Gear

So here's the complete setup for me:

Sleeping bag, ThermaRest torso mattress, 1/2 fleece blanket, tarp, stuff sack for bearbagging, 50ft rope, compass, map and guidebook, flashlight, bowl, cup and spork, 4 days food, 2 water bottles, hammock, knife, TP, poncho, all the hygene stuff, first aid kit, sunblock, MSR Whisperlite stove, tarp, book, notebook and pen, matches, camera, I-pod, flip-flops for camp, trail shoes, and clothing.

Here's Trav's Setup. (sorry about the mess...we're in the throes of packing to move..)

Sleeping bag, ThermaRest foam pad, tent, stuff sack for bearbagging, 50 ft. rope, 2 gas bottles, titanium pot and stove wind shield, 4 days food, 2 water bottles, flute, cards, insect repellant, (spray, coils and citronella candles..) TP, poncho, emergency blanket, bowl, cup, spork, candle lantern, boots, camp shoes, clothing, I-pod, notebook and pen, book, hammock, bottom half of a collapsible jug for washing, (weighs 2 oz. and oh so useful..) matches, survival tool, knife, hat.

We have to make do with this for 120 miles until we get to our first resupply. With a stop at Hyatt Lake, we're taking 8 days to do this stretch. It leaves us plenty of time to sunbathe....

We're sending more stuff ahead in our resupply box to Lake of the Woods, in Southern Oregon. Mainly more food and mosquito repellant. They'll be fierce in the Sky Lakes Wilderness! It's been a wet year and we're hiking in hatch time......Also tackle and the fishing poles. Trout are also numerous.... We plan on alternate routes through section C, (Hwy 140 to Hwy 138) taking the Red and Sky Lakes trails instead of the PCT, because they offer better fishing, Red Blanket Creek trail for the waterfalls, and alternate trails in Crater Lake National Park so we can actually see the lake. The PCT skirts around it through dry pine forest, for environmental impact reasons.

My parent's are picking us up at Rim Village in Crater Lake National Park, and taking us to Diamond Lake Resort for a few days R&R. Travis and I have been going to Diamond Lake since we were kids, and his parents are also meeting us there. What a wonderful support system!!

We'll skip about 12 miles of the PCT by hiking the Thielsen Creek Trail from Diamond Lake, instead of picking up where we left off at Crater Lake, but i've hiked most of it before, and we can always do the skipped miles next summer on a weekend trip.

Practice??

So, obviously, after buying all the gear, you need to test it. Right?

I bought a new Osprey ultra-light pack, and a new REI sub-kilo sleeping bag. And Merrell trail shoes.... AHHH!! So expensive! Thank Goddess for scratch and dent sales! We saved about $500 buying used merchandise.

Then we had to organize food for 40 days. At this point, my anal-retentiveness took over and I managed to turn a pile of food into our own personal MRE's. We made a lot of our own food in our dehydrator, went through about 6 rolls of vacuum seal bags and scrupulously counted calories vs. weight when choosing food combinations. Hopefully we did it right. If not, the many small fishing resorts we'll pass through on our way north will be happy to serve us their whole menus and lots of icy beer....

Due to my own personal Trail Angels, aka 'Mom and Dad', we'll only have to send out 2 resupply boxes. Mom and Dad are meeting us at a few points during our trip to bring us support, supplies and six-packs.

So, with the logistics taken care of, all that's left is the hiking. So we strapped on our fully loaded packs and went for an 11 mile stroll in the Coast Range. It was great! No blisters, no explosions, (everyone has heard a campstove legend) no problems... The creek water even tasted good!

I have a physical job, and exercise daily, so I'm hoping that once I get my travelling legs, the hiking will take care of itself. My best friend hiked the Pilgrim Road to Compostela in Spain, and has always told me that you can't prepare for hiking 20 miles per day unless you actually hike 20 miles per day.

So here we are... 2 weeks from the Trail and all the adventures that await us!

Team Scratch and Dent

After months of planning, we're ready to disappear into the woods for the summer! When we started thinking about doing this, we made all these over-zealous plans about training and finances.... almost everything turned out opposite of what we anticipated. So, we're trying not to expect too much from the trail... (in the hopes that we get out there and discover it's better and more enlightening than we imagined.) Of course... in reality......

We had to push back our start date in Siead Valley from June 19th to July 6th, on account of still heavy snowpack in Sections C and D. (Lake of the Woods to Hwy 58) What a winter! We tried to find the PCT at Hwy. 58 last week, still under a foot of snow on south-facing slopes. Don't worry though, Northbounders, it's melting fast!

I assume eventually we will be passed by the famous thru-hikers who started this spring at Campo, California. They usually hit Oregon around mid-July, and since our pace will be a STROLL compared to theirs... I hope to meet lots of new people. We're taking 6 weeks instead of the usual 3 or 4 needed to hike the 500 mile section because we love to fish. And lay around in the sun, and play cribbage.... This is our big vacation before we both return to school, and we're determined to make it last as long as possible! And since we'll have niether a home nor jobs to return to... Who's to say we'll ever come back?