Food on the Trail

My Stove for the PCT

It's pretty basic...

Breakfast: Oatmeal, Pop Tarts, or Granola with hot tea or cocoa

Lunch: Trail Mix, Tuna and Crackers or Beef Sticks, and Fruit Leather

Dinner: Freeze Dried Meals, or Top Ramen, or Stove Top Stuffing, and Cookies

Snacks: Trail Mix, Granola Bars, and Candy

Nothing requires more than hot water to prepare and a spoon to eat. I hope I don't get too bored eating the same thing day after day. The only variety will be when I pass through towns and can buy a meal or friends send care packages, hint hint, to resupply locations along the trail. See the itinerary page on my website for more info on sending care packages. Keep calm and hike on.

Eva Is Letting You Go? by Eva

It's 3:00 in the morning and I've listened to my husband toss, turn, pace the house and return to bed many times. Now he has given up on sleep and distracts himself with middle-of-the-night television waiting for the clock to say its time to get up and head for the Mexican border. He's obviously too excited to sleep. This would be a good time to try to finish answering the questions from friends as they've heard about Loren's plans. Usually the conversation goes something like this...

                   "You're doing what? And Eva is going to let you go for 5 months?" 

Yes, I am letting him go. And if you know my husband and have seen the glimmer in his eye and heard the flood of words gush from this normally pensive man as he talks about his trip, you understand why I am. After talking with my friend about it, I've decided the best word to describe this desire within him is Passion- A passion for the mountains. A passion for experiencing God's creation. A passion for knowing God as creator. A passion that few of us understand because few of us have it in our own lives. But shouldn't we all live with this same passion. Isn't it how Jesus lived? Isn't it why he died? I believe this is truly the way God would have us live...passionately!  So I let him go to fulfill this passion within him and to take the time to consider and pray about my own.  And let me encourage you friend, to do the same.

We Are Live!

My plans are public, the website is live, my blog is current, and I'm sharing about my trip on social media. Join the party! Subscribe to my blog, become a facebook friend, or follow me on twitter. I am excited to be able to talk about my hike and can't wait to begin hiking and posting on my blog from the Pacific Crest Trail! Keep calm and hike on!

ALL SYSTEMS GO!

Permits.........GO!
Gear............Go!
Food............Go!

Clothing........Go!
Training........Go!

Finances........Go!

Weather.........Go!

Resupply........Go!

Logistics.......Go!

I will begin hiking April 24, 2014. We are GO for launch!

Time to Focus!

Two weeks to go! I'm focused at work to make a smooth transition when I leave. My "honey do list" at home is almost finished. My check list for the PCT only has a few items left. It's time to finish packing my resupply boxes for the first two months and get the first few in the mail! I need to spend time with my wife, parents, and visit my daughter in Santa Cruz one last time. I'm so excited and I can't stop smiling. Keep calm and hike on!

Show Me The...Savings!

I'm not sure how old I was when someone told me that Santa wasn't real, but I do remember the day I was introduced to the concept of compounding interest! It was one of those moments when you hear the heavenly music, see the bright lights, and you start to tingle all over. I started saving money and I haven't stopped. It got harder when our children were born and even harder when they became teenagers, but I always found a way. Last spring when I met with the financial planner for our retirement plan through my employer, he said: "Maybe you don't need to save so much anymore. Maybe you could enjoy some of it now." (I know what you're thinking: I didn't know financial planners were even allowed to say that, but I'm telling you it's all true.) My first thought however, was: Don't tell my wife! She loves to spend money and she is really good at it!

The truth is, I don't like to spend money. I think money feels much safer in the bank. Those cash register drawers at retail stores are cold, dark, and lonely. So, I thought to myself, if I don't want to spend money, then maybe I don't need to make so much money, but what would I do if I wasn't making money? (Gasp) I know...I'll go HIKING for five months! Unfortunately, I am discovering that even hiking costs money, so when I return, I'll be going back to work, so I can afford to go hiking again, hopefully sooner than later!

I wrote this post to express, with a sense of humor, hopefully, the importance and value of saving, but saving is only a part of what it means to be a good steward. I believe a huge part of our financial success is our commitment to a modest and frugal lifestyle, always living within our means, and being generous in our giving to the Kingdom of God through our church and other charities. God has richly blessed us with good health, good careers, and opportunities to bless others. Now I have the good fortune to enjoy part of that blessing myself while I hike the PCT. Keep calm and save on.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know!

How many Ziploc bags does it take to hike the Pacific Crest Trail? I will use them to repackage just about everything! I'll even be using one for a wallet. I'm thinking I'll need over a 1,000 for the whole trail! How about rolls of toilet paper, bottles of "Vitamin I" (ibuprofen), batteries for my headlamp, band-aids, and travel size tubes of tooth paste? Then there are items like shoes...probably 5 pair, socks...I'm thinking twenty pair, and shirts...one might last the whole way, but do I really want to try it? I'm thinking just to protect innocent bystanders from the terrible smell; I will mail myself a new shirt each month!

