be simply a matter of following the trail. Life ought to then become very simple, with only a few concerns: eating well enough to stay energized, staying warm (or cool), and staying dry--and making sure we enjoy this one-time greatest hiking experience I can imagine.
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| Jan, still a blonde |
Ages:
Jan and I are a bit more "chronologically advanced" than most other through-hikers. In fact, aside from a few ancient redwood trees, we expect to be just about the oldest living organisms on the PCT this year. Most such hikers appear to be in their early to mid-20s.
Credits:
I credit Jan largely with making this thing happen. Her role has been crucial in planning, organizing and assembling our resupply stuff. Her hiking experience is relatively limited and yet she has amazed me with her creative and constructive ideas. Perhaps because she hasn't done this sort of outing before, she easily thinks outside the box, and she seems willing to try just about anything. Upon retiring from her career as Community Relations Director at the City of Burien, Wa., Jan went back to college and became a Certified Personal Trainer and then worked for a few years at a gym. We have drawn on her past experience and knowledge while training for the hike and also while choosing and organizing our food. She has a good knowledge of nutrition, she knows a lot about proteins, carbs., fats, calories--even omega 3s n'stuff. She's also kinda "nerdy" about it (here's a portion of a nutrition spread sheet that she created for our trip):
Food | Serving Size | # of Servings | Calories | Fat | Carbs | Protein |
Chili Beans | 1 c | 4 | 840 | 4 | 144 | 60 |
7 grain cereal | ¼ dry mix | 5 | 700 | 10 | 140 | 30 |
Ingredients for Trail Mix | ||||||
Trail Mix Nuts, Pretzels etc. | 1 cup | 1.5 | 1040 | 66 | 101 | 31 |
NV Oats& Honey Bar | 2 bars per pkg | 3 | 570 | 18 | 87 | 12 |
Pro Bar | 1 | 3 | 1110 | 54 | 144 | 24 |
Snickers | 3.7 oz bar | 2 | 998 | 25 | 64 | 8 |
Olive Oil | 1 tb | 1 | 120 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
NF Dry Milk | 1 cup | 2 | 180 | 0 | 26 | 16 |
TOTAL | 7013 | 267g | 994g | 216g | ||
Altogether, we plan to consume the following:
600 vacuum bags of thoughtfully planned out meals (all good, healthy stuff)
450 snickers bars (for calories, fat, protein, carbs)
100 bags M&Ms (for calories, fat, protein)
450 Pro Bar bars (complete meals in themselves)
450 Nature Valley bars (carbs)
We're obviously not gonna starve, in fact we will likely have a little left over to contribute to the "hiker boxes" at each leg of the trail. The main thing is that we will not come up short (we've done that a couple of times in the past and that is not pleasant!) and we don't want to lose a lot of weight, either. We will no doubt eat better than all other through-hikers. While I have helped out with the food by doing my share of the shopping, cooking, dehydrating and packaging, all the thought, the calculations, and the planning were Jan's province. There is nothing like the anticipation of good, healthful chow to keep one scooting along the trail with a good attitude.
Both Jan and I have arranged for "auto-pay" online bill paying--it pretty much works like this: each month, my creditors will tell the bank how much money they want and then the bank will send it to them (that's not how I've done business in the past and it makes me a bit nervous!). We will carry an iPhone on the trail, which we hope will function (at least when we happen to be near a "wired" town) as a phone, as a note pad, as a camera, a GPS, and an Internet connection). Of course, we'll have to plug it in to an electrical outlet somewhere now and then. We do have a solar charger for the iPhone, but I'm dubious and of course there is no way to test it around Seattle at this time of year--at a tanning salon, maybe(?).
In our previous post, we mentioned our friends, John Hand and Charlie Hyde, both of whom have given us helpful advice and coaching.
Food, company, and "Trail Angels":
We have major concerns about what we will be eating. "Gas Station Gut Wad" is apparently available within walking and hitchhiking distance of most trail heads that we will pass, but we are leery of that stuff. Last summer, we met a through-hiker who told us that he had subsisted on nothing but Snickers Bars and Pop Tarts for the entire length of the trail (but he was in his mid-20s, and he may not live to see 40 at that rate). He did subsequently complete that hike. We plan to pick up a food resupply box every 3-7 days (at about 45 to 140-mile intervals). I have been phoning all the (approximately 35) places where we hope to have boxes sent in order to confirm addresses, get their permissions, etc. Most of the places are U.S. Post Offices, some are stores, and some are the private homes of helpful people who happen to live near the trail. I phoned one guy in Calif. who's name I had, concerning resupply, and he told me to simply mail him the packages and then to phone him from around Kennedy Meadows (about 120 miles south of where we want to pick up those packages), telling him approximately when we plan to be passing by a certain trail head, and he said he'd drive our stuff there and place it inside a bear box at the trail head for us to pick up! Those helpful people are referred to as "Trail Angels", and they have become institutions along the PCT. Some have been known to invite through-hikers into their homes, allow them to shower, do their laundry, and spend a night!
