State of the Hike: 1 week edition

One week. Seven days. 164 hours, and I’ll be standing at the US-Mexico border, wondering what the hell I was thinking when I decided to walk this beast.

Dusty trails and lonely shadows — my next four months. On the Ohlone Wilderness Trail near Rose Peak at dusk.

California got some much-needed rain (and thunder & lightning here in the Bay Area!) last week, dumping snow in the mountains and greening up the hills a touch. I decided to stick with my original start date anyway, so now it’s official:

Come snow or drought, I’ll be taking my first steps on this journey on April 13th.

Done done done

I spent 80 hours since my last update in an intensive wilderness medicine course (see below). During that 10 day stretch, I commuted over to the Presidio in SF using BART, my bike (Trogdor the LHT was grateful for the exercise), and a lovely carpool of fellow Oaklander classmates. Each day, I was hard pressed to stay awake past 9 pm, and I passed out dead on the couch more nights than not. It was wearying, and invigorating. I loved it.

Over the week since finishing the WFR class, I’ve been chugging through my remaining tasks:

To finalize up gear and acquire skills:

• attended (& passed) a WMI-NOLS Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course
• bought tarp poles to give me more campsite options in the high desert
• picked up little bottles to refill with Aqua Mira or bleach
• picked up extra memory cards for the camera, and a couple memory card readers
• found a nice softcover journal for my trail diary
• found stickers to make my maildrop boxes stand out from the herd (bright green & stars)
• decided to use my friend’s bear canister (Garcia) that I’d already borrowed for last year’s JMT (thanks Pat!)

Towards food & resupply:

• adjusted 3000 & 4000 calorie food plans (removed undesired foods)
• bought 30 days of food and first aid resupplies
• repacked bulk snacks into ziplocs
• decided the first maildrop location: Warner Springs

On the logistics front:

• arranged to visit and stay with family & friends in LA and San Diego next weekend
• decided if/how to blog from the trail
• tested the SPOT device
• got a haircut and had my eyebrows threaded — gotta give it room to grow on the trail, eh?

Get it done. NOW.

Of course, I still have one or two boxes to check off for the hike:

• load my food bag with 5 days of food to see what a typical carry will be like
• load my pack with 10 days of food to simulate the Sierra carry
• decide between the ÜLA Circuit and MLD Burn packs (leaning towards Burn, baby, Burn)
• mail the first resupply box, and fill second box (with Russell)
• collect the names & contact info of all the lovely friends and family who offered to help me out along the trail (or climb mountains — I’m looking at you, Farren!)
• make list of all resupply locations for Russell to use when mailing
• break up my maps into sections for maildrops
• audit and refill my first aid kit
• spend a day practicing with the tarp and new tarp poles
• spend an hour learning where various settings are on my camera
• order a new debit card to replace the one I left in a bar during Art Murmur (le sigh)
• get my teeth cleaned (Tuesday)
• create accounts for Russell on this blog & social media so he can update while I’m gone

Then there’s the non-hike logistics to take care of before I leave town for 4 months:

• quality time with Russell
• see friends & family
• enjoy civilization, hot water, my soft bed
• tell banks & credit card companies of my traveling
• set bills to auto-pay or forward to Russell
• PAY TAXES
• empty all purses & bags so I don’t leave anything rotting for 4 months
• more quality time with Russell
• set up auto-response on email accounts, voicemail

And last, but never least:

• take some deep breaths, enjoy these last few days, and remember that it will all be okay.

It will, in all likelihood, be awesome.