I have a room in my house dedicated to my PCT hike with 24 resupply boxes. I am slowly filling each box with food and supplies. Some boxes get extra things like a new pair of shoes, or extra clothes for the High Sierra. It is exciting to see what was a dream only three months ago materialize right before my very eyes! Today I did some shopping at the local grocery store for some additional items to add to my menu. I want to have as much variety as possible so eating remains enjoyable and not just a necessity. I look forward to trying some of these new items on the trail. We'll call it a culinary adventure!

PCT-The Movie!

Who wouldn't want to do this? I am so excited!
Is it time yet? Let's watch it again!

Training Hike

Yesterday I hiked the Ohlone Wilderness Trail as a training hike. It begins at Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore and ends in Fremont at Mission Peak. The trail is 28 miles with 7,100 feet of altitude gain. The weather was perfect, the trail was deserted, except for the Mission Peak area, and I completed the hike in 10.5 hours. My legs are a little tired today and my feet are a bit sore, but overall I feel great, and the best part is...no blisters. I'm going to try to squeeze in one more long training hike before Easter, but I'm feeling confident I will be ready for the PCT!

Here is a link to a great blog post about the Ohlone Wilderness Trail. It has great pics and an awesome interactive Google map and altitude graph. Enjoy!

This American Hike

One of my favorite radio programs is "This American Life" on NPR. You can find the program archive here. I listen to it when I work in the garage, on my computer, driving in the car, and working in the yards. Many of the programs are from a very liberal perspective but I still find them interesting and thought provoking. Here is a classic episode about summer camp.

I read someone's thru-hiking blog and they complained that their brain was turning to mush without some external stimulation. That's when I had the idea of capturing the entire "This American Life" program archive and put the episodes on my tiny mp3 player so I can enjoy them on the trail. I have to capture the audio in real time, which means that each one hour episode takes one hour to capture. So far I have 325 of the 500+ episodes and I hope to have them all by the time I leave. I have room for about 100 episodes at a time on my mp3 player, so each month, when Eva meets me on the trail; I'll update my mp3 player with new episodes. I'm thinking I might call my hike: "This American Hike," and when I return from Canada they can do a story about me!

Beside "This American Life" I also have all the episodes of "Radio Lab," an entire audio Bible, some favorite sermons, and about 50 hours of music. I think I will have plenty of stimulation to keep my brain from turning to mush! Keep calm and hike on!

Costco-A thru-hikers favorite store

This week we made a trip to Costco to purchase food for my resupply boxes. It was funny shopping in a store where shopping carts full of Top Ramen, hot chocolate, instant oatmeal, candy bars, pop tarts, granola and trail mix seems normal. We met a man in the check out line and when I told him I was hiking the PCT, he told me he worked on a bridge in Burney Falls State Park for four years and he met hundreds of PCT hikers on their way to Canada. Very cool!

Every week I check a few more things off my to do list add a few more items to my resupply boxes. What was only a dream a year ago, is now a reality and in just a few days I will be on the trail.

Eating

A One Pound Snickers Bar!

"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our provisions now,
so that we shan't have so much to carry." Winnie the Pooh

Planning meals for 5 months on the trail is a challenge. I am preparing resupply boxes to be mailed to me along the trail. I will pre-pack the first two months of food and supplies before I leave and Eva will pack the next three months after we see how well I have estimated how much I will eat and what my taste buds will be craving. Post offices, stores, homes, gas stations, resorts, campgrounds, and state parks will receive my packages and hold them for me until I arrive. I will be purchasing some food along the way to supplement what is mailed to me, but the bulk of what I eat will be prepared in advance so I can quickly resupply and keep moving.

I am ordering many of my dinners from Mountain House but breakfast, lunches, and snacks and some dinners will be purchased at Costco and my local grocery store. I'm guessing I will need a thousand Ziploc bags in various sizes to repackage my meals. Eva makes some amazing fruit leather and she will be busy for several months dehydrating bananas and berries for the PCT. I'll be eating lots of oatmeal, granola, nuts, pop tarts, peanut butter, hot chocolate, tea, tuna and crackers, trail mix, dried fruit, cookies, candy, and cheese. I'm getting hungry just writing about it! Keep calm and hike on!

Water

When I hike in the High Sierra, I seldom carry more than 1 liter of water. Lakes and streams abound in the Sierras and they provide frequent opportunities to drink, cook, bathe, and wash. But on the Pacific Crest Trail, especially in the desert, there are stretches of the trail that are 20-30 miles long without water. Because water is so critical for a safe and successful hike, there is a water report to help PCT hikers know exactly where the reliable water sources are and how far it is to the next one. I will be carrying a copy of the water report with me as I hike and sometimes carrying 7 liters of water with me on very dry sections of the trail. That's over 15 pounds of water!

I am looking forward to hiking through the desert, but to be honest, I am not looking forward to carrying all that water. Trail angels often leave water caches in the desert sections and they are a blessing to hikers, but when the majority of hikers are passing through the desert in May and June (often called the "herd") the caches can be overwhelmed. I have read stories of people arriving at a cache needing water and finding the cache dry. It is easy to get dehydrated in the desert and I plan to carry enough water to survive without the caches. If there is water, that's great, but if not, I want to know I can hike to the next permanent water source without too much discomfort. Keep calm and hike on.

