The time draws near.  The excitement grows.  It is hard to sleep!

My focus has turned from training to tying down loose ends.  I have only six days left of work.  The firm I work for isn’t very good at thinking ahead.  I told them that I was going for a hike November 2nd, and only now does the urgency kick in.  I’ve heard rumors of how they are angry.  They didn’t think I was actually doing this.  Now they are trying to take notes.  When an employee gives five months notice, it is really the organization’s problem, not the employee.

My good friends at the Presbytery gave me what every backpacker needs in their backpack — a rock!  It is the Rock of Faith.  It weighs just one ounce.  It is not a want.  It is not a fear.  It is a need.  Therefore, I am taking the Rock of Faith.  To make room in my kit, I needed to take out one ounce, so I removed the hydration sleeve on my backpack.  It weighs 1.4 ounces, so adding the Rock of Faith decreases my base weight by 4 ounces!  They also gave me a beautiful send off.  With their prayers, how can I fail?

On Saturday, I will send a box to Warner Springs with plenty of time to get there.  I have decided to take breakfasts and dinners for five days and I will buy lunches along the way.  I was going to send two days of food to Mount Laguna, but I know I can buy stuff there.  The advice from those that have hiked before is to buy along the way.   I should follow their advice.

I have a couple of more church meetings and emails to do, so there isn’t much time to train.  At this point, I’m ready to go.  If I wasn’t ready now, I certainly would not have enough time to get ready.

Wow!  Fifteen Days!!!

After I finished writing my blog yesterday, I spent about an hour trimming the Orange Superfeet insoles.  The arch seemed to be in the wrong place.  I decided to go to a local shoe store that sells this product.  I should have done that in the first place.

Before I started training, I wore a 9.5 shoe.  Three years later and over a thousand trail miles, I now wear a 10.5.  That I knew.  What I didn’t know is that I am also a wide.  Switching to a Green Superfeet wide resolved the problem.  With that, the only lagging equipment issue is resolved.

The success of this massive hike is completely dependent upon the health of my feet.  Until I started training, I never had problems with my feet.  They were mostly ignored.  They are now equal to my eyes, heart, lungs and brain.

The weather in Southern California has changed a bit.  There is been rain and snow. That is good news for me because that means some of the seasonal streams that were dry two weeks ago may have water when I’m there.  It was bad news for my sisters and brothers who have already left.  Many wrote that they stayed in town to let the weather pass and that is always a good decision.

Unfortunately, one of the hikers I was quietly cheering on, a Navy Veteran like me hurt her knee and limped into Mount Laguna (mile 42) and was looking for a ride to the hospital.  There is enough time for her to heal if it is something minor.  I have my fingers crossed.

Not much left for me to do.  I have pulled out all my gear and put my name and phone number on it like my Mom was sending me to camp.  Everything is in one of two bins, that which I am taking and that which will be shipped to me later.  I have food that I will ship to Mount Laguna and Warner Springs.  I’ll send those boxes next weekend.

I continue to make minor adjustments.  I’ve lightened my first aid kit, removing stuff I do not need.  I’m pretty much dialed in at this point.

Life wise, I have been saying goodby to friends.  I am a Ruling Elder of the Presbytery of Milwaukee for the PC(USA), and I have a number of churches I walk with as they go through transition.  I seem to do a good job at it, as I was elected to be Co-Moderator of the Commission on Ministry despite the fact that I’m leaving for six months (hopefully).  I’ve said my goodbyes to Faith Springs in Pewaukee, 1st Presbyterian Church in Clinton and I will be saying good bye to Calvary Presbyterian of Milwaukee on Sunday.  I told the Presbytery that I could continue to walk with them, but I was told no.  I told them that I am obeying in protest.

At this point, I have no responsibilities other than Dad and this hike.  It is a weird feeling.  I have to keep in mind that even in life, the lighter the load, the faster and farther you go.

I updated my training log and I’ve completed 250 trail miles since January 1st.  Those are miles with at least thirty-five pounds on my back.  I’ve been pretty lucky.  It has been a low snow year and the trails near my house have been open all winter.

I will train in most conditions.  Rain, snow and cold do not stop me.  They are opportunities to test my gear.  The only condition I will not train in is ice where I cannot wear my micro-spikes.  I’ve quit my job effective March 30th.  I’m not going to hurt myself now.  Crashing and burning before I even leave would be too embarrassing.

I did back-to-back nine mile days with forty pounds.  After adjusting all the straps on my backpack, I have it dialed in.  Yesterday, those forty pounds were nothing.

