All my maps have been printed. By the way if you’re ever considering this hike, PCT Halfmile’s maps are incredible. I’m at mile 2,100 planned, well over halfway. In terms of geography, I’m near Washington state….from Mexico!!!! The maps I printed appear to be very accurate and it seems that I’ll be resupplying anywhere from every 5-9 days. Looking ahead I can see the really technical part of my planning will be re-supply management and trying to figure out how many meals and supplies to put in each box. In order to do that I need to make an expected menu.
The more I plot nightly campsites, plan resupply locations, and start my menu of the most nutritious dehydrated bags of food money can buy, the more pumped I get. But the more convinced I get that I’m also frigging crazy! I mean really, all it will take is one missed/late post office visit and I could be facing food shortage. The good news is most of my resupply locations are near stores and motels so if I need to hunker down for the night and wait I can. It just means trip delays, which can suck if you’re 6 months away already!
I’m hoping my hubby will come down for part of my trip and hang around Crater Lake for a few days and hike with me part of the PCT. I’m sure he’s not ecstatic about it but I think he’s accepting i’m doing this one day somehow! The older I get, the more I realize that doing things like this, while mildly unpopular is also necessary. If I didn’t have dreams that are bigger than myself, I’m not a happy person. I need something bigger than myself to hitch my wagon to. This is a huge goal, so huge it actually seems impossible right now, so I’m glad I’m starting now.
I’ve been tracing my expected itinerary over a Harry Potter marathon this weekend. My hubby got me the first 2 movies on DVD for Xmas (I used to have VHS copies but obviously those are obsolete) so we’ve been re-watching the series since yesterday afternoon. Means I got a shit done on planning and lists.
I figure for the next while I’ll be asking friends and family for gifts surrounding this trip. I mean if I can get a 70l backpack and not have to pay for it…score!!! The same goes for my necessary water treatment system and the hundreds if not thousands of bucks I’m going to spend on food, supplies and postage.
Speaking of supplies, check this out: 
This is a $50 soup and chili kit with 72 portions…$0.70 a portion! It appears I’ll be living off soup and chili a lot. I plan to buy several boxes of this alongside a few $50 boxes of freeze dried veggies to add and voila….great meals on a budget. I’ll be supplementing these with pouched food of a variety like beef stew, pasta primavera even pad Thai. Did you know they have freeze-dried ice cream bars???? WTF?!?! Not sure how good they’ll taste but at $2.50 a pouch and 6 months in the wilderness solo you can bet your ass I fully plan to experiment!!! And hiking at least 20 miles a day I won’t feel guilt splurging on “ice cream” several days a week! Haha.