Trail Maps

There are 455 pages of printed maps for the Pacific Crest Trail and I just finished dividing them into 26 groups for my resupply boxes. They are beautiful, color, 1:31680 scale (1 inch = 1/2 mile) topographic maps printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. They have mileage markers, water sources, campsites, road crossings, trail detours, alternate routes, hazards, and resupply locations noted on every page. It's crazy how much detail is included. And the best news...the maps are FREE! That's right they are free for anyone to download from the internet. There are high definition maps for printing and low resolution version for mobile devices. You can check them out here! The only cost involved is printing them. Eva had a set of maps printed as a Christmas present for me! Along with the maps there are trail notes and a water report. I don't plan on carrying paper copies of the trail notes and the water report, but I will have digital copies on my phone to refer to as needed. In addition to the above I have purchased two apps for my phone that use the phone's GPS to map my location on the trail and localize the trail notes based on my current location. It might be all but impossible to get lost on the PCT! Who said you can't enjoy technology and nature at the same time?

Simplify!

My desk never looked like this, but I love the hair!

Not only does the PCT require planning for a successful hike, it also requires planning to be away from home. I am taking the opportunity to simplify some areas of our finances and make it easier for Eva while I am gone and for me when I return. Before the end of this year, I am selling some of our stock portfolio, donating some to the church, and keeping just two stocks that I think might be winners... if I hold on to them long enough, lol! I am tired of playing the stock market and plan to use mutual funds and ETFs for retirement savings from this point forward.

In January of 2013, I went paperless which has worked out amazing! Any financial accounts that offered the option of paperless statements, I signed up. I began scanning and shredding all paper documents and eliminated most of my paper filling system. It's one year later and I can happily report that the desk drawer that used to be exploding with statements, invoices, notices, policy documents, and receipts is empty! I also went back for three years and scanned my tax documents and receipts. These are now on CD for easy access!

I set up all our bills, utilities, and payments for monthly auto-pay. One local utility didn't seem to offer auto-pay, but when I made a friendly stop at the office, they gladly took my credit card info and promised to pay the bill in full each month...now that's customer service. There is only one store credit card we have that does not have an auto pay feature....Kohl's.

I know that after the hike, there will be a pile of mail on my desk, but I'm guessing that 90% of it will be junk mail! Keep calm and hike on!

Gear Decisions...I'm Freaking Out!

Yesterday I spent the day fretting over gear. Weight, size, durability...I was obsessed, possessed, consumed, and finally depressed! I couldn't stop thinking about it! I was most concerned about what water purification method I would use. (I'm estimating my water intake at about six liters a day, which equals 900 liters of water for the entire hike.) I have two filters and a Steripen. I have also used iodine in the past and often carry it as a backup. If weight wasn't an issue I would carry my Katadyn Hiker PRO filter. I have used it for years and love it, but it weighs 11 ounces and it's too heavy for a 2,650 mile solo hike. I also have a Sawyer Squeeze, but I have had problems with it leaking! In a moment of doubt, I recently bought a Steripen ultraviolet purifier but I'm concerned about reliability, the number of batteries I'll need on such a long trip, and the possibility of needing a pre-filter for very dirty water. Iodine is great as a backup, but I'm not sure I would want to use it everyday for 5 months, and again there is the issue of a pre-filter... I'm getting a headache as I write this blog and think about it all over again.

So, after a good night's sleep, I have decided... I will start with the Sawyer Squeeze. The desert is where I will most likely need to filter dirty water and the Squeeze bags will be useful for carrying up to 8 liters of water in the dry sections. When I reach the High Sierra, I'll switch to the Steripen. There is abundance of water and I'll seldom need to carry more than a liter. If I have any problems with it, I'll switch back to the squeeze or have Eva mail me my Katadyn Hiker PRO filter. I'll always keep a few iodine tabs with me as a backup.

Hopefully most of the other gear related decisions I have to make won't be this difficult. I need to remember that gear is important, but what will make or break this trip is my attitude, commitment, and willingness to get up every day and hike!

Happy New Year

 

It's officially 2014! Before today, my plan to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail felt like something in the distant future. It was always next year, but now next year is this year and the clock is ticking! In the next two months, I will have to make a final go/no go decision for a 2014 thru-hike. If it is a go, I will need to choose a start date, finalize my itinerary, apply for permits, contact resupply locations to verify shipping instructions, and begin packing resupply boxes Eva will mail to me. I will need to go shopping for my food (300 lbs.), make some final clothing and gear decisions, and complete a list of "honey do" projects at home. I will need to find a good landscaper to take care of the yards while I am gone. I am committing myself now to workout and run five days a week, eat healthy, and hike as often as I can to make sure my feet and legs are ready. Can you tell I'm hopeful and excited? Keep calm and hike on!