I have an event tonight, but I will be able to hike tomorrow and Thursday.  I’ve set a goal of 100 miles before I leave.

I upped my training pack weight to forty pounds, the maximum recommended weight for my ULA Catalyst, and I’ll do my practice hikes at that weight level until I leave. Unfortunately, where I live is flat, so the best I can do is carry more weight than I will every carry and go faster than I’ll ever hike to simulate going up hills.

At forty pounds, my pack did become quite uncomfortable, especially my shoulders, so I went to the ULA website and watched the fitting video again.  At the maximum weight capacity, making sure the pack is properly fitted is critical.  Every strap is important.

So, my normal nine mile hike consisted of me adjusting all the different straps seeing what felt best.  I have a tendency to tighten the straps too tight.

Normally, I will leave a resupply point with twenty-eight pounds.  That is roughly 15 pounds of base weight, two liters of water (five pounds), a fuel canister (1 pound) and four days of food (8 pounds).  There are two areas where I will need to carry near the maximum capacity of my pack.

One area will be the 43 mile no water stretch.  The good news is that most of what I will be carrying is water, and the weight will go down rather quickly.  I will loose 2.5 pounds per five miles or so.

The second area is the stretch of passes in the Sierra Mountains.  There water isn’t the problem.  It is food.  The PCTA recommends a one pass per day strategy.  Depending on how you look at it, that means I will leave with 8 days of food, plus a bear canister, micro-spikes and some warmer clothes.  I often wonder how my sisters and brothers will handle these sections with their light-weight gear.  Eight days of food is 16 pounds.

That is a worry for another day.  By then, I will be so much stronger.  I will have plenty of time talking with others to figure out what I’m going to do when I get there.

Train, train, train.  Wait, wait, wait.

I did 45 trail miles last week as I ramp up my training.  My nine mile hike is nothing at this point.  I want to add more miles, but I’m still a dad with a job and some extra-curricular activities that I’m still responsible to attend.  Two-to-three hours is all I can dedicate in a given day to training.

The time draws near!

I haven’t had much time to update my blog.  I’ve been walking in my spare time!  I did my normal nine-mile hike with 40 pounds five times this past week.  I broke the five day trend because the family wanted to see the Black Panther.  I won’t hike today because it is my daughter’s birthday.

I received my approved permit to enter Canada, so that is now done.

Finally, I put in my 30-day notice on Wednesday.  I requested a leave of absence from my long-time employer on November 2nd, after I successfully signed up for my thru-hiking permit.  I gave them four months to decide how to respond.  I asked both my supervisor and human resources three times each over those four months.  Finally, I was told that they had not decided to approve it or not.  I believe the thought was that I wasn’t actually going to go through with it.  Clearly, they don’t understand me.  I said I was going on a hike in 2018.

So, my last day is March 30th.  That is the last day of the quarter, so I usually end up working 12-to-16 hours that day.  They could escort me out of the building I suppose.  That would be kind of awesome!  However, I don’t expect that to happen.  Don’t be sad for me.  The unemployment rate in my field is less than 1%.  I do not expect to have any difficulty finding a new job once I return, victorious.

With my last day the 30th, and it a late night that night, I will have three days to get everything ready.  There isn’t much left to do.  Mostly I will crank up my mileage those days.

Now to spend some time with the family.

My goal on Saturday was to begin to put it all together.  I would hike the Ice Age Trail with my by Campo start weight of 35 pounds.  The weather was in the high-30’s and cloudy.  I planned to do 15 miles and have my wife pick me up at the end.  I got up early, added water bottles to my pack to bring the weight up, and off I went.

When I pulled into the parking lot, it was a sheet of ice.  Fortunately, I took my new micro-spikes even though I’m not taking them when I leave.  I put on my pack and off I went.  I never took off my micro-spikes the entire day. The whole trail was a sheet of ice.

Eventually, I reached a point of the trail where it was no longer a sheet of ice but practically a lake.  I knew it was at least a foot deep as I’ve walked this place a few times before.  It also wasn’t fully frozen and the ice could not support my weight.  I crept up as the ice cracked underneath me.  The sound was amazing.  I even saw a tiny fish dart under the water.  After a bit, with no end in sight and cold wet feet, I decided to turn around.  Ice on ice with a layer of water is extremely slippery, even with spikes.

There really wasn’t much value hiking through.  There were more hills where I came from so I started back.  I didn’t hike the 15 miles I planned, but I had a good three-hours of up-and-down hills with micro-spikes.  Today I have no residual soreness.

