26 Days Until The AT!

March has me all kinds of backwards right now. So many last minute buys and preparations are flying around in my head. Camp cups... pot cozies... doggy booties. Ideally we won't show up on the Trail and have a "DAMMIT WE FORGOT THAT" moment. The basics are covered but we are more than basic. I'm sure throughout the trip we'll narrow down to the bare basics. There are many things we simply won't know until we spend a couple weeks out there. But I think that goes for everyone, so we don't feel so bad.

The anticipation 3 and a half weeks prior to our departure brings a large range of emotions. Excited. Nervous. Ready. Not Ready. But ultimately we are ready and will be more so when that day comes. It's right around the corner. The preparations, themselves, feel like a journey. I haven't really had much of any free time. Before and after work consists of nothing but food prepping for dehydrating and removing other freshly dehydrated food. I wake up earlier to take food off/put food on and go to bed later than normal to do the same so food can dehydrate as we sleep. Nonstop. Currently we have diced tomatoes/Rotel, black eyed peas, cooked noodles, and bread with syrup, honey, and cinnamon sugar dehydrating. I had to start utilizing the oven due to lack of dehydrating space. Set it on the lowest setting and leave a good crack for air to escape. The only thing is you gotta be there the whole time if you use the oven. Too much about dehydrating? Sorry. Had to get it out.

We organized our foods that we've been collecting for months last night. I'm impressed with how much we've accumulated. I'm gonna estimate it's about 4 months supply. We'll be out there for about 160-180 days. Therefore, we need about 115-130 meals ready in the mail drops. So, we haven't quite accumulated enough. A big trip to the grocery store again is coming up soon. Oh, and so much vacuum sealing needed, so little time.

 

Sure looks like a lot, right?

That's because it is. This doesn't include a substantial amount of dehydrated foods(meat, veggies, bread).

We haven't been able to do as much training recently. Simply no time. We are split between work and working on the Trail. But I'm not really scared about it. I believe we'll hike just fine. Of course, everyone struggles at first. Few are truly in shape at the beginning of a thruhike.

I do, somehow, manage to find a little time to do some skateboarding. It has to happen. It's been my anchor of sanity for many years and I will miss it greatly. It's amazing how long I can entertain myself just thinking about a nollie kickflip noseslide even though I can't do that. It often haunts me in the best way as I rest my eyes to sleep or gets me through a long day of work. My brain battles between the Trail and skateboarding all the time and I really don't mind. I envision myself returning in 7 months and slinging my first nollie flip. The thought, itself, is so satisfying. 

Adventurer on and off the board.

Couple years-old footage.

Skateboarding, NPR, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, my friends, and my family. I will miss them all. But we shall return.

Real quick, special thanks to my cousin Jimmy who works distributing Little Debbie and Lance snacks and is coming up with a gift package for us with as many long-shelf life items as he can. Jerky, crackers, and other snacks. Perfect.

We love all you guys. Looking forward to updating a fraction of text that these blogs contain but from the Trail!

PS. www.backpackingchef.com has helped immensely and we appreciate that it exists.