My friend, Dan Villwock plans to accompany us on the trail between Chinook Pass and Snoqualmie Pass, and we hope Jan's sister and brother-in-law (Cheryl and Al) will join us in the Sierras to hike for a couple of days. They will personally deliver our resupply boxes when they arrive. Tom and Danell Krebsbach are considering meeting us in Stehekin in order to buy us a celebrity beer preparatory to our last week of the hike.
Bear Cans (not to be confused with "Beer Cans"). "Beer Cans" can often be found strewn alongside trails and at the bottoms of lakes and creeks, especially toward the end of hunting season. "Bear Cans" are supposed to stay inside PCT hikers' backpacks, at least during the day.
Throughout most of California, we will be required to carry Bear Cans. Nope--Bear Cans are not containers in which bears go to the bathroom. Bear Cans are strong, clear plastic canisters in which food can be transported and stored and which none but the smartest and most persistent bears can open. They are barrel shaped and are of a large enough diameter that bears are unable to fit them into their mouths and walk off with them. Most bears lack the motor skills and finger dexterity (and patience) to be able to get their huge, klutzy fingernails into a tiny hole and manipulate a weenie little trigger that unlocks the can (their poor eyesight probably works against them here as well). I imagine these cans might really infuriate a hungry bear because one can look right through the clear plastic and see all the goodies inside (but then, if bears are farsighted...), well anyway, apparently they work. It is recommended that the cans be placed on the ground at least 200 ft. from one's tent so that one doesn't have to listen to the bears fussing and cussing all night.
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| *#!*#**! |
Pack weight:
Our full packs weigh in at approx. 18 lbs., and 13 lbs., respectively (but that is not counting food, water, and fuel)--my pack will be the heaviest of the two (I dunno why...but I guess I eat the most). One gallon of water weighs 8 lbs., and it is recommended that each hiker carry two gallons per person through the desert areas (so, do the math--I'm afraid to). We plan to not use much fuel, as our only hot meal will be supper, and for that we will only have to rehydrate the stuff we're now dehydrating, and then warm it up. Each day, an hour or so before supper, we'll just put the dried food into a plastic bag with water and let it rehydrate while we hike. I don't know how much our food will weigh, but it will be way too much. We're not packing nearly as "light" as a lot of other hikers. There are some who spend really big money on special equipment in order to reduce their pack weight a tiny bit--and they become obsessively anal about it and talk about it constantly--they call those guys "Gram Weenies". We have a tent, two air mattresses, and a few other luxuries which many others eschew--we've even got a small (1.5 oz) stove! Our tent (actually, a nice and roomy, 3-person, double-wall tent) weighs 3 lbs. 10 oz., my empty pack weighs about 2.5 lbs, and we (well actually, Jan) made ourselves a wonderful quilt which weighs less than 3 lbs. and obviates the redundancy of carrying two individual sleeping bags. I can envision finding personal REI-type items intentionally strewn along the trail for the first 100 or so miles similar to what I've read of the wagon train routes over which early pioneer settlers traveled and jettisoned possessions in order to lighten their loads. At some trail heads, there are "hiker boxes" into which one can put stuff one is tired of carrying. Some (gram weeny) through-hikers intentionally plan to eat out of these "hiker boxes" in order to save both money and weight. I'm confident that we will eat very well, and nary a single Mountain House freeze-dried meal will ever sully the inside of our food bag.
That stuff is awful! |
| Jan vacuum sealing food |
We have had, at various times, two food dehydrators running in my kitchen--they're going right now. Boxes are stacked up all over Jan's and my condos. We purchased a small freezer for storing semi-perishable food until the last minute.
That's about all I know at this time about this PCT business. Gentle Readers: I sense your attention beginning to wane. On subsequent posts (like maybe every two or three weeks), I promise less talk and more pics (like maybe a half dozen photos with captions--and that'l be it)...
I think this is gonna be a really great experience, and I can hardly wait to begin.
Enough, now. Maybe I can get Jan to share her thoughts.
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