On the gear front, Costco had a set of convertible pants for $19.99.   I’ve decided to wear them instead.  They weigh about twice my running shorts weigh, but they have pockets.  Now I have the option of shorts or pants.

Still waiting for my permit to hike into Canada.  I have two boxes to pack as well, but it is too early.  All I can do is train and wait…

When my adventure comes up in conversation, there are a number of common questions.  Are you scared?  Are you clinically insane?  Are you hiking alone?  Are you going to take a gun?  Are you taking a satellite phone?  One of my favorites is why is your wife letting you go?  Most of the questions express that individual’s fears, but this one is worth answering.  So, why is my wife letting me go?

When someone loves you and truly understands you, they know things that even you do not know.  In my case, my wife knows that I have a fundamental wanderlust.  I need to see what is on the other side of the mountain.  I try and contain it, but it bubbles over.

We also trust each other.  She knows that I love her and I have never done anything to break that trust.  I also will never do anything to break that trust.  That being said, she has given me two rules I may not break for this hike.

I will not allow my ego to exceed my ability.

This hike is a race.  It is not a race one wins in any given day.  I will need to push myself every day, but also stay within myself.  There will be situations I will run into where I will have to choose to go forward or go back.  I have a hard deadline of October 1st.  After that conditions are not safe to travel any longer, even for someone experienced with hiking in the snow.  I may have to accept that I cannot continue and return home.  The bottom line is that the goal is not worth giving up my life.

I may not share a hotel room a just one female.

To reduce costs, hikers share hotel rooms.  We all are carrying sleeping bags and are comfortable sleeping on the floor.  I will share a room with a whole bunch of people I do not know.  I might find someone on trail who hikes the same speed I do.  I may end up on a hiker family.  I don’t know what is going to happen.  I can share a hotel room with two females.  I can share a hotel room with eight females.  I just cannot share a room with just one female.

I’ve agreed to these two rules.  Did I mention my wife is awesome?

 

T-Minus 46 days and counting!  I really have only three things left to do, train, send a couple of boxes and wait.  So, while I wait, now would be a good time to discuss my strategy to complete the first section, Southern California Section-A.  It is how I will approach all my sections.

This section starts at the Southern Terminus at the Mexican border and ends in the town of Warner Springs.  Warner Springs is the only town in Southern California where it is recommended that I send a resupply box which I will do before I leave.  It is 109 miles long and should take 5-to-6 days to complete.

So, I need to either take or acquire six days of food.  A rough estimate is that a day’s worth of food is two pounds.  If I decided to carry all six days from the start, I’m looking at 12 pounds!  That wouldn’t be so bad if there was water to be found every ten miles.  However, there are two big stretches without reliable water and this is shaping up to be a dry year.

The first dry stretch is right out of the gate.  After I leave Campo, there is no reliable water until Lake Morena at mile 20.  Because of this long dry stretch, I’m looking at starting with six liters of water and dry camping at mile 15.  The second dry stretch is a 32 mile span from mile 77 to mile 101.  Water is heavy.  It weighs roughly 2.5 pounds per liter and I need a liter every 5 miles.  I do not want to carry a ton of water on top of twelve pounds of food.

So, the logical thing to do is find ways to acquire food on trail.  The first strategy is to look to places to resupply in between.  Mount Laguna (mile 41) has a post office, so I can send a box there.  That means I only need to carry 2 days worth of food to begin.  I can reduce that more, because there are burgers in Lake Morena (mile 20) and a C-Store with food, snacks and a deli.  So, I will leave Campo with two dinners, snacks and a lunch.

The next place I can stop is at mile 77.  There is a store at the Stagecoach Inn and RV Park.  There is a store with a deli.  If I stay there, I can get a pizza that evening.  Another choice is to hitch twelve miles into Julian.  Julian is a hiker friendly town with full-service amenities, but it is 12 miles away.  My plan is to skip Julian at this point, but I will play it by ear.

The last stretch from 77 to 109 includes a long no water stretch.  The good news is that I do not need to carry much food here.  If I spend the night in the RV park, I would need just one day worth of food and I would be able to buy dinner in Warner Springs the next day.  That leaves more room for the extra water I will have to carry.

By decreasing the amount of food I carry, I’ll significantly reduce my pack weight.  The lower the pack weight, the faster and farther I go.  The faster and farther I go, the less food and water I need.  The less food and water I need, the lower the pack weight.